When U.S. warplanes struck new Iraqi air defense sites around Baghdad, Pentagon officials were mum in naming the country that sold the
new air defense missile system to Saddam Hussein.
The Washington Post revealed that China was assisting
Iraqi air defense, an allegation promptly denied by Iraq.
According to the Post article, Chinese engineers were helping
Iraq to install a network of fiber-optic communications and
computers designed to track and destroy U.S. warplanes. (The
export also violates U.N. weapons embargoes against Saddam.)
President Bush's national security adviser confirmed last Thursday that Chinese engineers were indeed helping Iraq.
The real story behind Iraq's high-tech buildup remains untold until now.
The Chinese
fiber-optic air defense system in the Iraqi desert is in fact of
U.S. origin. In 1994, Chinese spymaster Gen. Ding Henggao
obtained the advanced fiber-optic system through his contacts
inside the Clinton administration.
According to documents obtained using the Freedom of Information
Act, in 1994 Ding was a close friend of Clinton Secretary of Defense William Perry.
Perry and Ding's
relationship spans three administrations. Perry reportedly met
Ding in the late 1970s during the Carter administration.
By 1994, Ding had risen to command the Chinese Army
military research bureau "COSTIND," or the Commission on Science
Technology and Industry for National Defense.
COSTIND,
according to the General Accounting Office, "oversees development
of China's weapon systems and is responsible for identifying and
acquiring telecommunications technology applicable for military
use."
In 1994, the personal consultant to
Perry teamed with Ding to buy an advanced AT&T fiber-optic communications system for
"civilian" use inside China.
The communications system slipped
past U.S. exports laws as a joint U.S.-Chinese commercial
venture called "Hua Mei." The Chinese part of the venture was
run by a newly formed firm named "Galaxy New Technology."
Stanford professor John Lewis, a close friend and the paid
personal consultant for Perry, was the
key board member of the project.
According to the Far Eastern
Economic Review, Lewis had his friend Perry write a letter on his behalf to U.S.
government officials, favoring the fiber-optic export to China.
Lewis located Adlai Stevenson III, the former Democratic senator
from Illinois, to lead the American side of the joint venture.
Gen. Ding's wife, Madam Nie Li, headed the joint project as
the Chinese co-chairman. Lewis contracted AT&T to ship the
secure communication system directly to a Chinese army unit
using Galaxy New Technology as a front.
The documents show that Lewis not only worked for Stanford
University and the Chinese army at the same time, but that he
also worked for the U.S. Defense Department.
In August 1994,
Lewis and Secretary of Defense Perry traveled to Beijing to
meet with Ding. According to the
official list of attendees, Lewis accompanied
Perry as his paid "personal" consultant.
AT&T officials who sold most of the equipment and software were
adamant that there was no need to check the Chinese firm because
the "civilian" Madam Nie Lie led it.
Yet, the so-called
civilian firm was actually packed with Chinese army officers
and experts. Madam Nie Lie was not only the wife of Gen. Ding Henggao; Madam Nie was actually Lt. Gen. Nie Lie of the Chinese army.
Another member of New Galaxy Technology, according to a Defense
Department document, was Director and President "Mr. Deng
Changru." Deng is also known as Lt. Col. Deng Changru of the
People's Liberation Army, head of the Chinese communications
corps.
Still another Chinese army officer on the Galaxy New
Technology staff was co-General Manager "Mr. Xie Zhichao,"
better known in military circles as Lt. Col. Xie Zhichao,
director of the Chinese army's Electronics Design Bureau.
In 1997, Rep. Henry Hyde pressed unsuccessfully for the
Department of Justice to investigate the Galaxy New Technology
scandal in a letter outlining his concerns.
According to Hyde,
"in 1994, sophisticated telecommunications technology was
transferred to a U.S.-Chinese joint venture called HUA MEI, in
which the Chinese partner is an entity controlled by the Chinese
military. This particular transfer included fiber-optic
communications equipment, which is used for high-speed, secure
communications over long distances. Also included in the
package was advanced encryption software."
In 1994, the Chinese spymaster Gen. Ding personally
penetrated the U.S. Defense Department at the highest levels,
using his contacts with Secretary Perry to obtain a secure
fiber-optic network.
There was more than profit for
Ding and his Chinese army company packed with electronics
experts.
The Chinese army's Electronics Design Bureau modified
the American fiber-optic communication system, changing it into
a secure air-defense system. The Chinese army then exported the
newly modified system to Iraq.
The Iraqi air defense network, NATO code-named "Tiger Song," is
made of U.S. and French fiber-optic parts modified by the
People's Liberation Army.
Iraqi missiles guided by Tiger Song
regularly attack U.S. fighter jets. U.S. jets have recently
retaliated, striking back with bombs and missiles.
Chinese
military engineers from 2nd and 4th Signals Corps of the Chinese
Army Headquarters are even now repairing the damaged Iraqi
air defense system.
The cat-and-mouse game of missile and
electronic combat with Saddam is expected to continue for years
as the Chinese army engineers improve the deadly Tiger Song
network.
In 1998, Gen. Ding retired from active service in the Chinese
army.
However, he was decorated by President Jiang
Zemin as a hero of the Chinese communist party for his
successful operations against America.
Ding's attack on
America ranks as one of the most successful espionage operations
of the 20th century.
Tiger Song, the Chinese fiber-optic air
defense system in the Iraqi desert, is a legacy of the Clinton
years that will now need to be revisited regularly by
U.S. bombers in the 21st century.