THE SHAPE OF TERROR TO COME

(Washington, D.C.): As investigators search for and sift through the wreckage of TWA Flight 800 seeking to discover what destroyed the Boeing 747 in midair, they are reportedly considering an extraordinary hypothesis: The aircraft might have been shot down by a man-portable surface-to-air missile (SAM) as it climbed to cruising altitude after leaving New York’s JFK Airport.

While many experts consider this explanation for the disaster to be less likely than the hypothesis that an on-board explosive was its cause, the mere fact that such a scenario is being discussed raises a frightening question: Could surface-to-air missiles capable of shooting down American or other civilian aircraft fall into the hands of individuals, groups or state-sponsors of terrorism? Unfortunately, there is reason to believe the answer is “Yes.”

In fact — as noted in the attached column by the Center for Security Policy’s director, Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., which was published in today’s Washington Times — Chinese officials have been implicated in a plot to sell precisely such weapons to U.S. agents posing as drug lords and gang members. As Mr. Gaffney recounts:

“On May 23, federal authorities announced they had broken up a Chinese smuggling ring that had sold thousands of lethal, fully-automatic AK-47 machine guns to West Coast street gangs. In the course of an undercover sting operation, however, U.S. agents were offered — among other formidable ordinance — shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles.” (Emphasis added.)

Unfortunately, SAMs are hardly the only lethal technologies China is proliferating around the world. As Mr. Gaffney notes:

“In the recent past, [the Chinese] have also been caught selling ring magnets — a key ingredient in the enrichment of uranium for nuclear weapons purposes — to Pakistan….In addition, Pakistan has received Chinese-made M-11 ballistic missiles, now believed to be operational and capable of delivering nuclear weapons against India. What is more, Beijing has been doing a lot of proliferating with Islamic revolutionary Iran. According to press reports, this includes the transfer of a complete poison gas facility and an array of missile technology.” (Emphasis added.)

What is more, the front-page of today’s Washington Times reveals that “the Chinese manufacturer of M-11 missiles sent a shipment of military cargo to Syria last month that the CIA believes may have contained missile-related components.” Syria, like Iran, is on the State Department’s list of nations that support international terrorism.

The Bottom Line

The United States simply cannot afford to continue to ignore the implications of such irresponsible Chinese behavior. It is high time to begin addressing the challenging task of containing China before Beijing’s economic growth and unstinting proliferation permits the communist regime to realize its unbridled strategic ambitions — at great expense to the United States and to American interests around the globe.