Ken,
According to this morning's Washington Post,
the map was from 1992. The NIMA had produced
a newer satellite image map, but it did not have
street addresses or building IDs on it. Some clunk,
apparently at CIA, used the address for the depository
and mistakenly put it on the Chinese embassy building
200 yards away on the same street and looking identical
from above.
This may be a lie, but it is an all too credible one.
BTW, a further wrinkle in all this is the interintelligence
agency bureaucratic power struggle in Washington, which
is definitely a mirror game of the highest order and is now
being carrie out under the name of this blame game. The
finger has been pointed at CIA, but an awful lot of the input
to this has come from the NIMA. A few weeks ago there was
a piece in the W. Post in which an ex-CIA guy was complaining
about how map creation and interpretation had been taken
away from CIA and centralized in NIMA. NIMA is the new
kid on the block, created in only 1996 out of the Defense
Mapping Agency (whose old HQ it is located in) plus add-ons
from DIA and CIA and NRO, the supersecret latter having a
very murky role in all of this.
One aspect of this I find rather disturbing is that a long
running aspect of this struggle has been between the Pentagon
(DOD) and the non-DOD agencies of which the CIA is the most
important. Supposedly the Director of the CIA (currently George
Tenet) is the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) also. But
there has been a long running campaign by the many DOD
agencies to get rid of control from the DCI especially with
regard to budgetary control, the old bottom line. In any case,
NIMA is a DOD agency, and, as I said, the new kid on the
spook block. It is being treated with kid gloves in all this while
all blame is being placed on the CIA. I see another agenda
going on here, frankly.
Barkley Rosser
-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Hanly <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Monday, May 10, 1999 9:02 PM
Subject: [PEN-L:6620] Re: Test Message
>There are certainly many different hypotheses to explain the bombing. Serb
Info
>has one that has not appeared here. It is advanced by a professor in
Germany
>reputed to be an expert on intelligence issues. He claims that the bombing
was
>deliberate and no mistake. Why? The G8
>peace proposals are not really acceptable to the US and they do not want
them to
>eventually go
>through the UN, but Russia is on side. The only way to stop them? Alienate
>China. While the bombing goes on China will veto any attempt to put peace
>proposals through the UN.
> I find the official explanation unconvincing. By the way, if the
official
>explanation is correct the bombing was not an ACCIDENT as the media and
some on
>Pen-l would have it but
>as MISTAKE. There is an important difference. The Chinese embassy was
targeted.
>The bomber made no mistake and the bombs did not stray off course to cause
>collateral damage.
>Some person(s) somewhere made a mistake and are responsible for it. I find
it
>hard to believe that the mistake was to use old maps. The Chinese embassy
has
>been in the same place for
>four years. That targets in downtown Belgrade were determined on the basis
of 4+
>year old maps is almost beyond belief. I also wonder what would have
happened if
>the target had actually been the weapons procurement building. Wouldn't
there be
>the danger of tremendous explosions and horrendous collateral damage to
nearby
>buildings?
> I am inclined to think that the Embassy was deliberatedly targeted by
the US
>as a punishment for Chinese misdeeds including theft of nuclear secrets and
>demands that the bombing of FRY stop. Afterwards, it could be claimed this
was a
>mistake, profuse apologies could be made etc. and the bombing would go on
as
>before.
> Cheers, Ken Hanly
>
>Craven, Jim wrote:
>
>> This is a test message to see if I am online to pen-l from my Clark
address
>> from where I was banned from contacting pen-l until the feudal fascists
in
>> the admin were forced to eat it due to righteous and swift responses
from
>> freedom-loving academics far and wide--to whom I am very grateful.
>>
>> On the issue of the bombing of the Chinese embassy I can only say that my
>> experience with Mike Levine has been that he has been dead on, he puts
stuff
>> on the net no one else dares to put out (see five hours with CIA pilot
Tosh
>> Plumley who claims he flew dope into the US and claims that he testified
>> twice about it before the Senate (1975 and recently) and nothing was done
>> about it but his testimony was classified to attempt to prevent him
talking
>> about it) and Mike is very systematic and thorough about vetting stories
>> before putting them out and does indeed have solid contacts of
>> similarly-minded outraged intelligence people still inside.
>>
>> I have idea if the story is true but it does fit the facts, does fit the
>> usual bungling by CIA, does fit the usual "scoop"/wrecklessness
>> mentality/machinations of CIA and in terms of the position of the Serbs
>> being the object of NATO bombing with no real ability to respond, it
would
>> represent a very clever move under dire circumstances. It is at least
worth
>> considering seriously.
>>
>> Jim C
>
>
>
