From the Telegraph.co.uk

Beijing secretly fires lasers to disable US satellites
By Francis Harris in Washington

(Filed: 26/09/2006)



China has secretly fired powerful laser weapons designed to disable American spy satellites by "blinding" their sensitive surveillance devices, it was reported yesterday.


The hitherto unreported attacks have been kept secret by the Bush administration for fear that it would damage attempts to co-opt China in diplomatic offensives against North Korea and Iran.


Sources told the military affairs publication Defense News that there had been a fierce internal battle within Washington over whether to make the attacks public. In the end, the Pentagon's annual assessment of the growing Chinese military build-up barely mentioned the threat.


"After a contentious debate, the White House directed the Pentagon to limit its concern to one line," Defense News said.


The document said that China could blind American satellites with a ground-based laser firing a beam of light to prevent spy photography as they pass over China.


According to senior American officials: "China not only has the capability, but has exercised it." American satellites like the giant Keyhole craft have come under attack "several times" in recent years.


Although the Chinese tests do not aim to destroy American satellites, the laser attacks could make them useless over Chinese territory.


The American military has been so alarmed by the Chinese activity that it has begun test attacks against its own satellites to determine the severity of the threat.


Satellites are especially vulnerable to attack because they have predetermined orbits, allowing an enemy to know where they will appear.


"The Chinese are very strategically minded and are extremely active in this arena. They really believe all the stuff written in the 1980s about the high frontier," said one senior former Pentagon official.


There has been increasing alarm in parts of the American military establishment over China's growing military ambitions.


Military experts have already noted that Chinese military expenditure is increasingly designed to challenge American military pre-eminence by investing in weaponry that can attack key systems such as aircraft carriers and satellites.


At the same time, China is engaged in a large-scale espionage effort against American high-tech firms working on projects such as the multibillion-pound DD(X) destroyer programme.


Several spy rings have been cracked and the FBI is increasing the number of counter-intelligence staff tracking the Chinese effort.

Release the sharks with laser-beams!

Along the Demilitarized Zone in Korea, the North Koreans would shot lasers into the eyes of soldiers scanning with binoculars, It was only a matter of time before they looked else where.

Great, whats next, lasers from other planes to try to blind our P-3's that fly in the Sea of Japan that monitor the "waters" there? Atleast they didnt bump into our planes again....and then blame us for trying to take down their FIGHTERS with a piece of crap intel propelled plane....

Well I think the chinesse should learn from Japans mistakes. We don't like being messed with, or toyed around with. Start messing with our satallites and I'm sure Bush's opinion will be "Lets blow them up" lol got to love government...if only we weren't nosey 24/7 maybe some people wouldn't hate us lol.

It's because we weren't "nosey" that terrorists were allowed to fly planes into the World Trade Center. Unless, of course, you're one of those humans who believe that was a plot by the Bush administration?

It's a fact of life in the real world that every country, no matter how peacefully inclined, will make enemies. Since the primary role of a government is to ensure the safety and security of its citizens, it is inane to not gather intelligence (spy) on those potential enemies.

Well , they are defending themselfs are they not? , US is spying on them, they are preventing it from happening.

As for how the terrorists was able to do things, well.. the question should be more, "why" they wanted to do these things.
What made them so desperate to go commit suicide and mass murder, get an answer to that and then solve the breeding ground for why people turn into terrorists and then you are halfway to winning the war on terror.

Answer = people are stupid.

Simple, plain, and true.

Let's get this out of the way. The terrorists who committed these crimes were all Muslims. Many of them were middle-class or better, so poverty or other "desperation" excuses don't suffice. Islamofascist terrorists are motivated by two things: hatred of Israel, and a desire to see the world under Muslim domination. Either submit and become a Muslim, or pay the jeziya tax and be tolerated by the Muslims as a Dhimmi. Ask how pleasant that is in, say, Saudi Arabia? Sorry, I refuse to submit. Muslims around the world are busy intimidating the free with threats of riots, kidnappings and other terror activities. In Germany, an opera was cancelled because Muslims might object. I read today of an art exhibit cancelled for the same reason. Need I mention Theo Van Gogh? The Danish Cartoons? Submit, or be a Dhimmi. You may think that is an extremist view of Islam, but you'd be wrong.

Oh please. Those people amaze me. I'll admit, I am not a huge fan of Bush, the current administration, or of government in general, but even I don't believe that. Wasn't it about two years or so ago that they couldn't even keep a poker game involving a few senators and strippers quiet? And people are expected to believe someone could pull off something so massive as a giant conspiracy and keep it under tabs? Pffft!

And as for why that all happened...
Recently I read a report that "America is too rich" and all the other people feel left out and that's why we are attacked and critisized. Oh brother! Yeah, ok, so what these people see is some no-talent singer making millions of dollars. Or they see a sports star in commercials. Or maybe a movie star in a $100,000 gown strolling down a red carpet with the latest boy band member on her arm.

How about looking at the REAL America? The one where people are waiting in line for hours at a ER or clinic because they don't have insurance and can't afford to go see a regular doctor. Or the millions of people who live paycheck to paycheck and sweat making the rent in time. Or all the people on some sort of welfare, or the kids inrolled in the free lunch programs in schools. Or those same kids who can ONLY eat at school because food is scarce at home.

Yeah, in some ways, Americans have it great. This is the land of opportunity after all, right? What a lot of people elsewhere in the world don't seem to realize is that an opportunity is not a RIGHT. An opportunity means you go out, you study, work your butt off, and pay your dues. Then, if you are lucky and did the right things, it pays off.

Don't give me that whiney baby crap about how we are attacked because we have it so well off. We were attacked because those people that did so were SICK! And now they are trying to pass on their hangups and illnesses to another generation of kids.