-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.detnews.com/1999/nation/9912/08/12080131.htm Click Here: <A HREF="http://www.detnews.com/1999/nation/9912/08/12080131.htm"> Supersecret defense agency sizes up world - 12/…</A> ----- Wednesday, December 8, 1999 Supersecret defense agency sizes up world Director says China is unlikely to attack Taiwan, Hussein is secure, 'no end in sight' for Chechen war By John Omicinski / Gannett News Service WASHINGTON -- "There are no facts about the future," says Vice-Adm. Thomas Ray Wilson. He says it so often it sounds like a mantra. But his business is getting information -- lots of it -- that offers clues to the future. Wilson is almost four months into his job as Defense Intelligence Agency director and his "customers," as he calls them, are looking for more than facts. "They ask us ... 'Can you be more predictive about the future?' " In an hourlong interview rare for the supersecret DIA, Wilson shared with reporters some views about what's ahead. The three-star admiral ventured these forecasts: * Despite its huffing and puffing, China is unlikely to attack Taiwan "on the near-term horizon." Beijing doesn't have the air and sea equipment for an amphibious invasion, and China's leaders are usually patient enough to await developments, Wilson said. "An invasion of Taiwan would not be in their capability right now," he said. "I think they are going to await the outcomes of (Taiwan's) next elections (March 18) and come to see what the new leaders do." * North Korea isn't showing much activity around its three-stage Ta'epo Dong missile site. "We don't see anything alarming," he said. * There is no prospect that an insurgency can topple Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, Wilson said. Almost 10 years after invading Kuwait, Saddam "appears to be relatively secure." At the same time, he added, Saddam has shown he is willing, perhaps desperate, to sacrifice his ground-based radars to shoot down an American pilot and hold him for ransom. Saddam also probably is rebuilding installations bombed out in last December's Operation Desert Fox, said Wilson, including chemical and biological weapons factories. * "There is no end in sight" for Russia's war against Chechen guerrillas in the Caucasus. Unlike the 1996 war fought over much the same ground, said Wilson, Moscow seems to have domestic support. Three years ago, heart-broken or irate mothers went to the battlefront in buses and trucks to retrieve their sons, dead or alive. "But the weather is worsening," Wilson said. "It will be winter soon," he added, a reminder that winter and war are a bad mixture in Russia. Wilson had some thoughts but risked no official guesses on why Russian military officials have turned belligerent toward Washington. Earlier this year, the Russians announced that their conventional military strength had fallen so low that they were abandoning their historic pledge not to use nuclear weapons first. Russia's air force chief recently lashed out at U.S. criticism of its Chechnya offensive, saying it didn't compare with the Kosovo campaign. "Just to remind them," said Col. Gen. Anatoly Kornukov, "Russia is not Iraq, nor is it Yugoslavia. There you have it. We will deal decisively with any interference." Copyright 1999, The Detroit News ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
