"The Chinese are in the process of helping to construct a fiber-optic connection network to better integrate the air-defense system of Iraq," a senior defense official told the Washington Time’s Bill Gertz. "These are largely buried fiber-optic cables that would protect them from a variety of things like weather – or coalition air attacks."
The existence of the Chinese fiber-optic program in Iraq, first reported by the Washington Post yesterday, is part of a new integrated air-defense network that was nearly finished before U.S. and British aircraft struck Saddam’s air-defense system near Baghdad Friday, Gertz wrote.
The network will greatly increase Iraq's ability to target and shoot down patrolling U.S. aircraft with anti-aircraft missiles, defense analysts told Gertz.
Pentagon officials admitted to Gertz that they do not know how long China has been helping Iraq build its air-defense network, a clear violation of U.N. sanctions on Iraq, but in testimony last week before the Senate Intelligence Committee, CIA Director George Tenet said that China has become the leading supplier of weapon systems and missiles to rogue states such as Iraq.
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