GlobalSecurity.org In the News

April 2001 News

1. View from above by Glenn Schloss South China Morning Post April 30, 2001 - "The thing that I am immediately struck by is how quickly they were able to get the image," said intelligence and space analyst John Pike as he viewed it on CNN. "This is quite a breakthrough in satellite news gathering, that we're able to get the satellite image almost as quickly as the classified community."
2. Space Tourist Tito's Long Journey Into Orbit By Deborah Zabarenko Reuters Monday April 30 -- ``A fundamental objection is the view that astronauts are heroes and that you have to be a hero with the right stuff to fly in space,'' said John Pike, a longtime space analyst and current director of the Web site www.globalsecurity.org. ''Dennis Tito obviously doesn't fit that mold.''
3. MILITARY CONTRACTORS WORRY ABOUT 'REFORM' IN BUSH BUDGET By Richard Burnett THE ORLANDO SENTINEL - April 29, 2001 Sunday - If nothing else, the Bush administration has succeeded in generating a lot of contradictory perceptions of its defense plans, said John Pike, defense analyst and director of GlobalSecurity.org, a government-policy studies organization.
4. US INSPECTORS PREPARE FOR FLIGHT TO CHINA TO EXAMINE NAVY SURVEILLANCE PLANE ON HAINAN ISLAND ABC NEWS WORLD NEWS TONIGHT April 29, 2001, Sunday -- JOHN >PIKE (Director, GlobalSecurity.org): The Chinese have already learned all they're going to learn about it, so at this point getting the airplane back is mainly about diplomacy, not about learning intelligence secrets or protecting them.
5. Europeans Reject Role In Taiwan Arms Deal By Joseph Fitchett International Herald Tribune April 27, 2001 - In Washington, "confusion is the best description" of official thinking about how to come up with the attack submarines that the United States wants to sell Taiwan, according to John Pike, head of GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington-area company that specializes in analyzing military affairs.
6. CONFLICTING INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION SCHEDULES BETWEEN US AND RUSSIA CBS EVENING NEWS April 27, 2001 -- Mr. JOHN PIKE (globalsecurity.org): This is basically a measure of who's the most powerful in the world, what countries are friends and what countries are not friends.
7. Will Space Tourism Boom? CNN LIVE THIS MORNING April 27, 2001; Friday -- Will Dennis Tito's trip to the International Space Station lead to a stampede of tourists into space? Joining us now from Washington to talk more about this issue: veteran space observer John Pike, who is now director of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense and space policy group.
8. Aires system not quite so secret By RICHARD SALE, United Press International Saturday, 21 April 2001 -- John Pike, director of GlobalSucurity.com, an Alexandria, Va.-based think tank, said, "I wouldn't assume that the changing of the codes was done in response to this incident."
9. DISPUTED IMAGE By Vernon Loeb Washington Post April 20, 2001 - John Pike, a defense and intelligence analyst who is director of Global Security.org, said, Space Imaging's ability to produce a series of four pictures of the plane in a denied area represents "a significant turning point in the history of news gathering -- that you would have this independent source of information for an event like this."
10. US acknowledges India's technical prowess By Chidanand Rajghatta The Times of India Thursday 19 April 2001 -- Although Space.com's Banke said the GSLV clearly signalled that India had achieved a ICBM capability, John Pike, a security expert formerly with the Federation of American Scientists and now Director of Global Security.org, said that capability has already been demonstrated with the PSLV.
11. Bush May Yet Find Path To Compromise In Thorny, Tangled Issue Of Taiwan Arms By Neil King Wall Street Journal April 18, 2001 -- A comparative snapshot of the Chinese and Taiwanese militaries - Source: GlobalSecurity.org
12. SOME SEE DOUBLE STANDARD IN CHINA FLAP By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan The Boston Globe April 18, 2001 -- During the Cold War, "The Soviets would fly their maritime patrol aircraft out over Iceland, down the US coast, land in Cuba . . . get back in their planes and do it all over again," said John E. Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington, D.C.-based defense policy group. "The US was doing exactly the same thing."
13. US-China military rivalry BBC News Tuesday, 17 April, 2001, - John Pike, a security analyst with the Washington consultants Global Security, says nearly all of China's military equipment is obsolete. "In fact their front-line equipment would really put them pretty far down on any list when you look at military capabilities."
14. Scientists take aim at low-yield nukes By KELLY HEARN, April 16 (UPI) "I think the low-yield systems are a solution in search of a problem," said John Pike, a military expert and the director of GlobalSecurity.org in Alexandria, Va. "There is no real evidence that potential adversaries are constructing these deep underground bunkers and if there were, there is no particular reason to believe we could locate them with sufficient precision to destroy them."
15. No Top Guns Need Apply By Greg Schneider Washington Post Sunday, April 15, 2001; Page A01 - "Rather than having piloted aircraft go in on day one to break the back of the bad guys," said John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank in Alexandria, "you send in these robots who are infinitely brave. They are unafraid."
16. Lockheed looks for lift By Greg Griffin The Denver Post Sunday, April 15, 2001 - Lockheed Martin lost a massive NRO spy satellite contract to Boeing in 1999. It also appeared to signal the end of Lockheed Martin's longstanding dominance in the classified sector of the space business and represented a huge lost opportunity for growth, said John Pike, a Washington-based military space consultant.
17. TECHNOLOGY USED ON THE EP-3 AND WHAT THE CHINESE MIGHT LEARN ABOUT OUR SPYING CAPABILITIES FROM THE PLANE ITSELF National Public Radio (NPR) TALK OF THE NATION/SCIENCE FRIDAY April 13, 2001, Friday -- FLATOW: ... theoretically, if you wanted to go all satellite, could you do that and get the same quality of intelligence that you would get with the plane flying? If you wanted to spend--if you had an unlimited check, you wanted to put as many satellites as you could, any orbit that you wanted? Mr. PIKE: Don't tempt the contractor community to think about that question (Soundbite of laughter).
18. Spy planes to continue flying near China, Pentagon says By Andrea Stone USA TODAY 12 April 2001 -- ''If we let the Chinese draw the line, are we going to allow the North Koreans and Iraqis and Libyans to draw that line?'' asks John Pike, who heads GlobalSecurity.org, a defense research group. ''Are we going to give everyone who asks for one a 'get out of jail free' card? I don't think so.''
19. U.S. Surveillance Flights Near China Unresolved Apr 12, 2001 -- (Reuters) John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense policy organization, said it was unlikely the United States would want to set a precedent for stopping surveillance flights which are legal in international airspace, but more likely would be crafting "rules of the road" to avoid any similar incidents.
20. SHUTTLE TURNS 20, NASA SEEKS AN UPGRADE Michael Cabbage Orlando Sentinel April 12, 2001 -- "We have it, and it works," said John Pike, director of the GlobalSecurity.org policy-research organization. "The past decade has shown that developing a replacement for the shuttle is a good way to spend a billion dollars without getting anything to show for it. But hope springs eternal."
21. U.S. prepares another spy plane By RICHARD SALE United Press International April 11, 2001 -- According to John Pike, weapons expert for GlobalSecurity.org, an Alexandra, Va.-based think tank, the spy plane was "definitely not an (Navy) Aries," but either an Air Force Rivet Joint flight or Navy P-3 Orion anti-submarine aircraft.
22. Spying From Space: U.S. To Sharpen The Focus By Joseph Fitchett International Herald Tribune April 10, 2001 - "We're going from a legacy system, which essentially focused on Soviet nuclear missiles and other strategic capabilities, to a network designed for the multiple challenges confronting the United States in the post-Cold War era," said John Pike, director of Global Security.org, a private company in the Washington area that provides independent analysis of U.S. intelligence technology.
23. NASA SPENDING HEADED FOR ROUGH LANDING By Tamara Lytle, THE ORLANDO SENTINEL April 10, 2001 - "It sounds like artwork," said space analyst John Pike from the think tank Globalstrategy.com. "Artwork is a lot cheaper than real hardware and they don't have enough money for real hardware."
24. Analysis: PLA driving crisis By RICHARD SALE United Press International Tuesday, 10 April 2001 -- John Pike, of Alexandria, Va.-based think tank GlobalSecurity.org, told UPI that the Chinese military is facing "an extraordinary resource squeeze" after it was ordered last year to divest itself of its huge, octopus-like business empire.
25. Satellite Photos Show Chinese Trucks Around U.S. Spy Plane CNN LIVE TODAY April 10, 2001 -- JOHN PIKE, DIRECTOR, GLOBALSECURITY.ORG: That's the most obvious change that we see in the new image, this convoy of vehicles here, a total of seven of them. Frankly, I was surprised not to see those in the first image, because I would have thought the Chinese would have run right out there to look at the plane.
26. Bush administration cites some positive signs in China standoff By ROBIN WRIGHT and HENRY CHU The Kansas City Star 04/09/01 John Pike, a defense and intelligence analyst who is director of GlobalSecurity.org, said the commercial photos, taken by Space Imaging, a Colorado firm, showed "a big chunk out of the right rear fuselage."
27. Bush Backs Diplomacy, But Also Warns China By Mike Allen and Steven Mufson, Washington Post April 10, 2001 Pg. 1 -- John Pike, a defense and intelligence analyst who is director of Global Security.org, said the commercial photos, taken by Space Imaging, a Colorado firm, showed "a big chunk out of the right rear fuselage."
28. U.S., China Spy Plane Standoff Fox News Network FOX SPECIAL REPORT WITH BRIT HUME April 9, 2001 JOHN PIKE, GLOBALSECURITY.ORG: Air defense radars will be relocated. Command post radios might shift to new frequencies. So over time, the longer we go without flying these missions, the less trained our crews are going to be, and were going to start to lose track of some of China's military developments.
29. Strategic Reconnaissance At Issue in Sino-U.S. Tiff By Paul Mann Aviation Week & Space Technology 09-Apr-2001 -- "The more you look at the Chinese military, the more you really understand what it is to be a poor country," Pike agreed. Nevertheless, he cautioned, in time China might be able to build some version of the antisatellite (Asat) weapons the U.S. and the former Soviet Union developed during the Cold War.
30. Spying on China Is Essential to U.S. Security, Analysts Agree BY Keay Davidson The San Francisco Chronicle APRIL 8, 2001 -- "The U.S. intelligence community would be falling down on the job if they avoided paying attention to China," said national security analyst John Pike, often a vigorous critic of the U.S. intelligence and defense establishments.
31. The technology at stake on grounded US plane By Brad Knickerbocker The Christian Science Monitor APRIL 6, 2001 -- "[The Chinese] would certainly be able to have their electronic-warfare people look at the antennas and signals-processing hardware," says longtime military and intelligence analyst John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington-based consulting organization.
32. STARTING TO SWEAT AT THE FBI By James Gordon Meek National Journal April 6, 2001 - Intelligence expert John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org said increased internal security could be a threat to the soul of the FBI. "Morale is unavoidably, closely connected to effectiveness," he says.
33. U.S., China soften words, seek way out Seattle Times, April 05, 2001 -- By examining the antennae, they could discern the frequencies that the U.S. monitors in China, and then change them. But "the most sensitive and important part is the software" that is presumably destroyed, said John Pike, a defense expert with GlobalSecurity.com. "It's basically the difference between a live witness and doing an autopsy on a corpse."
34. BENEFITS TO CHINA DOWNPLAYED By Rogers Worthington Chicago Tribune April 5, 2001 -- "Assuming they erased tapes and hard drives before they went down, that has to be 90 percent of the value of the airplane," said John Pike, a Virginia-based defense intelligence expert and director of GlobalSecurity.org, which analyzes defense, intelligence and space policy.
35. U.S. OFFERS 'REGRETS' BUT NO APOLOGYBy John Diamond and Michael A. Lev "Spying is pernicious; surveillance is not," said John Pike of GlobalSecuirity.org, a Washington-based defense and intelligence think tank. Sensitivity to the use of the word "spy" also arises from the U.S. concern that China will claim it can hold the crew and the plane indefinitely as spies.
36. Crew face isolation and harsh questions The Times (London) Repetitive questioning is typically the next stage in the interrogation, John Pike, director of Global Security, a Washington-based defence policy group, said.
37. U.S., China soften words, seek way out The Seattle Times April 5, 2001 -- "The most sensitive and important part is the software" that is presumably destroyed, said John Pike, a defense expert with GlobalSecurity.com. "It's basically the difference between a live witness and doing an autopsy on a corpse."
38. Bush administration expresses regret for death of Chinese pilot but standoff continues By Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan S. Landay Knight Ridder April 5, 2001 -- "The most sensitive and important part is the software" that decrypts, processes and analyzes the electronic emissions monitored by the plane, said John Pike a defense expert with Global Security.com, a Virginia-based firm. "It's basically the difference between a live witness and doing an autopsy on a corpse."
39. U.S. IS SENSITIVE TO THE USE OF 'SPY' THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC April 5, 2001 Thursday - Why the concern over the use of "spy"? "Spying is pernicious; surveillance is not," said John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington-based defense and intelligence think tank.
40. Look Who Else Is 'Spying' Like U.S., China and Many Other Countries Fly Surveillance Aircraft By David Ruppe ABCNews.com 05 April 2001 -- "I think their application of airborne SIGINT has been limited simply by the limited reach of the Chinese military generally," says John Pike of the Web site GlobalSecurity.org. "It is basically sort of not much more than a brown water Navy, in the process of becoming a green water Navy."
41. Satellite Images Show Web Browsers American Spy Plane Cable News Network April 4, 2001; Wednesday -- John Pike from Globalsecurity.org "I think the thing that I am immediately struck by is how quickly they were able to get the image. This is quite a breakthrough in satellite news gathering, that we're able to get the satellite image almost as quickly as the classified community."
42. Bush warns China of damaging ties By Richard Whittle The Dallas Morning News April 4, 2001 -- John Pike, director of the defense policy group GlobalSecurity.org, said the precise equipment aboard the EP-3E is secret but includes high-speed tape recorders that record onto computer-tape cassettes, special signal processors and computers at 19 consoles where crew members work.
43. Spy plane's secrets may give China edge By Dave Moniz USA TODAY April 4, 2001 -- "Destroying the computer tapes and the computer hard drives would protect most of what is sensitive about the airplane," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense, space and intelligence policy analysis organization. "The Chinese would not be able to see what the airplane had collected, and would have a hard time understanding the capabilities of the plane if they could not turn the computers on.
44. CHINA CRANKS HEAT ON COLD WAR SPY DRAMA By Jeremy Page Birmingham Post [UK] April 4, 2001, Wednesday It was unclear how much of the secret data or gear the crew may have been able to destroy before it touched down on Chinese soil. 'This aeroplane is basically just stuffed with electronics,' said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a non-profit defence policy organization
45. U.S., China Dig in Over Spy Plane; Crew is Visited Apr 4, 2001 -- (Reuters) "This airplane is basically just stuffed with electronics," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense policy organization. "Short of blowing up the airplane, there's unavoidably a limit as to what they could destroy."
46. Unlocking secrets of spy plane By Roger Highfield, THE DAILY TELEGRAPH (LONDON) April 04, 2001, John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, said the Chinese would be able to draw conclusions from the hardware on the aircraft: the antennae and signalling process would shed light on what the Americans were studying, such as Chinese air defence radars.
47. Crew Had 'Destruction Plan' By Edward Walsh Washington Post Tuesday, April 3, 2001; Page A17 - "We'll sell a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but we're not selling these to anybody," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense, space and intelligence policy analysis organization.
48. Loss of Secrets - Sources: Crew had no time to destroy vital information by Patrick J. Sloyan Newsday 04/03/2001 -- John Pike, an intelligence equipment expert with GlobalSecurity.org, said if digital cassette tapes and hard drives were compromised, it would be a windfall for the Chinese military. "They could see US monitoring priorities and recordings of communications networks which would show them what was secure and what was vulnerable."
49. Spy Craft Could Reveal Vital Military Secrets, Experts Say By PAUL RICHTER, Los Angeles Times Tuesday, April 3, 2001 -- Spy planes are considered the "eyes and ears" of military intelligence, gathering visual information using imagery technology and radar and radio signal data using antennas. Sources: Defense Department; John Pike, GlobalSecurity.org
50. Spy Plane Standoff CNN WOLF BLITZER REPORTS April 3, 2001; Tuesday -- JOHN PIKE, DIRECTOR, GLOBALSECURITY.ORG: If the Chinese acquired and kept a fully capable Aries intelligence plane with all the mission software and intelligence types intact, that could be a major set back for American military intelligence. On the other hand, if the Chinese just spend a few days looking around the airplane, and the crew has erased all the intelligence, it might learn a little bit, but not enough to make a difference.
51. Security Expert on U.S. Spy Plane Equipment CNN LIVE TODAY 12:00 April 3, 2001 -- John Pike GlobalSecurity.org "Getting a look at some of the signal-processing electronics inside the airplane would give them greater insight into it, but it's basically -- this is basically a flying tape recorder, a flying computer system, and if you went in and found that all the tapes had been erased and that all the software had been taken off the computer, you might be able to learn some things but not nearly as much as you'd want to."
52. CHINA DETAINS TECHNOLOGY-FILLED US SPY PLANE AND CREW ABC NEWS WORLD NEWS NOW (2:00 AM ET) April 3, 2001, Tuesday - Mr. JOHN PIKE (Director, GlobalSecurity.org): The United States has spent billions of dollars and decades perfecting the technology on the Aries, and there's simply no other country that could copy this capability unless they got one of ours.
53. Plane in China Called 'Big Look' By Nancy Benac Associated Press "It's got more antennae than a dog has fleas," John Pike, a private military analyst, said Tuesday. Put more simply, "The airplane is basically a really big flying tape recorder," said Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a private defense policy organization.
54. Response to collision could influence U.S.-China policy for years The Kansas City Star 04/03/01 -- Although both sides have incentives not to appear too soft in resolving the dispute over the U.S. spy plane, "presumably there will be adequate adult supervision, and both sides will realize we have plenty of other things to argue about," said John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense policy group.
55. U.S. faces huge loss of data if Chinese get access to plane BY PAUL RICHTER San Jose Mercury News Tuesday, April 3, 2001 -- The United States generally bases two of them at Misawa Air Base, Japan, for use in East Asia, according to John Pike, of GlobalSecurity.org, a research organization. ``Basically, they just fly down the coast of China and check to see who is at home,'' he said. But the Chinese often change electronic frequencies, he said, ``and that is why they keep flying these things. It's sort of like your phone book is always going bad, and you would not want to go into battle with a three-year-old phone book. So you continuously update the electronic order of battle.''
56. Both nations face threat of political aftermath BY SCOTT CANON and RICK MONTGOMERY The Kansas City Star April 3, 2001 -- Although both sides have incentives not to appear too soft in resolving the dispute over the U.S. spy plane, "presumably there will be adequate adult supervision, and both sides will realize we have plenty of other things to argue about," said John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense policy group.
57. Three women may be among aircrew BY Laura Peek The Times (London) April 3, 2001, Tuesday -- "They would be looking for where aircraft and ships are and what they are doing. How well trained are the forces? How often do they train? How many airplanes are in the air at any given time?" John Pike, director of Global Security, the Washington-based defence policy group, said.
58. U.S. Plane in China Full of Electronics, Antennas Apr 3, 2001 -- (Reuters) John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a not-for-profit defense policy organization, said the EP-3 aircraft could pick up any radio or radar transmission within a radius of several hundred miles. "This airplane is basically just stuffed with electronics," Pike said. "Short of blowing up the airplane, there's unavoidably a limit as to what they (crew members) could destroy," he said.
59. STRAINED RELATIONS BETWEEN US AND CHINA ABC NEWS WORLD NEWS NOW (2:00 AM ET) April 2, 2001, Monday -- Mr. JOHN PIKE (Director, GlobalSecurity.org): It's jam-packed with some of the most sensitive intelligence collection gadgets that the American intelligence community has.
60. UNITED STATES AND CHINESE RELATIONSHIP AFTER COLLISION ABC NEWS WORLD NEWS TONIGHT (6:30 PM ET) April 2, 2001, Monday -- Mr. JOHN PIKE (Director, GlobalSecurity.org): The United States has spent billions of dollars and decades perfecting the technology on the Aries. There is simply no other country that could copy this capability unless they got one of ours
61. Growing tension between US and China CTV Television, Inc. CTV NEWS April 2, 2001 -- JOHN PIKE [Director, Globalsecurity.org]: The United States has spent billions of dollars and decades perfecting this technology on the aries. There's simply no other country that can copy this capability unless they have one of ours.
62. U.S. Surveillance Aircraft Could Be Intelligence Coup for Chinese By David Ruppe ABCnews.com 2 April 2001 -- "The data tapes of what they collected would be extraordinarily interesting because they would disclose collection priorities, what we're interested in, and collection capabilities, because it would show what we actually picked up," says John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org. But he says the cassettes and software, while potentially most valuable, were probably the easiest items on the aircraft for the crew to destroy.
63. American spy plane and Chinese fighter jet collided CTV Television, April 1, 2001 - JOHN PIKE [Director, GlobalSecurity.org]: It's jam- packed with some of the most sensitiv intelligence collection, gadgets that the American intelligence community has.
64. US SPY PLANE MAKES EMERGENCY LANDING AFTER COLLIDING WITH CHINESE FIGHTER JET ABC NEWS WORLD NEWS TONIGHT April 1, 2001 - Mr. JOHN PIKE (Director, GlobalSecurity.Org): It's jam-packed with some of the most sensitive intelligence collection gadgets that the American intelligence community has.