The Bear & The Dragon

While the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency flirts with helping the Iranian mullahgarchy build another plutonium reactor, and another prominent Israeli figure states the obvious about the war on Islamic Fundamentalism that nobody in the West wants to hear, the two enemy near-superpowers looming behind the existing global conflict have provided fresh evidence of their perfidy and eventual malevolence.

First, if the Bush Administration still has any plans on the drawing board for an air offensive against Iranian nuclear facilities, Dubya's dear friend Vlad Putin just made that idea a bit more complicated:

Russia has begun delivery of Tor-M1 air defense missile systems to Iran, a Defense Ministry official said Friday, confirming that Moscow would proceed with arms deals with Tehran in spite of Western criticism.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue, declined to specify when the deliveries had been made and how many systems had been delivered.

Ministry officials have previously said Moscow would supply 29 of the sophisticated missile systems to Iran under a $700 million contract signed in December, according to Russian media reports.

The United States called on all countries last spring to stop all arms exports to Iran, as well as ending all nuclear cooperation with it to put pressure on Tehran to halt uranium enrichment activities. Israel, too, has severely criticized arms deals with Iran....

According to the Interfax news agency, the Tor-M1 system can identify up to forty-eight targets and fire at two targets simultaneously at a height of up to 20,000 feet.

Russian media have reported previously that Moscow had conducted talks on selling even more powerful long-range S-300 air defense missiles, but Russian officials have denied that.

These would be the same Putinoids who also vociferously deny the slaying of a dissident ex-spook who has been a PR thorn in Vlad's side over the past decade or so:

A former Russian spy who died in an apparent poisoning signed a statement on his deathbed blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin for his death, friends said Friday.

The statement, read to reporters outside the hospital where Alexander Litvinenko died late Thursday, accused the Russian leader of having "no respect for life, liberty or any civilized value."

"You have shown yourself to be unworthy of your office, to be unworthy of the trust of civilized men and women," Litvinenko said in a statement read by his friend Alex Goldfarb.

"You may succeed in silencing one man but the howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr. Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life."

Suffice it to say the veracity of the Putin administration is dragging through the muck these days, and justifiably so. Only the chronic wishful thinking of Western "dupelomats" prevents the sober, widespread recognition of a reality that oughtn't be that difficult to discern:

1) Vlad Putin misses the "good old days" of the Evil Empire;

2) The power that accompanied those "good old days" is gone and irretrievable;

3) Ergo, the best Vlad can do is passively block us where we choose to allow ourselves to be blocked (i.e. the UN Security Council) and quietly arm our declared enemies (i.e. Iran, Syria) to the teeth. And when the mullahs make their Plan R bid for global power, the lure to play Napoleon-in-reverse may be too great for the neoCzar to resist.

The Red Chinese, meanwhile, are also quietly but industriously building toward that future global showdown:

A Hawaii-based spy ring sold secret U.S. stealth bomber technology to China.

According to the Washington Times, the technology relates to the B-2 bomber's engine exhaust system and its ability to avoid detection by infrared sensors. The Times reports that the information was sold to Chinese officials by former defense contractor Noshir S. Gowadia, an Indian-born citizen charged with spying in a federal indictment released by prosecutors in Hawaii.

Court papers also allege that Gowadia helped Chinese weapons designers develop a cruise missile with an engine exhaust system that is hard to detect by radar, and a missile that can intercept U.S. air-to-air missiles.

According to the Times, court papers say Gowadia is charged with making at least six secret visits to China from 2002 through 2005, and being paid at least $110,000 by Chinese officials for highly classified defense technology supplied through January. He may have been paid as much as $2 million.

I'd be more interested in what Gowadia's partisan affiliation was. Even a rudimentary educated guess suggests he isn't a Republican.

He can't have any Clinton affiliations, though, since (1) he got caught and (2) he didn't flee the country. And if he was a Clintonoid at one time, they'd certainly wash their hands of him, so don't expect any clemency from President Rodham two years from now.

Depending upon the rapidity of the Democrat-induced collapse in Iraq and elsewhere, Madusa may have far too much on her plate to even notice Gowadia's fate. But his benefactor, and Mr. Litvinenko's killers - the ultimate "Axis" - will be busily exploiting every last bit of it.