The message from Q contained this statement --

: China was sending some information in a diplomatic pouch on
: Gulf Air. ....

: The information in the Chinese diplomatic pouch would have
: been the last piece needed in a missile defense system.
: China has done this before, (transported highly sensitive
: information on a commercial airliner) and has almost caused
: an airliner to be crashed.

Now, the following story was running on a major news service:

Story Filed: Saturday, August 26, 2000 10:07 AM EDT

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) -- U.S. Navy divers have retrieved the diplomatic pouches carried by a U.S. courier who was killed in the Gulf Air crash.

The divers began looking for the ``diplomatic cargo'' at dawn Friday and found it in the shallow waters off Bahrain on Friday afternoon, said Cmdr. Jeff Gradeck, spokesman for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, which is based in Bahrain.

The courier, Seth Foti, 31, of Browntown, Va., was the only American aboard Gulf Air flight 072 when it crashed into the sea Wednesday evening.

He was carrying classified information in yellow pouches, the U.S. State Department said.

The U.S. Embassy in Bahrain held a private memorial service Saturday for Foti. He and his wife of three months, Anisha, met at the embassy, where she had worked briefly last year.

Foti's body was expected to arrive in Washington on Sunday, and a funeral is being planned in his hometown.

Copyright © 2000 Associated Press Information Services.

The question to be asked is, what was the U.S. courier carrying, and why was he carrying it? Is this courier carrying information from the Chinese or about them? Are the Chinese seeking to distance themselves from the Russians, or do the documents show that they have been developing a missile defense system while telling the world that a U.S. system would be "destabilizing"?

Now, Q continues --

: If you have any doubts about Gulf Air, contact
: Representative Cox's office and talk to the aide who worked
: on the 1999 Cox Report. Since they are still following
: China's technology trail, they will know about Gulf Air.

What is the greater threat to the U.S. Navy and its 5th Fleet? Russian attack submarines with powerful new torpedoes, or the Chinese anti-ship missiles deployed to cover a blockade of, or an invasion of Taiwan? Or is the Council on Foreign Relations right, the Russian navy is a tugboat navy?