Bush Lied about Chinese Submarine?

Are the liberals going to say “Bush Lied” about this?

Chinese produce new type of sub

China’s naval buildup has produced a new type of attack submarine that U.S. intelligence did not know was under construction, according to U.S. defense and intelligence officials.

The submarine was spotted several weeks ago for the first time and has been designated by the Pentagon as the first Yuan-class of submarine.

A photograph of the completed submarine in the water at China’s Wuhan shipyard was posted on a Chinese Internet site this week and confirmed by a defense official as the new submarine. Wuhan is located inland, some 420 miles west of Shanghai.

One official said the new submarine was a “technical surprise” to U.S. intelligence, which was unaware that Beijing was building a new non-nuclear powered attack submarine. …

This shows both the difficulty of the intelligence business and the stupidity of modern political (Democrat) arguments. Clearly nobody would suggest that this intelligence failure is a lie on Bush’s part. Right? Right?

But forgetting the obvious parallels to the Democrats using national security as a political football, this is an important story in its own right, so I snipped more in the extended section.

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U.S. intelligence agencies have few details about the new submarine but believe it is diesel-powered rather than nuclear-powered, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The new boat, which appears to be a combination of indigenous Chinese hardware and Russian weapons, suggests that China is building up its submarine forces in preparation for a conflict over Taiwan, defense analysts say.

“China has decided submarines are its first-line warships now, their best shot at beating carriers,” said Sid Trevethan, an Alaska-based specialist on the Chinese military. “And China is right.”

“One has to marvel at the enormity of the investment by the People’s Liberation Army in submarines,” said Richard Fisher, a specialist on the Chinese military.

China also is building two nuclear-powered submarines

Terror in the Skies -- Again?

From The Department Of Redundancy