Now China Will Be Even Madder Over Bombing

No wonder Beijing is hopping mad. Washingtons explanation of how it mistakenly targeted Chinas embassy in Belgrade included the suggestion that a mid-level CIA analyst had actually warned ahead of time that U.S. intelligence had the wrong address for its intended target, the Washington Post reported Thursday. On seeing the site marked on a targeting map as the location of a Yugoslav arms procurement agency, the analyst allegedly told his superiors, "Im not sure thats the right building." Reports leaked by U.S. intelligence sources havent specified how loudly the analyst raised the alarm, but the anecdote was more likely to enrage than mollify Beijing. "Chinas fury was based on the sense that theyre not taken seriously in Washington," says TIME U.N. correspondent William Dowell. "Even if they were to believe the bombing was an accident, the fact that such a mistake was possible confirms their sense that Washington isnt treating them with due respect." Telling Beijing that U.S. officials had ignored warnings of a possible targeting error in Belgrade was unlikely to make the Chinese feel any better about the bombing.

The Post report has little cause for comfort in Washington, either: An unnamed top-ranking State Department official explained that the targeting process began with an intelligence analyst finding the street address of the arms procurement agency... off the Internet! If Washingtons spooks are now using the Net as an intelligence-gathering mechanism, were really in trouble.