Bumper Cars

The Chinese fighter pilot who apparently caused the international-incident-provoking mid-air collision with a U.S. reconnaissance plane was well known to the U.S. intelligence community. Wang Wei once flew so close to a U.S. aircraft that the American crew was able to read a sign he was holding up. It contained his e-mail address, and the crew got a photograph of it. “The email picture exists, but we are not going to publish it,” said a Defense Department spokesman. “This is an intelligence picture.” (AFP) ...Well, at least someone wanted to open a dialogue.