THE BEAUTY OF FRIENDSHIP – AT 8:07 A.M. ET:  Our wonderful Pakistani friends for whom we all have, I'm sure, such great respect, are at it again.  From Fox:

The Pakistani government allowed Chinese military engineers to photograph and take samples from the downed top-secret helicopter U.S. Navy SEALs left behind after they successfully killed Usama bin Laden, the Financial Times reported Sunday.

The report comes after months of speculation and rumors that Pakistan gave the Chinese access to the super-stealth chopper.

"The U.S. now has information that Pakistan, particularly the ISI, gave access to the Chinese military to the downed helicopter in Abbottabad," the paper quoted one person in intelligence circles as saying, referring to the Pakistani spy agency.

The Financial Times reported that President Obama's national security team has been discussing the incident and quoted one official as saying the situation "doesn't make us happy."

"We had explicitly asked the Pakistanis in the immediate aftermath of the raid not to let anyone have access to the damaged remains of the helicopter," said the source, described as someone close to the CIA.

COMMENT:  When the Soviet Union came out with its first intercontinental bomber in the years after World War II, it looked strikingly like our B-29, and for good reason.  A B-29 had made an emergency landing in the USSR during the war and the Soviets simply engaged in what is called "reverse engineering."  They built their own bomber by simply duplicating ours. 

I'm not an engineer and we don't know how much detail the Chinese got from their inspection of the copter.  They apparently don't have any actual parts in their possession.  But they learned something about some very advanced technology, and that ain't good.

Thanks, Pakistan.  You're real pals.

August 15, 2011