New York Times on the Web Forums Science

Missile Defense

Russian military leaders have expressed concern about US plans for a national missile defense system. Will defense technology be limited by possibilities for a strategic imbalance? Is this just SDI all over again?

lunarchick - 05:27pm Apr 6, 2001 EST (#2069 of 2070)
lunarchick@www.com

Britannica: the article re Kissenger was perhaps a 'feature' article .. this would change. Kissenger - the name - has been a part of the diplomatic culture for a ' l o n g ' time!

~ http://www.britannica.com/search?query=kissinger+henry

rshowalter - 09:07pm Apr 6, 2001 EST (#2070 of 2070)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

CIA Senior Analyst an Apparent Suicide, Police Say by Vernon Loeb and Tom Jackman Washington Post Staff Writers Friday, April 6, 2001; Page A19 http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45714-2001Apr5.html

Rick E. Yannuzzi, the CIAs deputy national intelligence officer for strategic and nuclear programs, died Tuesday at his home in the Oakton area of an apparent suicide, according to a CIA spokesman and the Fairfax police.

Yannuzzi, 46, a physicist and lawyer who specialized in weapons analysis, was found by a family member inside his home at about 3 p.m. Tuesday. The state medical examiner performed an autopsy yesterday morning and determined that the cause of death was asphyxiation, police said.

. . . . . . . . . ..

Yunnuzzi joined the CIA in 1977 as a weapons and telemetry analyst and rose through the ranks to hold several positions within the senior intelligence service, the agencys top management cadre.

Yannuzzis apparent suicide caught colleagues by surprise and left them searching for possible explanations. Yannuzzi apparently left a suicide note in which he expressed love for his family but gave no explanation for taking his life, sources said.

Any way you look at it this is disquieting. It this was a suicide entirely unrelated to the mans work as deputy national intelligence officer for strategic and nuclear programs , one can wonder about the quality of judgement from tha man, perhaps for many years. If this was a suicide related to the mans job, it shows a lamentable lack of control in a man much involved in the technical arrangements that could reduce the entire population of the world to rotting unburied corpses. When people say that our nuclear weapon controls are "safe" - part of what they mean is that the humans who could actually launch a strike (and with controls as they are, that is many people) are reliable, and well informed.

If the death is only an apparent suicide, or a forced suicide, that raises further concerns about the sociotechnical system that includes the deputy national intelligence officer for strategic and nuclear programs. One would hope for more stability in the system than that, considering what is at stake. There is a somewhat related, and very ugly story in last weeks NYT Magazine What Did the C.I.A. Do to Eric Olsons Father? ... by .. MICHAEL IGNATIEFF , which, in addition to a story of probable murder, also tells of the extent, and ornateness of the web of lies involved in the cover-up (some of which happened on George Bush Sr.'s watch) And the story also tells a lot about how damaging the web of lies actually was.

When people in national security say "believe us -- trust us --- we have it all under control -- and we'd never lie to you" there is plenty of reason to check them and to believe what can be verified, putting almost no weight at all on the unsubstantiated word of our intelligence agencies.

Nuclear weapons are insanely dangerous, obsolete weapons, and the possibility that the people in our nuclear defenses are, after a long time talking themselves, and maintaining a web of lies, themselves delusional, and morally corrupt and brutal, is great indeed. rshowalter 2/23/01 10:47am

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense