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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 - 08:34pm Jul 11, 2001 EST (#6944 of 6947)
lunarchick@www.com

WASHINGTON - The US State Department has notified all US diplomatic posts abroad that tests for an antimissile shield will be conducted within months, in conflict with a 1972 treaty with Moscow.

On Saturday, the Pentagon has scheduled its first flight test in a year, of interceptors designed to shoot down longrange missiles. The attempt last July failed.

"The world has changed fundamentally and the rationale for Cold War arrangements no longer exists," says the 14page memorandum sent to US embassies and consulates July 3.

It is intended to provide American diplomats with talking points to help persuade other governments to support President George W Bush's aspirations for an antimissile shield.

Deployment of an interim groundbased system in Alaska could be completed as early as 2004, the memorandum said.

The tests, the memorandum said, "will come into conflict with the ABM treaty in months, not years."

Bush has called the 1972 AntiBallistic Missile Treaty with Russia, which forbids deployment of a US shield against longrange missiles in any state except North Dakota, a relic of the Cold War.

Russian President Vladimir Putin opposes setting aside the treaty and has warned it could touch off a new nuclear arms race.

Many US allies are sceptical or noncommittal.

Today the new British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, agreed with Bush's assessment that there is a growing nuclear danger in the world. But he signalled on a visit to Washington that his government intends to withhold judgment on an antimissile shield while the Bush administration weighs its options on an antimissile program.

Putin, meanwhile, proposed on July 6 that the five longestablished nuclear power states the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China begin negotiations aimed at eliminating 10,000 warheads in the next seven years.

Putin is expected to bring up the proposal with Bush at an economic summit meeting in Genoa, Italy, later this month.

A senior US official told The Associated Press today that Putin's proposal is not going to win over the administration.

The unclassified memorandum to US diplomatic posts, obtained by the AP, said the most urgent threat stems not from thousands of Russian missiles but from a small number of missiles in the hands of rogue states armed with weapons of mass destruction.

"Those states also possess a large number of short and mediumrange missiles that pose a significant threat to deployed US forces and friends and US allies abroad," it said.

As a result, the memorandum continued, "the United States needs release from the constraints of the ABM treaty to pursue the most promising technologies and basing modes to field limited, but effective missile defences."

At the same time, the memorandum acknowledges that the 1972 treaty prohibits a US nationwide defence and sharing antimissile defences with allies.

As a result, it said, the administration will pursue a program to be able to deploy such defences to protect the United States, its forces, friends and allies.

Richard Boucher, the State Department spokesman, confirmed that "we have given to our embassies basic arguments on the need for a new strategic framework, for moving beyond the strategies of the Cold War".

He said the memorandum would help the embassies make a case for these ideas.

lunarchick - 08:52pm Jul 11, 2001 EST (#6945 of 6947)
lunarchick@www.com

Shols :) FELAFEL - Dostoevski local author Birmingham's book, play (ti: He died with a FELAFEL in his hand) was a hit! Eve's house is the 'star' of this film ... and oh!!! what the film makers did to it!

(2 following messages)

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