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Missile Defense

Technology has always found its greatest consumer in a nation's war and defense efforts. Since the last attempts at a "Star Wars" defense system, has technology changed considerably enough to make the latest Missile Defense initiatives more successful? Can such an application of science be successful? Is a militarized space inevitable, necessary or impossible?

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rshow55 - 02:35pm Jul 27, 2003 EST (# 13160 of 13267)
Can we do a better job of finding truth? YES. Click "rshow55" for some things Lchic and I have done and worked for on this thread.

rshow55 - 09:29pm Jun 6, 2002 EST (#2475 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@167.tbElarUDLNV^150556@.f28e622/3094

I've said that it is in my own interest that I be given a chance to debrief, and discuss my title to the things I have done. I believe that it is also in the national interest that I be allowed to do so. In the interest of national defense and security. Also in the national research and commercial interest.

At one level, on the basis of some assumptions, you might say that my postings on the NYT Missile Defense forum, and some Guardian forums in the last two years constitute an almost ideal, and very extensive debriefing. Not all this corpus remains on the web, but it could all be made available on a laser disk, with a search facility, and widely distributed. The work described and summarized in MD2000 rshow55 5/4/02 10:39am http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@167.tbElarUDLNV^150556@.f28e622/2484 was intended to serve the national interest, and I believe it may have done so. MD2439 rshow55 6/2/02 4:55pm http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@167.tbElarUDLNV^150556@.f28e622/3043

Here is a simple question, that I believe raises an important issue in the national interest of America, a country dedicated to freedom. Suppose I took the corpus I've already filed on the NYT and Guardian web sites, put it into laser disk form, with a search facility, and distributed the disks to members of the US House and Senate? Suppose I then asked to testify on the subject

"Barriers to the collection, connection, and correction of DOTS in the United States military industrial complex - - a specific example.

This is a subject that is now closely connected to an ongoing, important, and multifaceted national discussion. It is also closely related to important issues of international relations. Of course barriers are necessary. But how are exceptions handled? Does the exception handling make sense, and work when it ought to?

Could I testify on that subject, refer to things I've already said on the web, and answer questions put to me honestly without violating national security rules? I believe that I have a right to ask for a determination of this - - and a right, if the government is not prepared to talk to me about what my restrictions are, to assume that I have no such restrictions. (I'm speaking specifically of national security law limitations --I have no wish to avoid the fraud and perjury penalties all citizens face.)

The question of whether or not I could testify within security restrictions is a specific case of a more general question:

Could things be arranged so that I could talk to ______, or some other professional, on technical matters, in a way so that I had reasonable confidence, and _________ had reasonable confidence, that, whatever other problems we might have, our conversation did not violate US national security laws? MD2327 rshow55 5/20/02 5:43pm http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@167.tbElarUDLNV^150556@.f28e622/2888

Almost everyone I'd have to deal with attempting to make my way as an ordinary professional American citizen has to fit in the blanks above, and as I understand my situation, with its current ambiguities, almost no one does.

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