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Archived News Articles: NMD and Foreign Policy
11/10/2001 from AP:
http://news.excite.com/news/ap/011110/15/int-russia-putin
Putin Optimistic on Missile Defense
By JUDITH INGRAM, Associated Press Writer
Updated: Sat, Nov 10 3:56 PM EST
MOSCOW (AP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said
Saturday that he was "very optimistic" that a compromise
could be found with the United States on missile defense
and that he looked forward to hearing President Bush's
specific proposals at their summit next week. "We
believe it's right to consider offensive and defensive
weapons together," Putin told a group of American
journalists gathered for an evening interview in the
Kremlin. "We know the president's view that strategic
offensive weapons can and must be reduced. This is a
compromise in the right direction." ...
Asked about bin Laden's claim that he has nuclear and
chemical weapons, Putin said that the threat could be a
bluff but nevertheless should be taken seriously. "I
wouldn't overestimate the danger but it would also be
wrong to downplay it," Putin said. "We know about bin
Laden's links with radical circles in Pakistan, and
Pakistan is a nuclear power." "In that respect, we must
support Gen. Musharraf in his efforts to consolidate his
country," Putin said. He flatly denied that any Russian
or former Soviet weapons of mass destruction could get
into the hands of terrorists. "It's unlikely that the
terrorists in Afghanistan have weapons of mass
destruction, but we can't neglect a chance that they may
have them," he added. "In any case, they can't be of
Soviet or Russian origin, I'm absolutely sure of that."
Putin said he wasn't looking for any particular payback
from the United States in exchange for Russia's support
of the U.S.-led action against terror. "In the first
place, we would like our joint struggle against
terrorism to lead to positive results, that terrorism
not only in Afghanistan but the entire world be
destroyed, uprooted, liquidated," he said. Russia would
also "like to have a new quality in our relations and
have in the United States a reliable and predictable
partner," he added. "This top task is more important
that getting any momentary material advantages." ...
11/15/2001 from AP:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011115/us/us_russia_3.html
No Agreement on Missile Defense
By RON FOURNIER, AP White House Correspondent
Thursday November 15 6:23 PM ET
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) - President Bush and Russian
President Vladimir Putin failed to resolve their dispute
over U.S. missile shield plans Thursday but pledged on a
harmonious final day of summitry to fight terrorism and
deepen U.S.-Russian ties. ``Our differences will not
divide us,'' Bush told hundreds of students and
townspeople in a steamy high school gym. ...
Putin reaffirmed his opposition to anti-missile tests
that would violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile
Treaty. But he also said that, no matter what Bush does,
``under no circumstances could it lead to any tension in
the relations between Russia and the United States.'' ...
``We shall continue our discussions,'' Putin said. ...
Despite Putin's reservations on missile defense, Bush
``continues to believe he has got to move forward with
the testing program in a robust way,'' Condoleezza Rice,
Bush's national security adviser, said later. ``We're
soon going to run up against certain constraints of the
treaty,'' she said. ...
11/15/2001 from AP:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011115/us/us_korea_1.html
Rumsfeld Worried About NKorea Missiles
By GEORGE GEDDA, Associated Press Writer
Thursday November 15 6:27 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AP) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said
Thursday that North Korea poses a ``very real'' threat
to the United States through its missile development,
export policies and attempts to produce weapons of mass
destruction. Rumsfeld spoke of the Bush administration's
worries about the reclusive communist state during a
joint news conference with Kim Dong-shin, defense
minister of South Korea. ...
11/17/2001 from AP:
dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011117/us/attacks_investigation_14.html
FBI: Terror Cells Likely in U.S.
By KAREN GULLO, Associated Press Writer
Saturday November 17 7:54 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AP) - Investigators are hunting associates
of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network and other terrorist cells
probably in the United States, FBI Director Robert Mueller said. ...
11/17/2001 from IPS:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/oneworld/20011115/wl/
u_s_policy_towards_taliban_influenced_by_oil_-_say_authors_1.html
U.S. Policy Towards Taliban Influenced by Oil - Say Authors
By Julio Godoy, Inter Press Service
PARIS, Nov 15 (IPS) - Under the influence of U.S. oil
companies, the government of George W. Bush initially
blocked U.S. secret service investigations on terrorism,
while it bargained with the Taliban the delivery of
Osama bin Laden in exchange for political recognition
and economic aid, two French intelligence analysts claim. ...
11/17/2001 from AP:
dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011116/us/us_russia_8.html
U.S. to Pursue Missile Test Plans
By SANDRA SOBIERAJ, Associated Press Writer
Friday November 16 1:00 PM ET
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) - The United States will push ahead
with aggressive testing of missile defenses, White House
officials said after President Bush and Russian
President Vladimir Putin ended their summit without
agreement on the disputed program. ...
11/17/2001 from Reuters: dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011116/pl/arms_lockheed_report_dc_1.html
Part of Missile Defense System Over Budget -WSJ
Friday November 16 7:14 AM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Part of the national missile
defense system being pushed by U.S. President George
Bush and developed by defense contractor Lockheed Martin
Corp. is running way over cost and well behind schedule,
The Wall Street Journal said on Friday.
The Space-Based Infrared System-High, known as
SBIRS-High, is a key part of what has been known as the
National Missile Defense (news - web sites) System, a
ground-based shield designed to hamper an enemy missile
attack, the newspaper said.
The SBIRS-High would be the early-warning system to
detect whether an attack had been launched against the
United States, the newspaper said.
As a result of development problems, requested changes
and funding shortfalls, the satellite system and its
ground stations will now probably cost between $1.7
billion and $2 billion more and not be completed until
2009, three years later than planned, the newspaper
said. ...
The SBIRS-High problems should not delay the fielding of
an intercept system to protect the United States from
missile attack, said the Pentagon (news - web sites)'s
Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, the newspaper
reported.
``We'll make do with what we have for the near term,''
said the organization's spokesman, Lt. Col. Rick Lehner,
it said. ...
11/17/2001 from AP:
http://news.excite.com/news/ap/011117/09/news-attacks-france
French Warplanes to Attack al-Qaida
Updated: Sat, Nov 17 9:40 AM EST
PARIS (AP) - French warplanes will attack suspected
Afghan strongholds of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network
in missions beginning within two weeks, Defense Minister
Alain Richard said Saturday.
Richard spoke a day after President Jacques Chirac said
France would commit combat planes to the U.S.-led
military mission and the nation sent its first ground
troops to the region.
The defense ministry said up to 10 Mirage 2000 bombers
would be used in the missions Richard said were aimed at
"attacking the infrastructure and remaining refuges of
al-Qaida in Afghanistan." ...
11/18/2001 from AP:
http://news.excite.com/news/ap/011118/13/int-attacks-military
Officials: Campaign Is Far From Over
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
Updated: Sun, Nov 18 1:27 PM EST
WASHINGTON (AP) - Terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden
and his al-Qaida network are on the run in Afghanistan
and their Taliban supporters are in disarray, but the
American-led military campaign to crush them is far from
over, senior administration officials said Sunday. ...
If bin Laden were to flee Afghanistan, the United States
would keep up the hunt, Wolfowitz said. "We are going to
continue pursuing him," he said. "Let's also remember,
we're going to continue pursuing the entire al-Qaida
network, which is in 60 countries, not just Afghanistan
and, worst of all, here in the United States. ... This
is a campaign against all the global terrorist networks
and the states that support terrorism." ...
Rice cautioned against assuming that the military
successes in Afghanistan over the past week mean the
United States has met its main objective. "This may take
a while," she said on NBC's "Meet the Press." She also
left open the possibility that Iraq could become a
target in Bush's war on terrorism. "We do not need the
events of September 11 to tell us that this is a very
dangerous man who is a threat to his own people, a
threat to the region, and a threat to us because he is
determined to acquire weapons of mass destruction," she said. ...
11/21/2001 from Space.com:
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/echelon_011121-1.html
Project Echelon: Orbiting Big Brother?
By Leonard David, Senior Space Writer
posted: 07:00 am ET, 21 November 2001
WASHINGTON -- Earth-orbiting listening posts are on
active duty in the United States-led war on terrorism.
Signal-seeking spacecraft not only play a critical role
in eavesdropping on nations from on high, but also
within the borders of the U.S itself. ...
Echelon is very real, explains Jeffrey Richelson, a
senior fellow with the National Security Archive in
Washington, D.C. He has pointed out that some of the
oratory concerning Echelon and its abilities may be
"over-the-top." But the fact that a U.S.-promoted effort
to operate an electronic eavesdropping network with
global reach "should come as no surprise," he explains. ...
On November 8, the U.S. Senate gave thumbs-up to an
annual funding bill that bolsters America's spying
skills. Total monies approved for the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA), the NSA, and other
super-secret efforts remain classified. While both House
and Senate lawmakers must now strike a balance between
their respective funding bills, it is clear that
billions of extra dollars -- beyond that of a minimum
$30 billion yearly budget -- are earmarked to revitalize
and beef-up ground- and space-based surveillance
technologies.
"Five years from now, the NSA must have the ability to
collect and exploit electronic signals in a vastly
different communications environment than that in which
we spent most of the second half of the 20th century,"
said Senator Bob Graham, a Florida Democrat. ...
12/7/2001 opinion at the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/07/opinion/07KRUG.html
Hitting the Trifecta
By PAUL KRUGMAN
December 7, 2001
" ... Earlier this year Mr. Bush used projections of
vast budget surpluses to push through a huge, 10-year
tax cut. Most of that tax cut went to people with
incomes of more than $200,000 per year. Now Mr. Daniels
tells us that the budget - not just the budget outside
Social Security, but the whole enchilada - will be in
deficit through 2004. Since the administration's phony
budget math ("fuzzy" just doesn't cut it at this point)
gets phonier the further you go into the future, this
means that we have effectively returned to a state of
permanent deficit. ...
Administration officials insist that the economic
slowdown and the war on terror, not the tax cut, are
responsible for the red ink. But this is flatly untrue...
It's the huge further tax cuts that will take place
after 2002 - tax cuts that are now the law of the land -
that are the problem. ...
Mr. Bush could try to undo some of the damage, by
canceling future tax cuts for the top income bracket.
Instead, he wants to accelerate those cuts. That's the
moral equivalent of the big bonuses Enron gave to
executives just days before it went bankrupt.
Horse racing is a zero-sum game; so, it seems, is budget
politics. Mr. Bush hit the trifecta; the great majority
of Americans lost, big time."
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