BlueHummingbird News - Archive

Archived News Articles: NMD and Foreign Policy -2002

From the BBC: Saturday, 9 March, 2002, 17:01 GMT
US 'has nuclear hit list'
The Bush administration has reportedly ordered the Pentagon to prepare contingency plans for attacking seven countries with nuclear weapons. Quoting a secret Pentagon report, the Los Angeles Times newspaper names China, Russia, Iraq, North Korea, Iran, Libya and Syria as potential targets. Furthermore, the military have apparently been directed to build smaller nuclear weapons for battlefield use. ... The report clearly referred to nuclear arms as a "tool for fighting a war, rather than deterring them" ...

From Salon.com News: March 14, 2002
Blowing the whistle on bad science By Arianna Huffington
Former missile tester Nira Schwartz says Star Wars doesn't work. Now Congress is beginning to listen.

From The Bellona Foundation (Norway): 2002-06-16 18:48
Russia and America Formally Scrap Start II, ABM Treaties By Charles Digges
MOSCOW - Russia pulled out of the 1993 START II nuclear arms treaty Friday, one day after the United States formally withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty prohibiting construction of a missile defence system. The action by the Russian parliament had limited practical effect, however, because the US and Russian legislatures had ratified different versions of START II, preventing it from taking force. ...
In Moscow, by backing out of START II, Russia frees itself from what military experts in Moscow considered onerous restrictions on the land-based intercontinental missiles that are Russia's strongest nuclear assets. START II's requirement stipulating that such weapons be armed with only one warhead each meant in essence that Russia had to build an entire new generation of missiles, analysts and lawmakers said. Other restrictions set by START II are obsolete, including the requirement that both countries slash their nuclear arsenals to 3,500 warheads apiece. The much-derided treaty signed in Moscow last month requires the United States and Russia to limit themselves to 1,750 to 2,200 each in the next decade. Opponents of the treaty have pointed out that it has no decommissioning schedule, meaning, conceivably, that neither side will have to start slashing arsenals for a decade. Also provisions for the American side allow the stockpiling — rather than the destruction of warheads — and makes the treaty virtually pointless. ...

From The Observer (UK): Sunday June 16, 2002
Dark heart of the American dream
It's the most polluted state in the planet's most powerful country. Ed Vulliamy goes into George Bush's backyard to reveal how big oil got in bed with big politics and the price paid by the little people

From The Observer: Sunday July 14, 2002
The great charade Comment by John Pilger
" ... over a century ago .. Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India, described Afghanistan as one of the 'pieces on a chessboard upon which is being played out a great game for the domination of the world'. There is no war on terrorism; it is the great game speeded up. ... Contrary to propaganda orchestrated from Washington and London, the coming attack has nothing to do with Saddam Hussein's 'weapons of mass destruction', if these exist at all. The reason is that America wants a more compliant thug to run the world's second greatest source of oil. ... For much of the western media, especially those commentators in thrall to and neutered by the supercult of America, the most salient truths remain taboos. ... "

From the Associated Press at Yahoo: Fri Aug 16, 5:49 PM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020816/ap_on_re_eu/russia_defense_2
Russia To Maintain Nuclear Arsenal By STEVE GUTTERMAN
MOSCOW (AP) - Russia will maintain its arsenal nuclear weapons for the foreseeable future, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Friday, boasting that the country's SS-20 missile was capable of penetrating any defense system in existence.
In a visit to a Strategic Missile Forces base in the Ural Mountain region, Ivanov said the troops responsible for land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles were a key element of Russia's national defense and would receive "priority attention" from the Kremlin.
"The Strategic Missile Forces have been and remain a most important factor in the deterrence of aggressive aspirations and intentions toward Russia and our allies," the Interfax news agency quoted Ivanov as saying at the base in Kartaly, in the Chelyabinsk region. ...
Ivanov boasted about the "superpowerful, highly effective RS-20 missiles" deployed at Kartaly, saying the missile — known in the West as the SS-20 Satan — is the "core of the combat might" of the strategic forces and can "overcome the most modern missile defense system." ...

From the Associated Press at Yahoo: Fri Aug 23,12:14 PM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020823/ap_wo_en_po/central_asia_us_6
Senior U.S. commander says military ties with Central Asia will grow
By BAGILA BUKHARBAYEVA
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan - A senior U.S. military commander said Friday that U.S. military ties with the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, where Washington has sent troops and personnel to support anti-terrorist operations in nearby Afghanistan, will continue to expand. "I would expect in the future — basing and so forth completely notwithstanding — that we will see a continuing growth in military relationships between our armed forces and forces here in Central Asia," Gen. Tommy Franks, who as chief of U.S. Central Command is in charge of missions in the Middle East and Central Asia, told reporters in Uzbekistan's capital, Tashkent. ... Echoing Franks, members of a U.S. Congressional delegation that visited Tashkent on Friday said the United States intends to play a long-term role in the region. "We informed President (Karimov) that the United States is in Central Asia to stay. We are committed to rebuilding Afghanistan. We are committed to continued economic and political reform in Uzbekistan," the delegation's leader, U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra, a Republican from Michigan, told reporters. ...

From Reuters at Yahoo: Sun Aug 25, 9:58 AM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&ncid=578&e=1&cid=578&u=/nm/20020825/ts_nm/afghan_us_campaign_dc_7
Gen. Franks Looks Beyond Afghanistan in Terror War By Roli Ng
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A top U.S. general suggested on Sunday that American-led anti-terror operations needed to look also at countries neighboring Afghanistan. General Tommy Franks, head of the U.S. Central Command, said the U.S. war on terror could not be limited to Afghanistan. ...

Commentary at The Washington Post: Wednesday, September 4, 2002; Page A21
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34847-2002Sep3.html
Heading for Trouble By James Webb
Do we really want to occupy Iraq for the next 30 years?
" ... Is there an absolutely vital national interest that should lead us from containment to unilateral war and a long-term occupation of Iraq? And would such a war and its aftermath actually increase our ability to win the war against international terrorism? On this second point, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the Joint Chiefs vice chairman, mentioned in a news conference last week that the scope for potential anti-terrorist action included -- at a minimum -- Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, Libya, Georgia, Colombia, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and North Korea. ... "

Commentary at The Washington Post: Thursday, September 5, 2002; Page A31
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38441-2002Sep4.html
The Troubling New Face of America By Jimmy Carter
"Fundamental changes are taking place in the historical policies of the United States with regard to human rights, our role in the community of nations and the Middle East peace process -- largely without definitive debates (except, at times, within the administration). Some new approaches have understandably evolved from quick and well-advised reactions by President Bush to the tragedy of Sept. 11, but others seem to be developing from a core group of conservatives who are trying to realize long-pent-up ambitions under the cover of the proclaimed war against terrorism. ...
As has been emphasized vigorously by foreign allies and by responsible leaders of former administrations and incumbent officeholders, there is no current danger to the United States from Baghdad. ...
We have thrown down counterproductive gauntlets to the rest of the world, disavowing U.S. commitments to laboriously negotiated international accords. Peremptory rejections of nuclear arms agreements, the biological weapons convention, environmental protection, anti-torture proposals, and punishment of war criminals have sometimes been combined with economic threats against those who might disagree with us. These unilateral acts and assertions increasingly isolate the United States from the very nations needed to join in combating terrorism. ... "

From AlterNet: September 12, 2002
The Anniversary of a Neo-Imperial Moment By Jim Lobe
When excerpts of the document first appeared in the New York Times in the spring of 1992, it created quite a stir. Sen. Joe Biden, now chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was particularly outraged, calling it a prescription for "literally a Pax Americana," an American empire. The details contained in the draft of the Defense Planning Guidance(DPG) were indeed startling. The document argued that the core assumption guiding U.S. foreign policy in the 21st century should be the need to establish permanent U.S. dominance over virtually all of Eurasia. It envisioned a world in which U.S. military intervention would become "a constant fixture" of the geo-political landscape. ...

From the Associated Press at Yahoo: Thu Sep 12, 5:24 PM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020912/ap_on_el_ge/defense_politics_1
GOP Criticizes Democratic Donors By WILL LESTER
WASHINGTON (AP) - Republicans battling for control of the Senate are targeting Democratic incumbents who have accepted donations from a group that advocates arms control and opposes a national missile defense system. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has already backed ads along with local Republicans in Arkansas and South Dakota that criticize Democratic candidates for taking money from the Council for a Livable World. "Their name sounds reasonable, but their ideas are radical," said a 30-second TV spot Republicans aired in Arkansas. "The Council for a Livable World. This dangerous group advocates massive defense cuts, even while we're at war." ...

Follow up from Reuters at Yahoo: Fri Sep 13, 3:04 PM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020913/pl_nm/politics_arms_dc_1
Republicans Target Defense Issues with New Ads
" ... "Would you stand with one of the most dangerous anti-military groups in America? One that advocates crippling defense cuts even today?" said a Republican ad scheduled to air for at least a week in South Dakota. ...
Republican charges that Democrats are weak on defense or do not support weapons systems like the Patriot missile and F-22 fighter have featured prominently in key Senate races in Arkansas, South Dakota, New Hampshire and Texas. The Arkansas ad, aimed at Democrat Mark Pryor, said the Council for a Livable World opposed Arkansas-based production of the Patriot missile, threatening hundreds of state jobs. John Isaacs, president of the council, said the ads distorted the group's position on the military budget and were an attempt by Republicans to cash in on the war on terror. While the group targeted wasteful Pentagon spending and the elimination of unnecessary Cold War-era weapons systems, it did not oppose production of the newest Patriot PAC-3 missile, he said. "They're just using us as a vehicle," Isaacs said of the Republican ads. "The Republicans are trying to politicize the war, and the way they can do that is by attacking the Council for a Livable World." ... In Texas, Kirk received $6,429 from the council, but Texas Republicans spent $750,000 on television ads criticizing Kirk for accepting the group's support. ... "

From the Sunday Herald: 15 September 2002
Bush planned Iraq 'regime change' before becoming President By Neil Mackay
A SECRET blueprint for US global domination reveals that President Bush and his cabinet were planning a premeditated attack on Iraq to secure 'regime change' even before he took power in January 2001. The blueprint, uncovered by the Sunday Herald, for the creation of a 'global Pax Americana' was drawn up for Dick Cheney (now vice- president), Donald Rumsfeld (defence secretary), Paul Wolfowitz (Rumsfeld's deputy), George W Bush's younger brother Jeb and Lewis Libby (Cheney's chief of staff). The document, entitled Rebuilding America's Defences: Strategies, Forces And Resources For A New Century, was written in September 2000 by the neo-conservative think-tank Project for the New American Century (PNAC). The plan shows Bush's cabinet intended to take military control of the Gulf region whether or not Saddam Hussein was in power. It says: 'The United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.' The PNAC document supports a 'blueprint for maintaining global US pre-eminence, precluding the rise of a great power rival, and shaping the international security order in line with American principles and interests'. This 'American grand strategy' must be advanced for 'as far into the future as possible', the report says. It also calls for the US to 'fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theatre wars' as a 'core mission'. The report describes American armed forces abroad as 'the cavalry on the new American frontier'. The PNAC blueprint supports an earlier document written by Wolfowitz and Libby that said the US must 'discourage advanced industrial nations from challenging our leadership or even aspiring to a larger regional or global role'. The PNAC report also: ... spotlights China for 'regime change' saying 'it is time to increase the presence of American forces in southeast Asia'. ... calls for the creation of 'US Space Forces', to dominate space ... Tam Dalyell, the Labour MP ... said: 'This is garbage from right-wing think-tanks stuffed with chicken-hawks ... 'This is a blueprint for US world domination -- a new world order of their making...'

From AP at Yahoo: Wed, September 18, 2002 2:12 PM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020918/ap_wo_en_po/russia_us_missile_defense_1
Top general says Russia may cooperate with United States on missile defense

From THE WASHINGTON POST at MSNBC: Sept. 19, 2002
http://www.msnbc.com/news/809885.asp
U.S. drops bid to boost germ accord By Peter Slevin
Washington tells allies it’s best to wait a few more years
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19 — The Bush administration has abandoned an international effort to strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention against germ warfare, advising its allies that the United States wants to delay further discussions until 2006. ...

From MSNBC: Sept. 20, 2002
http://www.msnbc.com/news/810719.asp
Bush: U.S. strikes first from now on
" ... “In keeping with our heritage and principles, we do not use our strength to press for unilateral advantage,” it said. ...
“While the United States will constantly strive to enlist the support of the international community, we will not hesitate to act alone, if necessary, to exercise our right of self-defense by acting pre-emptively against such terrorists to prevent them from doing harm against our people and our country,” it said. ... "

From The White House: Sept. 20, 2002
The National Security Strategy of the USA, 35 page pdf file

From The NYT at Yahoo: Fri Sep 20, 4:39 PM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&u=/nyt/20020920/ts_nyt/bush_outlines_doctrine_of_striking_foes_first
Bush Outlines Doctrine of Striking Foes First By DAVID E. SANGER
" ... It sketches out a far more muscular and sometimes aggressive approach to national security than any since the Reagan era. It includes the discounting of most nonproliferation treaties in favor of a doctrine of "counterproliferation," a reference to everything from missile defense to forcibly dismantling weapons or their components. It declares that the strategies of containment and deterrence staples of American policy since the 1940's are all but dead. ... "

From Reuters at Yahoo: Fri Sep 20, 6:42 PM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020920/pl_nm/bush_security_dc_6
Bush Plan Seeks Lasting U.S. Military Superiority By Randall Mikkelsen
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States should strive for lasting military superiority and defeat terrorism by "destroying the threat before it reaches our borders," the Bush administration said on Friday in a new strategy document. ... The United States will work with allies to smash terrorist networks and punish states that harbor them, but will act alone "when our interests and unique responsibilities require," it said. ...
The United States will maintain the military dominance it has held since the end of the Cold War, the report said. "Our forces will be strong enough to dissuade potential adversaries from pursuing a military buildup in hopes of surpassing, or equaling, the power of the United States," it said. In particular, it cautions China against a military expansion. "In pursuing advanced military capabilities that can threaten its neighbors in the Asia-Pacific region, China is following an outdated path that, in the end, will hamper its own pursuit of national greatness," it said. Nevertheless, the report portrays Washington's Cold War adversaries Russia and China as diminished threats, and a senior U.S. official said there was now the potential for an era of great-power cooperation rather than rivalry. ...

From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Sunday, September 29, 2002
Bush's real goal in Iraq By Jay Bookman
Invasion would mark the next step toward an American empire
" ... This war, should it come, is intended to mark the official emergence of the United States as a full-fledged global empire, seizing sole responsibility and authority as planetary policeman. It would be the culmination of a plan 10 years or more in the making, carried out by those who believe the United States must seize the opportunity for global domination, even if it means becoming the "American imperialists" that our enemies always claimed we were. ... a plan for permanent U.S. military and economic domination of every region on the globe, unfettered by international treaty or concern. And to make that plan a reality, it envisions a stark expansion of our global military presence. ... It urges the development of small nuclear warheads "required in targeting the very deep, underground hardened bunkers that are being built by many of our potential adversaries." This year the GOP-led U.S. House gave the Pentagon the green light to develop such a weapon, called the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, while the Senate has so far balked. ... To preserve the Pax Americana, the report says U.S. forces will be required to perform "constabulary duties" --- the United States acting as policeman of the world --- and says that such actions "demand American political leadership rather than that of the United Nations." ... "

Commentary at The Guardian (UK): Monday October 7, 2002
Help us to stop the war by Scott Ritter

From consortiumnews.com: October 8, 2002
The Politics of Preemption By Sam Parry
George W. Bush’s doctrine of "preemptive war" – the elimination of foreign governments he deems a threat to U.S. security interests – is quickly developing a domestic corollary. Any politician who questions Bush’s strategy can expect to be confronted by a rapid-deployment force of pro-Bush operatives who counterattack using weapons of ridicule and distortion. ...

From The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: September/October 2002, Volume 58, No. 5
Pelted by paint, downed by debris By Joel Primack
Missile defenses will put valuable satellites at even greater risk.
We think of space as empty, but the space near Earth is littered with debris. More than 9,000 objects larger than 10 centimeters in diameter, nearly all manmade, are currently being tracked, and there are probably more than 100,000 pieces of orbiting debris larger than a marble. Yet the crowded near-Earth orbits inhabited by this debris are where the Bush administration wants to put certain parts of its proposed missile defense system—Space-Based Lasers and thousands of “Brilliant Pebbles” space-based interceptor missiles. These weapons were previously forbidden by the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, which the United States withdrew from in June. Weaponization of space would make the debris problem much worse, and even one war in space could encase the entire planet in a shell of whizzing debris that would thereafter make space near the Earth highly hazardous for peaceful as well as military purposes. ...
Any kind of space warfare would put all satellites at risk. The explosion of nuclear weapons in space (prohibited by the Outer Space Treaty, but routinely considered by military planners) would indiscriminately destroy unprotected satellites by electromagnetic pulse or nuclear radiation. Perhaps worst of all would be the deliberate injection into low Earth orbit of large numbers of particles as a cheap but effective anti-satellite measure. Any country that felt threatened when the United States began to place lasers or other weapons into space would only have to launch the equivalent of gravel to destroy sophisticated weaponry. ...

From the Associated Press at Yahoo: Wed Oct 16,10:45 PM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story2&cid=514&ncid=514&e=1&u=/ap/20021017/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_north_korea
U.S.: North Korea Says Has Nukes By GEORGE GEDDA
WASHINGTON (AP) - In a startling revelation, North Korea has told the United States it has a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of an 1994 agreement with the United States, the White House said Wednesday night. Spokesman Sean McCormack called the North Korean disclosure a serious infringement of the agreement, under which Pyongyang promised not to develop nuclear weapons. U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said North Korea told U.S. officials that it was no longer bound by the anti-nuclear agreement. ...

At CounterPunch: November 1, 2002
Into the Dark by CHRIS FLOYD
The Pentagon Plan to Provoke Terrorist Attacks

From CNN: Wednesday, November 6, 2002 Posted: 11:12 AM EST (1612 GMT)
Army uses laser to shoot down artillery
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The U.S. Army used a high-energy laser to shoot down an artillery shell in mid-flight on Tuesday in a defense industry breakthrough, the Army and the manufacturer said. ... "This shootdown shifts the paradigm for defensive capabilities. We've shown that even an artillery projectile hurtling through the air at supersonic speed is no match for a laser," said Army Lt. Gen. Joseph Cosumano, head of the missile defense command. "Tactical high energy lasers have the capacity to change the face of the battlefield," he added...

From Reuters at Yahoo: Mon Nov 18,12:34 AM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&u=/nm/20021118/wl_nm/japan_korea_north_missile_dc_1
N.Korea Issues New Missile-Test Threat to Japan
TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea kept up its recent threats to resume missile tests Monday, saying it may end its test moratorium if Tokyo goes ahead with developing a missile defense shield with the United States. ...

From Reuters at Yahoo: Mon Nov 18,11:08 AM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&u=/nm/20021118/pl_nm/arms_usa_missile_dc_1
U.S. Says Decision Time Looms for Missile Defense By Dominic Evans
LONDON (Reuters) - The United States warned its allies on Monday time was running out for them to "climb on board" its plans for a missile defense shield. Undersecretary of State John Bolton said Washington was talking with NATO and individual U.S. allies about its proposed protective umbrella, which it hopes will thwart missile attack from rogue states, and was impatient to get started. "It is no longer a question of whether missile defense will be implemented," he told a conference on missile defense at London's Royal United Services Institute. "The question is what, how and when. The train is about to pull out of the station. We invite our friends and allies...to climb on board," Bolton said. As an example of a threat he singled out Libya, which he said had "pursued a very successful program to expand its capabilities in the chemical, biological, nuclear and ballistic missile field" since the suspension of U.N. sanctions three years ago. ...

From Reuters at Yahoo: Tue Nov 19, 2:45 PM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20021119/pl_nm/arms_usa_shield_dc_1
U.S. Sees Missile Defense in Five Years By Dominic Evans
LONDON (Reuters) - The United States will have an effective missile defense system up and running within five years, possibly in partnership with NATO or a European agency, the U.S. military officer leading the project said on Tuesday. Lieutenant-General Ronald Kadish said extensive tests had shown the technology behind the missile shield -- designed to knock out incoming missiles launched by "rogue states" with interceptor missiles -- genuinely worked. "We no longer need to experiment, to demonstrate or prevaricate. We need to get on with this and I'm confident we will," Kadish told a conference on missile defense in London. "Some time in the next five years or so we will have effective defenses against a multiple range of threats." Answering charges that the program, which has already cost tens of billions of dollars in research and development, would prove too expensive, he said allies could come under its protective umbrella without a hefty cash payment. "We have offered potential partners government-to-government agreements, in-kind investments -- not necessarily monetary," Kadish said. "Or we could cooperate with entities such as NATO or a European missile defense agency, or some other construct that might arise out of this discussion," he said. "Our invitation is real for people to join us." ... "We don't have an architecture (for missile defense) yet," Kadish said. "Let me tell you why there is no grand design. The reason is we don't know exactly what it should be." European and Japanese firms could provide much-needed expertise, he told the conference of academics, government officials and industry representatives. "Don't think for a minute that because we expended $50 billion we have all the answers," he said. "We have a lot, but not all." ...

From The NYT: November 26, 2002
Bush Plan Ties Foreign Aid to Free Market and Civic Rule By DAVID E. SANGER
WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 — The White House outlined a detailed proposal today to set up a competition among the world's poorest nations for portions of a new $5 billion foreign aid fund. To win, countries must demonstrate that they are curbing corruption, spending more on education and following free market economic principles. Under the plan, a new federal corporation will be set up to administer the aid, and decisions will be made by a Cabinet-level panel that will dole out the money much the way colleges assign scholarships. ...

From the Associated Press at Yahoo: Wed Dec 11, 3:34 PM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&u=/ap/20021211/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_weapons_strategy_9
Bush Warns Iraq of Harsh Response By SANDRA SOBIERAJ
In a new defense strategy submitted to Congress on Wednesday, President Bush warned Iraq and other hostile countries that the United States is prepared to use "overwhelming force" — including nuclear weapons — in response to any chemical or biological attack. The threat was contained in a White House document called the "National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction." ... The six-page strategy outline underscores long-standing policy that the United States "reserves the right to respond with overwhelming force — including through resort to all of our options — to the use of WMD (weapons of mass destruction) against the United States, our forces abroad and friends and allies." That passage intends to threaten U.S. nuclear retaliation as a deterrent to hostile governments, said senior administration officials who briefed journalists about the document Tuesday. ...

From Reuters at Yahoo: Wed Dec 11, 5:24 PM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=nm/20021211/ts_nm/arms_missile_usa_dc
Rocket Fails in Missile Defense Test By Jim Wolf
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. interceptor rocket designed to destroy incoming warheads failed its latest test over the Pacific on Wednesday, setting back the push to build a shield against ballistic missiles from countries such as Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
It was the third miss in eight attempts to shoot down a mock warhead since the tests began in October 1999, and was caused by a relatively low-tech problem -- a separation failure between the "kill vehicle" and its booster rocket. ...
A similar separation failure in a July 8, 2000 test was traced to scrambled commands from the booster's upper-stage assembly. ...

From AP at Excite: Dec 17, 10:27 PM (ET)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20021218/D7NVUMCO0.html
Bush Orders Missile Defense for 2004 By ROBERT BURNS
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush on Tuesday ordered the Pentagon to have ready for use within two years a bare-bones system for defending American territory, troops and allies against attack by ballistic missiles. ...
The Bush plan was outlined at a Pentagon news conference by Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, director of the Missile Defense Agency. Among the key elements:
_Six ground-based interceptors would be based at Fort Greely, Alaska by the end of 2004, with 10 more added by the end of 2005. Four interceptors would be at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., for a total of 20 by the end of 2005.
_Twenty Standard Missile-3 interceptors would be aboard three Navy ships with improved versions of the Aegis system that uses radars to detect and track hostile missiles and cue on-board weapons to intercept them. This sea-based system was outlawed under the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Bush gained the flexibility of testing it when the United States withdrew from the treaty last summer.
_Hundreds of the Army's Patriot PAC-3 missiles would be deployed around the world to knock down shorter-range missiles in the final phase of their flight. Part of the extra $1.5 billion Bush is seeking would buy 346 more Patriots.
An essential part of the plan is improved radar detection and tracking. J.D. Crouch, the assistant secretary of defense for international affairs, said the United States has sought agreement from Britain to upgrade a long-range radar system at the Royal Air Force base at Fylingdales, and from Denmark to upgrade a similar radar complex at Thule Air Base in northern Greenland, a semiautonomous Danish territory.

From the Associated Press at Yahoo: Wed, Dec 18, 2002
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&ncid=535&e=3&cid=535&u=/ap/20021218/ap_on_re_eu/russia_us_missiles
U.S. Missile Defense Plan Upsets Russia By DEBORAH SEWARD
MOSCOW - Russia expressed regret Wednesday over the U.S. decision to begin deploying strategic interceptors to defend the United States from missile attack, a move Moscow said would destabilize the international security system and lead to a new arms race. The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a two-page statement that also expressed concern that the development of such a system would divert resources from other real threats, above all the fight against international terrorism. ...
"Moscow with regret follows the activation of the attempt by the United States to create a so-called `global anti-missile defense.' Now, after taking a political decision to deploy in 2004 several strategic interceptors with support from space, the realization of these plans has entered a new destabilizing phase," the Foreign Ministry statement said. ...
Moscow consistently has said the ABM treaty should remain in force. "Consigning its principles to oblivion can lead only to the weakening of strategic stability, a new senseless arms race in the world, including the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and diverting resources to counter today's real challenges and threats, above all, international terrorism," the statement said. ...

From the American Free Press: 12/24/02
America ‘Pearl Harbored’ By Christopher Bollyn
" ... Veteran journalist John Pilger recently wrote about one of PNAC’s founding members, Richard Perle: “I interviewed Perle when he was advising Reagan, and when he spoke about ‘total war,’ I mistakenly dismissed him as mad,” Pilger wrote. “He recently used the term again in describing America’s ‘war on terror.’ ‘No stages,’ he said. ‘This is total war. We are fighting a variety of enemies. There are lots of them out there. All this talk about first we are going to do Afghanistan, then we will do Iraq . . . this is entirely the wrong way to go about it. If we just let our vision of the world go forth, and we embrace it entirely and we don’t try to piece together clever diplomacy, but just wage a total war . . . our children will sing great songs about us years from now.’ ” ... "

From Reuters at Yahoo: Tue Dec 31, 4:40 PM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&ncid=584&e=2&cid=584&u=/nm/20021231/pl_nm/bush_dc
Bush Vows to End Iraq, N.Korea Crises Peacefully By Patricia Wilson
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - Confronted with a nuclear challenge from North Korea and the possibility of war with Iraq, President Bush resolved on Tuesday to try to find peaceful solutions to both in 2003. ... "We hope to resolve all the situations in which we find ourselves in a peaceful way," Bush told reporters at a coffee shop in the tiny town of Crawford near his family ranch. "And so that's my commitment, to try to do so peacefully." But Bush drew distinctions between the two international threats. He expressed confidence that diplomacy could head off North Korea's nuclear ambitions while reminding Iraqi President Saddam Hussein that the growing U.S. military presence in the Gulf was designed to make sure he "heard the message." Asked about the potential cost of a war against Iraq, Bush countered: "An attack from Saddam Hussein or a surrogate of Saddam Hussein would cripple our economy." ... "Our economy is strong, it's resilient, we've got to continue to make it strong and resilient," Bush said. But he added: "This economy cannot afford to stand an attack." ...
"I view the North Korean situation as one that can be resolved peacefully through diplomacy,"
he said, stressing that the United States was working with its allies to help convince North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons program. ... Washington has said it will not launch a pre-emptive attack on North Korea, which -- along with Iran and Iraq -- Bush has designated part of an "axis of evil" for trying to develop weapons of mass destruction. ...



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