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Archived News Articles: NMD and Foreign Policy
7/18/2001 From The Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/nation/A10831-2001Jul17.html
U.S. Plans to Test Space-Based Laser To Intercept Missiles
By Vernon Loeb, Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 18, 2001; Page A03
HUNTSVILLE, Ala., July 17 -- A top Pentagon official
said today that the Bush administration plans to test a
space-based laser interceptor as early as 2005 as part
of its ambitious new missile defense agenda.
Robert Snyder, executive director of the Ballistic
Missile Defense Organization, told reporters at a
missile defense conference here that $110 million has
been included in the fiscal 2002 defense budget to study
technologies, including the space-based laser, aimed at
hitting missiles in their "boost" phase three to five
minutes after launch. ...
Beyond its treaty implications, testing a space-based
laser also would represent a first step toward
"weaponizing" space, a move that critics say could
ignite a new arms race. No country has put weapons into
orbit. ...
7/19/2001 At The New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/19/international/19MISS.html
Pushing Agenda for ABM's, Bush Prepares to Meet Putin
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
July 19, 2001
... "We don't want to have formal restrictions on
development, testing and deployment," a senior
administration official said today. ...
... the Pentagon even plans to test a space-based laser
and space-based interceptors that would destroy missiles
in their boost phase...
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/19/international/europe/19DIPL.html
Few Missile Defense Details Emerge After Powell Talks
By JANE PERLEZ with MICHAEL WINES
... Secretary Powell said ... he wanted to make it
plain to the Russians that the United States was moving
forward on missile defense, no matter what. "I have a
hunch that when they hear us out, they will find that it
is in their interest to move in this direction because
we are moving in this direction, hopefully in a
cooperative basis," he said. "But if not, we are still
moving forward." ...
7/19/2001 from AP:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010719/wl/bush_europe_14.html
Bush: Anti-Missile Plan a Hard Sell
By RON FOURNIER, AP White House Correspondent
... With Blair at his side, Bush said the landmark 1972
Anti-ballistic Missile Treaty forbids the United States
from even testing a potential system - let alone
settling on a shield and deploying it. ...
7/19/2001 from The Times (UK) & others:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-2001244259,00.html
Bush renews plan for Reagan's space lasers
Genoa Summit
FROM BEN MACINTYRE IN WASHINGTON
THURSDAY JULY 19 2001
THE Bush Administration has announced plans to revive a
deeply controversial part of the Reagan-era Star Wars
blueprint by placing thousands of laser interceptors in
space, a move that will make the task of selling missile
defence to sceptical Europeans even harder.
On the eve of President Bush's arrival in Europe, a top
defence official said that the Pentagon intended to
renew research on the "Brilliant Pebbles" programme, a
key element of Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defence
Initiative, with a view to setting up a system of
space-based laser interceptors as early as 2005.
The Brilliant Pebbles concept has come under intense
fire from critics who say that it would pave the way for
the full-scale militarisation of space. It was
originally planned to deploy up to 4,000 laser
satellites. The initiative was considered by the first
Bush Administration, but then abandoned. ...
The laser interceptors would be mounted on satellites,
but some scientists have questioned whether such
interceptors would continue to function if left in space
for long periods. Others say that the satellites would
be standing targets. "They almost invite an enemy to
develop anti-satellite weapons to knock them out," Tom
Collina, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, told The
New York Times. ...
The Pentagon announced last weekend that it had
successfully shot down a mock warhead in the latest test
of its fledgling missile shield, but controllers have
conceded that a radar system was unable to report
whether the target had been destroyed. The radar falsely
reported that the kill missile had missed, where several
other sensors clearly showed a hit.
The Pentagon blamed a programming fault in the radar
computer that could be fixed before the next test in
October. ...
John Manley, the Canadian Foreign Minister, urged
Washington to respect the ABM Treaty: "We have been
urging the United States to be very consultative with
its partners, allies in Nato and with Russia and China,
before being firmly committed to proceeding with
ballistic missile defence," he said. "I think that the
United States will see it is not in their interest to
drive countries into a new polarisation."
Also: http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?
xml=/news/2001/07/19/wstar19.xml&sSheet=/news/2001/07/19/ixhomef.html
7/20/2001 from Reuters:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010720/pl/korea_north_missile_dc_1.html
N.Korea Vows Countermeasures in Reply to U.S. Test
Friday July 20 8:36 AM ET
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea vowed on Friday to take
countermeasures in response to last week's test by the
Defense Department aimed at intercepting long-range
missiles launched against the United States.
``The DPRK is compelled to take a counter-action for
self-defense by the U.S. deliberate provocation,'' a
North Korean foreign ministry spokesman was quoted as
saying by Pyongyang's official Korea Central News
Agency.
``A new global arms race has, therefore, become
unavoidable. The DPRK will have nothing to lose even if
all the points agreed upon between the DPRK and the U.S.
are scrapped,'' the spokesman said. ...
7/20/2001 from The Washington Post:
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/nation/A21964-2001Jul19.html
Ex-Clinton Aide Criticizes Missile Plan
By Vernon Loeb, Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 20, 2001; Page A23
The Bush administration has placed the nation on a
"collision course" with Russia and NATO allies by
designing a missile defense plan to violate the
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in a matter of months,
former national security adviser Samuel R. "Sandy"
Berger said yesterday. ...
The ABM Treaty was negotiated by Richard M. Nixon and
Leonid Brezhnev in 1972 to prohibit nationwide defenses
against long-range missiles -- and thereby to curb each
side's efforts to build more and more missiles to
overwhelm those defenses. It specifically prohibits
testing of sea-, air- or space-based defenses against
long-range missiles. ...
http://news.excite.com/news/ap/010721/14/int-un-arms-trafficking
189 Nations Agree Small Arms Plan
By DAFNA LINZER, Associated Press Writer
Updated: Sat, Jul 21 2:47 PM EDT
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The first U.N. conference to curb
the billion-dollar-a-year illegal trafficking in small
arms ended Saturday with 189 nations agreeing on a
watered-down plan Washington wanted - with calls to
limit weapon sales and restrict civilian gun ownership
expunged. ...
7/21/2001 from The New York Times Op/Ed:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/21/opinion/21LEWI.html
Bush the Radical
By ANTHONY LEWIS
ABROAD AT HOME
July 21, 2001
... "The dislike of treaties reflects an attitude that
the United States must be free to do what it wants in
the world. Call it unilateralism or whatever, it is a
sharp break from our postwar premise that if wisely
negotiated, treaties enhance our security." ...
7/22/2001 from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/editorials/jul01/young22072101.asp
Global fallout possible from missile defense activation
By STEPHEN YOUNG
7/21/2001 from AP:
http://news.excite.com/news/ap/010721/06/bush-germ-weapons
Bush to Oppose Germ Weapons Pact Draft
By RON FOURNIER, AP White House Correspondent
Updated: Sat, Jul 21 6:12 AM EDT
GENOA, Italy (AP) - In a split with key allies, the Bush
administration has decided to oppose a draft agreement
to enforce a 26-year-old germ weapons treaty. ...
American envoy Donald A. Mahley planned to tell
negotiators in Geneva next week that Bush supported the
Biological Weapons Convention but feared the enforcement
rules would be burdensome to some universities and
industries and might expose American businesses to
commercial theft. ...
The treaty, ratified by 143 nations, prohibits the
development, production and possession of biological
weapons. ...
With its decision, the administration joins China,
Libya, Cuba, Iran and Pakistan in voicing opposition to
the rules. Allies in Europe and Latin America support
the language.
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