Physicist blows whistle on US missile defence
From Roland Watson in Washington
THE credibility of President Bush's multibillion-dollar missile defence
plans are being questioned by leading scientists after claims that the
results of key tests were falsified. The Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) is considering an investigation into accusations that
fundamental flaws in the proposed "Son of Star Wars" system have been
covered up. The criticism is led by Theodore Postol, a physicist and
missile defence critic at MIT, who has said that the institute is sitting
on what is potentially "the most serious fraud that we've seen at a great
American university". After months of demanding an inquiry into the affair,
Ed Crawley, the chairman of MIT's aeronautics and astronautics department,
has reversed previous refusals and recommended an investigation. The issue
in question goes to the heart of missile defence technology, an article of
faith among right-wing Republicans and a key plank in Mr Bush's 2000
presidential manifesto. The United States unilaterally withdrew last year
from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia in order to pursue
the controversial proposed system, which is designed to intercept enemy
warheads in flight, a feat likened to hitting a bullet with a bullet. Dr
Postol and fellow critics say the ability of an interceptor missile to
distinguish between an incoming warhead and the decoys likely to accompany
it is deeply suspect. Any such doubts would cripple the credibility of the
system. Such questions date back to mid-1997 when the military contractor
TWR Inc was accused by one of its employees, Nira Schwartz, of faking test
results on a prototype anti-missile sensor meant to tell hostile warheads
from decoys. The company and its system was given the all-clear by the
Lincoln Laboratory, a federally funded research centre at MIT. But
subsequently the General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of
Congress, accused TWR of exaggerating the sensors' performance, saying its
conclusions had been "highly misleading". Dr Postol has written to 20
members of Congress saying that MIT's reluctance to investigate the role of
its own research centre "may indicate an attempt to conceal evidence of
criminal violations". Critics say that MIT's independence is compromised by
its interest in maintaining hundreds of millions of dollars in annual
government contracts. The missile defence system, the first steps of which
Mr Bush announced in December with the aim of having ten missile
interceptors in Alaska by 2004, is being built by Raytheon, which beat TWR
to the contract. But Dr Postol said the TWR test, which offers a rare
glimpse into the highly secretive world of missile testing and is based on
the same infra-red technology used by Raytheon, suggests some flaws that
challenge the overall feasibility of the entire project. Dr Postol, a
persistent missile defence critic who is accusing MIT of a "serious case of
scientific fraud", cannot be lightly dismissed. After the Gulf War he
challenged the Pentagon's claims for the success of its defensive Patriot
missiles, saying they had intercepted few if any Iraqi Scuds. Despite
initial ridicule, his assertion is now accepted. Since 1999 three of the
eight tests of "hit to kill" interceptors have failed. Critics say that
wrapping a nuclear warhead in radar-absorbing rubber foam or releasing
thousands of small pieces of metal would be enough to fool an interceptor.
Separately the State Department yesterday charged two US aerospace
companies with illegally supplying China with satellite and rocket
technology that could be used for intercontinental missiles. Hughes
Electronics Corp and its parent company, Boeing Satellite Systems, stand
accused of 123 arms control violations by helping China with technical data
after failed rocket launches in 1995 and 1996. Hughes said that it had done
nothing wrong.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C3-530647%2C00.html
From Slaughter of peaceful helpful natives to Sacco and Vanzetti to Whitey
Bulger,the rot started early and never went away.God damn yankee pigs.FUCK
the USA.
