[Via Communist Internet... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <mailto:Undisclosed-Recipient:;@mindspring.com> Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2001 3:35 PM Subject: RUSSIA TESTS NEW MISSILE TO COUNTER STAR WARS July 30, 2001 U.S. Looks at Russian Missile Test By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - A Russian test of a long-range missile is getting a close look from the Bush administration to determine if it is part of a program designed to foil a U.S. anti-missile shield. For intelligence reasons, U.S. officials are reluctant to discuss the test except to say a long-range missile was tested about two weeks ago. Among the questions under review are whether the missile's flight took an unusual path and whether it carried new technology designed to overcome missile defense plans being explored by the Bush administration. Officials briefed senators and the House Appropriations Committee's defense panel in separate closed sessions Monday on the accelerated U.S. program. Various options are under consideration, including a land-based system of 100 interceptors that would be based in Alaska and guided by a long-range radar station in the Aleutian Islands. Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security advisor, declined to comment on specifics after her top secret meeting with senators, calling it simply ``a great time for consultation.'' She rejected last week's criticism by Democratic senators that some administration officials seemed overly trustful of the Russians. ``The Cold War is clearly over,'' she said in an interview. ``That was with the Soviet Union. I think the administration has a realistic posture toward Russia, which is a country I've known for a long time, and understand pretty well.'' Sen. George Allen, R-Va., said he was impressed by Rice and her approach, which is ``respectful of the Russians as well as respectful of the role that Congress plays as they go forward with negotiations to get to a more realistic, up-to-date agreement.'' Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee hope to cut at least $1 billion out of the $8.3 billion President Bush wants to spend next year on missile defense, Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, the committee's top Democrat, said Monday. The committee is to complete its version of the budget - which tracks Bush's request - on Wednesday. ``The thing is, I'm for it,'' Skelton said of national missile defense. ``But let's do it right.'' Skelton and Reps. John Spratt Jr., D-S.C., the Budget Committee's top Democrat, and Norman Dicks, D-Wash., on defense appropriations, cautioned a top Defense Department official about plans to start building five silos at Fort Greely in Alaska next month, saying it needs congressional authorization. Money allocated for Alaska construction this year was not for test facilities, they told Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, director of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, in a letter Friday. And if the silos are for missile defense deployment, not tests, ``your activities appear to be on a collision course with the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty'' that bars creation of such a system. The Pentagon's Compliance Review Group was to determine Monday whether several steps it has planned - including the Alaska construction and use of certain radar to track missiles - would violate the 1972 treaty, Douglas Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week. However, that analysis was still not complete Monday afternoon, Pentagon officials said. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, one of the officials briefing lawmakers Monday, hoped to have it on his desk by the end of the day, and he was expected to discuss it with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday when he returns from Australia, one official said. The Russian missile test was disclosed Monday by The Washington Times, which said a road-mobile SS25 with a new jet-powered last stage was launched from central Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a meeting with Bush July 22 in Genoa, Italy, agreed to hold talks simultaneously on offensive and defensive weapons. Bush sent Rice to Moscow to make arrangements for the talks. She set a stretched-out timetable for strategic arms talks through mid-September. Russian specialists are due here next week and Rumsfeld and Assistant Secretary of State John Bolton will go to Moscow for parallel talks in late August. In mid-September, Secretary of State Colin Powell will take up the discussions in New York with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov. Both Rice and Vladimir Rushailo, head of Russia's National Security Council, said they want to move from confrontation to cooperation. But Rice said U.S. testing for a missile defense system will go ahead in any event. And Rushailo said Moscow would insist on extended negotiations to try to salvage the ABM Treaty. On Friday, the Russian foreign ministry said Rice had not said anything that would cause Russia to temper its opposition to scrapping the treaty. And on Monday, a senior Bush administration official said neither side had shifted its policy in any serious way. Meantime, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer disputed contentions of some Democrats that the administration has no authority to spend money on clearing ground in Alaska for a missile defense station. ``Unless Congress speaks otherwise, there is no prohibition on that,'' Fleischer said. Bruce K. Gagnon Coordinator Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space PO Box 90083 Gainesville, FL. 32607 (352) 337-9274 http://www.space4peace.org [EMAIL PROTECTED]
