Yet Another Ill-Conceived Episode of Star Wars | Sojourners

Yet Another Ill-Conceived Episode of Star Wars

Mounting criticism of national missile defense (NMD) by scientific and military experts has corporations such as Boeing on the defensive as they try to secure multibillion dollar contracts to build the system.

The most outspoken critic of NMD has been MIT professor and former Reagan administration official Dr. Theodore A. Postol, who told The New York Times that Pentagon officials "are systematically lying" about NMD’s technical defects.

More than 50 House Democrats have requested an FBI investigation into "serious allegations of fraud and cover-up" in NMD development, joining the Government Accounting Office (the investigative arm of Congress), the Union of Concerned Scientists, three former secretaries of defense, and 50 Nobel laureates in questioning the technological, financial, and geopolitical feasibility of NMD.

Though many of these critics support some form of missile defense, activists, worried that any new program will accelerate the arms race, protested at the most recent failed NMD test in July and are planning worldwide actions for tests in October. Contact the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space at www.space4peace.org; (352) 337-9274.

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Sojourners Magazine September-October 2000
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