INHERENCY: BUSH PLANS AN EXPANSIVE NMD STRETCHING INTO SPACE

BUSH ADMINISTRATION HAS EXPANDED ITS VISION OF AN NMD SYSTEM

The Guardian (London) February 6, 2001 SECTION: Guardian Leader Pages, Pg. 19 HEADLINE: Leading article: Flawed defences: Bush's missile plan may explode in his face //VT2002acsln

The national missile defence programme developed and then delayed by the Clinton administration is, in the Bush era, becoming something vastly more ambitious and (for public relations purposes) more inclusive: "allied missile defence" or even the grandiose "global missile defence" are the incoming, user-friendly monikers. But nobody in the Pentagon seems to have asked Britain, for example, what it thinks in principle of a missile shield. Therein lies another paradox: Mr Rumsfeld pledges to consult the allies while in the same breath vowing to press ahead come what may.

DEFENSE DEPT. HEAD RUMSFELD FEARS A "PEARL HARBOR FROM SPACE" AND THUS WILL PROMOTE ANTI-SATELLITE WEAPONS

MICHAEL KREPON, President Emeritus of the Henry L. Stimson Center, May, 2001 / June, 2001 Foreign Affairs SECTION: COMMENTS; Pg. 2 HEADLINE: Lost in Space; The Misguided Drive Toward Antisatellite Weapons //VT2002acsln

The second Rumsfeld panel, known as the Commission to Assess United States National Security Space Management and Organization, released its report this January. So far, the document has received little attention. Its conclusions, however, are just as alarming as those of the first Rumsfeld report and could have an even greater impact. The study warns that the United States may someday soon face a "Space Pearl Harbor" -- that is, a devastating sneak attack against U.S. satellites orbiting the planet. The report warns that the United States is highly dependent on satellites, and that the means to disrupt or destroy its space systems have become readily accessible to countries or groups hostile to the United States. Space warfare, the commission argues, has become "a virtual certainty": "[We] know from history that every medium -- air, land, and sea -- has seen conflict. Reality indicates that space will be no different." The report urges American leaders to reduce the country's vulnerability by developing "superior space capabilities," including the ability to "negate the hostile use of space against U.S. interests." This would require "power projection in, from, and through space" -- in other words, the development, testing, and deployment of antisatellite weapons (ASATs) based in space or on earth.

BUSH WILL PREPARE FOR WAR IN SPACE

George C. Wilson February 19, 2000 The National Journal SECTION: DEFENSE; Vol. 32, No. 8 HEADLINE: Not a Radical in the Bunch // ACS-LN

     Bush also said in his Citadel remarks that, in addition to deploying national and theater anti-missile systems "at the earliest possible date," he will prepare the nation to fight in space, an arena his predecessors have avoided for fear of escalating the international arms race.      "In space, we must be able to protect our network of satellites essential to the flow of our commerce and the defense of our country," Bush said. This capability would require developing and deploying futuristic weapons that could duke it out 23,500 miles up, in an airless zone where satellites synchronized to follow the Earth's rotation perform a multitude of military and civilian chores.