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STAR (of David) WARS Israel Hooking Itself To US Star (Wars)
NEWS FROM WITHIN, Vol. XVII no. 2 - March 2001
by Karl Grossman
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On November 1, 2000, the General Assembly of the United Nations
voted on reaffirming the Outer Space Treaty, the fundamental
international law setting aside space for "peaceful purposes."
The resolution recognized "the common interest of all mankind in
the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes
reaffirming the will of all states that the exploration and use
of outer space shall be for peaceful purposes and shall be
carried out for the benefit and in the interest of all
countries." It also recognized "that prevention of an arms race
in outer space would avert a grave danger for international peace
and security." Almost every nation in the UN - some 163 - voted
for the resolution, entitled "Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer
Space." Three nations did not. The United States, Israel and
Micronesia abstained.
The year before, on the same resolution, the vote was 162 with
two abstentions -- the US and Israel. (In picking up the vote of
Micronesia, a collection of islands in the Pacific, the US got
support from a country 100% dependent on US aid.) The reason the
US refused to reaffirm the Outer Space Treaty is clear: the
United States is developing a program for space warfare -- and
it's not just "missile defense."
There are many publicly available US military documents spelling
out the plans, including "Vision for 2020" of the US Space
Command. (The US Space Command, set up by the Pentagon in 1985,
"coordinates the use of Army, Naval and Air Force space forces.")
The multi-colored cover of "Vision for 2020" depicts a laser
weapon in space zapping a target on Earth below. The report opens
with words that crawl down the page in the style of the Star Wars
movies: "US Space Command --dominating the space dimension of
military operations to protect US interests and investment.
Integrating Space Forces into warfighting capabilities across the
full spectrum of conflict."
Just as "nations built navies to protect and enhance their
commercial interests" by ruling the seas in previous centuries,
the pamphlet continues, the US must "control space" and from it
"dominate" the Earth below. A key reason: "The globalization of
the world economy will continue, with a widening between 'haves'
and 'have-nots'" --thus the need for the US, the engine of the
global economy, to keep everyone in check.
"Now is the time," says the US Space Command's brochure "Long
Range Plan," to "begin developing space capabilities, innovative
concepts of operations for warfighting, and organizations that
can meet the challenges of the 2lst Century...Space power in the
2lst Century looks similar to previous military revolutions, such
as aircraft-carrier warfare and Blitzkrieg."
"The United States won't always be able to forward base its
forces...Widespread communications will highlight disparities in
resources and quality of life-contributing to unrest in
developing countries...The global economy will continue to become
more interdependent. Economic alliances, as well as the growth
and influence of multi-national corporations, will blur security
agreements...The gap between 'have' and 'have-not' nations will
widen-creating regional unrest," says the "Long Range Plan." "One
of the long acknowledged and commonly understood advantages of
space-based platforms is no restriction or country clearances to
overfly a nation from space. We expect this advantage to
endure...Achieving space superiority during conflicts will be
critical to the US success on the battlefield."
The "Long Range Plan" then continues on for more than 100 pages
detailing US plans for "Control of Space," "Full Spectrum
Dominance," "Full Force Integration," and "Global Engagement."
A US Air Force Space Command publication, "Guardians of the High
Frontier," declares: "Space is the ultimate 'high ground,'" and
says the Air Force Space Command is committed to "the control and
exploitation of space." Proudly displayed in "Guardians of the
High Frontier" is a Space Command uniform patch and motto:
"Master of Space."
Beyond military documents, there is the recently issued report of
the so-called "Space Commission" chaired by now-US Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. It is the blueprint for the space
military program of the new Bush administration. "In the coming
period," states the report, "the US will conduct operations to,
from, in and through space in support of its national interests
both on the earth and in space." The report of the Rumsfeld
"Space Commission," or in its formal name: The Commission to
Assess United States National Security Space Management and
Organization, urges the US president to "have the option to
deploy weapons in space." It stresses the desirability "to
project power through and from space in response to events
anywhere in the world."
The report cites a need for a "missile defense," indeed it warns
several times of a "Space Pearl Harbor." But it, and the military
reports, reflects a far wider US space military program:
"national missile defense" to protect the US "homeland," "Theatre
Missile Defense" (TMD) to be utilized in and in proximity to
areas of conflict, and space-based weaponry. Bruce Gagnon,
coordinator of the Florida-based Global Network Against Weapons
and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the "missile defense"
component as "the foot in the door." Who can be against
"defense?" So missile defense has been the spin "to get a
deployment OK," says Gagnon, "then to be followed up by the real
Reagan Star Wars program that includes space-based weapons."
As retired US Navy Rear Admiral Eugene J. Carroll, Jr., Vice
President of the Center for Defense Information in Washington,
D.C., says: "You look at the Rumsfeld report and his [Rumsfeld's]
statements and the other [military] reports and you have to
realize that they are thinking in terms of militarizing space, of
space warfare."
And it's not just rhetoric. The US Defense Department gave the
go-ahead in December for development of the Space-Based Laser, a
joint project of TRW, Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The US Army's
Redstone Arsenal describes it as having a "lifecycle budget" of
$20 to $30 billion. A second space-based laser project underway
and in testing is the "Alpha High-Energy Laser." Built by TRW, it
conducted its twenty-second successful test firing last year.
Unless there is a stop put to it, "We are going into space with
lasers," warns Admiral Carroll. "Space is seen as a new place to
wage war," says Carroll. "Already, we are underwater, over-water,
on-the-land, in-the-air-and now we want to go to another
dimension: space."
Moreover, nuclear power may be an important element in the US
space military plans. According to "New World Vistas: Air And
Space Power For The 2lst Century," a US Air Force board report:
"In the next two decades, new technologies will allow the
fielding of space-based weapons of devastating effectiveness to
be used to deliver energy and mass as force projection in
tactical and strategic conflict. These advances will enable
lasers with reasonable mass and cost to effect very many kills."
But "power limitations impose restrictions" on such-based weapons
systems making them "relatively unfeasible...A natural technology
to enable high power is nuclear power in space...Setting the
emotional issue of nuclear power aside, this technology offers a
viable alternative for large amounts of power in space." Thus the
stage would be set for orbiting Chernobyls in the sky-nuclear-
powered battle platforms over our heads.
US military leaders are as blunt as the US documents about what
the country is up to. "Some people don't want to hear this, and
it sure isn't in vogue, but -- absolutely -- we're going to fight
in space," said General Joseph W. Ashy, former Commander-in-Chief
of the US Space Command. "That's why the US has development
programs in directed energy and hit-to-kill mechanisms. We will
engage terrestrial targets someday -- ships, airplanes, land
targets - from space. We will engage targets in space, from space."
Israel's reasons for not voting to reaffirm the Outer Space
Treaty - which Israel has ratified -- involve its long security
relationship with the US. As a protector of Israel militarily for
decades, the US sees Israel as owing it -- and thus, in part,
Israel's vote in support of the US position at the UN. Also, the
US has sought to have Israeli companies benefit from Star Wars
technology. One joint US-Israeli program has been the Arrow
project, the development of a missile with the ability to
intercept incoming Scuds and similar missiles. The first pair of
Arrow batteries are slated to be deployed in Israel this year.
Says Lt. Gen. Lester Lyles, Director of the Ballistic Missile
Defense Organization, regarding the US-Israeli Arrow Program:
"Once the Foreign Military Sales case is concluded for Israel to
purchase a JTIDS 2H terminal...Israel will have the full
capability for Arrow to "interoperate" with US TAMD systems. We
are continuing our efforts that use both the Israeli Test Bed
(ITB) and the Israeli Systems Architecture and Integration
(ISA&I) analysis capabilities to assist with the deployment of
the Arrow Weapon System. In addition, we are working with Israel
in the ITB and ISA&I to refine procedures for combined operations
between USEUCOM and the Israeli Air Force, and to examine future
missile defense architectures that consider evolving regional
threats. Recent contingency operations with Israel have benefited
greatly from the work conducted bilaterally in the ITB and ISA&I.
"We continue to reap benefits from our cooperative missile
defense programs with Israel. In one specific case, the Arrow
seeker technology flown by Israel is the same seeker planned to
be flown aboard THAAD. Similarly, the lethality mechanism used in
Arrow will greatly assist us as we develop the Navy Area system
that also employs a fragmentation warhead. Additionally, the
experience gained with the cooperative Arrow flight tests will
provide many benefits as we begin a very robust flight test
program for our TAMD systems this year."
In January, however, Boeing froze discussions with Israel
Aircraft Industries on co-production of Arrow missiles that would
be sold to other countries "until technology transfer issues are
resolved." Boeing reportedly wants to wait and see how open the
Bush administration will be toward transfer of technology to
other countries.
Israel clearly has a great interest in the "missile defense" and
"theatre defense" components of the US Star Wars program. Gagnon,
however, is concerned that "the deployment of theatre missile
defense in the Middle East will likely force Arab nations to
counter Israel by seeking new systems which will lead to a
widening of the arms race. Sad to say, I think the overall plan
of the US is to do just that, considering that weapons are the #1
industrial export of the US. The more instability in the region
the more money to be made by the weapons industry.
In his first visit to US President Bush at the White House on
March 20, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Bush "found a
`convergence of interest' in missile defense," reported the New
York Times. Further, "The United States was 'very much
interested' in furthering the capacity of Israel's theatre
missile defense, the official said."
However, the American space military program is far more than
that - and Israel, as demonstrated by its support of the US space
military program at the UN, is tying itself into something far
from defensive. It is an offensive program that stands to destroy
a highly successful initiative that has kept space war-free for
35 years: the Outer Space Treaty.
The US was deeply involved in initiating the Outer Space Treaty,
according to Craig Eisendrath, a former US State Department
Foreign Service officer instrumental in its creation. The Soviet
Union had launched its Sputnik satellite in 1957 and "we sought
to de-weaponize space before it got weaponized," he explains. A
model the State Department used for its draft of the Outer Space
Treaty, says Eisendrath, was the Antarctic Treaty which bars
military deployments on that continent. The Soviet Union and the
United Kingdom joined the US in presenting the treaty which was
adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1966. It entered into force
in October 1967.
The Outer Space Treaty has now been ratified by 96 nations and
signed by 27 others. The intent of the treaty is "to keep war out
of space," said Eisendrath, co-author of the forthcoming book,
The Phantom Defense: America's Pursuit of the Star Wars Illusion.
Eisendrath views as "a violation" of the Outer Space Treaty the
deployment in space of weapons such as the lasers that the US
military has been and is pursuing. The final wording of the
treaty provides for a ban on "nuclear weapons or other kinds of
weapons of mass destruction." Endeavoring to clear up any
confusion and specifically prohibit all weapons in space in
recent years have been both Canada and China. But the US has
successfully fought back those efforts. Russia also --indeed most
of the nations of the world -- support the effort to prohibit all
weapons in space. Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his first
speech at the UN, last September for the "Millenium Summit,"
focused on the "militarization of space."
The US is making a tragic miscalculation if it thinks it can
"control space" and from it "dominate" the world below. For if
the US moves ahead with this scheme, other nations will respond
in kind -- China and Russia right off -- and there will be an
arms race and inevitably war in space. Kofi Annan, in opening the
Third United Nations Conference on Exploration and Peaceful Uses
of Outer Space in 1999, declared: "Above all, we must guard
against the misuse of outer space. We recognized early on that a
legal regime was needed to prevent it from being another arena of
military confrontation. The international community has acted
jointly, through the United Nations, to ensure that outer space
will be developed peacefully.But there is much more to be done.
We must not allow this century, so plagued with war and
suffering, to pass on its legacy, when the technology at our
disposal will be even more awesome. We cannot view the expanse of
space as another battleground for our earthly conflicts."
Says Gagnon: "If the US is allowed to move the arms race into
space, there will be no return. We have this one chance, this one
moment in history, to stop the weaponization of space from
happening." We have a narrow window to keep space for peace, to
strengthen the Outer Space Treaty and ban all weapons in space.
Israel should join with peoples from around the world and stop
this move by the United States to turn the heavens into a war zone.
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