|
ICBM killer's test launch splits Tucsonans
7th July 2000 Arizona Daily Star (Tucson) |
"These people are just wrong when they say there's no threat."
Sen. Jon Kyl
"It's terribly unethical to me. It's 'anti-' what I'm striving for in my life spiritually.'"
Robert Menard, 78
STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Tonight's Pentagon test launch of an anti-missile defense system sharply
divides two camps of Tucson residents:
One group that designed part of the system, and another that worries it
will heighten the arms race.
They represent a clash of values between those who see ballistic missile
defense as a means for protecting American people from nuclear attack, and
those who say running the arms race promotes war.
Raytheon Missile Systems Co. - Tucson's largest private employer - built
the 55-inch "exoatmospheric kill vehicle." It's scheduled to shoot off
Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific, streak into space and decimate a mock
warhead launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The test is
set for sometime between 7 and 11 tonight.
The $100 million test comes amid a fresh barrage of charges by some U.S.
experts that it will not work and will undermine U.S. national security.
"The system would offer little protection and would do grave harm to this
nation's core security interests," said a letter to President Clinton from
50 Nobel Prize-winning scientists. They urged him not to authorize the
deployment of the system even if the test tonight succeeds.
The Pentagon said final preparations were going forward and that weather appears good for the test.
If all goes well, the interceptor, called a kill vehicle, will distinguish
between a Mylar balloon decoy and the mock warhead and head for the warhead.
It will then vaporize the warhead in a collision 144 miles above the Earth.
It will take scientists up to two weeks to analyze the results and report
them to Defense Secretary William Cohen, who will recommend later this
summer whether to proceed with building the first phase, in Alaska, to
combat potential threats from countries including North Korea, Iran and Iraq.
Tonight's test will be the third full-scale trial of the system's tracking
satellites, prototype ground-based radars and prototype interceptor. The
first, in October, succeeded. One in January failed due to a coolant leak in the interceptor.
The Pentagon originally said two out of the three tests would have to
succeed for Cohen to recommend to Clinton that he proceed with the system's
deployment. But in recent weeks, defense officials have said Cohen could still give the go-ahead if this test fails.
Some scientists have criticized the program, saying it suffers flaws that
will prevent it from achieving its goal of protecting all 50 states. The
system is intended to defend against limited nuclear, chemical or
biological attacks by countries developing long-range missiles, such as North Korea.
The 50 Nobel laureates warned that building the system would ignite a new
arms race with Russia and China. Both nations fear the system is aimed at
them and have threatened to deploy more nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles so they could overwhelm it.
The scientists also said no technology exists that would enable the kill
vehicle to keep ahead of improvements to offensive missiles.
Their letter, calling deployment premature and wasteful, was sponsored by
the Federation of American Scientists, a Washington, D.C.-based arms-control organization.
Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said developing a national missile defense
system poses difficult technical challenges, but Cohen "is confident his
team is following a systematic and reasonable course to solve these problems."
Officials say the full system could blunt attacks of up to 50 warheads.
In a telephone interview yesterday, U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said the
United States is anticipating the threat of a ballistic missile attack by
countries like North Korea, Iraq and Iran in the next five years. Kyl said there's also government concern about China.
Raytheon Peacemakers
Kyl's outspoken support for the system was protested yesterday by a small
but committed group that calls itself the Raytheon Peacemakers. The
demonstrators turned out yesterday morning at Raytheon's Tucson plant on
South Nogales Highway and local offices of Arizona congressional members,
voicing opposition not only to the missile interceptor Raytheon built, but
to the full system that would cost $60 billion over five years.
"These people are just wrong when they say there's no threat,'' Kyl, a
member of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, said. "For having the
background for making those assessments, I think the president and the
secretary of defense and all the Joint Chiefs are in a better position to be doing that.''
For the past year the protesters have been holding vigils outside Raytheon
on the second Monday of each month.
"We feel they need to know the public is not totally supporting the work
they do,'' said Pat Birnie, 70, a former General Electric worker who is now
a full-time peace and environmental activist.
Birnie was arrested and convicted earlier this year for trespassing at
Raytheon and sentenced to 15 hours of community service.
"Raytheon used to make wonderful products for public consumption. But now
it's weapons. We don't call it defense, since the more weapons we have, the
more it makes people in other countries feel less secure. Then they
upgrade, and the arms race goes on forever.''
"We have no gripe against the Raytheon employees,'' Birnie said. "We know
they have to earn a living for their families. Indeed, at our monthly
vigils we sometimes get thumbs-up from employees. I think many of them wish
they could do another type of work.''
"Most of our allies are very against the U.S. pursuing Star Wars,'' Felice
Cohen-Joppa, 41, said yesterday as she stood at the side of South Nogales
Highway holding a sign saying, "Star Wars: Bad Science, False Security.''
"We're going totally against international will by pursuing defense.''
Cohen-Joppa and her husband, Jack, edit and publish an anti-nuclear and
anti-war newsletter called the Nuclear Resister.
Although Raytheon officials said the missile interceptor is solely for
killing other missiles, not people, protester Robert Menard, 78, said he
could never work for a company that makes weapons.
"It's terribly unethical to me. It's 'anti-' what I'm striving for in my
life spiritually,'' said Menard, a retired Los Angeles schoolteacher who
served with the Marines in World War II.
"I'm not bitter against the people here. Poor souls, jobs are scarce in Tucson. Especially well-paying jobs.''
"An honorable thing to do"
Kyl said opinion polls indicate that a vast majority of American people
support U.S. protection from a world missile threat.
And he said: "If it's unethical to protect the U.S. people from being
killed, they may have an argument. But a lot of good people in this country
are working in defense jobs, and it's an honorable thing to do.''
Raytheon spokeswoman Colleen Niccum had no comment about the protesters.
But she offered an explanation of the company's role.
"We produce products that defend the freedoms of the U.S. and its allies,
as well as those who are oppressed and cannot defend themselves,'' she said.
This report contains information from Arizona Daily Star reporter Stephanie
Innes, Knight-Ridder Newspapers, and the New York Times News Service.
Member of Senate Select
Intelligence Committee
Protester
Home Page