September 27, 2007 (LPAC)--MIT physicist Ted Postol has continued his offensive, to demonstrate how and why the proposed elements of U.S. missile defense proposed for Poland and the Czech Republic threaten Russia's inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Two days ago, the American Association for the Advancement of Science posted the graphics from Postol's Aug. 28th Capitol Hill briefing on their web site, (see Sept. 14 EIR), in advance of a briefing Postol gave today in Washington on his material.
Yesterday, AP reported interviews with five other physicists who have studied the material, some doing their own calculations, who agree with Postol's conclusions. These are: George Lewis, associate director of the Peace Studies Program at Cornell; Pavel Podvig, at Standford's Center for International Security and Cooperation; Richard Garwin, former nuclear bomb designer, and anti-SDI spokesman; Philip Coyle, highly respected former associate director at Lawrence Livermore Lab, and former assistant Secretary of Defense in the Clinton Administration; and David Wright, a physicist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Postol's basic point is that the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), has understated the speed of the proposed Poland-based interceptor missiles, and overstated how long it would take to track a missile in order to launch the interceptors, in order to conclude that the Russian ICBMs could not be hit. The MDA felt enough pressure from Postol et al., that it issued a 5-page rebuttal to Postol, saying he had overestimated the performance of the proposed system. Postol's reply, quoted in today's Wall Street Journal, is that if this is so, "then they can't defend places that they said they could defend, either," meaning, in Europe.
According to a participant at today's invitation-only briefing, co-sponsored by the Center for Media Security, a speaker from the office of Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA), chair of the Strategic Forces subcommittee of House Armed Services, reported that the House will likely go along with funding to begin to manufacture interceptor missiles proposed for Poland, but with the proviso that they be kept on U.S. soil.
