Missile Defense
From Our Foreign Bureaus: Could Missile Defense Go to the Ballot?
The Czech government says no. But anti-war groups and others there are calling for a referendum on the government's plans to host installations that would be part of a U.S. missile defense scheme. Polls show most Czechs don't want to be a part of U.S. missile defense either. The International Herald Tribune reports on a demonstration by those demanding a referendum.
MORE TAIWAN BASHING: Add Bulgaria and Iceland to countries that think the Taiwanese people shouldn't be able to vote on whether to join the U.N. In doing so, these countries are showing they value their relations with China, which opposes the March 22 referendum, more than they do democratic principles. These announcements put Europe firmly in agreement with the North Koreans in opposing this vote. How do you say shame in Bulgarian?
QUEBECOIS BACK OFF REFERENDUM: The Quebecois party drops its demand of a referendum on sovereignty within six months.
An Anti-Satellite Test by any Other Name...
Later today, the U.S. Navy is going to shoot down an old U.S. spy satellite. But why? Three rationales are floating out there and New America's Jeffrey Lewis tells the Today Show's Jim Miklaszewski that while safety and secrets may be the domestic rationale, China and Russia see this as a pure test of our anti-satellite capability.
Skeptical About the Rogue Spy Sat 'Shot'
Yesterday, the Bush Administration announced it would shoot down an aging spy satellite. Jeffrey Lewis says that's not as straightforward a proposition as it may seem. From Wired's Danger Room blog.
THE 'shot' -- that’s what Ambassador James Jeffrey called the decision to use an an Aegis SM-3 to try to shoot down satellite USA 193 in the next 3-12 days.
Holding the aside the politics of this — which are terrible — the briefing on debris risk left me cold. I have to say that I am very, very uneasy about this decision — our missile defense tests have been heavily scripted to minimize debris creation and modeling of debris creation isn’t an exact science.
The burden of proof really should be on these guys to demonstrate that the risks to the ISS and other objects in space are minimal.
General Carwright, to his credit, provided enough technical information to model the intercept. David Wright is working on that right now — for those of you who can’t wait, the important numbers are:
