Weapons in Space

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The lead story in the Washington Post today notes: “President Bush has signed a new National Space Policy that rejects future arms-control agreements that might limit U.S. flexibility in space and asserts a right to deny access to space to anyone ‘hostile to U.S. interests.’”

CRAIG EISENDRATH
Formerly a State Department official handling outer space relations, Eisendrath is coauthor of the forthcoming book War in Heaven: Stopping an Arms Race in Outer Space Before It Is Too Late. He said today: “The document [signed by Bush] contains enormous emphasis on the military use of space and rejects any arms control agreements which might limit the U.S. government. Both Russia and China have indicated willingness to sign a treaty deweaponizing space and we’ve refused. The U.S. government is saying that they can do whatever they want in space and will deny access to anyone they choose. What the document doesn’t say is that the U.S. is developing weapons in space, but it is.”
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ALICE SLATER
Slater is director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. She said today: “The U.S. is spending $11 billion this year on a missile defense system that doesn’t work, except to give offense to Russia and China. The missile defense system is a layered approach to the placement of weapons in space as the U.S. seeks to dominate the earth from the heavens. For the past few years, the UN General Assembly votes to proceed with a treaty to ban weapons in space which passes overwhelmingly. Last year, only the U.S. and Israel voted against this critical initiative to prevent an arms race in space.”
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JONATHAN GRANOFF
President of the Global Security Institute, Granoff said today: “Most of the time the international space engineering community is enhancing the modern quality of life through the use of space-related technology like satellites and cell phones. All but one country in the world want to ensure that space does not become a weaponized theater. The U.S. should be taking advantages of the opportunities that modern technology provides in bringing the world together and advance the peaceful uses of space through a cooperative security regime based on the rule of law. A small minority within the U.S. establishment, however, is driving an agenda that pursues space weaponization in order to pursue unilateral U.S. military full-spectrum dominance without legal constraints.”

Granoff recalled the U.S. government document “Vision for 2020 [PDF],” which outlines how the U.S. government would “control space” to “dominate” the planet below.
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For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167