Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic

by Chalmers Johnson

  19. U.S. Air Force, Counterspace Doctrine, Doctrine Document 2-2.1, August 2, 2004, http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/jel/service_pubs/afdd2_2_l.pdf; Bryan Bender, “Pentagon Eyeing Weapons in Space,” Boston Globe, March 14, 2006.

  20. Theresa Hitchens, “Weapons in Space: Silver Bullet or Russian Roulette?” Center for Defense Information, April 18, 2002, http://www.cdi.org/missile-defense/spaceweapons.cfm, p. 10.

  21. Quoted by Leonard David, “What Should U.S. Military Do in Space?” MSNBC, June 17, 2005, http://www.msnbc.msn.eom/id/8258501/print/l/displaymode/1098/.

  22. Quoted by Mike Moore, “Space Cops: Coming to a Planet Near You,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 59, no. 6 (November-December 2003), p. 50. Dolman is the author of Astropolitik: Classical Geopolitics in the Space Age (London: Frank Cass, 2002).

  23. The most complete account of this era is Philip Taubman, Secret Empire: Eisenhower, the CIA, and the Hidden Story of Americas Space Espionage (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003). On the subject of the “missile gap,” Taubman writes, “In September [1959], the Agency had reported in a major study of Soviet missiles that ’we believe it is now well established that the USSR is not engaged in a “crash” program for ICBM development.’ The assessment, reflecting the figures [Allen] Dulles had given to the Armed Services Committees in January 1959, estimated that just a handful of intercontinental missiles—around ten—might already be operational or nearly so. By that standard, the Air Force estimate of one hundred Russian missiles seemed wildly overblown, and inspired primarily by a desire to stampede Congress into fattening the Air Force budget. But because the U-2 flights were so secret, Dulles couldn’t cite the photographic evidence in his Senate testimony,” p. 296. See also Jeffrey T. Richelson, Spying on the Bomb: American Nuclear Intelligence from Nazi Germany to Iran and North Korea (New York: W. W. Norton, 2006), pp. 128-30.

  24. The only reference to space debris in the air force’s Counterspace Doctrine is: “Environmental monitoring includes the characterization and assessment of space weather (i.e., solar conditions) on satellites and links, terrestrial weather near important ground nodes, and natural and man-made phenomena in outer space (i.e., orbital debris).... Operators must be able to differentiate between natural phenomena interference and an intentional attack on a space system in order to formulate an appropriate response.” U.S. Air Force, Counterspace Doctrine, p. 21.

  25. Theresa Hitchens, “Space Debris,” CDI Fact Sheet, August 2005, http://www.space4peace.org/articles/debris_facts.htm.

  26. From Ride’s speech at Stanford University, April 10, 2002. Quoted by Joel Primack, “Pelted by Paint, Downed by Debris,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 58, no. 5 (September-October 2002), pp. 24-25. See also Dawn Levy, “Anti-Satellite Weapons Testing Would Have ’Disastrous’ Effects, Ride Says,” Stanford Report, April 17, 2002.

  27. Primack, “Pelted by Paint.”

  28. Richard Stenger, “Scientist: Space Weapons Pose Debris Threat,” CNN.com, May 3, 2002.

  29. Members of the Council on Foreign Relations Study Group on Space Weapons (Bruce M. DeBlois, Richard L. Garwin, R. Scott Kemp, and Jeremy C. Marwell), “Space Weapons: Crossing the U.S. Rubicon,” International Security29, no. 2 (Fall 2004), pp. 52,64,83.

  30. Hitchens, “Weapons in Space,” p. 11.

  31. “Space-Based Missile Interceptors Could Pose Debris Threat,” DefenceTalk .com, September 14, 2004.

  32. James Clay Moltz, “Space Weapons or Space Arms Control,” Center for Nonproliferation Studies, April 15, 2002, http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/week/020415.htm.

  33. Leonard David, “U.S.-China Space Debris Collide in Orbit,” Space.com, April 16, 2005, http://www.space.com/news/050416_debris_crash.html.

  34. Ciarrocca and Hartung, Axis of Influence, p. 12.

  35. Christopher Hellman, “Funding Request for Ballistic Missile Defense,” Center for Defense Information, February 4, 2002, http://www.cdi.org/issues/budget/FY03bmd-pr.cfm.

  36. For General Bell’s testimony, see Norimitsu Onishi, “U.S. Confirms Test of Missiles Was Conducted by North Korea,” New York Times, March 9, 2006.

  37. “U.S. Dismisses Call to Destroy N. Korean Missile,” NBC News, June 22, 2006, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13481845/print/1/displaymode/1098/; Terence Hunt, “U.S. Says Missile Defense System Limited,” Associated Press, June 22, 2006, http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/3992279.html.

  38. See, for example, Hitchens, “Weapons in Space,” p. 10; Jeff Sallot, “Arms Experts Issue Missile Defense Alert,” Globe and Mail (Toronto), December 7, 2004; David Pugliese, “U.S. Won’t Rule Out Waging War in Space, General Says,” Ottawa Citizen, February 21, 2005. In February 2006, Air Force Lieutenant General Henry Obering, head of the Missile Defense Agency, said to the press that he intended to put the entire batch of forty scheduled interceptors into Alaskan silos: “We can take those forty interceptors and turn them into an ability to counter much more complex threat[s].” Martin Sieff, “Congress Gives $150m Boost to Alaska ABM Deployment,” United Press International, February 7, 2006.

  39. On China’s reaction to the GMD, see Nicole C. Evans, “Missile Defense: Winning Minds, Not Hearts,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists60, no. 5 (September-October 2004), pp. 48-55.

  40. Victoria Samson, “Remember the Anti-Missile Missile? Forget It,” Center for Defense Information, January 4, 2006, http://wvvrvv.cdi.org/friendlyversion/printversion.cfm?documentID=3244&:from_page=../program/document.cfm.

  41. Charles Piller, “Little Room for Error in Catching a Missile,” Los Angeles Times, December 25, 2004.

  42. David Stout and John H. Cushman Jr., “Defense Missile for U.S. System Fails to Launch; Setback for Interceptor,” New York Times, December 16, 2004; “Two Successive Failures Reflect Vulnerabilities in U.S. Missile Defense Effort,” Agence France-Presse, February 15, 2005; Rachel D’Oro, Associated Press, “Missile Test Failures Sideline Progress at Alaska’s Fort Greely,” Anchorage Daily News, January 6, 2006, http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/ap_alaska/v-printer/story/7338986p-7251040c.html.

  43. Robert Gard, “The Pathetic State of National Missile Defense,” Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, Washington, DC, February 2, 2005.

  44. Coyle, “Is Missile Defense on Target?” See also Walter C. Uhler, “Missile Shield or Holy Grail?” Nation, January 28, 2002, pp. 25-29.

  45. See, inter alia, Richard J. Newman, “Space Watch, High and Low,” Air Force Magazine, July 2001, http://www.afa.org/magazine/July2001/0701SBIRS.asp; Federation of American Scientists, “Space-Based Infrared System,” October 2003, http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/warning/sbir.htm; Tara Copp, “Giant Globe Radar Another Piece in Missile Defense System,” Scripps Howard News Service, September 10, 2003; Missile Defense Agency, “Fact Sheet: Sea-Based X-Band Radar,” September 2005; “Sea-Based X-Band Radar Begins Transport Operation Through Straits of Magellan,” Spacewar.com, November 14, 2005, http://www.spacewar.com/news/abm-05zp.html. For a photo of the X-band radar at sea on its oil rig, see the Boeing advertisement opposite page 4, National Journal, February 4, 2006.

  46. See FitzGerald, Way Out There, pp. 408-11.

  47. Evans, “Missile Defense”; Geoffrey Forden, “Laser Defenses: What If They Work?” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists58, no. 5 (September-October 2002), pp. 49-53.

  48. Miranda Priebe, “Airborne Laser: Overweight and Oh-so-late,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists59, no. 3 (May-June 2003), pp. 18-20.

  49. Quoted by Michael Clark and Victoria Samson, “A Look at the Troubled Development of the Airborne Laser,” Center for Defense Information, March 15, 2005, http://www.cdi.org/pdfs/ABL-031505.pdf.

  50. See Taubman, Secret Empire, pp. 305-7.

  51. Coyle, “Is Missile Defense on Target?” See also Uhler, “Missile Shield.”

  52. “Rumsfeld Says Missile Shield Will Soon Have ’Modest Capacity,’” Agence France-Presse, December 23, 2004.

  53. Bradley Graham, “Panel Faults Tactics in Rush to Install Antimissile System,”
Washington Post, June 10, 2005; Editorial, “Star Wars’ Political Bull’s-Eye,” New York Times, June 24, 2005; Martin Sieff, “BMD Focus: DOD Space Buys Leak Billions,” United Press International, July 19, 2005, http://www.wpherald.com/print.php?StoryID=20050719-042857-1423r; Sieff, “Ballistic Missile Defense: The Test of Reality,” United Press International, July 26, 2005, http://www.wpherald.com/print.php?StoryID=20050726-123729-8313r; Sieff, “Ballistic Missile Defense: Shortfalls in Space,” United Press International, August 2, 2005, http://www.wpherald.com/print.php?StoryID=20050802-024235-8315r; Sieff, “Ballistic Missile Defense: Space Defense Budget Mess,” United Press International, October 6, 2005, http://www.wpherald.com/print.php?StoryID=20051006-021655-4516r.

  54. “U.S. Gives Up on Upgrading Missile Defense,” United Press International, October 13, 2005, http://ww.wpherald.com/print.php?StoryID=20051013-044213-8370r.

  55. Lisbeth Gronlund, “Fire, Aim, Ready,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 61, no. 5 (September-October 2005), pp. 67-68, http://www.thebulletin.org/print.php?art_ofn=so05gronlund.

  56. Scott Ritter, “Rude Awakening to Missile-defense Dream,” Christian Science Monitor, January 4, 2005, http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0104/p09s02-coop.html.

  57. Uhler, “Missile Shield”; David E. Sanger and Michael Wines, “With a Shrug, a Monument to Cold War Fades Away,” New York Times, June 14, 2002; Evans, “Missile Defense”; “Russia Deploys New Set of Strategic Nuclear Missiles,” Pravda (Moscow), December 24, 2005, http://newsfromrussia.com/main/2005/12/24/70454.html; Natural Resources Defense Council, “Russian Nuclear Forces, 2006,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists62, no. 2 (March-April 2006), pp. 64-67.

  58. Ciarrocca and Hartung, Axis of Influence, p. 33.

  59. Quoted by Toby Eckert, Copley News Service, “Bribery Admission Spotlights Favoritism; ’Earmarking’ Has Grown in Congress,” San Diego Union-Tribune, December 3, 2005.

  60. Hartung, Berrigan, Ciarrocca, and Wingo, “Tangled Web 2005”; John Isaacs, “An Indefensible Budget,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists61, no. 3 (May/ June 2005), p. 22.

  61. Theresa Hitchens, “Bad Time to Invest in U.S. Missile Defense Program” (speech, Royal United Services Institute’s International Missile Defense Conference, London, November 2-3,2005), Center for Defense Information, January 9, 2006; Hartung, Berrigan, Ciarrocca, and Wingo, “Tangled Web 2005”; Editorial, “Dream-Filled Missile Silos,” New York Times, April 1, 2004.

  62. Richard F. Kaufman, “The Folly of Space Weapons,” TomPaine.com, June 15, 2005, http://www.tompaine.com/print/the_folly_of_space_weapons.php; Lawrence S. Wittner, “Bush’s Maginot Line in the Sky,” History News Network, May 10, 2004, http://hnn.us/articles/printfriendly/5026.html.

  63. David Wood, Newhouse News Service, “Pentagon’s ’Black’ Budgets Ripe for Corruption,” San Diego Union-Tribune, December 2, 2005.

  64. Ciarrocca and Hartung, Axis of Influence.

  65. Bill Moyers, “Inside the Pentagon,” Now, transcript, Public Broadcasting Service, December 5, 2003, http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript245_full.html.

  66. See Ken Silverstein, “Huntsville’s Missile Payload,” Mother Jones, July-August 2001.

  67. Quoted by Mike Moore, “Space War—Now We’re Jammin!” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 61, no. 2 (March/April 2005), pp. 6-8; Donna Miles, “Iraq lamming Incident Underscores Lessons about Space,” American Forces Press Service, September 15, 2004, http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Sep2004/n09152004_2004091510.html.

  68. George Smith, “Weapon of the Week: The Ruski Jammer,” Village Voice, January 22-28,2003.

  69. Moore, “Space War.”

  70. Federal Aviation Administration, “Satellite Navigation,” http://gps.faa.gov/GPSbasics/index.htm; Wikipedia, “Global Positioning System,” January 18, 2006, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gps.

  71. David Whitman, “Keeping Our Bearings: The Coming War over the Global Positioning System,” US. News & World Report, October 21, 2002, pp. 72-73.

  72. For further details and a survey of GPS, see Morag Chivers, “Differential GPS Explained,” ESRI, http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/0103/differentiallof2.html.

  73. “President Clinton: Improving the Civilian Global Positioning System (GPS),” May 1, 2000, http://clinton3.nara.gov/WH/EOP/OSTP/html/0053_4.html.

  74. Jennifer Lee, “Europe Plans to Compete with U.S. Satellite Network,” New York Times, November 26, 2001; European Space Agency, “What Is Galileo?” March 17, 2005, http://www.esa.int/esaNA/GGGMX650NDC_index_2.html; Jonathan Amos, “Europe’s Galileo Project,” BBC News, December 28, 2005; Daniel Clery, “Find Yourself with Galileo: Europeans Will Not Have to Rely on the U.S. Military,” Financial Times, March 10, 2006.

  75. Wikipedia, “Galileo Positioning System,” January 18, 2006, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_positioning_system; George Parker and John Thornhill, “European Navigation Satellite a Challenge to the U.S.,” Financial Times, December 29, 2005.

  76. Benjamin S. Lambeth, Mastering the High Ground: Next Steps in the Military Uses of Space (Santa Monica, CA: The RAND Corp., 2003), p. 103.

  77. Katherine Shrader, “U.S. Has More Satellites in Orbit than Other Countries,” Associated Press, December 9, 2005.

  78. Hitchens, “Weapons in Space”; Satellite Industry Association, “SIA Releases Satellite Industry Report,” press release, Long Beach, CA, June 6, 2005.

  79. Philip E. Coyle and John B. Rhinelander, “Drawing the Line: The Path to Controlling Weapons in Space,” Disarmament Diplomacy, no. 66 (September 2002); Hitchens, “Weapons in Space.”

  80. “The 1945 Proposal by Arthur C. Clarke for Geostationary Satellite Communications,” http://lakdiva.org/clarke/1945ww/.

  81. Thomas Graham Jr., “Space Weapons and the Risk of Accidental Nuclear War,” Arms Control Today, December 2005, http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2005_12/Dec-spaceweapons.asp.

  82. “Yugoslavia—Afghanistan—Iraq: The Satellite Wars,” Space Today Online,http://www.spacetoday.org/Satellites/YugoWarSats.html.

  83. Jack Kelly, “U.S. the Leader in War.”

  84. “Satellite’s Death Puts Millions Out of Touch,” USA Today, May 21, 1998; Caron Carlson, “What Went Wrong? High Costs Don’t Support Benefits,” Wireless Week, May 25, 1998, http://www.wirelessweek.com/article/CA4355.html?spacedesc=; Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, “Galaxy IV Specifications,” http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/space/bss/factsheets/601/galaxy_iv/galaxy_iv.html; Lambeth, Mastering the High Ground, p. 104. Environmental and weather satellites are threatened by a shortage of money as military demands crowd out civilian and scientific projects. See Matt Crenson, Associated Press, “Budgets Imperil Environmental Satellites,” ABC News, March 10, 2006, http://abcnews.go.com/US/print?id-1693735.

  85. From Air Force Magazine, January 2005, quoted by Theresa Hitchens, “Worst-Case Mentality Clouds USAF Space Strategy,” Center for Defense Information, February 14, 2005, http://www.cdi.org/friendlyversion/printversion.cfm?documentID=2885.

  86. Lambeth, Mastering the High Ground, p. 104.

  87. Hitchens, “Worst-Case Mentality.” Members of the Council on Foreign Relations Study Group on Space Weapons write, “The quality of available information about what is going on in space—so-called space situational awareness—is currently one of the United States’ most urgent space security shortcomings.” International Security (Fall 2004), p. 56.

  88. Gronlund, “Fire, Aim, Ready,” pp. 67-68.

  89. Patrick Radden Keefe, “A Shortsighted Eye in the Sky,” New York Times, February 5, 2005; Jeffrey Richelson, “The Spy Satellite So Stealthy that the Senate Couldn’t Kill It,” National Security Archive, Washington, DC, December 14, 2004; Walter Pincus, “Spy Satellites Are Under Scrutiny,” Washington Post, August 16, 2005. The leading authority on codes, special access projects, and the black budget, William Arkin, notes that “Misty” is a very black code word indeed. All he can say about it is “Possible code word for possible stealth reconnaissance satellite.” See Code Names, p. 426.<
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  90. Justin Ray, “Minotaur Rocket Launches U.S. Military Spacecraft,” Spaceflight Now, April 11, 2005, http://www.spaceflightnow.com/minotaur/xssl1/. Giuseppe Anzera comments, “XSS-11 is in fact specifically designed to disturb other states’ military reconnaissance or communications satellites.” See “The Pentagons Bid to Militarize Space,” Power and Interest News Report (PINR), August 17, 2005, http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_printable&report_id=347&language_id= 1.

  91. Jeffrey Lewis, International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation, “Space Weapons in U.S. Defense Planning,” Bulletin 23 (n.d., c. 2004), http://www.inesap.org/bulletin23/art03.htm.

  92. Hitchens, “Worst-Case Mentality.”

  93. According to Leonard David, some poor nations are talking about “debris-creating weapons.” See “The Clutter Above,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 61, no. 4 (July-August 2005), pp. 32-37. On the effects of a nuclear explosion in space, see Department of Defense, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, High Altitude Nuclear Detonations Against Low Earth Orbit Satellites (Washington, DC: April 2001); Nick Schwellenbach, “EMPty Threat?” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists61, no. 55 (September/October 2005), pp. 50-57. Schwellenbach is writing about the electromagnetic pulse that is released by all nuclear explosions.