[newshep]

Sing it with me, fellas.

"How do you solve a problem like Korea...?"

[famosetroie]

February 10, 2005

North Korea Says It Has Nuclear Weapons and Rejects Talks

By JAMES BROOKE

OKYO, Feb. 10 - In a surprising admission, North Korea's hard-line Communist government declared publicly for the first time today that it has nuclear weapons. It also said that it will boycott United States-sponsored regional talks designed to end its nuclear program, according to a North Korean Foreign Ministry statement transmitted today by the reclusive nation's wire service.

Pyongyang said it has "manufactured nukes for self-defense to cope with the Bush administration's undisguised policy to isolate and stifle" North Korea, and that it will "bolster its nuclear weapons arsenal."

The statement, considered a definitive policy pronouncement, said that North Korea is pulling out of the talks after concluding that the second Bush administration would pursue the "brazen-faced, double-dealing tactics" of dialogue and "regime change."

Four hours before the official Korean Central News Agency transmitted the pullout statement, a top Bush administration official told reporters here that North Korea's return to the nuclear talks was expected by all other participants the United States, Japan, South Korea, Russia and China.

"The onus is really on North Korea," said John R. Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, noting that the last time the parties met was in June.

Referring to North Korea's bomb making capability, he added: "The absence of progress in six-party talks means they are making further progress toward their increased capability."

It is unclear if North Korea is definitively slamming the door to talks or merely trying to raise its price for returning to the bargaining table.

"We are compelled to suspend our participation in the talks for an indefinite period," the statement said, adding that North Korea would only return when "there are ample conditions and atmosphere to expect positive results from the talks."

From Europe, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice told RTL television of Luxembourg: "The North Koreans should reassess this and try to end their own isolation." A similar appeal came from Japan, America's closest ally in the region.

"It's better to resume them early," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters about North Korea's decision to boycott the talks. "It would be in North Korea's interest to make use of the six-party forum."

Overall, the statement was a bucket of cold water for analysts who predicted a resumption of talks this spring. Two groups of American congressmen returned last month from visits to Pyongyang with reports that North Korean officials were hinting at an imminent return to the negotiating table.

President Bush, in his State of the Union message last week, avoided the confrontational rhetoric of past speeches in which he branded North Korea as member of "the axis of evil," alongside Iraq and Iran. This time, in his only reference to Pyongyang, he merely said that he was "working with governments in Asia to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions."

But in today's statement, Pyongyang zeroed in on Dr. Rice's testimony last month in her Senate confirmation hearings, where she lumped North Korea with five other dictatorships, calling them "outposts of tyranny."

"The true intention of the second-term Bush administration is not only to further its policy to isolate and stifle the D.P.R.K. pursued by the first-term office, but to escalate it," the statement said, referring to North Korea by its formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Outside critics and defectors say that North Korea is neither democratic nor popular, since it has been ruled for the last 60 years by the Kim family, an avaricious clan that does not permit multiparty elections or the slightest whisper of dissent. Today Pyongyang told the Bush administration to talk to the kinds of North Koreans it likes.

"We advise the U.S. to negotiate with dealers in peasant markets it claims that are to its liking or with representatives of the organization of North Korean defectors on its payroll, if it wishes to have talks," the statement said.

In the same statement, North Korea also attacked Japan for "toeing the U.S. line." Tokyo has been struggling with mounting popular pressure for economic sanctions. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Koizumi personally received a petition calling for sanctions, signed by five million people.

Japanese anger with North Korea rose sharply last month after Pyong- yang delivered to visiting Japanese dip- lomats two boxes of half-cremated re- mains, said to be of a Japanese woman kidnapped from Japan by North Korean agents in the 1970s. DNA analysis showed that the remains were not of the missing Japanese woman, but of two unidentified people. It is unclear if North Korea, which tightly controls in- formation from the outside world, was aware of DNA technology. Its state- ment today charged that Japan had "fabricated the issue of false re- mains over the abduction issue."

Conservative Japanese increasingly say Mr. Koizumi should call the bluff of what they say is a bankrupt state that routinely hides behind scary bluster.

"At first, we should make economic sanctions," Shintaro Ishihara, Tokyo's conservative governor said in an interview this afternoon, just before North Korea's nuclear weapons vow was made public.

"At the second stage, let them bomb Japan with that nasty missile," Mr. Ishihara taunted with sarcasm in his voice as he spoke in his office, in Tokyo's tallest building. "Their missile cannot load a nuclear warhead." Asked what Japan would do in response to a missile attack, Mr. Ishihara merely smiled.

The United States has said that North Korea has up to eight nuclear bombs. But, it has never exploded a nuclear device.

One year ago, Siegfried Hecker, a former director of the nuclear weapons laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M., toured Yongbyon, North Korea's main known nuclear facility. Although North Korea apparently organized the visit to persuade Americans of their nuclear weapons prowess, Dr. Hecker returned home saying that he was not convinced North Korea could build a working nuclear bomb and mount it on a missile.

Half a century after the Korean War, North Korea has not signed a formal peace treaty with South Korea and its main ally, the United States. In September 1991, in an effort to denuclearize the divided peninsula, President George H..W. Bush announced the withdrawal of all American tactical weapons from South Korea, totaling about 100. In December 1991, both Koreas signed a formal agreement pledging not to produce, test or store nuclear weapons.

Over the next decade, South Korea conducted what now appear to be several minor, disconnected experiments in technology related to nuclear weapons. North Korea agreed to seal a plutonium-based nuclear program. But in 2002, an American official confronted Pyongyang with evidence that it had been cheating on its nuclear promises, maintaining a covert uranium enrichment program.

In response, North Korea expelled international inspectors from Yongbyon, announced that it was quitting the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and said it was building up what it ambiguously called its "nuclear deterrent." The six-nation disarmament talks started in Beijing in August 2003, but have not yielded any tangible results.


Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

[fabrizioitwloch]

CNN
September 19, 2005

N. Korea agrees to give up nuclear program

Joint statement calls for security, energy assurances

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Nearly three years after ordering U.N. nuclear inspectors out of the country, North Korea Monday agreed to give up its entire nuclear program, including weapons, a joint statement from six-party nuclear arms talks in Beijing said.

"This is the most important result since the six-party talks started more than two years ago," said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, Beijing's envoy, in a report from The Associated Press.

In exchange, the United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea have "stated their willingness" to provide energy assistance to North Korea, as well as promote economic cooperation.

"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) is committed to abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and returning at an early date to the treaty on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons (NPT) and to IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) safeguards," the statement said.

The World Food Program has said that North Korea is headed toward the worst humanitarian food crisis since the mid 1990s, when an estimated 1 million North Koreans died. WFP says 6.5 million North Koreans desperately need food aid.

Earlier Monday, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said the talks were in their "endgame."

The breakthrough agreement came on what was the seventh day of the fourth round of six-party talks.

A new round of talks has been scheduled for November. Chief U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill warned that the North Korean disarmament talks could still be a long process, according to a report from The Associated Press.

Prior to the deal, North Korea clung to its position of maintaining a civilian nuclear program, while Washington wanted Pyongyang to forego all nuclear programs.

The negotiations had been deadlocked over North Korea's demand that it keep the right to civilian nuclear programs after it disarms, according to an AP report.

While the joint statement has Pyongyang giving up nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs, it also acknowledges that North Korea has stated that it has the the right to "peaceful uses of nuclear energy" and that the provision of a nuclear light-water reactor will be discussed at "an appropriate time."

The joint statement also includes a pledge that Pyongyang and Washington will "respect each other's sovereignty, exist peacefully together and take steps to normalize their relations" -- a considerable change in the tone in relations between the nations.

In his 2002 State of the Union Address, U.S. President George Bush called North Korea, Iran and Iraq an "axis of evil" that is "arming to threaten the peace of the world." As recently as July, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called North Korea one of six "outposts of tyranny."

In Monday's statement, "the United States affirmed that is has no nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula and has no intention to attack or invade the DPRK with nuclear or conventional weapons," fulfilling North Korea's desire for a security pledge from the United States.

In a rare interview with CNN in the North Korean capital last month, North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Kwan said Pyongyang wanted to pursue a peaceful nuclear program and was willing to adopt "strict supervision" of its nuclear facilities.

Pyongyang ordered U.N. nuclear inspectors out of the country in December 2002, and pulled out of the NPT the following month.

"If someone is concerned with regard to our possible nuclear activities which could lead up to the manufacture of nuclear weapons out of the operations of a light-water nuclear reactor, then we can leave the operations under strict supervision," Kim said, offering to allow the United States a role in monitoring.

"We would like to pursue peaceful nuclear energy power generation and this is a quite urgent issue that faces our nation," he said.

"And this is a very appropriate policy in light of the economic situation of our country. That is why we cannot make a concession in this field."

CNN's Stan Grant contributed to this report.

© 2005 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.

[valiumcheapll]

"We give up!"

"Where is our aid?"

[foI3fKWv]

North Korea Appears Set to Launch Missile

By HELENE COOPER
June 18, 2006
NY TIMES

WASHINGTON, June 18 — North Korea appears to have completed fueling of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States, American officials said today, a move that greatly increases the probability that Pyongyang will actually go ahead with a launch.

After analyzing satellite images, American officials said they believed that booster rockets were loaded onto a launch pad and fuel tanks fitted to a missile at a site in North Korea's remote east coast. Fueling a missile is generally considered close to an irreversible step, since it is very hard to siphon fuel back out.

The fueling set off a flurry of diplomatic activity over the weekend, as officials from the United States, Japan and China worked furiously to try to forestall a launch. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke to her Japanese and Chinese counterparts, urging the Chinese, in particular, to try to pressure North Korea against firing its Taepodong 2 missile.

Demonstrating how seriously they consider this matter, officials at the State Department telephoned North Korean diplomats at that country's permanent mission to the United Nations in New York, warning them directly against going ahead with a launch.

Such direct contact is highly unusual, since American officials limit their direct talks with their North Korean counterparts. But "we needed to make sure there was no misunderstanding," one senior Bush administration official said today.

In Japan, Foreign Minister Taro Aso warned that a miscalculation could result in the missile landing on Japanese territory. "If it is dropped on Japan, it will complicate the story," he told Japanese television today. "It will be regarded as an attack."

Mr. Aso later toned down his language, saying, "we will not right away view it as a military act," but he said Japan would seek an immediate meeting of the Security Council if Pyongyang goes ahead with the missile launch.

A test of the long-range missile by North Korea would be the first since 1998, when it fired a three-stage Taepodong 1 missile over Japan, catching American intelligence officials by surprise. That led Congress to step up its push for deployment of anti-missile defenses.

A year later, in 1999, North Korea agreed to a moratorium on long-range missile testing and has not fired one since.

But five weeks ago, American officials received satellite images that showed North Korea preparing to test a multiple-stage Taepodong 2 missile. Some Bush administration officials at first suspected that the moves were a grab for attention while Washington's focus was primarily on Iran and a way to press the United States to agree to direct talks. But since then, diplomats on both sides of the Pacific have become increasingly concerned that North Korea does indeed plan to go ahead with a launch.

"Why they are doing this? You will have to ask them," one senior Bush administration official said today. "It is not in anyone's interest; certainly not theirs. For our part, we will not be derailed by their temper tantrums nor have any of our own."

The officials would not be more specific about the information they have received, and most would discuss the matter only after being promised anonymity, saying the sensitive diplomatic and intelligence concerns meant they could not speak for the record.

American knowledge about the Taepodong 2 is limited. The system has never been flight-tested. American intelligence has steadily increased the estimates of its range. In 2001, a National Intelligence Estimate forecast that a three-stage version of the Taepodong 2 missile could reach all of North America with a sizable payload.

The Taepodong 2 is believed to have three stages. The first is thought to be a cluster of North Korea's No Dong missiles; the second stage is believed to be a No Dong missile, and the third stage might be a solid-fueled system, according to experts who have studied what a Taepodong might look like.

A test of the missile would ignite a political chain reaction in Japan, the United States and China. The Bush administration might step up financing for missile defense efforts. Japan might increase its missile defense efforts as well, while hard-liners there might even push to reconsider the nation's nuclear weapons options. Both moves would alienate China.

In North Korea, Pyongyang reportedly told its citizens to raise the national flag at 2 p.m. local time today (1 a.m. Eastern time) and prepare for an announcement on television, a Japanese newspaper said, igniting rumors that a missile test was imminent. But that time came and passed without incident, and American officials say they believe the report was unrelated to a missile test.

North Korea is a secretive Stalinist state and figuring out the motives of its leader, Kim Jong Il, has stymied diplomats for years. But experts say there are two main reasons why the North Korean regime might launch a missile right now.

For one thing, the country's military may well want to verify their missile capability. It has almost eight years since the last missile launch, which occurred in August 1998, and "it may well be that Kim Jong Il is getting a lot of pressure from his generals to verify the design" of the Taepodong 2 missile, said Robert Einhorn, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and former assistant secretary of state for nonproliferation under President Bill Clinton.

But, he added, "whenever the North Koreans act up, one has to assume in part at least that they are trying to get the world's attention."

Just two weeks ago — a day after the United States offered to hold direct talks with Iran over its nuclear program — North Korea invited Christopher R. Hill, an assistant secretary of state and chief negotiator on the North's nuclear weapons program, for direct talks in Pyongyang. That offer was immediately rebuffed by the White House, which insisted that the North return to the long-deadlocked six-nation talks instead. The other nations involved in the talks are China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

North Korea has boycotted the talks in recent months after the United States cracked down on financial institutions, including a bank in Macau, that dealt with the government in Pyongyang and with North Korean companies suspected of counterfeiting American dollars and laundering money. If North Korea goes ahead with a missile launching, the already floundering talks would likely go into a deep freeze.

Copyright 2006The New York Times Company

[UKkoXJvF]

North Korea -- the world's biggest prison camp -- is certainly not helping matters much. I would consider launch of an ICBM as a direct threat to the United States, and say so publicly. In the words of President Kennedy, this would be the equivalent of an attack, requiring a "full retaliatory response."

[evennyNiz]

Yeah, but where's the Yellowcake?

[ManHolDenPoker]

Yeah, but where's the Yellowcake?

lol, Good one!

[12ZHeWZa]

Smoke and mirrors. Smoke and mirrors.

We appreciate all the concern about Iran and North Korea, but let's stay focused on Iraq. Obviously, it is a big boost to the president to rattle the saber over the "axis of evil" - blah, blah, blah.

It's fear mongering.

[bxxasxxa]

But BR, in this case, it is more warranted than a "suspected" program for the development of nuclear weapons.

I do agree it is fear mongering, but saying that it does not matter..... I don't know about that.

[Everwondopedo]

I just hope this isn't like the movie "Canadian Bacon" ~_~ There is an election coming this fall.. (Hey everyone hates the North Koreans ^_^)

[Wgnhqhlg]

Let's not forget that the North Korean government is a group of real nutjobs. It wouldn't surprise me in the least that they'd pull some stupid stunt, like lobbing a nuke at Los Angeles for sport. Imagine, if you will, what the behind-the-scenes negotiations are like. I suspect we're giving them a clear message: "if you launch, we launch." This is probably scaring the wits out of the Chinese, who will most likely turn the screws on their wonderful fun-loving Communist Party animals to the south.

[pesty4077]

NK isn't stupid. They know the policy of major nuclear powers is MAD (Mutual assured destruction). If they launch, even without the intent to hit the US, the US, will fire an ICBM towards Pyongyang in a jiffy.

[cheesypeetyz]

I wonder how many of these are flying over Japan/Korea right now.

They have some fantastic range:

http://www.military.com/soldiertech/...h_ABL,,00.html

The point with the missile launch is that once performed, the North Koreans will have the data from the launch to see how to improve their missiles (range, accuracy etc). I read that there's an interest for a strike to stop the missile from flying (and therefore stop the NKRP from getting this data).

Nice laser.

[IdomeoreTew]

Yeah, NK isn't stupid because....

Where are those 6 missiles streaking accross the sky from?

Guess we were all wrong.

[babopeddy]

Yeah, NK isn't stupid because....

Where are those 6 missiles streaking accross the sky from?

Guess we were all wrong.

oops......My bad.

[CoenceLomneedtrue]

U.S. envoy offers N. Korea bilateral talks

Yahoo / AP
By JAE-SOON CHANG,
Associated Press Writer
July 8, 2006

A U.S. envoy expressed support for China's proposal to hold informal six-nation talks on the North Korean nuclear threat and offered to meet bilaterally with the North on the sidelines of those discussions.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill was in Seoul as part of a regional tour to coordinate the international response to the North's test-firing Wednesday of seven missiles. The tests caused international outrage but also division over whether North Korea should be punished.

Over Chinese and Russian objections, Japan on Friday proposed a U.N. Security Council resolution that would impose sanctions on North Korea and order the communist regime to stop developing ballistic missiles.

Backed by the United States, Britain and France, the new resolution came as President Bush expressed frustration with the slow pace of diplomacy and urged world leaders to send Pyongyang a strong message condemning the missile tests, staged in defiance of international warnings.

"What matters most of all is for Kim Jong Il to see the world speak with one voice," Bush said Friday during a trip to Chicago. "That's the purpose, really."

He has ruled out direct talks between just the United States and North Korea and said he hoped the six-party talks would resume.

Beijing has floated the idea of an informal meeting between members of the six-party nuclear talks — the two Koreas, China, Russia, Japan and the United States. Pyongyang has for months refused to attend formal negotiations, protesting U.S. financial restrictions imposed over the North's alleged counterfeiting, money-laundering and other illegal practices.

"As many of you know, the Chinese have talked about putting together a six-party informal, and we both support that and we think that all countries are prepared to come to that informal meeting," Hill told reporters after meeting with Chun Young-woo, South Korea's top nuclear negotiator.

Asked about the possibility of a bilateral meeting with the North, he said: "Within the informal six-party talks, yes, I can."

"I just can't do it when they are boycotting the six-party talks."

But Hill rejected North Korea's demand that the U.S. drop restrictions imposed on a Macau bank for allegedly aiding the North's illicit activities. The U.S. has argued that the nuclear talks and financial restrictions are separate issues and should not be linked.

"This is not a time for so-called gestures of that kind," Hill said in response to the North Korean demand. "We have a country that has fired off missiles in a truly reckless way that affects ... regional security."

The North has defended its right to test missiles and said the launches could continue.

Japan urged the United Nations to vote soon on the Security Council resolution and warned it would not compromise on its stern wording. The measure would call for other countries to "take those steps necessary" to keep the North from acquiring items that could be used for its missile program.

"Japan will not give in. It definitely must be a resolution containing sanctions," Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso was quoted by Kyodo News agency as saying during a speech in Osaka on Saturday. Japan "will not back off from the resolution. We will hold on until the end."

Japanese Senior Vice Minister Yasuhisa Shiozaki said Security Council members were privately "having positive discussions" about the resolution and were chipping away at Russian and Chinese doubts. Supporters decided at a meeting Friday not to call for a vote over the weekend after some council members asked for more time to consider the resolution.

"It is strongly expected that the Security Council will put it to vote as soon as possible," Shiozaki told a news conference in Tokyo. "The timing is very important."

China, a traditional ally of North Korea, has been reluctant to impose sanctions on Pyongyang. But Japan's Yomiuri newspaper reported Saturday that Beijing appeared to have clamped down on the flow of industrial materials to North Korea in a sign of disenchantment with the missile tests.

In a report from the Chinese city of Dandong on the North Korean border, the newspaper said the normally steady cross-border stream of supply trucks from China had all but stopped as of Friday. The paper quoted a trader on the Chinese side as saying traffic had plummeted after the missile tests.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency, however, cited business people in China as saying that any slowdown in trade in the past couple of days was likely due to seasonal factors, not political ones.

South Korea, which has worked for warmer ties with Pyongyang since a 2000 North-South summit, has withheld aid shipments and rejected a Northern request for military talks. At the same time it is planning Cabinet-level meetings with the communist country next week.

Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok said Seoul would hold off sending 500,000 tons of rice and 100,000 tons of fertilizer to North Korea.

Associated Press reporter Kana Inagaki in Tokyo contributed to this story.

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press

[doksSirmAdods]

I am pretty ignorant about N. Korea.. Can anyone tell me how on earth they got the nuclear techology to begin with... Where did the money come from?.. They seem to have no economy to bring any money in.. Do they have some kind of natural resources that I'm not aware of?.. Yes, we have to deal with them but how did it start?

[arrasleds]

I am pretty ignorant about N. Korea.. Can anyone tell me how on earth they got the nuclear techology to begin with... Where did the money come from?.. They seem to have no economy to bring any money in.. Do they have some kind of natural resources that I'm not aware of?.. Yes, we have to deal with them but how did it start?

Google something about

1. Japans Occupation of Korea after its decisive victory over Russia in 1905 (battles fought in and around Korea) - actually this is a very important historical event because us Europeans never believed that an asiatic nation could actually win a war against us - remember - Japan was a mediaeval society in 1860 - only took 50 years for them to develop to that point

2. Japans Industrialisation of Korean Peninsula from 1905 - 1945 (Koreans eat meat - bigger - made good workers for the Japanese and were a market for their goods - think of how Britain used the pre-independence US Colonies, Australia, Canada etc)

3. Korean War - important but forgotten - hey - half of our astronauts were combat pilots there - including John Glenn who was also a WWII pacific war ace - read particularly about how the Soviets sold/tested their technology and how the Chinese were there in force

4. Then read about North Korea from about 1953 - 1980 - you will get some idea of how they got their atomic and then hydrogen nuclear program

Good luck!

[Mr_White]

Dogs of War and Ignorance

Seattle Weekly
By Knute Berger

The issue of defending the Pacific Coastand Seattle from a North Korean missile attack has taken a creepy turn in recent weeks, something that suggests that when you "unleash the dogs of war," at least one of those dogs creates chaos and spreads incompetence.

Since I last wrote about the North Korean threat (see Mossback, "No Shelter, Jan. 8), there have been some amazing developments on that front. Earlier this month, CIA director George Tenent confirmed that the North Koreans have the capability to hit the U.S. mainland with their still untested Taepodong II missile. At least that's the unclassified answer. The classified answer may be that they cannot, but, for the time being, it suits U.S. purposes to acknowledge a worst-case North Korean capability, and it also may well be true. The Taepodong II, if constructed properly, could have the range; if light enough, it could carry a nuclear payload (not just a chemical or biological one). No one is vouching for the missile's accuracy, but somehow I am not relieved to know that a possibly highly non-accurate missile might be pointed our way. I don't think targeting is the point anyway. It's the leverage the possibilities give you.

As Colin Powell ventured into the region this week, he was greeted by a North Korean missile test that launched a smaller missile into the Japan Sea just to make sure everyone noticed. North Korea seems to wear its "Axis of Evil" label as a badge of honor. Certainly, by conducting such missile tests, they are reminding both the U.S. and the rest of the world that if you fail to develop nuclear missile capabilities, you are likely to be attacked (see Iraq); and that if you successfully develop them, you are taken seriously and given the courtesy of diplomatic treatment. It also helps if you are adjacent to other nuclear powers and important U.S. allies. But one can't help but wonder at the lesson being taught to every nation: Power no longer grows out of the barrel of a gun, but on the tip of a warhead. Who wouldn't want to go nuclear if that was the path to getting respect?

This week also brought some other important developments. Monday, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Bush administration has requested in its 2004 budget that the missile defense system it is seeking to deploy to meet the North Korean threat be exempted from operational testing. According to the Times, such an exemption "would be the first time a major weapons system was formally exempted from the testing requirement." The Missile Defense Agency already has unprecedented latitude to get a system up and running, including not having to adhere to standard management and procurement procedures. In other words, the missile defense overlords can spend any amount and do whatever it takes virtually without any oversight.

And, if this provision is approved, they won't even have to deploy a system that actually works. It's a recipe for billions of dollars in waste and has the potential to completely corrupt the system of Pentagon procurement, which, as we know, is so free of corruption.

And don't look to the courts for help in holding the Pentagon or its contractors to account. At the same time the L.A. Times was revealing the Bush request, the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles was dismissing a lawsuit brought by Nira Schwartz, a whistle-blowing former employee of defense contractor TRW Inc., who had alleged that the company falsified test results of the missile defense software that is about to be deployed with the new system. Her allegations have been supported by a General Accounting Office report, and while the FBI found no evidence of fraudcalling the dispute a scientific issuenevertheless, there are serious questions about the viability of the system.

Government attorneys argued that documents requested in the Schwartz case would jeopardize national security. Apparently, going ahead with a faulty multibillion-dollar missile defense system free from scientific verification is no threat to national security whatsoever. What's troubling about this decision, which will be appealed, is that the veil of national security can be used to cover up anything a rogue Pentagon department wants to hide. The suit was supported by members of Congress from both parties who insisted that no military secrets would be revealed, according to an account in the Times. No matter.

Certainly Donald Rumsfeld can make a case that in light of current threats, we have little choice but to deploy first and work out the kinks later. But given the missile defense system's history of failure and probable cover-up; given the system's massive cost, which includes not only tax dollars but trashed treaties, like ABM; given its potential for altering, and perhaps escalating, the international arms race, Americans have a right to be secure in the knowledge that their dollars are being well spent and that actual science is prevailing over political and corporate agendas. We do not need a new Maginot Line made of faulty missiles and a false sense of security.

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