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Despite US denials, proposed Ballistic Missile Defense structure lends itself to weapons in space.
US Missile Defence is part of a US strategy to convert Canada into a war-fighting client of the United States permanent warfare state. A March 31, 2004 Ipsos-Reid-Council of Canadians poll found that "seven in ten (69%) of Canadians disagree with the statement "Canada should actively support the Bush administration's missile defence system even if it may require dedicating military spending to the program or allowing US missile launchers in Canada." Because of this firm opposition to US Missile Defence amongst Canadians, deception and stealth are behind the US manipulation of a "Canadian decision" to join into the US Missile Defence, and thereby integrate Canada into the US permanent warfare state.
The United States timetable to weaponize space was promulgated on December 16, 2002, when US President George W Bush directed the US Department of Defense to:
(1) "develop and deploy missile defenses capable of protecting not only the United States and our deployed forces, but also friends and allies;
(2) also structure the missile defense program in a manner that encourages industrial participation by friends and allies, consistent with overall US national security; and
(3) shall promote international missile defense cooperation, including within bilateral and alliance structures such as NATO, and shall negotiate appropriate arrangements for this purpose." - US President George W. Bush, US National Security Presidential Directive/NSPD-23, December 16, 2002.
Canada's decision to participate in NORAD operation of the aerospace early-warning system for North America means that Canada functionally joins US Missile Defence. NORAD at present is involved only in air warning, not in an outer space- warning system. International Tactical and Warning and Attack Assessment (ITWAA) retaliation and attack toward incoming missiles are not now part of NORAD.
If Canada agrees to NORAD's operation of an expanded aero- space early-warning system, then this means that Canada is participating as part of the US Missile Defence system. Under an expanded NORAD, the tracking and retaliatory functions of the US Missile Defence system cannot practicably be separated. By being part of NORAD, Canada would functionally be part of the US Missile Defence system.
Thus, Canada's signing onto "an aerospace early-warning system for North America", is in fact "a move that smoothes the path for almost certain participation in the US missile defence shield." (Globe & Mail, April 30, 2004.)
The US National Missile Defence system, whether land-based, sea-based, air-based or space-based, will cause the weaponization of space. If Canada becomes involved with land- based US Missile Defence, this will include a network of sensors and command and control nodes which may be used for space based weapons.
(1) Land-based Missile Defence can be used as an anti-satellite weapon (ASAT). If Canada becomes involved with US Missile Defence and the US decides to use a land-based interceptor against an object orbiting in space, as an anti-satellite weapon (ASAT), Canada would be involved in using space weapons. According to one NGO expert, US Missile Defence could more easily be used as an anti -satellite weapon than as an interceptor for an incoming missile;
(2) Elements of the US Missile Defence space-based surveillance and tracking system can be used as space weapons. The US NFIRE satellite, although it is theoretically only for surveillance and tracking, can be equipped with a Kill-Vehicle. Other US Missile Defence-related dual using light-weight optics, relay mirrors and precision tracking systems can be used for space- based weapon applications;
(3) The US Defence budget calls for spending on a space-based missile defence range. According to one observer, "the US Administration and US Missile Defence Agency have explicitly included plans for a space-based layer, as well as ground-based and sea-based elements, in the proposed missile defence network. This entire Missile Defence network will use a common set of sensors and command and control nodes.
Providing support for the space-based sensors, as Canada may find an attractive option, would support all elements of the US Missile Defence system, including, if it exists a space-based layer. The US President's budget includes the Future Years Defense Program (FYDP) and asks for six-year funding increases for US Missile Defence Interceptors PE, including funding for a space- based missile defence range;"
(4) The US Air Force Transformation Flight Plan (November 2003) calls for "active-on- board protection capabilities, "full-spectrum sea, air land and space-based offensive counterspace systems capable of prevention of unauthorized use of friendly space services and negating capabilities from low earth up to GEO orbits. The focus when practical will be on denying adversary access to space on a temporary basis." When impractical, permanently destructive weapons such as US Ballistic Missile Defence would be used, by implication.
By joining US Missile Defence, Canada becomes an accidental or intentional nuclear weapons target and part of the nuclear war-fighting forces of the United States military. The Anti- Satellite (ASAT) weapons capabilities of US Missile Defence, make land-based missile defense interceptors into space weapons to be used to destroy, for example, Russian early warning satellites, in the case of a pre-emptive first strike by the US nuclear forces against the Russia.
Authorities ranging from Noam Chomsky to Robert Bowman indicate that land-based US Missile Defence is a space weapon in aid of strategic nuclear first strike. If Canada, like Australia, were to become a US missile defence client nation, it would mean that Canada functionally has become part of the US nuclear war- fighting machine. US Missile Defence, whose radars will be in Nunavut, are targeted at Russia, not at "rogue states."
(5) US Missile Defence is a profoundly destabilizing, global problem demanding a global solution in the form of a Space Preservation Treaty banning Missile Defence systems and space-based weapons. The profound threat of a renewed nuclear arms race as well as an arms race in space is the reason why six British Columbia cities, including Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo, Burnaby, Sparwood, and Bowen Island, BC have all passed municipal Resolutions opposing Canada's participation in missile defence and demanding Canada host a Space Preservation Treaty Conference to ban missile defence systems and space-based weapons worldwide, as Canada did in the 1997 Ottawa Land Mines Conference. This ban will transform the war industry into a peaceful, cooperative, democratic Space Age economy.
Alfred Lambremont Webre, JD, M. Ed., is International Director of the Institute for Cooperation in Space (ICIS), and works with others to transform the permanent war economy into a peaceful, democratic, cooperative Space-age society.
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