US insists on right to develop arms for outer space

[TriSec]

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0613-03.htm

GENEVA - The United States on Tuesday reasserted its right to develop weapons for use in outer space to protect its military and commercial satellites and ruled out any global negotiations on a new treaty to limit them.

In a speech to the Conference on Disarmament, a senior State Department arms control official insisted that such weapons systems would be purely defensive.

Washington sees no need for negotiations to prevent an arms race in space as a 40-year-old international treaty banning weapons of mass destruction in space remains adequate, he said.

John Mohanco, deputy director of the office of multilateral, nuclear and security affairs, said the United States faced a threat of attacks from the earth or from other countries' spacecraft. He did not name any potential attackers.

"As long as the potential for such attacks remains, our government will continue to consider the possible role that space-related weapons may play in protecting our assets," he told the United Nations-backed forum.

"For our part, the United States does not have any weapons in space, nor do we have plans to build such weapons," he said.

More...

[NC_Nurse]

1. US insists on continued

idiocy/assholiness. :eyes:

[Moderator]

2. An FYI

Please try to post the original source:
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-06-13T115717Z_01_L13495545_RTRUKOC_0_US-ARMS-SPACE-USA.xml&archived=False
Article is more than 12 hours old.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x87249

2. Do not post news that is more than 12 hours old.

and

Please make an effort to link directly to the original source of an article, instead of linking to sites that have re-published someone else's content, or re-packaged someone else's content as their own.

[lindisfarne]

4. Did this get moved from LBN or have GD rules changed? n/t

[OKNancy]

5. LOL - this was a LBN post -

sometimes moves are a mystery, so I thought I'd help out.

[magellan]

3. Launch Bush**, Cheney, Rove, Rummy, Rice, Gonzalez, et al

They're the most dangerous weapons we've got. What's a little more space rubbish between friends?

[987654321]

6. We all know that had Reagan gotten his Star Wars program...

9/11 would have never happened.

So we can't afford to give our military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan the equipment they have needed to help save their lives, but we can afford to hand over billions of dollars to the industrial military complex for equipment that may never save a single life? Makes sense to me!

[still_one]

7. the same can also be said about Iran, don't they also have a right

to build such weapons in their country then?