NEWS AND VIEWS
Summaries of and links to online news reports and commentaries.
Military foresees contest in space for the `ultimate high ground' http://www.flatoday.com:80/space/today/051397a.htm (Space Today) 13 May 1997 In a formal statement of its vision for the year 2020, Estes' Space Command advocated planning for the "prospects for space defense and even space warfare." NUCLEAR DISARRAY http://pathfinder.com/time/magazine/1997/dom/970519/world.nuclear_disar.html BRUCE W. NELAN Time Magazine - MAY 19, 1997 "Various proposals on how to do that have been put forward, several by Bruce Blair of the Brookings Institution, a leading expert on nuclear weapons. Missile nose cones, he suggests, could be replaced by large, blunt tips, or disabling pins could be inserted into rocket engines. Indeed, warheads could actually be removed from the missiles, under mutual inspection procedures. ... These ideas have not caught on. Defense Secretary Cohen ducks the issue. Others, like former Assistant Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, seem to think de-alerting would distract people from the campaign to abolish the weapons altogether." RUSSIA * ATOM * WEAPONS * ARBATOV * OPINION RUSSIA'S FIRST USE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS POSSIBILITY CANNOT TOUCH OFF ANOTHER COLD WAR -- ALEXEI ARBATOV MOSCOW, MAY 14 /RIA NOVOSTI'S CORRESPONDENTS ANDREI GALKIN, SERGEI RYABIKIN/ -- http://www.russia.net/ria/hotline/hu14052.htm * RUSSIA * LATVIA * RADAR STATION * RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR IN LATVIA REFUTES ALLEGATIONS ABOUT RUSSIA'S INTENTIONS TO EXTEND THE WORK OF THE RADAR STATION AT SKRUNDE RIGA, MAY 14. http://www.russia.net/ria/hotline/ht140514.htm Honeymoon's over: Troubles galore since last shuttle-Mir docking http://www.flatoday.com:80/space/today/051297e.htm Space Today - May 12, 1997 CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - Since NASA's last rendezvous with Russia's orbiting Mir station, the relationship between the two space partners has turned rocky. Mir is burned and broken, the future joint space station is grounded another year because of Russia's lack of cash, and a Russian cosmonaut assigned to that station says he won't work for an American. The U.S. And Russia -- Lost In Space U.S. Money Aids Russia's Crumbling Space Program ABC Nightline - May 12, 1997 http://www.abcnews.com/onair/nightline/html_files/transcripts/ntl0512.html For anyone who grew up in the 1950s or 1960s, one of the defining issues was the space race -- the billions of dollars the US spent to catch up to the Russians and then to beat them to the moon. But if the cost of competition was the issue then, the cost of cooperation is the issue now. For the past few years, this country has been working with the Russians putting US astronauts on the Mir spacecraft, and along with other nations, building a new space station for the next century.It sounded like a good way to save money and to keep Russian scientists from selling their technology to the highest bidder. But this cooperation has come at a cost. Those astronauts on board Mir have had some frightening moments and the Russian space program is now so strapped for money that US taxpayers have had to subsidize it to keep joint projects going. Russian spy ship reportedly fired laser, injured Canadian, U.S.officers http://www.nando.net/newsroom/ntn/world/051497/world16_25704.html WASHINGTON (May 14, 1997 07:07 a.m. EDT) - A Russian cargo ship spying on a U.S. submarine fired a laser beam at a Canadian helicopter injuring the pilot and a U.S. navy officer on board, the Washington Times reported Wednesday. U.S. might seek to oust Saddam - Kuwait envoy http://www.merc.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2895727-598 The United States might try to bring about the removal from power of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Kuwait's ambassador to Washington said Monday. The ambassador did not list Washington's steps to end Saddam's rule but said they included the tightening of the noose around the Iraqi leader's neck by the Congress, which endorsed a bill urging the White House to try Saddam as a war criminal. Washington has repeatedly said that toppling Saddam was not among the objectives of the 1991 Gulf War to free Kuwait of Iraqi occupation.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
