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DATE=5/25/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=MISSILE FRAUD  (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-262824
BYLINE=JIM RANDLE
DATELINE=PENTAGON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT: 
INTRO: A prominent weapons expert says the planned U-S 
missile defense system will not work, and charges that 
officials have lied to cover up the program's flaws.  
V-O-A'S Jim Randle reports, the allegations come as 
the American and Russian presidents are getting ready 
for a summit meeting that will be dominated by 
arguments over nuclear arms and missile defenses.  
TEXT: The charges come from physics professor Theodore 
Postol of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 
He said at a Washington news conference that data from 
flight tests shows the planned national missile 
defense system could be so easily fooled by decoys 
that it is useless.
Professor Postol says in order to shoot down missile 
warheads headed for the United States, the system must 
be able to quickly determine which fast-moving space 
objects are deadly warheads and which are harmless 
decoys.
            /// FIRST POSTOL ACT ///
      This means that the national missile defense 
      system can simply not work if these simple 
      decoys - which are literally balloons of the 
      Mylar kind you can buy at the zoo - can defeat 
      the system by confusing it, by overwhelming it 
      (so) the system will not be able to function.
            /// END ACT ///
The professor says contractors and officials simply 
ignored portions of test data that showed the system's 
sensors could not tell which of several objects in the 
sky were warheads and which were decoys. 
            /// SECOND POSTOL ACT ///
      So they dealt with this problem by removing the 
      data set -- by removing it and analyzing only 
      the other objects.  That incidentally would be 
      considered scientific fraud in the community I 
      work in.
            /// END ACT ///
Not true, says a spokesman for the Ballistic Missile 
Defense Organization, Air Force Colonel Rick Lener 
[`lehn-er].
            /// LENER ACT ///
      We categorically deny any allegation of fraud.  
      There have been two independent review panels 
      that have looked into the issue and have found 
      nothing.  The Department of Justice did not go 
      forward with any action at all because there was 
      just no evidence to support any basis for fraud.
            /// END ACT ///  
Colonel Lener says Professor Postol's information is 
incomplete and his conclusions are wrong.  
He says the system will eventually be improved by the 
addition of infared sensors based in space, and that 
will help sort weapons from decoys.
Colonel Lener says officials cannot fully disclose how 
the system will work because they need to protect 
secret technologies.
The National Missile Defense system faces another 
flight test at the end of June or in early July.  
President Clinton says he will use information from 
that test to decide whether to build the system or 
scrap it. (Signed). 
NEB/jr/gm
25-May-2000 18:45 PM LOC (25-May-2000 2245 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.