IP: Fwd: interview with Ted Postol (professor of science, technology, and national security policy at MIT)

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2001 13:15:25 -0500
> To: dave () farber net
> From: Matthew Howard <howard () mit edu>
>
> Dave,
>
> Boston Review has a very interesting interview with Ted Postol (professor 
> of science, technology, and national security policy at MIT) that touches 
> on one these scenarios, in the context of why a missile defense system is 
> really no security at all.
>
> http://bostonreview.mit.edu/BR26.5/postol.html
>
> The interview was conducted before September 11, but in an afterword 
> Postol writes:
>
> "The shoddy air security that made the attacks on the World Trade Center 
> twin towers and the Pentagon possible are simply tragic examples of what 
> can happen when the nation depends on defenses that can only work against 
> adversaries who are assumed to be massively incompetent. The only good 
> thing that we can hope for from these events is that it will now catalyze 
> the nation to face the real threats to us.
>
> "Depending on missile defenses that cannot deal with even simple 
> predictable countermeasures will only repeat the tragic mistakes we have 
> already made with our air security defense. In addition, proceeding with 
> such missile defenses will take critically needed resources away from our 
> national effort to solve the real problem that now confronts us. We need 
> to instead commit the nation's highest caliber professionals, both 
> military and civil, to the task of systematically identifying, analyzing, 
> and responding to the threats made clear by the September 11 attacks.
>
> "The evidence I have so far seen indicates that the Administration will 
> use these tragic events to obtain full funding from the Congress for their 
> ill-defined and ill-considered missile defense programs. However, I 
> believe that the recent events will result in the average American 
> becoming aware of the debate over missile defense and the trade-offs 
> associated with missile defenses versus our society's real security needs. 
> The net result I expect is that when most people become informed about the 
> issues being debated they will have the common sense to focus on the real 
> problems and to question the utility of missile defenses."


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