I am an ardent supporter of a national missile defense shield, but the latest spat between the Pentagon and MIT’s Theodore Postol is yet another example of why something this important cannot be left in the hands of the Pentagon.
Postol was the researcher who proved that the Pentagon flat out lied about the effectiveness of its Patriot anti-missile system during the Persian Gulf War. Last year, Postol analyzed a publicly available report about tests of the Pentagon’s anti-missile technology, and concluded that the Pentagon and TRW, which the Pentagon contracts with, distorted data to make it look like the system could tell the difference between a real missile and a decoy, when in fact it really could not.
After Postol circulated his analysis of the Pentagon/TRW report, the Pentagon had a change of heart — it suddenly decided that the data which Postol used to debunk the claims were mistakenly declassified, and promptly reclassified the data. The Pentagon now insists that circulation of Postol’s report constitutes a breach of national security. What it really appears to constitute, of course, is yet another Pentagon coverup of a failed weapons system (and you have to wonder — do these morons in the Pentagon think they’re helping move things along toward a national missile defense system by constantly relying on these sorts of lies and obfuscation)?
Anyway, the New York Times‘ story has a quote that only a Pentagon flak could say with a straight face, with Lt. Col. Rick Lehner, a spokesman for the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, telling the Times that, “Just because it is made public doesn’t mean it’s declassified.”
Source:
M.I.T. Physicist Says Pentagon Is Trying to Silence Him. James Dao, The New York Times, July 27, 2001.