Shays Takes Aim at Bush’s Proposed Missile Defense System
By Justin Hill
WASHINGTON, March 12–Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4th, took aim at fellow Republican President George W. Bush’s proposed missile defense system yesterday during a hearing on combating terrorism and protecting the United States from attack.
“Why would someone send a missile when they can just put it in a suitcase?” Shays-chairman of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans Affairs and International Relations-asked a panel of terrorism experts. “It’s inexcusable for this administration not to recognize that possibility and act on it.”
Shays said that an attack by a weapon of mass destruction is more likely to be launched from a suitcase or a boat than from the air, and the administration needs to take that into account when drafting a homeland defense policy.
Other lawmakers joined in criticizing Bush’s proposed missile defense system, but some experts defended the administration’s proposal.
Former Attorney General Edwin Meese III, who now is co-chairman of the Homeland Security Task Force at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank, called missile defense a top priority. He cited a 1998 study led by Donald H. Rumsfeld before he became Defense Secretary showing that many countries have ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction.
However, Joseph Cirincione, director of the Nonproliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that only China and Russia have the ability today to attack the United States with intercontinental ballistic missiles. Cirincione also said such an attack was highly unlikely.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, the subcommittee’s ranking Democrat, said: “We can’t afford to waste billions of dollars [on a missile defense]รก. No threat assessment exists to justify the spending.”
According to intelligence agencies, it is far likelier that a bomb would be delivered by a truck or a boat than by a ballistic missile.
Meanwhile at the Capitol, a delegation from the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities met with Connecticut’s Democratic Senators Christopher J. Dodd and Joseph I. Lieberman to discuss homeland security issues.
The director of the Connecticut Office of Emergency Management, John Wiltse, said the Constitution State is ready for an attack.
“Connecticut is as prepared, if not more prepared, than any other state,” Wiltse said. “The state of Connecticut is working very hard and very diligently.”
The state, he added, is “very engaged in the process” of getting its share of the $40 billion additional appropriation for homeland defense approved for fiscal year 2002.
Also yesterday, the head of the Office of Homeland Security Tom Ridge said the United States faces “significant risk” of danger, according to a new five-level system to evaluate threats.
Under the new system, the lowest warning status is green, followed by:
- Blue, which signals a general risk, with agencies asked to update procedures for emergency response.
- Yellow, which means there is a significant risk of attack. Surveillance of critical places should be stepped up and some emergency response plans should be implemented.
- Orange, which signifies that the risk of attack is high. The government should coordinate necessary security efforts with armed forces and law enforcement and take more precautions at public events.
- Red, which signals severe risk of an attack. Trained teams may need to be the pre-positioned, and government and public facilities may have to be closed.
The nation, Ridge said, is currently under a yellow alert.
Published in The Hour, in Norwalk, Conn.
