Senators condemn mystery spy project

[liberalpragmatist]

Intel committee member calls it ‘dangerous to national security’The

Associated Press
Updated: 9:10 p.m. ET Dec. 8, 2004

WASHINGTON - Congress’ new blueprint for U.S. intelligence spending includes a mysterious and expensive spy program that drew extraordinary criticism from leading Democrats, with one saying the highly classified project is a threat to national security.

In an unusual rebuke, Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, complained Wednesday that the spy project was “totally unjustified and very, very wasteful and dangerous to the national security.” He called the program “stunningly expensive.”

<snip>

Each senator — and more than two dozen current and former U.S. officials contacted by The Associated Press — declined to further describe or identify the disputed program, citing its classified nature. Thirteen other senators on the Intelligence Committee and all their counterparts in the House approved the compromise.

<snip>

‘Space Pearl Harbor’
The rare criticisms of a highly secretive project in such a public forum intrigued outside intelligence experts, who said the program was almost certainly a spy satellite system, perhaps with technology to destroy potential attackers. They cited tantalizing hints in Rockefeller’s remarks, such as the program’s enormous expense and its alleged danger to national security.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6682352/

[librechik]

1. I smell Cheney

and his gay daughter, Donald Rumsfeld.

Why does our chimp have no brains?

Does anyone else think it's domestic spying?

[Must_B_Free]

2. Satellite to shoot laser from space to earth

for pinpoint destruction of targets. (potentially human targets).

Next logical step. This is what "going to Mars" is trying to sell.

Whoever controls this would have near god like powers to assassinate.

That's my guess of what it is.

[KeireG]

3. Uh....

what the hell is this??
How do we get more info about this?

[Must_B_Free]

4. Just my guess

We already know the Star Wars missle defense system shoots a laser to blow up incoming missles, and we know that the satellites can see something the size of a soccer ball from space, so why not use it on people?

http://www.sgr.org.uk/ArmsControl/StarWarsNG_NL23.htm

"The answer lies in the Space-Based Laser Integrated Flight Experiment, which forms what George Bush calls the "next generation weaponry"<1> and is at the heart of our campaign against "weapons and nuclear power in space". Part of the 'experiment' is to build a Space-Based Laser Readiness Demonstrator - this is a scaled down version (at an estimated cost of $1.5 billion) of the proposed weapon system which would eventually be deployed for theater ballistic missile defense and as an anti-satellite weapon<2>.

If the SBL IFX is successful, the US Department of Defense will decide whether to deploy a fully operational network of 20-30 laser battle stations giving global coverage. The first launch of an operational system could occur in 2020 and it could take several years to launch the full constellation of spacecraft around Earth. The Pentagon estimates that the total SBL program will cost $30 billion."

[Nihil]

6. Diffusion

Shooting a laser in space is a good idea as there is precious little of
anything between you and your target so the transfer rate of energy used
to energy delivered is very good.

Shooting a laser down at the earth is not a good idea as there are
several miles of unpredictably turbulent atmosphere between you and your
target. This means that a *lot* of the energy is simply lost in transit
so you have to put an incredible amount of energy into the beam to hope
that enough gets to the target to damage it. In addition, the precision
is damaged (can't hit the same sized target through the atmosphere as
you can in space).

Finally, most of the space-mounted lasers that I've read about have
been one-off satellite killers in the Xray spectrum - this is a really
expensive way to attempt to kill someone ... compared to the price of
a bullet ...

Nihil

[lapfog_1]

5. Hollywood already made the movie

"Real Genius" with Val Kilmer... 1985 I think.

It was a comedy... and they killed off the space laser system
by having it miss the target and heat the world's largest jiffy
pop instead.

[Cronus Protagonist]

7. I'm going to install a mirror into my tinfoil hat tonight

Just in case they try to zap me tomorrow. And I'm going to walk in halting zig-zags when I'm out in the open.




http://brainbuttons.com/home.asp?stashid=13
Buttons for brainy people - educate your local freepers today!

[Moderator]

8. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1055832