Rumsfeld Asks Congress to Fund Nuclear-Bomb Study

[G_j]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=585&e=2&u=/nm/20050427/sc_nm/arms_usa_nuclear_dc

Rumsfeld Asks Congress to Fund Nuclear-Bomb Study

Wed Apr 27, 4:25 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld pressed Congress on Wednesday to fund research into an earth-penetrating "bunker buster" nuclear bomb that U.S. lawmakers dropped from the budget last year.

"It seems to me studying it makes all the sense in the world," Rumsfeld told a Senate appropriations subcommittee, referring to a nuclear weapon designed to penetrate the earth and then explode. Proponents argue it could be used to demolish hardened and deeply buried enemy targets.

But Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein (news, bio, voting record) of California told Rumsfeld: "It is beyond me as to why you're proceeding with this program when the laws of physics won't allow a missile to be driven deeply enough" to prevent deadly radioactive fallout from spewing into the air after a nuclear detonation.

During the hearing, Rumsfeld assailed critics who were talking about possibly resuming the draft, and said he was tired of hearing about former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki's prediction a month before the invasion that "several hundred thousand" troops would be needed to occupy Iraq.

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