U.S. Environmental Group Tries to Stop Missile Defense System

While the move of Bush administration to build Missile Defense system is gaining speed, the opposition group to MD system is also moving fast.

A coalition of 8 environmental and public interest groups including Green Peace and Natural Resources Defense Council sued the Defense Department in federal court on the 28th to stop the planned construction of Missile Defense system in Alaska. The groups has asked the court to order the Pentagon to refresh environmental study about the impact on the Pacific Ocean region between Alaska, Hawaii, California and the Marshall Islands, insisting the current testing and study is not satisfactory.

David Adelman, a senior Attorney for Natural Resources Defense Council said, ``By its own admission, the Bush administration has radically revised the missile defense program.`` ``It can`t do that without reassessing the potential environmental damage and providing for public comment. Otherwise, it`s breaking the law.``

Along with the NRDC, Melanie Duchin, an Anchorage activist with Green Peace, said, ``President Bush is trying to start star-wars in Alaska, and the proposed testing is immoral as well as illegal.``

Bush administration has planed another testing on October, enjoying the success of Ballistic Missile test on 7.14 in Pacific Ocean; however the domestic and international opposition have made it to hesitate.

``This testing is fabricated.`` - A comment on the July testing by a famous Missile Expert and a MIT professor, Tead Postol who is very critical about the MD system, embarrassed the Pentagon.

Prof. Postol questions the MD system insisting that it is hard to intercept Missile concerning a warhead from disturbance and to develop sophisticated disturbance is better than the MD system. Pentagon asked Charles Best, president of MIT, to confiscate the data of Prof. Postol, but Best refused this, saying all materials are already public.

Meanwhile, Donald Greg, the former U.S. Ambassador said on 28th in a seminar held in Washington that it is wrong to build MD system because of the threat from North Korea.

Han Ki-Heung eligius@donga.com