I suggested the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, signed by nations all over the world -- including the U.S. -- "be strengthened to ban all weapons in space." It simply prohibits weapons of mass destruction. "Verification mechanisms should be added," I said. "And space be kept for peace." http://www.space4peace.org/articles/parliament.htm
The rapid boil that the push for space weaponry was on during the Bush administration returned to a low boil with Obama. However, from the outset, it wasn't full opposition. Moments after Obama was sworn in in 2009, the White House website displayed a policy statement about the new administration seeking a "worldwide ban on weapons that interfere with military and commercial satellites." This was widely interpreted as meaning an end to U.S. efforts to place weapons in space. As Reuters reported: "President Barack Obama's pledge to seek a worldwide ban on weapons in space marks a dramatic shift in U.S. policy." http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-obama-space-idUSTRE50O15X20090125
But the statement was soon removed from the website and attributed to a junior staffer.
Professor Jack Manno of the State University of New York/Environmental Science and Forestry College, wrote in his book, Arming the Heavens: The Hidden Military Agenda for Space, 1945-1995: " Many of the early space war schemes were dreamt up by scientists working for the German military, scientists who brought their rockets and their ideas to America after the war."
"It was like a professional sports draft," relates Manno. Nearly 1,000 of these scientists were brought to the U.S., "many of whom later rose to positions of power in the U.S. military, NASA, and the aerospace industry."
Among them were "Wernher von Braun and his V-2 colleagues" who began "working on rockets for the U.S. Army," and at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville "were given the task of producing an intermediate-range ballistic range missile to carry battlefield atomic weapons up to 200 miles. The Germans produced a modified V-2 renamed the Redstone. Huntsville began to become a major center of U.S. space military activities."
It still is.
Manno in his 1984 book wrote: "The real tragedy of an arms race in space will not be so much the weapons that evolve -- they can hardly be worse than what we already have -- but that by extending and accelerating the arms race into the twenty-first century the chance will have been lost to move toward a secure and peaceful world. Even if militarists succeed in arming the heavens and gaining superiority over potential enemies, by the 21st century the technology of terrorism -- chemical, bacteriological, genetic and psychological weapons and portable nuclear bombs -- will prolong the anxiety of constant insecurity. Only by eliminating the sources of international tension through cooperation and common development can any kind of national security be achieved in the next century. Space, an intrinsically international environment, could provide the opportunity for the beginning of such development."
For my Weapons in Space, Manno said in 2001 that "control over the earth" is what those who want to weaponize space seek. He said the Nazi scientists are an important "historical and technical link, and also an ideological link".The aim is to "have the capacity to carry out global warfare, including weapons systems that reside in space."
And now a Trump administration is ahead. And so is the likely arming of the heavens -- unless we stop it, and we must. Connect with the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space at http://www.space4peace.org/
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