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U.S. to pre-announce missile tests,(with a loophole clause)

The United States … will provide pre-launch notification of commercial and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) space launches as well as the majority of intercontinental ballistic and submarine-launched ballistic missile launches.

Obama decides to unilaterally announce secret U.S. missile tests, satellite launches  Los Angeles Times, 21 May 2010, President Obama has decided to pre-announce to the world once-secret American ballistic missile tests and satellite launches.The Democratic administration’s goal is to show a friendlier face to other countries and to coax Russia to do the same.

It’s part of a confidence-boosting initiative launched, so to speak, last fall when Obama suddenly abandoned the U.S. missile-defense system in Eastern Europe that had exercised the Russians, though it was aimed at potential future missiles from Iran.

Obama hoped such a unilateral U.S. forfeiture would encourage Russia to put pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear weapons development. So far no good on that.Of course, the point of secret tests by any state in an insecure, suspicious world is to deny advance notice to potential enemies, making it more difficult if not impossible for them to gain intelligence by monitoring the tests themselves.

According to George Jahn of the Associated Press, a confidential U.S. note sent to 128 other countries two weeks ago said:

The United States … will provide pre-launch notification of commercial and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) space launches as well as the majority of intercontinental ballistic and submarine-launched ballistic missile launches.

Security experts note that Obama left himself some wiggle room by using the phrase “majority of intercontinental and submarine-launched ballistic missile launches,” many of which depart from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the California coast. Obama decides to unilaterally announce secret U.S. missile tests, satellite launches | Top of the Ticket | Los Angeles Times

May 22, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, weapons and war | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear weapons