Friday, 17 September 1999 Washington, DC
1. CTBT: IS THE BIG PUSH NOW COMING FROM HELMS?
The prospect of having the test ban,
which has strong public support, come up
during the election campaign
(WN 10 Sep 99).
seems to have created a role reversal.
Helms, hinting that he has the 34 votes to
kill CTBT right now, is talking about a fast
track with a vote before Congress leaves town
in a few weeks, even though Majority Leader
Trent Lott has been insisting up till now
that the Senate should not rush to judgement
on such an important matter. Now it's the
Clinton Administration that wants to slow
down a little.
2. MORE CTBT: ANOTHER SUSPICIOUS REPORT ABOUT NOVAYA ZEMLYA.
With a vote on CTBT possible,
someone in the intelligence community leaked
another report to the Washington Times about
a suspicious event at the remote Novaya
Zemlya test facility. The last time, you may
recall, the tremor turned out to be in the
ocean
(WN 7 Nov 97).
The Washington Times,
which reported the August `97 "test," now
refers to it as "a rare underwater
earthquake." It's not known when underwater
seismic activity became rare. This week the
Washington Times carried another leaked story
of an "event" at Novaya Zemlya. Maybe it was
a conventional explosion, or an allowed sub-
critical test, or even another "rare
underwater earthquake," but the object is to
imply that we can't verify.
3. BMD: CHINA TESTS MISSILE EQUIPPED WITH BASIC COUNTERMEASURES.
It is now just nine
months until the promised deployment decision
on a National Missile Defense
(WN 12 Feb 99).
But under the current testing schedule, it
will not be known by the promised June 2000
decision date if the system can defeat even
the most basic countermeasures. Now, the CIA
reports that China has already tested its
road-mobile DF-31 missile, equipped with
penetration aids including decoys and chaff.
These are the two most basic countermeasures
and China is expected to share its technology
with rogue states including Iran. Until the
U.S. has tested NMD against such
countermeasures it's difficult to see how the
system can be certified to be
"technologically possible."
4. KANSAS: MOVES UNDERWAY TO COUNTERACT SCHOOL BOARD ACTION.
Linda Holloway, the
head of the Kansas School board that removed
evolution from the curriculum
(WN 13 Aug 99),
says she no longer reads her "insult laden"
e-mail. Maybe she should; a group of
moderate Republicans has targeted her for
defeat in next year's election. Meanwhile,
the chancellor of the University of Kansas
announced formation of a task force on
science literacy in education; there are
moves underway in the legislature to mandate
the teaching of evolution and to limit the
power of the school board. One state
legislator is planning to introduce a bill
that would require students to study
evolution to be eligible for admission to a
state university. That would also have
consequences for students attending private
religious schools.
|
