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UsinG SPACE WEAPONS AGAINST ET CIVILISATIONS SPACE UsING WEAPONS CIVILISATIONS AGAINST The United States government is pushing to deploy weapons in space, but with an alleged covert purpose to fight hostile extraterrestrials. So how sound is this policy and why is there still no official disclosure on UFOs? A Profoundly Important Policy Question for Humanity n one of its first major policy changes after coming into power in the United States in January 2001, the Bush administration signalled its intent to withdraw from the Anti- Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty with Russia. The ABM Treaty had been intended to prevent the deployment of weapons in space, and it enjoyed major international sup- port since its ratification in 1972 by the Nixon administration. In a May 2001 speech, President Bush argued that the 30-year-old ABM Treaty was outdated and that the US must formally move beyond its constraints to deal with new security threats: "We need a new framework that allows us to build missile defenses to counter the different threats of today's world. To do so, we must move beyond the con- straints of the 30-year-old ABM Treaty. This treaty does not recognize the present, or point us to the future. It enshrines the past. No treaty that prevents us from addressing today's threats, that prohibits us from pursuing promising technology to defend ourselves, our friends and our allies, is in our interests or in the interests of world peace."! The Bush administration gave its formal notice to withdraw on December 13, 2001, and promptly withdrew six months later. The Bush administration thus formally embarked on realising some of the goals of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) that had first been promoted by the Reagan administration in March 1983. Reagan had envisaged the development of space-based intercept systems that could be used to destroy large-scale ballistic missile attacks on the United States. Reagan's SDI floundered as the Cold War wound down and the Democrat-controlled US Congress aimed to use the anticipated "peace dividend" to improve social programs. Furthermore, many prominent scientists argued against the cost of developing SDI's futuristic weapons systems. In July 1999, the Clinton administration passed the National Missile Defense Act, calling for a more limited anti-ballistic missile system: "It is the policy of the United States to deploy as soon as is technologically possible an effective National Missile Defense system capable of defending the territory of the United States against limited ballistic missile attack (whether accidental, unauthorized, or deliberate) with funding subject to the annual authorization of appropriations and the annual appropriation of funds for National Missile Defense."* The Bush administration quickly moved towards formally deploying an anti-ballistic missile system as part of the National Missile Defense program. In May 2005, the US Air Force formally requested permission from the Bush adminis- tration for a national security directive so that it could "secure space to protect the nation from attack". The request moved the Bush administration closer to approving the weaponisation of space and sparking an arms race in space with the USA's major strategic competitors, Russia and China. by Michael E. Salla, PhD © 2005 Email: drsalla@exopolitics.org Websites: http:/Avww.exopolitics.org http://www.galacticdiplomacy.com by Michael E. Salla, PhD © 2005 Paul Hellyer and Opposition to the Weaponisation of Space These developments towards deploying weapons in space received a surprising objec- tion when The Honourable Paul Hellyer, a former Canadian defence minister, addressed a UFO conference in Toronto on September 25, 2005, on the weaponisation of space.* He linked the deployment of space weapons not to possible ballistic missile attacks by rogue nations or terrorist groups, but as a means of targeting UFOs piloted by extraterrestrial visitors. For the 82-year-old Hellyer, his speech reaffirmed his longstanding opposition to any governmental efforts to deploy weapons in space. While defence minister in the Lester Email: drsalla@exopolitics.org Websites: http:/Avww.exopolitics.org http://www.galacticdiplomacy.com NEXUS +55 FEBRUARY — MARCH 2006 www.nexusmagazine.com