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Missile Defense

Technology has always found its greatest consumer in a nation's war and defense efforts. Since the last attempts at a "Star Wars" defense system, has technology changed considerably enough to make the latest Missile Defense initiatives more successful? Can such an application of science be successful? Is a militarized space inevitable, necessary or impossible?

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rshow55 - 09:27pm Jun 6, 2002 EST (#2474 of 2477)

Background:

I've been posting on the NYT - Missile Defense forum since September 25, 2000 - - and have assumed that my postings have sometimes been followed by the US government, for reasons I've adresssed in MD1674 rshow55 4/22/02 7:32pm . Some of the Sept 25, 2000 interchange, which at the time I thought was an interaction with Bill Clinton or one of his high officers, is set out from MD1600-MD1605 rshow55 4/21/02 3:18pm .. which includes this:

" I'd be grateful for a chance to come before you, or one or more of your representatives, and explain, in detail, with documentation and ways to check, how dangerous this situation is. Especially if a good reporter, and a videotape record, were there so what was said was clear.

That wasn't the first time I'd made such a request, or similar requests to be "debriefed." Requests have been made through channels that I thought were connected to the government. I've been repeating such requests from time to time.

I did not know that you were at CIA until last week. Had I known that you were there, and such a high officer, I would have called you long ago. I owe you, and many other AEA investors, many apologies, and I'd like to do anything in my power to make some things right. MD2122 rshow55 5/9/02 5:25pm ... I owe you a special, personal apology. In the early 70's, you did everything exactly right as an innovative, careful merchant banker dealing with me. I failed you, and myself, because I did not respond to a fair question. I had an engine in a car operating with perforated plates for controlled flow and mixing mounted between block and cylinder head. You brought down a consulting engineer to look at it. I was invited into your home, and disassembled and reassembled the engine as you and this consultant watched. Later, on a test drive, the consultant asked about some of my other work. I said more than I should have about an interest in differential equations. The consultant asked me to write up what I was doing about differential equations - and I did not do so - and got the lowest possible grade from the consultant as a direct consequence. This recommendation letter from the late Professor S. J. Kline, of Stanford, indicates that I did some work on differential equations at a later time. http://www.wisc.edu/rshowalt/klinerec . The first indented paragraph of MD2116 rshow55 5/9/02 9:34am is relevant to what happened.

There are times when you HAVE to be able to answer questions connected with your work, your background, and the reasons you believe what you believe. After a lot of difficulty, some of which can be documented on the NYT forums, I've come to ask these questions:

" How, given the rules of security laws, and my particular circumstances, am I to live my life? How can I practice any ordinary profession, or talk extensively to anyone - in the ordinary, day-to-day manner people do?

" How can I do these ordinary things - without putting both myself and others at risk? MD2069 rshow55 5/7/02 2:06pm

MD2131 rshow55 5/9/02 8:41pm includes this:

At this stage, if I could get an official response on the classification status of information known to me, that would be progress.

So far as I can see now, it would be progress to get the official situation clarified , whatever the official position was.

(continued)

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New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense