[A-List] US national security state: strategy of tension

["Keaney Michael" <Michael.Keaney@xxxxxx>]

Rumsfield warns US vulnerable to missile strike
IAN BRUCE
The Herald: 19 August 2002

A CLASSIFIED memo written by Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary,
has warned that US cities and American bases overseas are increasingly
vulnerable to attack by cruise missiles.

More than 80 countries worldwide already deploy the terrain-hugging
weapons, which are designed to fly beneath radar detection heights and
can carry warheads containing anything from nuclear weapons to chemical
and germ-warfare agents.

Mr Rumsfeld's memo notes that, while most of the estimated 70,000 cruise
missiles in global service are naval versions with a range of just 60
miles, the CIA reports that up to two dozen countries will possess
long-range land attack models by 2015.

It also points out that "rogue states" such as Iraq, Iran, or North
Korea, or terrorist networks such as al Qaeda, could easily adapt even
short-range weapons for attacks on US cities from merchant ships.

A Rumsfeld aide said yesterday: "Your car has within it all the
sophisticated electronic technology necessary to feed a little actuator
inside a missile guidance system to make it fly more or less where you
want it to go.

"With a nuclear, chemical, or biological payload, it doesn't have to fly
through a designated window in a particular building to make the point.
Close is good enough for an area target such as a city."

Iraq is already said to have adapted Czech-supplied L-29 trainer
aircraft into remote-controlled drones fitted with spray tanks to
deliver nerve gas or germs.

US defence against cruise attack is patchy and incomplete. The missiles
follow pre-programmed routes using computers to identify way-points such
as hills or other prominent terrain features along the approach to the
target.

They fly at about 500mph, the equivalent speed of a commercial airliner,
and try to stay below 300ft, the effective start of radar coverage
limited by the earth's curvature, to avoid detection.

The Pentagon ordered an emergency study on cruise defence in May and is
now believed to be trying to integrate various land, sea, and
space-based detection systems to provide a comprehensive umbrella to
protect the mainland US.