Critics Say Mysterious New U.S. Spy Program Endangers National Cecurity
by Katherine Pfleger Shrader

A U.S. panel in 2001 described U.S. defence and spy satellites as frighteningly vulnerable, saying technology to launch attacks in space is widely available internationally. The study, by a commission whose members included Donald Rumsfeld prior to his appointment as defence secretary for President George W. Bush, concluded the United States is "an attractive candidate for a Space Pearl Harbor."

Sending even defensive satellite weapons into orbit could start an arms race in space, warned John Pike, a defence analyst with GlobalSecurity.org, who has studied anti-satellite weapons for more than three decades. Pike said other countries would inevitably demand proof any weapons were only defensive.

"It would present just absolutely insurmountable verification problems because we are not going to let anybody look at our spy satellites," Pike said.

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