Missile shield hosts ask US: what's in it for us? (Guardian)

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

6.30pm
Missile shield hosts ask US: what's in it for us?

Ian Traynor, Europe editor
Monday April 30, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Poland and the Czech Republic are raising the ante in negotiations
with the Americans, demanding missiles to deploy against Russia and
security and legal guarantees in return for hosting elements of the
US missile shield.

The missile defence programme is splitting Europe and igniting a
new cold war-style clash with the Kremlin, and the demands from
the central Europeans plunge the Pentagon project into greater
uncertainty.

The negotiations, over extending the missile defence project from
California and Alaska to Europe, are expected to be wound up
before the end of the year. The Poles are insisting on US security
guarantees and supplies of Patriot missiles to protect themselves
against a perceived threat from Russia, while the Czechs are
embroiled in discussions over how a US radar base south of Prague
would be safeguarded and what's in it for the Czechs.

As Russia, in the words of a US official, delivers "bloodcurdling"
threats in response to the Pentagon project in central Europe and
unease spirals in Germany, there is also growing frustration in Warsaw
and Prague with what is perceived as a high-handed approach by the
US administration. "We want legal guarantees. I can't go into details
but it is to do with how the base is protected and also about the
base agreement," said a senior Czech official of the proposal for a
radar base south-west of Prague. "Unfortunately the Americans could
have done more to engage the Russians over the past year."

-snip-

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2069128,00.html

[whistle]

1. They get first dibs on incoming nukes

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. but the damned thing has NEVER been tested, many

critical components are not yet created, much less in development, and the thing won't work as designed.

all this is is a huge injection for defense firms.