WHAT'S NEW Friday, 18 Jul 03

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 18 Jul 03   Washington, DC

(Andrew Essin contributed to this issue of What's New.)

NOTE: Nothing in this issue is based on British Intelligence.

1. MISSILE DEFENSE: APS BOOST-PHASE STUDY - IT'S ABOUT TIME.  On 
Tuesday, the APS held a Washington press conference to release a
massive 3-year study of the feasibility of attacking a ballistic
missile while its rockets are still firing - the first layer of
the president's missile defense plan.  Rockets may be easy to
spot, but even if it's forty-year old technology, boost phase
only lasts four minutes; newer solid-fuel rockets, maybe three.
Conclusion?  You're not gonna get there in time.  And even if you
could, countermeasures are easy.  In other words, the best boost-
phase interceptor would be obsolete as soon as it's built.  The
study's authors studiously declined to draw policy implications.
What's New is under no such constraint.  As one physicist who
read the report put it, "Even if it would work it wouldn't work,
but it won't work."  A week before release of the APS study, the
Senate slashed funding for boost-phase interceptor development.  

2. PRIVACY: SENATE DROPS "TERRORISM INFORMATION AWARENESS" (TIA).
A provision in the 2004 Defense Appropriations Act prohibits R&D
on the controversial TIA Program ("T" used to stand for "Total"). 
The White House urged the Senate to remove the provision, calling
TIA "a potentially important tool in the war on terrorism."

3. MINI-NUKES: THE HOUSE DOES A LITTLE CUTTING TOO.  The House
Energy and Water Development Subcommittee unexpectedly denied
funding intended to start design work on small nuclear weapons.
As the notorious Nuclear Posture Review made clear (WN 15 Mar
02), the real goal of mini-nukes is to blur the distinction
between conventional and nuclear weapons and hence to lower the
psychological barriers to proliferation.  Subcommittee Chair
David Hobson (R-OH) did not cite those problems, making instead
the point that we have lots of nuclear weapons already and that
it would be worth our while to maintain the stockpile. 

4. WHITE HOUSE: PRESIDENT BUSH IS A HARD MAN TO REACH.  The New
York Times reported this morning that e-mailing the President is
not a straightforward process.  So we tried it - it took more than
half an hour for the most e-literate of the WN staff to navigate
through the various Web forms to send a science-policy comment.
We would just like to point out that, while we not only care what
you think about us, you can e-mail us easily at [email protected].

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND and THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY.  
Opinions are the author's and are not necessarily shared by the
University or the American Physical Society, but they should be.
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