US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday that the new missile defense system planned for Europe has the flexibility to adapt to changes in Iranian missile capabilities even if US intelligence about Tehran’s pace of development proves wrong.
US President Barack Obama’s decision to scrap the previous administration’s missile intercept system in Europe was based largely on a new US intelligence assessment that Iran’s effort to build a nuclear-capable, long-range missile would take three years to five years longer than originally thought, officials said earlier.
Gates, a former CIA director, said that even if Iran moves more quickly on its long-range missile program, the revised program will have the flexibility to deal more quickly and effectively with the change.
“We actually are better able to deal with a changed situation, in which the intelligence assessments are wrong, with the new architecture than we were with the old one,” Gates told reporters.
The new assessment asserts Iran is unlikely to have a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) until 2015 to 2020, a US government official familiar with the report said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the report remains classified.
It is the second time in two years that US intelligence has revised downward the threat posed by Iran’s weapons programs.
Obama abruptly canceled on Thursday a long-planned missile shield for Eastern Europe, replacing the Bush-era project that was strongly opposed by Russia with a plan the president contended would defend better against a growing threat of Iranian missiles.
The US no longer will seek to erect a missile base and radar site in Poland and the Czech Republic, virtually on Russia’s doorstep. Former US president George W. Bush contended that the missile base was needed to shoot down any Iranian missile — if it ever developed one with adequate range to threaten the US or Europe. The US already has a similar missile site and radar in Alaska.
Previous intelligence assessed that Iran would have an ICBM capable of menacing Europe and the US between 2012 and 2015, another US government official said.
The assessment changed because Iran has not been conducting the kind of observable development and testing that would be expected to accompany a robust long-range missile program, the second official said.
The new assessment is contained in a classified May 2009 National Intelligence Estimate. The secret report is called Foreign Ballistic Missile Development and Threat Through 2020.
National Intelligence Estimates contain the consensus judgment of all 16 US intelligence agencies about critical national security issues.
Thomas Fingar, former chairman of the National Intelligence Council, said Iran’s progress, or lack thereof, on its ballistic missile program can be observed easily.
“There’s been a lot of testing. They learned from the tests and we learned from the tests,” Fingar said.
Fingar, who spearheaded the controversial 2007 national intelligence estimate that disclosed Iran had halted its nuclear weapon design work in 2003, was not privy to the new intelligence.
But he said Iran may be working on short-range missiles because they are easier to build than large, long-range missiles, and lessons learned in their development can be applied to larger missiles.
He also said Iran may not be aggressively pursuing an ICBM because it has discerned its most likely adversaries are in the region, so shorter missiles have more immediate utility for offensive attacks or deterrence.
The new Obama plan would deploy systems designed to shoot down short and medium-range missiles, with construction in phases to begin around 2011. Systems to counter longer-range missiles would be in place around 2020.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including