Lost in Space

By Karl Grossman & Judith Long

This article appeared in the June 4, 2001 edition of The Nation.

May 17, 2001

Karl Grossman's latest video is Star Wars Returns, available at www.envirovideo.com.

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This is not a picture from your kid's sci-fi comic. It's an illustration from a report by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's Space Commission. The report advocates circumventing the intent of international laws (notably, the Outer Space Treaty of 1967) that seek to keep space free from war and urges that the President "have the option to deploy weapons in space." National Missile Defense, begun as Star Wars under Reagan, is just one layer of this much larger scheme to "control" space and "dominate" the earth, in the words of the report. "The United States is seeking to turn space into a war zone," maintains the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space (www.space4peace.org). To read the entire Space Commission report go to www.defenselink.mil/pubs/spacechapter2.pdf.

About Karl Grossman

Karl Grossman is the author of the forthcoming Weapons in Space (Seven Stories) and the new TV documentary Star Wars Returns (EnviroVideo 800-ECO-TV46). more...

About Judith Long

Judith Long is The Nation's copy editor. more...
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