U.S. DISCOUNTS THREAT OF SOVIET ANTIMISSILE BEAM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP95B00915R001000510016-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 22, 2003
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: May 3, 1977
• Content Type: NSPR

.ONPAG. __ Z AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY
Approved #9Rs92'0'03/06/20 : CIA-RDP95B005R001000510016-1
Oil Deeper, immy!
The story on Soviet developments in applying new
high-energy physics technology to directed-energy
weapons research in last week's issue of AVIATION
WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY has produced the stan-
dard crop of official denials (see p. 13).
"This-sounds like the stuff we put out right after
Sputnik," one Pentagon veteran noted after phoning
us the text of the official Defense Dept. statement.
However, there is a thinner web of ambiguity in these
statements than usual and heavier use of the old
technique of denying statements we never made and
that cannot be found in our text.
The resultant international daily newspaper, radio
and television coverage of the AVIATION WEEK story
also finally introduced President Carter to the
subject. This was one of our motives in disclosing the
story at this time. However, it is apparent from his
response that his acquaintance with the subject is
extremely recent and his initial briefers were less than
complete. President Carter stated in his reply to a
question from David Broder of the Washington Post
(see page 13) that the "report is based on some
inaccuracies." Obviously, President Carter's briefers
did not tell him that the AVIATION WEEK story had
been offered to the appropriate Pentagon officials for
review for both accuracy and security well before
publication. Some changes were requested by the
Pentagon on security and some, but not all, were
made. None was requested on accuracy.
So in all fairness, we challenge President Carter to
produce the specifics on his alleged inaccuracies. We
will be glad to print them, and we suspect that the rest
of the American press will do likewise. If we are
wrong, we will so acknowledge. We do this routinely
in the pages of this magazine in a box clearly labeled
"Correction." But if President Carter is wrong, he
owes it to the American people to say so and not hide
behind the awesome facade of his office to issue
indefensible generalities. The American people have
an
g rssmger issued ouieiat
However, we also suggest that President Carter, denials. Subsequent investigation showed that in fact
with his stated high moral purpose and his demon-
seven basic alterations were made to the data
strated ability to probe deeply into the energy maze submitted to McDonnell Douglas by the CIA. With
and the welfare mess, dig far deeper than the access to all of the available Backfire data, MCDon=
National Security Council briefings to find out the nell Douglas subsequently did another study that
truth of what is now transpiring in high-energy clearly documented the Backfire's intercontinental
physics technology, both in the Soviet Union and this capability and verified four previous studies done by
country; listen to all sides of the vigorous subterra- the Royal Air Ferce, Boeing, Rockwell and General
nean debate now being waged in scientific-military Dynamics without the CIA data selection.
circles, and above all spend some time with the So'President Carter has ample ground to be skep-
brilliant young physicists who are upsetting the tradi- tical of his official intelligence bureaucracy. With a
tions of their elders. Then he should judge for himself trusted friend and military scholar now at the helm
what import all this has for the future of this nation of the CIA, his task in penetrating the bureaucratic
and the world. mush could be. more successful. But he must make an
As we noted in our original story on the subject, the extraordinary effort to get through this maze of
Soviets are still years away from turning their current obfuscation whose record of error and failure is a
test developments into a usable weapon. President national disgrace and a continuing danger to this
Carter still has time to penetrate the cloak of official nation. So we urge President Carter to dig deep in
secrecy that has wrapped these developments and search of the facts on which to base his judgment. If
determine for himself what n' sit a d~ggge~~ Fhak 139Pit5i~?.0'F00650b~'igofinfronted
time remaining befd~'L~R~iP -eoi a p6~e TO ii'e7 a with t o disaster of nuclear blackmail,
directed-energy weapon. How deeply he penetrates to o sa_. u~~, {
ng
position. CIA
had enough of this from his predecessors. Director Geor e Bush
d K"
the factual grass roots of this astonishing technical
turn of events will determine a great deal about the
future of the world. He still has time, but whether he
will use it wisely is the question the American people
must ask.
President Carter is not the first American president
to be screened from vital technical developments by
the post-war security bureaucracy that grew up in the
hierarchies of the Central Intelligence Agency and
Defense Intelligence Agency, where everything was
squeezed down to the lowest common denominator
through the agreed national intelligence estimates.
Twenty years ago we fulminated on these pages at
President Eisenhower because he was ignoring the
intelligence gathered by the U. S. radars in Turkey on
the growing scope and pace of the initial Soviet
ballistic missile development, and we broke the story
of that radar operation to prove that the threat was
real. After the storm subsided, we found that in fact
President Eisenhower had not been told of the radar-
gathered intelligence on the initiative of his national
security adviser, Bobby Cutler of Boston. He learned
about it only when the daily newspapers front-paged
the AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY Turkish
radar story. Bobby Cutler's excuse was that he did not
wish to disturb the President with bad news after his
heart attack. What the then Defense Secretary "En-
gine Charlie" Wilson's excuse was for slashing U. S.
missile development in the face of this intelligence he
never disclosed, but U. S. policy changed, missile
development accelerated and the Soviets were tempo-
rarily left far behind.
More recently, President Ford was given perform-
ance data based on deliberately selective intelligence
on the Soviet Backfire bomber to bolster Henry
Kissinger's preconceived SALT 2 position. Then we
noted that the Backfire data had been altered in
several aspects for the CIA study designed to reduce
its range to fit Kissi
-SALT
 3 May 19 77
U.S. Discou-n
Threat of Soviet .
Antimissile Beam
The possibility that the Soviet..Un-
ion `has achieved a breakthrough'.': in
directing an energy beam to destroy
missiles `is considered remote," the
Pentagon said yesterday.
Thomas B. Ross, assistant secretary
of defense for public affairs, issued
that statement in response to an Avia-
tion Week & Space Technology maga-
zine story which said the Soviets are
far along in developing a beam of
charged particles to destroy missiles
and "are preparing to test" an anti-
satellite laser in space.
"U.S. officials are coming to a con-
elusion that a decisive turn in the bal-
ance of stratetic power- is in. themak
ing," the magazine said in its May 2
issue, "wvhich could tip that balance
heavily in the Soviets'' favor through,
charged-particle beam development
and the development of .energetic
strategic laser weapons."
The magazine did not, name any
U.S. officials who had come to.. that
conclusion. Editor Robert.Hotz, in an
introductory editorial, said that re-
cently retired Air Force intelligence chief Maj. Gen. George J: Keegan; Jr?.
had helped verify Soviet advances in
"a directed-energy beam weapon
Keegan has been sounding ; the
alarm in numerous public. appear-
ances since leaving the Air : Force
about the Soviet military threat; in-`^
eluding beam technology. Aviation
Week & Space Technology said the.'
Central Intelligence Agency had. re
jected Keegan's conclusion, presented.
while in office, that Soviet ."beam,,,!
weapons development is evident."
Ross, after checking yesterdaywith-1
Defense Secretary Harold Brown,.said ?{
in his statement:.
"Senior officials of the Department
of Defense do not believe that the So-
viet Union has achieved` a break-
through in research which could soon
provide a directed energy beam
weapon capable of neutralizing ballis-
tic missile weapons. Based on, all. in- .,
formation now available to the U.S.
intelligence community, this possibil-
ity is considered remote."
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