The international anti-nuclear and environmental organisation Greenpeace announced today that the SV Rainbow Warrior has set sail from Auckland, New Zealand for the Pacific Star Wars test site, to protest at the next scheduled test of the system and to call on U.S. President George W Bush to scrap the programme.
The SV Rainbow Warrior is sailing to the US Army Missile Testing Range at Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands, where the launch site is located for the so called "kill vehicle" - a missile intended to intercept a simulated enemy missile fired from the Vandenberg US Air Force Base in California.
The next test is scheduled for sometime between March and June. The SV Rainbow Warrior will arrive in the Marshall Islands mid-March. Two of the three previous tests have failed and questions have been raised over the one that the US military claims did succeed (1).
The decision to send the Rainbow Warrior to the Star Wars test site comes at a critical point. U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is currently reviewing the programme and will report to the President in late March.
Many US allies have already expressed major concern about Star Wars proposals and the Bush administration is engaged in a diplomatic offensive to persuade European allies to accept their plans.
Greenpeace Disarmament Campaigner, William Peden said,
"Star Wars will not protect the American people or its allies. In fact it will destroy all current and future nuclear arms control and disarmament agreements. The only beneficiaries of Star Wars will be the defence contractors."
"Just as Greenpeace campaigned against nuclear testing in the Pacific, Greenpeace is campaigning against the testing of the Star Wars system; a system which threatens to ignite a new nuclear arms race and greatly increase the risk of nuclear war."
When the SV Rainbow Warrior arrives in the Marshall Islands Greenpeace will seek meetings with Marshallese leaders, the Kwajalein Missile Range commander and will hold open days to discuss the Greenpeace campaign and the threat Star Wars poses to achieving a world free of nuclear weapons.
"We are sailing the Rainbow Warrior to the heart of the Star Wars testing programme to call for the immediate cessation of US Star Wars plans. Greenpeace has worked to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons since it was founded thirty years ago,"
Peden continued, "The Rainbow Warrior has a long history in our campaign to stop nuclear testing. Its predecessor was blown up by the French in July 1985 as it was preparing to sail to the French nuclear testing nuclear test site in the Pacific."
Notes to editors: (1) The star wars project has failed two of its first three "hit-to-kill" tests in which an interceptor is supposed to destroy a mock nuclear warhead in mid-flight. The one successful attempt is mired in controversy. Dr. Nira Schwartz, a senior researcher at TRW, responsible for the system's command, control and communication systems, has filed suit against the company alleging she was fired for refusing to falsify research findings on whether a Star Wars interceptor can distinguish between a decoy and a nuclear warhead. Dr Theodore Postol of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who conducted the only scientific analysis of test data wrote a letter to the White House charging "criminal fraud" in the Star Wars testing program. He went on to show the test series now underway has been "dumbed down", making it much easier for an intercept to take place. Even with less demanding tests the last July 8th attempt was an abject failure. After the test was delayed twice, (an incident which would obviously sabotage success in the case of a real attack) the "kill vehicle" failed to separate from the interceptor booster rocket and its sensors were never activated.
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Greenpeace press office: 020 7865 8225
