Bush Asks Britain to take "Son of Star Wars" After Central Europe Objects [View All]

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Britain is potential US missile shield base 8/16/2006 11:51:10 PM

- By PTI

London, Aug. 16: The Pentagon is making "discreet inquiries" to find out if Britain would allow it to use the country as a site for its controversial missile defence system, a media report said here on Wednesday. British officials have been quoted in the Times that "discreet inquiries" are being made by American defence planners about whether the government would accept the ten interceptor units, designed to knock out a ballistic missile fired by terrorists or states such as Iran before it reaches the US.

America’s preferred option is to site the interceptors in Poland or the Czech Republic, but opposition within those countries has forced the Pentagon to look again at Britain.

One senior British source said, "a few weeks ago it looked like we were out of the woods on this one. That has changed because Central Europe no longer looks like such an easy option." The prospect will alarm Downing Street because Tony Blair has paid a heavy political price for being seen by voters as too close to US President George W. Bush over the Iraq war and unable to turn down any request from the US, Times said.

Critics of the "son of star wars" system, a scaled-down version of the ambitious plan envisaged by Ronald Reagan in 1980s, say the base for the interceptor units will become a target for America’s enemies and a magnet for terrorists and the host country would receive no protection from the shield. The Pentagon said on Tuesday that it had no plans to place interceptors in Britain, but it is understood that inquiries have been made in Washington at a "sub-ministerial" level.

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