US turns back to Britain as its base for Son of Star Wars

[spindrifter]

The Times August 16, 2006

From Tom Baldwin in Washington

THE Pentagon is turning to Britain once again as a site for its controversial missile defence system, The Times has learnt.

British officials have said 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.

The prospect will alarm Downing Street because Tony Blair has paid a heavy political price for being seen by voters as too close to George Bush over the Iraq war and unable to turn down any request from the US. 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.”

Critics of the so-called Son of Star Wars system, a scaled-down version of the ambitious plan envisaged by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, say that the base for the interceptor units will inevitably become a target for America’s enemies and a magnet for terrorists and the host country would receive no protection from the shield.

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2315036,00.html