Physicists dispute U.S. shield claims

Six top U.S.-based scientists have concluded that a planned U.S. missile defense system with interceptors in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic could target and stop Russian missiles, thus threatening Moscow’s nuclear deterrent. That view backs Russia’s criticism of the system.

The Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency rejects the scientists’ assessments, saying their analyses are flawed.

The U.S. says the missile system is intended to counter Iran and could not take out Russian missiles.

But the physicists said in interviews that Russia’s concerns were justified. They are Theodore Postol, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; George Lewis of the Peace Studies Program at Cornell University; Pavel Podvig of Stanford University; Richard Garwin, a National Science Award winner; Philip Coyle, a former associate director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; and David Wright, a physicist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

From Times Wire Reports