Speaking before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Cohen declined to reveal his recommendation on the National Missile Defense (NMD) system being evaluated by Washington, but gave a bleak assessment of the threats the United States faces in the post-Cold War world.

"I cannot think of a more important issue to address than protecting the American people from the threat posed by states such as North Korea, Iran and Iraq, who are seeking to acquire nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and the long-range missiles to deliver them," Cohen said.

Cohen will make an official recommendation to President Bill Clinton in the coming weeks on whether to proceed with the 60 billion dollar missile defense program.

Cohen emphasized that designing a defense system against missiles from those states "does not depend on a judgement that their leaders are utterly indifferent to the prospect of retaliation.

"Rather it is based on a recognition that leaders of these isolated states might be prepared to use (weapons of mass destruction) attacks -- and risk retaliation - in circumstances where more traditional, or at least more cautious leaders, would not."

Cohen portrayed a scenario in which a leader like Iraq's Saddam Hussein would blackmail the United States by threatening to launch a missile against a US city.

During the Cold War, US officials knew how the Soviets would react, Cohen said. But the current crop of leaders is unpredictable, he added.

Senators questioned Cohen on everything from the technical viability of shooting down an enemy intercontinental ballistic missile with a friendly missile, to the speed at which such a program can be deployed.

Senators were overwhelmingly sympathetic towards Cohen's message, but even NMD supporters like Republican John Warner noted that the program must proceed with caution.

The NMD program "raises an unprecedented number of political, ideological and diplomatic issues," Warner said.

Democratic Senator Robert Byrd noted that this is an election year, "and no one wants to be accused of being soft on defense."

"It's clear to me that we are no where near" the deployment stage, said Byrd, who refered to the NMD's "dismal track record."

However "if we rush through to meet an artificial deadline, we risk ... ultimate failure," Byrd said.

Cohen admitted that the NMD was "a high-risk program" that is going forward at a fast pace due to the determination that the missile threat to the United States has increased.

Cohen also emphasized that the system, as it is currently designed, depends on support from US allies, especially to deploy radars close to potential dangerous countries.

The forward deployed radar system "is critical," Cohen said, adding that the system as is currently designed cannot be effective without it. "It is in our interest and their interest" to support the NMD, he said.

Cohen promised to the senators that he will take into consideration any diplomatic breakthroughs, such as the warming of relations between North and South Korea, when filing his reccomendation to the president.

However Republican Senator Strom Thurmond described recent North Korean overtures to abandon their intercontinental ballistic missile project in exchange for aid for its space program as "a Chinese and North Korean plot."

SPACEWAR.COM
NKorea Missile Offer "Needs Clarification": Says Cohen
Washington (AFP) July 24, 2000 - Reports that North Korea would abandon its missile development program in exchange for access to space rocket technology "require a great deal more clarification," US Secretary of Defense William Cohen said on Monday.