New Zealand:  Auckland Man Building Cruise Missile Inside Garage

By David McGlinchey
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — Missile experts yesterday said a New Zealand man’s efforts to illustrate the dangers of low-cost cruise missiles were at best “unhelpful” and at worst in possible violation of an international nonproliferation agreement.

In May 2002, Auckland-based Internet technology journalist Bruce Simpson wrote an article claiming that an effective cruise missile could be built using readily available and inexpensive materials.  He received extensive feedback, some from doubters who said he underestimated the difficulty of such a project.

Simpson decided to prove the skeptics wrong by building a cruise missile in his garage for less than $5,000.  He is publishing his work on a Web site and says the project is progressing well.

The missile is on budget and only six weeks away from testing, although Simpson will need cooperation and clearance from the New Zealand Air Force before a test flight, he said.

Simpson is attempting to build a missile that can travel at least 100 miles, carry a payload of 22 pounds and be launched from the bed of a pickup truck.  The components, including the Global Positioning System and the missile’s fiberglass body, were bought from commercial retailers.  The parts that came from outside New Zealand were shipped and passed through customs without incident or question.

The system may seem tailor-made for terrorists, but that is the point Simpson said he is trying to make.  He said that if he can build a missile, a determined and well-financed terrorist organization could build it better.

“My big concern right now is that if someone doesn’t demonstrate the capabilities of a low-cost cruise missile in a benign manner, then the first demonstration may be performed by a terrorist,” Simpson said in response to written questions from Global Security Newswire.

He said the government must raise awareness of potential threats so the public can be alert for suspicious activity.

“The price of freedom is vigilance, and without the practical proof that it could be done, who would have believed that your new neighbor could be building a ‘terror weapon’ in their garage,” Simpson wrote on his Web site.

Helping Terrorists

Simpson’s claim that he is not helping terrorists is “very dubious,” according to Richard Speier, a former U.S. Defense Department official who was involved in creating the Missile Technology Control Regime, a system of internationally agreed controls on missile technology transfers.

“He’s doing a lot of research and development for them. On the other hand maybe he’ll point out some loopholes that can be closed, but it would be better if he wasn’t doing it in the public domain,” Speier said.

Some New Zealand government officials are also uneasy with Simpson’s work.  The New Zealand Herald reported yesterday that a government official was concerned the missile could violate the MTCR.

Although his Internet postings provide a detailed explanation of the progressing missile, Simpson said the project is most likely not in violation of the missile technology restrictions, which New Zealand adheres to.

“Virtually all the information I’m publishing is already available on the net or elsewhere in the public domain.  One could ask whether any number of encyclopedias or reference books violate the MTCR by publishing diagrams of missiles, the recipe for gunpowder and other similar information,” Simpson told GSN.

Unless the missile was exported or officials decided Simpson wanted to arm it with chemical or biological weapons, the MTCR would not apply, according to Speier.  He was nevertheless unhappy with the project, however, calling the detailed Internet postings “most unhelpful.”

“This is something to be concerned about it … it is very much of a biological delivery threat.  Cruise missiles are the best way to deliver BW [biological weapons], much more efficient than ballistic missile.  It is a very, very dangerous system,” Speier said.

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China:  Beijing Denies U.S. Missile Export Charges

China criticized Friday the U.S. decision to impose sanctions on the state-owned North China Industries Corporation (Norinco) for allegedly aiding Iran’s ballistic missile efforts (see GSN, May 24).

The sanctions, which took effect May 9, prohibit Norinco from entering into contracts with the United States or importing goods into the country for two years.  In addition, the U.S. State Department has also suspended all defense-related export licenses for the company.

“The United States is imposing its national policies on others, and the implementation of sanctions is entirely unreasonable,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

In its statement, the ministry said that Chinese missile-related export controls were being effectively enforced and denied that Norinco had aided the Iranian missile program (see GSN, Sept. 3, 2002).

“The Chinese government has consistently carried out measures to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction and the means of delivering them, and opposes any method used by any organization to engage in their spread,” the ministry said.  “The related Norinco company has not supplied any assistance to the relevant project in Iran,” it said (John Pomfret, Washington Post, May 24).

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