The New York Times is reporting a nuclear missile defense site could be a reality within two years. Pentagon officials claim they have had four successful tests in a row, and say they are on track to open a working a star wars site in Alaska by October 2004.

Meanwhile, a Pentagon report leaked a few weeks ago revealed the Pentagon is calling for nuclear weapons labs to design new and smaller nuclear bombs that could destroy underground bunkers. The Pentagon says these “mini-nukes” would reduce civilian casualties. But scientists say they would kill tens of thousands of civilians, and that developing the new weapons would also cause a new nuclear arms race. The report also revealed the Pentagon has been ordered to draft contingency plans for using nuclear weapons against at least seven countries, including Russia, China, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Libya and Syria.

Well, a new book is revealing some shocking facts about Washington’s willingness to press the nuclear button in the moments after the September 11 attacks. As Helen Caldicott writes in ??The New Nuclear Danger, the Defense Department was dangerously close to a nuclear launch on 9/11. With the majority of the American public in the dark, the Defense Department went on Defcon 2, its second-highest alert. That means the US was ready to launch thousands of weapons with only three minutes’ decision time.

Guest:

• Dr. Helen Caldicott, writer, physician and leading anti-nuclear activist. She is the founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, and a nominee for the Nobel Prize. In addition to her most recent book, the ??New Nuclear Danger, Caldicott is the author of such works as ??Nuclear Madness and ??Missile Envy.

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