Insight

•

Remember
When • • •

Not Giving Up

From the pages of The Jewish News
for this week 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50
years ago.

Whistleblower and ally tell group that U.S. missile program won't work.

1990

A

"TRW, as a subcontractor, was supposed to develop the sen-
sor
technology for Boeing, the national missile-defense con-
Staff Writer
tractor, which was selling the technology to the governme' :,"
s a senior engineer for a major defense contractor she said. "But TRW also played the role of system engineer,"
in effect evaluating itself, and looking for only good results.
in 1996, Dr. Nira Schwartz found major flaws in
"What I saw were engineers playing computer games,
a proposed $60 billion U.S. missile system.
engineers filing false reports to the government," she said
Instead of thanks, Schwartz of Torrance,
angrily. And the government employees reading the reports
Calif., was fired.
were not knowledgeable enough in this area to understand.
Speaking to a rapt audience of nearly 150 members of a
"What is the quality of the national missile defense, if a $50
women's political action group in Southfield on Aug. 21,
device (such as a Mylar balloon) that I can put on a
Schwartz, and her best ally, a Massachusetts Institute of
deployed object can confuse it?"
Technology professor, spoke of government cor-
Schwartz emigrated from Israel in 1984, earn-
ruption, altered data and a testing system
ing there a master's of science degree from Bar-
allowed to thrive unchecked.
Ilan University in Ramat Gan and a doctorate
The program was sponsored by Metro Detroit
from Tel Aviv University. She owns 20 patents and
Women's Action for New Directions, also known
patents pending, including for missile location
as WAND.
systems and electron microscope components.
While Schwartz detailed why she was fired
"I filed a whistleblower court case, and spent
from her post at TRW in 1996, Dr. Theodore A.
over 4,600 hours analyzing test report data, and
Postal, a physicist, explained to the audience
created over 11 reports showing how the project
what's wrong with the missile system.
will not work," she said. "I pleaded with the
According to Postal, the National Missile
Dr. Nira Schwartz
Department of Justice to stop spending $140 mil-
Defense system (NMD), formerly known as Star
lion on each test. Their answer was, 'It's too late,
Wars, will send a land-based missile — a kill
the machine is already rolling.'"
vehicle — to destroy an incoming missile in near
When she talked to Army brass in Huntsville,
space by using infrared sensors to distinguish war-
Ala., "I was told that I am taking [away] the food
heads from decoys that an enemy might deploy.
of American families, since the national missile
Initially, 25 missile interceptors will be based
defense project was not intended to work — it
in Alaska by 2005, at a cost of $30 billion.
was just welfare for the aerospace industry."
In the simplest terms that a former scientific
Fhe also said she felt abandoned by the DOJ,
adviser who helped develop the Trident II missile
which had agreed to intervene on her behalf.
could use, Postal said the system operates at very
"The load has fallen on me. I was there, I saw
high altitudes in the near vacuum of space where
the corruption, it went all the way up, and every
light and heavy objects travel at the same rate. A
effort of mine to bring this to justice is a big fight
Mylar balloon, acting as a decoy, could travel at
against government," she said, imploring the crowd to con-
the same rate and be confused with an enemy warhead.
tact their representatives in Congress. Schwartz said she
"When you look at the laws of physics that govern the
wants the support of all 50 state attorneys general to "join
behavior of materials, you can make a very sound argument
her case" when it starts in September.
that this defense system cannot work" because the kill vehicle
She has been unemployed since her termination in 1996,
can't distinguish the target, he told the WAND members
but
will not accept money for appearances.
gathered in a crowded room at the Southfield Public Library.
"I
care for my nation free of charge," she said.
"I'm not talking about technology, or building a better
Postal referred to Schwartz as a hero, calling her "some-
sensor or interceptor," Postal said, "It's fundamental science.
body who's really held the line under very significant
This type of system is impractical and won't work."
adverse conditions.
Postal also claimed that the NMD will destabilize rela-
"The important thing to remember is that this country
tions with other countries that see the system as a violation
did not become the great economic machine it has become
of the 1972 ABM (Anti-ballistic Missile) Treaty with Russia.
by lying about the capabilities of science and technology,"
Schwartz was employed by TRW in 1995 and 1996, and
Postal said. "By ignoring the truth, we run the same risk
had U.S. government secret clearance from 1996-1999. She
that the Soviet Union paid for. The Soviet Union was filled
said she challenged test results of the kill vehicle's perform-
with phony science and phony ideas of all kinds, and it col-
ance and the company's claim that the success rate was 94
lapsed under its own weight.
percent, when she calculated it at 10 percent.
"As rich and powerful as we are, we could be laying the
Schwartz tried to explain why this information would
seeds for our own disaster." ❑
get her fired.

HARRY KI RS BAUM

The Jewish Community Center
broke ground for an art wing to be
built in the name of the late artist
Janice Charach Epstein.
Despite Jewish protests, leaders
of the two German states signed a
unification treaty that makes no
mention of the Nazi era and the
moral debt to its victims.
Reuben Rotman was named to
fill a vacancy in the planning
department of the Detroit Jewish
Welfare Federation.

1980

A federal district judge revoked
the U.S. citizenship of Romanian
Archbishop Valerian Trifa.
The J.L. Hudson Company con-
tributed $5,000 to the 1980 Allied
Jewish Campaign in Detroit.

1970

Israel demanded the immediate
return of two seriously injured
Israeli pilots held captive in Egypt.
Mrs. Seymour Bell has been
appointed new director of the reli-
gious school at Temple Beth Jacob
in Pontiac.
The Eighth Field Army Support
Command in Yongsan, Korea, has a
new kosher kitchen.

1960

Israelis and Arabs participated
jointly for the first time in the
annual students' seminar in Rome.
The Soviet Union will help the
United Arab Republic build a ship-
yard in Alexandria.
Thirty summer resorts in the
Province of Ontario indicated "dis-
criminatory practices" against
would-be Jewish guests.

Protestant students at Humboldt
University and Technical College in
Berlin have volunteered to help in
the restoration of desecrated Jewish
cemeteries.
Plans were announced to open an
Israeli consulate in Nicosia, Cyprus.

— Compiled by Sy Manello,
editorial assistant

9/1
2000

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