The Physicist Gunning for Star Wars
MIT's Theodore Postol shot down the Patriot's overhyped success in Gulf War I. Now, he's targeting missile defense -- and MIT itself
Theodore A. Postol is a 56-year-old missile scientist who has worked for the military Establishment throughout most of his career. He's also one of its prickliest critics. A tenured physics professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Postol has accused his employer of a coverup regarding the effectiveness of a missile system being designed to protect the U.S. from attack. The accusations are being taken quite seriously and have made Postol unpopular in many quarters.
He's used to controversy, however. So much so that he jokes about being uneasy in the calm surroundings of Stanford University, where he's on sabbatical. "It's too quiet here," grumbles Postol. "I had to call one of my friends at MIT and ask him to curse me out."
Postol, who studies the physics of missile systems, has often been skeptical of Pentagon claims. But he became famous for publicly questioning the dazzling success attributed to Patriot missiles used during the first Gulf War. In 1991, he and a colleague sifted through hours of videotape and produced evidence that most Patriots missed the Scuds fired from Iraq. For years, critics called them everything from uninformed to un-American. But their contention was accepted as fact in the late 1990s by no less than William S. Cohen, then Defense Secretary.
... Not that Postol will be deterred. Colleagues and critics say the burly six-footer is brilliant, tenacious, and extremely confident. And the last time he took on the Pentagon, he won. Now, he's convinced that Defense is wasting tens of billions of taxpayer dollars. Postol argues that the shield could be circumvented by any attacker launching decoys along with a warhead. So far, no system can reliably differentiate between the two -- a flaw he insists would allow missiles to get through.
Even advocates for the shield admit that flaw. But they insist the technology will soon catch up. "It's a problem scientists have to address, and I believe they are doing so," says Baker Spring, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
"WAR PROFITEER." Just as distressing for Postol is the support his employer and alma mater has given the defense system. A report by Lincoln Laboratory validated results of a preliminary test of sensors built by defense contractor TRW in which the system's ability to distinguish a warhead from a decoy was deemed a success. An investigation by the General Accounting Office completed in 2002, however, discovered that the sensor had overheated during the test and provided erroneous readings.
Postol claims MIT merely rubber-stamped TRW's results. "We're acting as a war profiteer, propagating technology we know won't work," he says. And although the controversial TRW sensor has been replaced, Postol argues that MIT's top brass are involved in a coverup.
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