A reader notes that, among the FBI documents related to domestic surveillance the ACLU obtained, one document details surveillance of a protest, planned by Los Angeles Catholic Worker, of a 2001 test of what was then called the National Missile Defense (NMD) System.
The FBI imagined that Catholic Worker and other groups might attempt to “launch powered parachutes and hover over the missile silo” among other strange ideas to delay the test, causing serious damage to the public image of the system:
If NMD is impeded for even one day, it is estimated by the U.S. Air Force that the cost would be approximately $1,000,000. In addition, these launches receive extensive publicity and a delay would cause serious damange to the public image of the NMD system.
Funny, I thought it was all the failed tests that damaged the credibility of the system—isn’t that what the Independent Review Team found?
Check out more photographs from an LA Catholic Worker protest at Vandenberg.