European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 19, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 columns Flora Lewis the stars and stripes sunday january 19,1s86 Public being hoodwinked by Star wars secrecy now comes or. To Dward Teller of nil people to argue i Fin i there is far it much secrecy surrounding Star wars research Anil Mac fuels should be re veil Ltd 10 i he Public. Teller in ardent advocate of it strategic de sense initiative in general Anit the controversial x Ray la r f in Perl ocular Hiis been called the godfather of inc program. Nobody could imagine Hal his complaints about Tua much classification preventing him from answering critics arc intended to under mine in. Official secrecy has become i major Issue among the scientist involved especially As inc adminis tru Ion Jii ii intensified its suits pitch with claims thai successful research is moving very very quickly the ski director . Gen James Abrahmson and shut we arc far Uhuad of where we thought we could be just two or three years Agu defense Secretary Weinberger. As sen. Charles Mathias r-md., uni said the latest reports that have trickled out of the a Ray laser program suggest thai efforts to promote ski have gone beyond exaggerating the significance of the results to actually disguising inconvenient scores. he continued Many scientists who question the significance of the results Ore afraid they will be accused of compromising National secrets if they speak out while those in charge of pushing the program arc free to do so. It is especially important to know what is happening in the a Ray laser portion of inc ski program since in has been slated to receive a special increase in funds indeed much of the pressure to demonstrate successes i to prove that such increases arc justified. However if those successes have been staged not Only is there no need for extra Money but we Are confronted with a Case of inflated claim and distorted reporting by the authorities. There is a real problem of the Public being Hood winked Here not just by president Reagan s nation that Star wars can make nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete bul by announcements that specific demonstrations have proven serious Progress. Enough Mem Bers of Congress have become alarmed that they have ordered a general accounting office investigation of what has been done so far. The Cao will have Access to classified documents so its report will surely be helpful. But the Issue remains about who actually benefits from so much secrecy. According to Teller in in t hurling he soviet Union. In a speech reported in inc liver More Laboratory weekly bulletin he said the russians i ave been working for several years on All the things we re currently proposing regarding ski and i be Tom Wicker live they arc ahead. It s possible Lilicy h learn some thing new if we share our ski research bul i doubt further he said we should be for openness in the name of science in the name of Unity of the world and in the name of the defense of inc United he wrote in a recent letter to Lite editor published in the new York times taking Issue with my column about a cover up of unreliable a Ray laser test results technically unfounded accusations do not violate classification Laws but the needed detailed scientific refutation of the accusation on dec. 28, there was another underground nuclear explosion to lest the a Ray laser with Tio glowing claims of achievement so far. There probably won t he from what is known but Teller certainly should have the Opportunity to prove that his Confidence in the project has been justified if indeed the results show that. And the scientific critics should have an equal right to give their reasons for challenging tin value of the tests. Lowell Wood a senior physicist at Livermore. Infuriated some other scientists there by publishing specious claims about another Star wars Compo nent the free Electron laser in the Wall Street Jour Nal lust summer Andrew m. Sessler n physicist who works on the free Electron laser fired off a letter to Livermore i director Hal was quoted in Ibe los Angeles times. We have been told that because of Security restrictions we cannot talk about our experimental re sults can i now talk freely about the Experiment pm we now publish our results. Most importantly was Wood s action Vonscio Nablo if scientists on both sides arc against the gag Rule and even Teller does t think the russians would Benefit from disclosure then Why Are the secrets being so tightly held the suspicion has to be that it is to discourage the american taxpayer from asking what hit billions of dollars arc producing and to extract Asma Thias said extra Blackburn represented the frail strand of hope7 i cant stand bullies and i Don t like people being fobbed off with second Rale Molly Black Burn. Last May at one of the numerous funeral rallies Blacks have staged during 15 months of unrest that have claimed More than a thousand lives in South Afri Ca a White activist named Molly Blackburn led a delegation of while people into a stadium jammed with thousands of Blacks. When she appeared Alan Cowell of the new York times reported Blacks Rase up la Salute her with clenched fist a rare tribute across he color lines in this divided this month it was the other Way around. On dec. 28. As she was returning to her Home in port Elizabeth after investigating charges of human rights violations in a Black township on the Eastern Cape Blackburn 55, was killed in an automobile Accident. Her funeral at tended by 10,000 South african Blacks became one of the biggest anti apart acid rallies yet held an even rarer tribute to a woman who defied convention the Law the Power of the slate and the opprobrium of Many of her Peers to oppose bullies and second rate but Blackburn s work notable and courageous As it was symbolized something greater something Loo easily lost sight of in All the reports from South Africa of injustice repression riots violence and death. She embodied what Cowe called the frail strand of Hope that whiles and Blacks in that unhappy country May yet Salvage a Way of living together in peace. For Blackburn was not alone among White South africans in lending her strength presence and sympathy to in millions of vote less and oppressed Blacks she was. For Manile a member of Black Sash a while women s anti apartheid group her political party the progressive federals is in official opposition to the Rul ing afrikaner nationalist parly which devised an maintains apartheid. Numerous Whites including not a few afrikaners have risked a great Deal to support Black rights. The Rev. Allan Loesak who spoke at Blackburn s funeral was recently jailed for his efforts the Rev. Beyers Naudic once a member of the secret Broc Durbond through which afrikaners Wield enormous political Power was banned for five years for preaching that apartheid was just recently a delegation of while businessmen met leaders of the banned african National Congress to begin laying the groundwork for Post apartheid Black White relations. Other White political and business Lead ers have spoken and acted for change. As in their recognition of Blackburn South african Blacks know hat not All Whites Are their oppressor influential Black leaders like Bishop Desmond Tutu still work for moderation of the kind that caused the vast throng of Blacks at the funeral to eschew in Black Burn s Honor violence and disorder. We do not hate Whites a Black woman remarked during the funeral rally. We Only that is the ground upon which South africans of Good will and fair mind whatever their color can stand together opposition loan unfair system of second rate Justice and unequal Opportunity enforced by armed bullies and a ruthless government. Not enough whiles either English speaking or Afri Kaner yet share that ground to make Blackburn s goal anywhere near a reality. Many Whites owing to the restrictive information policy of the government hardly even realize the depth and passion of Black resistance. South Africa s most put Pable injustice moreover is us Central dilemma that its oppressed Blacks Are an overwhelming majority combined with persons of mined White and Black ancestry and asians they Are roughly 22 million to Only about five million Whites in gosh and afrikaner. Those figures guarantee deter mined wn1l to of 4 Uwadi in i jul a mob we Mcd while resistance to one Man one Vole solutions less than a system of effective equally will but anything ies Lim Saysie 01 Eite Civ emus not Lor Long satisfy legitimate Black aspirations. So it is indeed a frail Sironda of Hope that Black Burn s life and work represents but As Loesak said. She died still trying to Mold Oul of the hatred and Fuls a t p. E of or pT6 and what she stood for lives on
