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Show Senatorial candidate Berman opposes MX deployment Dan Berman A strong anti MX deployment speech was made by Dan Berman, a Salt Lake City attorney who hopes to ;e ..gain the Democratic nomination ,ancj challenge Republican Jake Garn for his U.S. Senate seat next Nov. Berman Ber-man made his speech last Sat. evening on the Southern Utah State College campus to a handful of area residents. Berman questioned the impact on the Utah-Nevada site, the necessity of the s system and whether or not the MX system will actually be effective. "Will the giant shell game of attempting at-tempting to conceal 200 missiles in 4,600 different shelters work? If the shell game fails, the racetrack deployment is a failure! because our land-based strategic missiles will be vulnerable to a Soviet pre-emptive strike. In the 21st century can our most sophisticated weapon system really depend on a giant shell game to conceal a 190,000 pound missile trucked around on a 350 ton laun-cher?"questioned laun-cher?"questioned the Democratic hopeful. Calling for a thorough Congressional evaluation of other altrenatives including a submarine basing mode, Berman said that he supports using the country's current Minuteman silos for the MX and adopting a launch-under-attack basis. Berman said that the missiles could be activated after launching so that the country's 'current stand to use nuclear force only after an attack can still be maintained. "My concern is substantiated by recent National Intelligence Estimates. Our latest intelligence estimate is that with SALT II the Russians by 1985 will have 6,000 warheads on ICBMs. The same estimate, however, predicts that by 1989, one year before full MX deployment, the Soviets will have 14,000 warheads, an increase of 8,000 warheads in four years. I question in the face of these estimates whether any shell game basing mode can guarantee the invulnerability essential for MX deployment," continues Berman. Berman is also opposed to the Air Force's choice of Utah-Nevada for the proposed MX system site. "The imposition of the largest public works project in history on the rural communities com-munities and valleys of western Utah and eastern Nevada will be extremely adverse no matter how sensitive the Air Force is in dealing with local concerns. The problem with only focusing on the impact on Utah and Nevada is that it assumes the deployment of the MX; and the political realities are that if that is the only challenge, the system will be deployed." . Berman closed his formal address making several offers-to return to the area to speak to community groups if he is invited, to debate the issue if invited and "finally if the area would like to hear a weapons expert speak, I would try to get someone with that background to southern Utah." |