Boldly Militarizing Where No One Has Gone Before

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"Lobbyists from the fledgling commercial space industry are besieging Capitol Hill, hoping to persuade the government to hand out contracts to help put the U.S. military into orbit," reports John Lasker. The main "talking point" for the 50 to 75 lobbyists is "how the private sector can help the U.S. military build space-based weapons a lot faster and with a lot less of taxpayers' money." The Defense Department's report Joint Vision 2020 advocates for "Full Spectrum Dominance," or overwhelming power on land, sea, air and space. "We need to operate in the realm of space," a U.S. Space Command public affairs officer told Wired. Bruce Gagnon, the director of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space and an Air Force veteran, criticizes these plans. For that, he's been secretly monitored by NASA and the U.S. Air Force, according to court documents uncovered by the American Civil Liberties Union.