Table of Contents

Carol Rosin on World Law and Peace in Space

(The following is an edited and condensed reprint from the January 1996 edition of The Celestine Journal.)

By Salle Merrill Redfield

One afternoon last October, I talked at length with Dr. Carol Rosin, founder of the Institute for Security and Cooperation in Outer Space, about the harsh possibility that weapons may one day be stationed in outer space.

Rosin, who also heads the Space Commission of the World Government of World Citizens, has devoted her career to preventing that possibility from turning into a reality. She speaks regularly to various groups, including the CIA and U.S. Congress, warning that weapons in space would threaten our planet's delicate balance.

Rosin has gone from being from a sixth-grade school teacher, to the corporate manager of an aerospace defense company, to the founder of a program called Adopt-a-Leader. For the past 18 years, she has been a determined voice in opposition to the arming of the heavens.

Following are excerpts from my interview with Rosin:

Carol, tell me how the Institute for Security and Cooperation in Outer Space began.

I formed the institute in 1983 after becoming aware of a few men who intended to escalate the arms race into space. This was before President Reagan announced the Star Wars program. My aim was to educate the public and decision makers about the dangers and alternatives.

I first heard conversations about "seizing the high ground to control earth" when I became the first woman corporate manager of Fairchild Industries, an aerospace defense company.

The late Dr. Werner von Braun, the father of rocketry, advised me to learn about how serious the space weapons game is as I coordinated a youth program and satellite educational programs. Von Braun also urged me to work to transform the game.

Von Braun thought it would be interesting, even funny, if a woman worked to prevent the stationing of weapons in outer space-which he sensed was soon to occur. He believed a woman would be able to get into more doors to discuss the subject. He had worked for Hitler, and understood war and weapons. Being a scientist and engineer, he saw the potential for applying space technology and information services to protecting humanity and the environment.

In 1977, after his death, I was hired as a space and missile defense consultant by such companies as TRW. While working on the MX missile, I learned that the aerospace defense industries were preparing to escalate the arms race into space. The plan is to put hundreds of battle stations in space with thousands of weapons pointed down our throats.

What types of weapons are you talking about?

The multi-billion-dollar-a-year program includes chemical, nuclear and missile proliferation on earth and in space. It includes laser and kinetic energy weapons and weapons delivery systems such as ballistic missiles and advanced strike aircraft. Weapons in space would be aimed at us on earth and at satellites, spacecraft and space habitats, and would lead to mind-control technologies.

Were you shocked when you first heard about the possibility of weapons in outer space?

I was shocked when von Braun first explained that this was not a game but a dangerous reality that would occur unless someone stopped it and created a new reality. But I was not shocked at all as I got to know the players. It was shocking to have my life threatened by two intelligence agents because I had spoken out publicly about the MX missile.

Fortunately, I have developed a warped sense of humor from appearing on road-tour debates with generals, industry and military reps, and politicians. These include Gen. Daniel Graham, who first introduced the Star Wars program to President Reagan. Graham declared to me, on international CNN-TV, that nuclear weapons and space weapons aren't really so bad. He said that you can walk 4.2 miles from the site of a nuclear blast and be safe if you hide behind a lilac bush!

I am frequently amazed and saddened at the ignorance, closed-mindedness and stubbornness about this subject. I am also disappointed at the lack of nerve among the individuals associated with space and defense programs who agree privately that there should be no weapons in space, but who are afraid to speak out publicly.

I wasn't even shocked that Clinton simply lied about his intention to stop Star Wars. Nor did it surprise me that the Republican majority is committed to deploying space weapons and to ending the ABM Treaty as soon as possible. Or that the "boys" in Washington have renamed the Strategic Defense Initiative; it is now called the Ballistic Missile Defense Program. They don't believe that "Star Wars is dead."

Do you think there are weapons in space already that we don't know about?

There are no weapons in space now. In space are sensors, radar and satellite equipment, with spacecraft and a space station. We can use these technologies to observe earth, reduce and eliminate weapons, and track troop movements and human and animal migration. We can also map and check weather and crop forecasts, locate water, provide enhanced global education and communication, and clean up our environment, along with healing human suffering. We can build a security and economic system that is based on world cooperation instead of confrontation.

The problem is that not many people know or care about weapons in space. If we don't wake up and do something about it quickly, the mental and economic drain associated with putting weapons in space will affect us all, disastrously.

We've just enough time to vote to transform the military-industrial-complex space weapons research and development programs into a huge global cooperative space program. We need to humanize space and seek to understand our relationship to the space frontier, the galaxies and universes, not send weapons into space.

So you are in favor of space technology?

Yes. Besides, there is no turning back now. I try to describe a positive vision of what could be in outer space, including space schools, hospitals, hotels, farms, industries, laboratories, transportation systems, telescopes and solar energy. Books have been written about valuable space program spinoffs, like computers. We must insure that our highest technologies are directly applied to solving problems and to exploring space. The same technology that could harm us can also help heal us.

There are still people in control who want to continue developing dangerous technologies, including nuclear testing. Until their mindset is exposed to feasible alternatives, this won't stop. We need a body of world laws that bans space weapons and encourages space technologies.

What about the United Nations?

I attended the 1982 U.N. Conference in Vienna on the peaceful uses and exploration of outer space. Here I learned that most of the world would support a ban on weapons in space. However, the U.S. and its allies do not. I see no concrete action regarding the issue at the U.N., just a lot of good papers and speeches.

What can we do as individuals to stop deployment of weapons in outer space?

The normal answer to that would be to write your Congressperson, protest and pray. I think we have learned that doesn't always work. We tried that and we have more weapons and destruction than ever. We need a new strategy.

We need to identify ourselves as world citizens and respect our unity and diversity. We also need world laws that respect universal laws.

What do you mean by universal laws?

In 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly. It contains legal justification for anyone attempting to assert his or her freedom as a sovereign citizen, stating that we "are born free and equal in dignity and rights," and affirming that we are directly connected with our divine origin through individual conscience and the endowment of reason.

I also interpret universal laws to be the laws of nature and spirit that our species must follow in order to survive. Universally, love is the common truth we understand. From a space perspective, we are One People. Once we understand that, we shall be on the road to our healing and survival. We float in space together. We are not enemies.

As you travel around speaking about your ideas, do you find people are receptive?

Most of my audiences have been from the military-industrial complex, including the intelligence community. There seem to be many open minds in this arena, especially as cutbacks in the military and aerospace defense industry encourage management to seek innovative ideas to keep the doors open.

As I present a bigger, fantastic vision with unlimited potential, I can feel some in the audience become excited. As more of us learn about space, the word and the vision will spread, attracting more people.

You haven't always been public with your beliefs, have you?

No, I got very quiet after the Gulf War. I was in a 1977 meeting when this war was being planned, and felt devastated when it actually occurred.

What do you mean?

The Gulf War was orchestrated to show why a new phase of weapons in space is necessary. I heard executives say that when there was $25 billion in the space weapons program, making it almost impossible to stop, a war would be fomented in that region to demonstrate why a new phase of weapons [in space] was needed. That's exactly what happened. Patriot missiles knocking down Scuds were used to show why we should advance into space-based weaponry.

I burned out after that experience. However, I am slowly venturing out again because I know we haven't much time to prevent the arming of space. Right now, for example, more plutonium than ever before is scheduled for launch from Florida-enough, if an accident occurs, to give cancer to most of the world's population. I feel a sense of responsibility to sound the alarm and to present an alternative vision.

Have your experiences and concerns lead you to start your new program, Adopt-a-Leader?

Yes. I have the idea that powerful women getting together and choosing a national or state leader, and later, a military-industrial complex leader, to befriend, may soften the truculent yang energy that tends to run our lives.

The first Woman of Vision Adopt-a-Leader mission will be to encourage leaders to sign an agreement banning all weapons from space. Each participant will receive a kit, including sample letters, background information about a leader in their area, a special letter of credentials, and so on. This program is about to begin and I hope to see it expand.

If you had to sum up what you feel your most important message is, what would it be?

We will not survive if weapons are put into space. We are a space species, not just an earth species. In our Space Age, we are experiencing growing spiritual and technological awareness. Everything and everyone is in place for us to transform our systems in order to produce a healthy, happy world that works.

The Institute for Security and Cooperation in Outer Space is a not-for-profit organization that accepts private donations. For more information about Dr. Rosin's programs, contact her at: 424 Manzanita Ave., Ventura, CA 93001; e-mail: rosin@west.net; fax: (805) 641-9669; voice mail: (213) 225-1999.


Table of Contents