A candidate for a top nonproliferation post in the Obama administration played down the threat from Iran's long-range missile program as a reason to build a European missile defense system.



Democratic Rep. Ellen Tauscher is under consideration to be undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, a position that has involved shaping policy on U.S. missile defense plans in Poland and the Czech Republic. As chair of a congressional military appropriations panel, she has been a critic of U.S. long-range missile defense systems.

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She told a conference on missile defense that the United States and allies should first develop and field short range missile defense systems that could protect forces deployed in combat operations. She said that advocates of the European plans "have been running around with their hair on fire."

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Source (American): US lawmaker: missile threat from Iran exaggerated. Boston Herald, 23.03.2009