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After Thirty Years:
The Need for the Principle of the SDI Today!

Argentine Brig. Gen. Héctor Fautario Sends Greetings

Sterling, Virginia
March 23, 2013

VIDEO

Brig. Gen. Héctor Fautario was commander-in-chief of the Argentine Air Force from 1973-1975, and was removed from that post in late 1975 because he refused to go along with the military coup against the government of Isabel Perón, that was being organized by Army commander Gen. Jorge Videla and Navy commander Adm. Emilio Massera, and which was eventually carried out in March 1976, bringing in the ``Chicago Boys'' school of British liberal economics. In his 33-year career in the Argentine Air Force, General Fautario is particularly proud of his work as chief of the Cadet Corps, training young pilots at the Air Force's Aviation School.

In late 1983, in the months leading up to Lyndon LaRouche's historic June 1984 visit to Argentina--which included a one-hour meeting with then-President Raúl Alfonsín, as well as seminars on the SDI with the country's top military and scientific elite--General Fautario became the first spokesman in the developing sector to endorse beam weapons, and the SDI proposal that Ronald Reagan had presented to the world on March 23 of that year.

On March 19, General Fautario sent his greetings to the March 23, 2013 Schiller Institute conference on the SDI, with best wishes for its success. He said that ``these last 30 years have passed, but what we said then, remains totally applicable.''

In an Oct. 28, 1983 interview with Lyndon LaRouche's Executive Intelligence Review magazine, General Fautario said:

``I think that the development of beam weapons... is tremendously important. I could compare it directly with the development achieved by the United States when it launched its famous NASA program to land on the Moon and reach other planets. It involves a huge investment which clearly will lead to the development not only of all kinds of weapons, but also civilian benefits, such as in the field of medicine.

``This military strategy is going to change the face of the Earth, chiefly because the U.S. will use a new system which already has proclaimed the future obsolescence of all multiple warhead nuclear missiles. Using a laser ray defense, or using satellites with multiple warheads, this system could anticipate any nuclear attack.''

Asked about using advances in nuclear science and technology, and extending this into the field of lasers as a science-driver for the whole economy, General Fautario said:

``Precisely; I think this is one of the keys to the future, and in this decade we are inevitably going to see it happen. Any country which does not grasp this situation, is a country which is going to be left behind -- I have no doubt of that...

``The first application is to military strategy for national defense. And the armed forces necessarily get involved because they are the institutions in charge of these things for the State. The armed forces are the most advanced in this area, and they can allocate more time and more manpower to a study of this kind. Thus a working group with civilians on high technology is what must be created. For this, it would also be useful to bring Argentine `brains' back into the country to create awareness and develop the civilian side, at the same time that we develop the military strategic side. We sincerely believe that in these fields, we can then radiate out and spread these technologies all over Latin America, just as we are doing in the nuclear area...

``There is something which the IMF and other institutions in the world which grant credit should take into account. Our countries cannot negotiate with the hunger and poverty of our people... Everything has a limit. What I recommend is that this limit not be passed. We like to say that a cord can be stretched, but must not be snapped. I think we are at the snapping point.''