The Obama administration intends to abandon its predecessor's proposal to field missile interceptors in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic, the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza reported today, citing Washington lobbyists and an unnamed U.S. congressional source (see GSN, Aug. 26).

Washington is considering alternate deployment sites for the defenses, including warships stationed in the region as well as bases in Israel, Turkey and the Balkans, Agence France-Presse quoted the report as saying. The purpose of the shield would ostensibly be to counter a long-range missile threat from Iran, but Russia has loudly characterized the Bush administration plan as a threat to its strategic nuclear deterrent.

Since taking over the White House in January, the Obama administration has sought to strengthen ties with Moscow. Administration officials have been "testing the water" among U.S. legislators over several weeks on abandoning the planned Polish and Czech bases, the congressional source said.

U.S. military officials "never once" mentioned the sites at a missile defense conference last week, said Riki Ellison, head of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (Agence France-Presse/Defense News, Aug. 27).

Czech and Polish leaders had signed off on the missile shield sites, which were to be operational by 2013. That no longer appears likely to occur, Ellison said.

"The signals that the generals in the Pentagon are sending are absolutely clear: as far as missile defense is concerned, the current U.S. administration is searching for other solutions than the previously bases in Poland and the Czech Republic," he told the Polish newspaper (United Press International, Aug. 27).