Meet America’s Top Missile-Defense Cheerleader
Bloomberg
Riki Ellison, the onetime NFL linebacker who hung up his cleats to become the one of the most prominent U.S. advocates for missile defense.
Bloomberg’s Curtis Eichelberger has an interesting profile of Ellison, who’s been busier than ever with his campaign to keep the missile-defense dollars flowing. And as an owner of three Super Bowl rings, Ellison can’t resist a football metaphor.
“Sometimes you play zone defense, other times you play man-to-man, the key is to layer your defense so you can protect your goal line no matter how they attack you,” Ellison told Eichelberger. “That’s essentially how a missile defense system works.”
With a belligerent North Korea brandishing missiles, Ellison has been particularly vocal about keeping alive some of the programs that have been targeted for cuts by the Obama administration. And before a recent North Korean missile test, Ellison wrote to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, urging the deployment of the Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX), a powerful tracking and discrimination radar was undergoing repair in Hawaii. While the SBX was not diverted to track the missile, Ellison managed to get more attention to the program.
During his NFL career, Ellison held internships at Lockheed Martin where he met Edward Teller, who helped develop the first atomic bomb while working on the Manhattan Project and was the force behind Reagan’s missile defense initiative.
Following the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, Ellison, a registered lobbyist, formed his organization to work for the deployment of a missile defense system.
It is funded by about 9,000 private donors, defense contractors and others interested in missile defense. He wouldn’t identify them.
“In football, you can’t win by building everything around your offense,” Ellison said. “In the real world, it’s imperative that you keep the opponent from reaching your end zone, even once.”
Wild Thing’s comment……
Maybe this guy can convience Obama he is wrong. Obama doesn’t think the country should be allowed to defend itself.
Why don’t this guy run for congress. We could use some fresh thinking, from a real free thinker.
Strategic missile defense was something that Bush quietly put $$ into. Now obama would like to strip the entire program. I hope Ellison and others can keep this program going. The Norks and the Iranians are putting too much effort into offensive missiles for us to just abandon the program.
Mark, that is a great idea.
Tom, I agree,Obama wants so much to
weaken us.Very upsetting.