Postol's Video Analysis

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined the evidence upon which a professor of science, technology, and national security policy based his determination that the Army's Patriot missile system was ineffective during Operation Desert Storm. GAO noted that: (1) the professor stated that the Patriot was not as effective as the Army claimed, did not destroy any Scud missile warheads, and did not reduce the damage in the areas that it was supposed to protect; (2) the professor relied heavily on 140 videos produced by on-site television crews to support his conclusions; and (3) experts from academia, industry, and government stated that the television videos were not a reliable data source for determining how many Scud missiles the Patriot hit or missed, due to a lack of depth, poor image quality, missile visibility, recording rate, incomplete filming, and inaccurate assumptions the professor made.