'"The notion that you would do defence from space is different from that of weaponisation of space. We're comfortable with the policy", White House spokesman Tony Snow said.' news.bbc.co.uk

What does he mean?

This is the age of NewSpeak, thus defense from space does in fact mean weaponization of space.

However it sounds nicer(defense from space), sounds benign compared to weaponization if space which sounds like Star Wars evil Empire kind of stuff.

The US wants to make space the 51st state of the union. That's what he means.