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National Security: There seems to be only one thing White House arms negotiators want more than a reduction in U.S. nuclear weapons — a reduction in U.S. missile defenses to protect us from such weapons. The Washington Times' Bill Gertz reports that U.S. diplomats are secretly negotiating with Russia to link nuclear arms reduction to limits on our anti-missile defenses. As Gertz points out, "Pro-arms-control officials within the administration dislike missile defenses, viewing them as an impediment to offensive arms agreements." Ellen Tauscher, the undersecretary of state for international security and arms control, has been talking to Moscow's deputy foreign...

In the months preceding the Obama administration’s Nuclear Posture Review, which reshaped the principles governing the size and purpose of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was busy at work. Its Department of Justice, Peace, and Human Development issued various position papers urging the administration to drastically reduce the role and size of the arsenal. Archbishop Edwin O’Brien of Baltimore, previously Archbishop for the Military Services, took the message to venues ranging from a deterrence conference hosted by U.S. Strategic Command (the command responsible for nuclear-strike operations) to the Global Zero Summit in Paris. Bishop Howard...

Iran has been able to smuggle advanced technological equipment to its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz via a complex smuggling route based in Dubai, the Sunday Telegraph reported on Sunday. According to the report, an Iranian company has purchased control systems from one of Germany's leading electronic manufacturers. The deal was negotiated with a Dubai trading company, which in turn sold Iran a range of electronic equipment for use at its enrichment facility, the British website reported. The report comes amid growing concerns that though Iran claims its nuclear program has only peaceful aims, Tehran is in fact working toward...

Three decades ago, before his final flight to exile, the Shah of Iran had drawn a line: He would not fire on his people. He was a king, he said, and not a dictator. The army had not yet cracked; there were loyalists keen to make a stand against the revolutionary upheaval. But the man at the center of the storm had boarded a plane, with his immediate family, in search of a country that would have him. It's impossible to fathom such a principled retreat by today's "Supreme Leader," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and his vast apparatus of repression and...

The Obama administration, which labored for months to impose tough new United Nations sanctions against Iran, now is pushing in the opposite direction against Congress as it crafts U.S. sanctions that the White House fears may go too far. ....the administration fears that the legislation also could damage relations with Europe, Russia and China, all of whom cooperated with U.S. efforts on the U.N. sanctions. To avoid that possibility, the administration wants authority to waive U.S. punishment against companies from countries that have cooperated on Iran.

Note: The following text is a quote: Gates: Nuclear Weapons Would Make Iran Less Secure By John D. Banusiewicz American Forces Press Service LONDON, June 8, 2010 – If Iran were to succeed in acquiring nuclear weapons, the subsequent chain of events would make that country less secure, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said here today. During a news conference, both Gates and British Defense Secretary Liam Fox expressed confidence that the United Nations Security Council soon will pass a new resolution imposing sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program and that more unilateral sanctions could follow from countries concerned...

Over the past 60 years, the racist regime of Israel has been continually scoffing the international community under the cover of "deliberate ambiguity" to develop one of the most perilous nuclear arsenals in the world. According to the Federation of American Scientists, Israel possesses more than 200 nuclear warheads which are simply adequate to evaporate the whole world in a matter of moments. Israel which is the only possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East and one of the three non-signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty has blatantly rejected the appeal of the 189 signatories of the NPT, including...

Iran could provide nuclear weapons to Hamas and Hizbullah for a nonconventional attack on Israel, according to a chilling scenario presented in a new report. "Furthermore, even a minimal nuclear capability would enable Hizbullah and Hamas to conduct ongoing low-level attacks — even severe ones — against Israel, in the confidence that Israel would be deterred from massive retaliation. This would require a declared capability, or at least a strongly suspected one." Freilich, a former member of Israel's National Security Council, said Hamas or Hizbullah could smuggle a bomb into Israel through ships, airlines or an unmanned aerial vehicle. Other...

BANGKOK (AP) -- Documents smuggled out of Myanmar by an army defector indicate its military regime is trying to develop nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, and North Korea is probably assisting the program, an expatriate media group said Friday. The Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma said the defector had been involved in the nuclear program and smuggled out extensive files and photographs describing experiments with uranium and specialized equipment needed to build a nuclear reactor and develop enrichment capabilities.

The United States is concerned over Myanmar's "growing military ties" with North Korea and will work to ensure a UN ban on arm exports from Pyongyang is enforced, a Pentagon spokesman said on Friday. US defense secretary Robert Gates's press secretary said the United States was closely monitoring Myanmar's cooperation with North Korea in light of UN Security Council resolutions banning Pyongyang from exporting weapons or nuclear technology. "We are concerned with growing military ties with the DPRK (North Korea) and are following it closely to ensure that the multiple UNSCRs (UN Security Council resolutions) are enforced," press secretary Geoff...

U.S. scientists say they have created an automated program designed to "debug" the nation's nuclear test computer simulations. Purdue University researchers, working with scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, said their program, called AutomaDeD (pronounced like automated), finds errors in computer code for complex "parallel" programs. Because international treaties forbid the detonation of nuclear test weapons, certification is done using complex simulations. The researchers said such simulations, which may contain as many as 100,000 lines of computer code, must accurately show reactions taking place on the scale of milliseconds, or thousandths of a second. "The simulations take several weeks...

A U.N. vote on Iran nuclear sanctions will likely be pushed back because of fallout from the Israeli raid on the Gaza aid flotilla, sources said Wednesday. The Obama administration had been planning to bring a new Iran sanctions resolution to a vote at the U.N. Security Council on Thursday but diplomatic sources said the vote is not likely to take place this week. In a breakfast meeting with journalists Tuesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu criticized the United States for not outright condemning the Israeli actions. He also expressed longstanding Turkish opposition to imposing economic sanctions on Iran, which...

Every analyst I know is baffled by the Obama administration. The Israeli government is baffled; the Arab governments of the Middle East are baffled; European foreign ministries are baffled; and the journalists and thinktankers and camp-followers are baffled. One hears different things from source one consults; the more authoritative the source, the more confusing the result. Many conjectures as to this state of affairs are possible. My best working hypothesis is that the administration is the simple reflection of the operating style of the president, whom I qualified as “the political equivalent of a sociopath” in a Feb. 26, 2008...

Tehran has been taking lessons from Saddam’s old playbook. AP reported, “UN nuclear inspectors revisiting an Iranian laboratory suspected of involvement in a nuclear weapons program discovered that equipment has been removed, diplomats said Friday.” The IAEA discovered that Iran has been running pyroprocessing experiments. This process purifies uranium metal for use in nuclear warheads. While Iran is claiming they backed off experiments back in March, they have removed the equipment for the inspection sites. In the mean time President Obama is allowing Russia to sell Iran the S-300 surface to air missile systems. Iran has been nothing but deceitful...

There has been no shortage of foreign-policy disasters in the first year and a half of Barack Obama’s presidency, but nothing has illustrated the administration’s appalling lack of skill in diplomacy more than its amateurish efforts to halt Iran’s nuclear program. The latest indication of incompetence was illustrated when the government of Brazil released the full text of a three-page letter sent by Obama to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in April, in which the American commander in chief gave the Brazilian leader the green light to pursue an agreement in which Iran would transfer part of its stockpile...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/text-a-letter-president-regarding-national-defense-authorization-act Home • Briefing Room • Presidential Actions • Presidential Memoranda The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release May 13, 2010 Text of a Letter from the President Regarding the National Defense Authorization Act TEXT OF A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT TO THE CHAIRMEN AND RANKING MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE AND SENATE COMMITTEES ON ARMED SERVICES AND APPROPRIATIONS, THE CHAIRMEN AND RANKING MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS May 13, 2010 Dear Mr. Chairman: (Dear Representative:) (Dear Senator:) I am...

Unseen beyond the grazing Holsteins and rolling pastures of eastern Belgium, the 12-foot-long tapered metal cylinders sit in their underground vaults, waiting for the doomsday call that never came. Each packs the power of many Hiroshimas. America's oldest nuclear weapons -- unwanted, outdated, a legacy of the 20th century -- are now the focus of a political struggle that could shake the NATO alliance in the 21st. The questions hanging over the B-61 bombs, an estimated 200 of them on six air bases across Europe, relate to not just why they're still here but how safe and secure they are....

Israel will keep up its longstanding policy of deliberate ambiguity over its nuclear programme, Defence Minister Ehud Barak said on Tuesday, adding that US support for the position remains unchanged. "This is a good policy and there is no reason to change it. There is complete agreement with the United States on this question," Barak told army radio. He also said "there is no risk" that inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would get authorisation to inspect Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor. "There is no threat over the traditional agreements between Israel and the United States on this issue,"...

India intends to integrate a variant of its Nirbhay long-range cruise missile on the Suhkoi Su-30MKI Flanker strike aircraft, following the weapon’s initial development in the ground-launch configuration. The addition of the Nirbhay to the Flanker’s weapons inventory would give the platform a long-range—and potentially strategic—strike capability. While details on the Nirbhay program remain scant, Indian officials have suggested the weapon will have a range of 800-1,000 km. (500-620 mi.). An air-launched derivative of the Nirbhay would be a candidate platform for the air force element of India’s strategic nuclear triad ambitions. Packaging of a warhead in the constrained space...

Saudi Arabia, concerned over Iran's nuclear weapons program, could turn to Pakistan for the kingdom's own nuclear project, a report said. The Institute of National Security Studies said Riyad has been working to prepare a nuclear infrastructure meant to deter neighboring Iran. In a report by researcher Yoel Guzansky, the institute cited Pakistan as the most likely developer of a Saudi nuclear option. "Therefore, should Saudi Arabia find itself in a sensitive security situation, it may well be that it would seek to capitalize on its investment in the Pakistani program," the report, titled "The Saudi Nuclear Option, said. The...