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President George W. Bush, backed by a well-known neo-con crew as well as the gang in Tel Aviv, did all he could to formulate his war-loving foreign policy to force his successor manage a third military conflict in the Middle East. President Obama, meanwhile, has toned down the rhetoric since taking office and adopted a softer language, offering a glimmer of hope for direct diplomacy with Tehran — the two states have not had any diplomatic relations since the US Embassy take over in Tehran in 1980. Soon enough, the White House will have to come to terms with the...

Since you're probably not a regular reader of the trade publication Nucleonics Week, let me summarize an article that appeared in its Oct. 8 issue. It reported that Iran's supply of low-enriched uranium -- the potential feedstock for nuclear bombs -- appears to have certain "impurities" that "could cause centrifuges to fail" if the Iranians try to boost it to weapons grade. Now that's interesting. The seeming breakthrough in negotiations on Oct. 1 in Geneva -- where Iran agreed to send most of its estimated 1,500 kilograms of low-enriched uranium abroad for further enrichment -- may not have been exactly...

Ann Curry she has no intention of recycling those "Make History!" presidential campaign buttons wasn't the only headline Hillary Clinton made this week. On Tuesday, Clinton emerged from her meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov insisting that Russia and the U.S. were united on Iran's nuclear program even though Lavrov dismissed joining the U.S. in threatening Iran with sanctions as "counterproductive" at this point. The secretary of state called the position of Russia and the United States on Iran a "very strong, united approach." Clinton said that the United States had "always looked at" potential sanctions against Iran if...

WASHINGTON – A confidential analysis by staff of the U.N. nuclear watchdog has concluded that Iran has acquired "sufficient information to be able to design and produce" an atom bomb, The New York Times reported on Saturday. The Times report was posted on its website hours after Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived in Tehran for talks on a timetable for inspectors to visit a newly disclosed unfinished nuclear enrichment plant. Iran, which rejects Western charges that it is seeking to build nuclear weapons, held talks with six world powers in Geneva on Thursday. Western officials...

Senior staff members of the United Nations nuclear agency have concluded in a confidential analysis that Iran has acquired “sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable” atom bomb. (snip) Two years ago, American intelligence agencies published a detailed report concluding that Tehran halted its efforts to design a nuclear weapon in 2003. But in recent months, Britain has joined France, Germany and Israel in disputing that conclusion, saying the work has been resumed. A senior American official said last week that the United States was now re-evaluating its 2007 conclusions. The atomic agency’s report also presents...

PORLAMAR, Venezuela – Venezuela's science and technology minister said his country is working with Russia to detect deposits of uranium but withdrew an earlier denial that the country was also working with Iran. Jesse Chacon originally denied the reports that Venezuela is receiving support from Iran to seek uranium, but clarified later Saturday that his comments were only in regard to Russia and that exploration efforts with Iran fall under the direction of Venezuela's Mining Ministry. Mining Minister Rodolfo Sanz said Friday Iran is helping Venezuela to detect uranium deposits and that initial evaluations suggest reserves are significant. His announcement...

The right is calling Obama weak, but his wily foreign policy is paying off The spluttering of the American right — and some European conservatives — over Barack Obama’s foreign policy reached a new level of vituperation last week. “Is Obama naive?” pondered Michael Ledeen at National Review. “I don’t think so. I think that he rather likes tyrants and dislikes America.” Nile Gardiner of the Heritage Foundation wrote in The Daily Telegraph: “[Obama’s] appeasement of Iran, his bullying of Israel, his surrender to Moscow, his call for a nuclear-free world ... have all won him plaudits in the large...

3 Wrongs Don’t Make a Right 17 September 2009 By Robert R. Amsterdam The recent visits to Moscow and Tehran by Hugo Chavez raise a number of concerns about the deepening relations between Russia, Iran and Venezuela. The motivation behind the Russia-Iran-Venezuela alliance is often misunderstood. On the one hand, there is the narrative that these governments are pursuing national interests, seeking to deepen their security against ever-present external threats and accrue regional power. Others argue that the alliance is driven by an attempt to build an “alternative architecture” of global relations, one that is conveniently unconcerned with democracy and...

Our lives depend on it. Most Westerners read the map of the world like a Broadway marquee: north is top of the bill—America, Britain, Europe, Russia—and the rest dribbles away into a mass of supporting players punctuated by occasional Star Guests: India, China, Australia. Everyone else gets rounded up into groups: “Africa,” “Asia,” “Latin America.”

<p>CARACAS, Venezuela — Iran is helping to detect uranium deposits in Venezuela and initial evaluations suggest reserves are significant, President Hugo Chavez's government said Friday.</p> <p>Mining Minister Rodolfo Sanz said Iran has been assisting Venezuela with geophysical survey flights and geochemical analysis of the deposits, and that evaluations "indicate the existence of uranium in western parts of the country and in Santa Elena de Uairen," in southeastern Bolivar state.</p>

. Venezuela – Iran is helping to detect uranium deposits in Venezuela and initial evaluations suggest reserves are significant, President Hugo Chavez's government said Friday. Mining Minister Rodolfo Sanz said Iran has been assisting Venezuela with geophysical survey flights and geochemical analysis of the deposits, and that evaluations "indicate the existence of uranium in western parts of the country and in Santa Elena de Uairen," in southeastern Bolivar state. "We could have important reserves of uranium," Sanz told reporters upon arrival on Venezuela's Margarita Island for a weekend Africa-South America summit. He added that efforts to certify the reserves could...

A week ahead of crunch talks on Iran's nuclear program, the leaders of the U.S., France and the U.K. on Friday accused Tehran of building a covert uranium enrichment facility, a development they said directly challenges the world's non-proliferation rules. Later in the day, Iran publicly confirmed and strongly defended the nuclear fuel facility. Speaking at an overflowing news conference in New York Friday afternoon, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his country has complied with rules of the U.N. nuclear agency that requires Tehran inform it of any new enrichment facility six months before any such facility becomes operational, the...

The Obama administration reportedly knew about the second secret Iranian uranium enrichment program prior to the United Nations meeting, yet the president chose to say nothing about the revelation, either during his address to the General Assembly or yesterday, when he chaired a Security Council session. Since the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama has maintained his determination to engage in direct negotiations with Iran over the Iranian nuclear program. A meeting between Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council – the U.S., Britain, France, China and Russia – plus Germany is scheduled for Oct. 1 in Geneva....

The United Nations nuclear assembly voted on Friday to urge Israel to accede to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and place all atomic sites under the world body's inspections, in a surprise victory for Arab states. The resolution, passed narrowly for the first time in nearly two decades, expresses concern about "Israeli nuclear capabilities" and calls on the International Atomic Energy Agency chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, to work on the issue. The Middle East resolution, sponsored by Arab states, was backed by 49 votes to 45 against in a floor vote at the IAEA's annual member states conference. The vote split along...

Reporting from Washington - President Obama's appointment of "czars," or policy coordinators, is drawing new fire from lawmakers in both parties. The most prominent complaint is that Obama, by using his own authority to name people to these policy jobs, is circumventing the role of the Senate in considering and confirming important nominations to the president's administration. In a letter to the president this week, Sen. Susan Collins (R- Maine) and five other Republican lawmakers criticized the administration for encroaching on Congress' authority in establishing what it said were too many far-reaching czars. Collins identified 18 positions created by Obama...

PAKISTAN SNIPPET: "WASHINGTON: The United States warned Tuesday that reputed Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who has regained freedom of movement in Pakistan, still risks spreading his nuclear weapons know-how. It stopped short of criticizing its ally in the war on terror but recalled that Washington has long raised with Islamabad its fears about Khan, who five years ago admitted leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya." SNIPPET: "David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector and nuclear specialist, told AFP that ‘it is a mistake’ to remove restrictions on a man who cannot be ‘trusted.’He said there is...

A new report commissioned by the International Atomic Energy Agency says that Iran's nuclear energy program may contain "military dimensions." In other words, the report states that Iran may be working towards acquiring a nuclear weapons capability. The report was issued just prior to the annual meeting of IAEA member states which is scheduled to convene next month in Vienna. A senior Iranian envoy angrily denounced the assessment as "fabrication," insisting his country has gone out of its way to be transparent and cooperative. The report alleges that Iran is refusing the agency's repeated requests for explanations and documentation over...

"His lawyer said a court had ordered the government to lift police restrictions on the scientist who is alleged to have spread nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya. The ruling in the case of Abdul Qadeer Khan could stir alarm in the United States, which still regards him as a proliferation risk." ""It is excellent and heart warming and very gratifying,"" Mr Khan said. "I think the people who have been involved in playing mischief with me will get the message and allow me live a peaceful, private life as a citizen.""

The US may have no nuclear trade with India August 21, 2009 13:05 IST Lucrative nuclear trade with India, including supplies of reactors, was among the obvious reasons for the Bush administration to think in terms of offering India a special dispensation for full civilian nuclear co-operation. Varying assessments of the massive increase in jobs in the United States on account of the expected trade in equipment were made. These projections went a long way in vetting the appetite of the industrial sector in the United States and in aggravating the suspicions in the non-proliferation lobbies. The enthusiasm for the...

India Searches Detained North Korean Ship For Nuclear Materials 8 hours ago (RTTNews) - Indian scientists and police on Monday carried out extensive search operations for nuclear materials on board a North Korean ship, which India seized last week, said officials on Monday. Indian officials said that they have not found any nuclear material in the search operations so far, but added that the North Korean vessel would be released only after the experts are satisfied there is nothing wrong with the consignment. According to Indian officials, the North Korean vessel appeared to be carrying a consignment of sugar. They...

Unless Iran responds positively to President Obama's offer of talks on its nuclear program by next month, it could face what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calls "crippling sanctions." That was the message from Administration officials touring the Middle East in recent weeks. And it's backed by congressional moves to pass legislation aimed at choking off the gasoline imports on which Iran relies for almost a third of its consumption, by punishing third-country suppliers. It sounds impressive and, for an undiversified economy like Iran's, potentially calamitous. But a number of Iran analysts are skeptical that new sanctions will break the...

Note: Includes a video. Special Dispatch - No. 2479 August 10, 2009 Libyan Leader Mu'ammar Qadhafi: Libya Was on the Brink of Producing a Nuclear Bomb Following are excerpts from a public address delivered by Libyan Leader Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi, which aired on Al-Sa'a TV on July 15, 2009: To view this clip on MEMRITV, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2185.htm .

President Obama is worthy of admiration for his efforts to improve relations with America's adversaries Iran, North Korea and a few others. But for most of those states, it's time to give it up, and the Obama administration appears to realize that. I agree. There's no point in trying carrots or stick diplomacy with Iran or North Korea. Diplomacy has failed. I do wonder, however, how the writer plans to deal w NKorea's nukes and Iran's nukes+terrorist ties? Just live with it, and wait for something to go wrong/hope that "sane" people like Kim and Ahmadinejad can be trusted w...

N.Korea 'helping Myanmar build nuclear plant': report Sat Aug 1, 11:03 am ET SYDNEY (AFP) – North Korea is helping Myanmar build a secret nuclear reactor and plutonium extraction plant to build an atomic bomb within five years, a report said on Saturday, citing the evidence of defectors. The nuclear complex is hidden inside a mountain at Naung Laing, in Myanmar's north, and runs parallel to a civil reactor being built at another site by Russia, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The revelations come just weeks after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced concerns that Pyongyang was transferring...

WASHINGTON, July 23, 2009 – The U.S. military plays a role in the monitoring of North Korean actions that may violate a U.N. Security Council resolution that prohibits North Korea from weapons proliferation, a senior Pentagon official said here today. The United Nations has banned North Korea from exporting its weapons technology -- such as its missile expertise – to other countries. The North Korean government, which also is suspected of developing nuclear weapons, has conducted several ballistic-missile tests in recent weeks. “The United States is fulfilling its obligations,” spokesman Bryan Whitman told Pentagon reporters, as part of U.N. efforts...

BANGKOK – The recent aborted voyage of a North Korean ship, photographs of massive tunnels and a top secret meeting have raised alarm bells that one of the world's poorest nations may be aspiring to join the nuclear club — with help from its friends in Pyongyang. No one expects military-run Myanmar, also known as Burma, to obtain an atomic bomb anytime soon, but experts have the Southeast Asian nation on their radar screen. "There's suspicion that something is going on, and increasingly that cooperation with North Korea may have a nuclear undercurrent. We are very much looking into it,"...

"North Korea Entering a New Phase: 'We Are Not Interested in the U.S. Anymore'" By Amii Abe Introduction Six days before the DPRK conducted their recent second nuclear test, an official of the DPRK government strongly declared, "We are expanding. We will conduct nuclear tests and missile tests again, and sell our nuclear arms to other countries to achieve equal power with the U.S." As long as we understand North Korea's perspective, their provocative actions are not surprising. Rather, all of them are foreseeable. The government of the DPRK has already reached a new stage in their foreign policy strategy,...

Iran is capable of assembling an atomic bomb within six months, German intelligence analysts told the German weekly newsmagazine Stern. "If they want to, they will be able to set off a uranium bomb within six months," an analyst with Germany's intelligence service, Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), told the magazine. Advertisement German intelligence officials told Stern believe Iran has "mastered" every stage of uranium enrichment and that they have activated enough centrifuges to produce sufficient quantities of weapons-grade uranium for at least one atomic bomb. "Nobody would have thought this possible some years ago," an intelligence official told Stern. The UN Security...

The former defense secretary on the U.S. deterrent and the terrorist threat. 'Nuclear weapons are used every day." So says former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger, speaking last month at his office in a wooded enclave of Maclean, Va. It's a serene setting for Doomsday talk, and Mr. Schlesinger's matter-of-fact tone belies the enormity of the concepts he's explaining -- concepts that were seemingly ignored in this week's Moscow summit between Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev. We use nuclear weapons every day, Mr. Schlesinger goes on to explain, "to deter our potential foes and provide reassurance to the allies to...

AMONG the benefits from President Obama's effort to "reset" relations with Russia, we're told, is that the Kremlin will join us in pressuring rogue nations from seeking to build nuclear weapons. But even as Obama was making nice in Moscow this week, Russian diplomats in New York have been stonewalling an effort to slap Pyongyang over its weapons proliferation. A UN committee has struggled for a month now to meet this weekend's deadline for drawing up a sanctions list on North Korea. The list is supposed to put the teeth in last month's Security Council resolution to punish Pyongyang for...

The head of Mossad, Israel’s overseas intelligence service, has assured Benjamin Netanyahu, its prime minister, that Saudi Arabia would turn a blind eye to Israeli jets flying over the kingdom during any future raid on Iran’s nuclear sites. Earlier this year Meir Dagan, Mossad’s director since 2002, held secret talks with Saudi officials to discuss the possibility. The Israeli press has already carried unconfirmed reports that high-ranking officials, including Ehud Olmert, the former prime minister, held meetings with Saudi colleagues. The reports were denied by Saudi officials. “The Saudis have tacitly agreed to the Israeli air force flying through their...

Documents released by Nixon Library show US tried to pressure Israel to sign Nonproliferation Treaty. 'If Israel elects to go the nuclear route it would cause a fundamental change in the US-Israeli relationship,' says unsigned memo, including 'our long-standing concern for Israel's security' Associated Press Published: 06.25.09, 22:23 / Israel News Inside the Nixon administration four decades ago, American officials weighed options to pressure Israel to declare that it had a nuclear weapons program. US officials concluded Israel was "actively working to improve its capability to produce nuclear weapons on short notice." In an unsigned National Security Council memo, prepared...

Defense: The former presidential candidate argues the U.S. should stop and board the North Korean ship if we know it carries banned cargo. Some say it would be an act of war. So is firing missiles at Hawaii.Some say it would be an act of war. So was the naval blockade of Cuba in October 1962 in a confrontation with an infinitely more dangerous foe. Sometimes it's just necessary to exert military pressure to call someone's bluff and nip a growing threat in the bud. The U.S. Navy is tracking a North Korean ship under new U.N. resolution 1874 that...

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei yesterday said it was his "gut feeling" that Iran was pursuing the capability to build nuclear weapons if it chose to do so, the New York Times reported (see GSN, June 16). The United States and its allies have expressed concern that Iran's uranium enrichment program could support nuclear-weapon development, but the Middle Eastern state has described its nuclear intentions as strictly peaceful. “It is my gut feeling that Iran would like to have the technology to enable it to have nuclear weapons,” ElBaradei told the BBC. “They want to send a message...

WASHINGTON -- President Obama said Tuesday that a nuclear-armed North Korea poses a "grave threat" to the world, and he vowed to end a cycle of allowing Pyongyang to create crises and then be rewarded with incentives to back down. "This is a pattern they've come to expect," Obama said. "We are going to break that pattern." Standing alongside South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in the White House Rose Garden, Obama said they agreed that a new U.N. resolution seeking to halt North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles must be fully enforced. The U.N. did not authorize...

George Bush told Tony Blair shortly before the invasion of Iraq that he intended to target other countries, including Saudi Arabia, which, he implied, planned to acquire weapons of mass destruction. Mr Bush said he "wanted to go beyond Iraq in dealing with WMD proliferation, mentioning in particular Saudi Arabia, Iran, North Korea, and Pakistan," according to a note of a telephone conversation between the two men on January 30 2003. The note is quoted in the US edition, published next week, of Lawless World, America and the Making and Breaking of Global Rules, by the British international lawyer Philippe...

North Korea's communist regime has warned of a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula while vowing to step up its atomic bomb-making program in defiance of new U.N. sanctions. The North's defiance presents a growing diplomatic headache for President Barack Obama as he prepares for talks Tuesday with his South Korean counterpart on the North's missile and nuclear programs. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak told security-related ministers during an unscheduled meeting Sunday to "resolutely and squarely" cope with the North's latest threat, his office said. Lee is to leave for the U.S. on Monday morning. A commentary Sunday in the...

SKorea braces for 3rd nuclear test by North Korea By KWANG-TAE KIM, Associated Press Writer Fri Jun 12, 3:52 am ET SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea was bracing for a possible third nuclear test by the North, which a U.S. official said was likely despite looming U.N. sanctions on the communist state for its previous test in May. Given the North's track record of provocative behavior and defiance of the United Nations, "common sense" would dictate that it is preparing for another nuclear test, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae told reporters Friday. He said the test was...

The UN watchdog agency on nuclear activity has found that Iran has significantly stepped up its nuclear program, and also suspects Syria of secretly operating its own nuclear program. Iran has increased its output of uranium with almost 5,000 centrifuges operating, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stated in a report Friday. According to the report obtained by the Reuters news agency, Iran has increased its enrichment of uranium, boosting its stockpile by 500 kilograms to 1,339 kilograms in the past six months.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Israel issued contradictory signals on Wednesday on whether it might bomb Iran, with its foreign minister saying there were no such plans and the defense minister saying all options were on the table. Israel, widely believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear power, has repeatedly described Iran's uranium enrichment as a threat to its existence. "I have been asked by Saudi journalists about when Israel plans to bomb Iran. We are not planning to bomb Iran," far-right Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said during a visit to Russia. "We do not have a need" to carry...

A Nuclear Asia From End To End Gordon G. Chang, 05.29.09, 12:01 AM ET On Tuesday, Chosun Ilbo, South Korea's most widely read newspaper, urged Seoul to build its own long-range missiles and atomic bombs. "North Korea claims its rationale for having nuclear weapons is to defend itself," the broadsheet editorialized. "South Korea too now requires a deterrent." To build that deterrent, the South will first have to abrogate two global agreements, the Missile Technology Control Regime and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. For years, these pacts, which prevented the dissemination of dangerous technologies, looked solid. Now,...

Food for thought this evening as the NorKs fire yet another missile into the sea. Why would Japan want its own arsenal when it already enjoys the deterrent effect of being under America’s nuclear umbrella? Simple: A Japanese arsenal wouldn’t really be aimed at deterrence. It would be aimed at scaring the hell out of China, where memories of Japanese aggression are long. The thinking, I guess, is that China would be sufficiently cowed by Japanese nukes that they’d have no choice but to try much harder to calm Kim down lest they end up being drawn into a three-way...

A South Korean newspaper report says U.S. spy satellites have detected signs that North Korea has restarted its nuclear plant. South Korea's mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported Wednesday that U.S. spy satellites have detected steam coming from a reprocessing facility at its main Yongbyon nuclear plant. The paper cited an unnamed South Korean government source.

Sunlight fills the bedroom. It's past 8 a.m., and it's cold. Why didn't the alarm go off? The bathroom lights are out. The house is without power. The battery-operated radio plays nothing but static. The phone is dead. What on earth has happened? In fact, what happened was not on Earth. It was above it. A nuclear weapon has detonated high over North America, an explosion so far up that neither the flash nor bang disturbed anyone slumbering in darkened bedrooms across the United States. Electrical systems and computers from New York City to San Francisco cease to function. City...

China is developing and expanding its arsenals of nuclear warheads and strategic missiles, military experts say.

What to Do About North Korea By Dan Blumenthal and Robert Kagan May 26, 2009 The North Korean launch of its Taeopodong-2 missile and its second nuclear test have laid bare the paucity of President Obama's policy options. They have exposed the futility of the six-party talks and, in particular, the much-hyped myth of China's value as a partner on strategic matters. The Obama administration claims that it wants to break with the policies of its predecessor. This is one area where it ought to. After decades of diplomacy and "probing" Pyongyang's intentions, one thing is clear: Kim Jong Il...

UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council is condemning North Korea's nuclear test as a clear violation of its resolutions. The council said in a statement Monday that it will begin work immediately on a new legally binding resolution addressing North Korea's violations. The U.N.'s most powerful body held an emergency meeting at Japan's request after North Korea conducted its second nuclear test earlier Monday. The council is demanding that North Korea abide by two previous resolutions, which among other things banned further nuclear tests and called for a return to six-party talks aimed at eliminating its nuclear program.

North Korea's nuclear test is a "matter of grave concern," President Obama said Monday, as officials in Washington accused the rogue regime of blatantly defying the international community. The communist country said it had carried out a powerful underground nuclear test, much larger than one conducted in 2006. The regime also test-fired three short-range, ground-to-air missiles later Monday from the same northeastern site where it launched a rocket last month, the Yonhap news agency reported, citing unnamed sources. The twin moves were roundly condemned in Washington. "These actions, while not a surprise given its statements and actions to date, are...

Live thread, remarks coming soon. Didn't catch the time

Preventing the Islamic Republic of Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons is the core of this new online advocacy campaign. As individuals, each of us is powerless. However, together - thousands and thousands of us - we have a chance. That's where you come in. Our community - you - can have an impact. But we need to grow quickly. And we need to be financially self-sustaining. We will provide the infrastructure and a general course of action, but it is the DeNuke Iran community - thousands and thousands of people - who will drive this campaign with zeal and energy...