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During an April 11, 2013, House Armed Services Committee hearing, Congressman Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., inadvertently revealed several unclassified sentences from a DIA report that said DIA had determined with “moderate confidence” that North Korea has the capability to make a nuclear weapon small enough to be launched with a ballistic missile. The Director of National Intelligence and Obama officials subsequently tried to dismiss Lamborn’s disclosure by claiming the DIA assessment was an outlier that did not reflect the views of the rest of the U.S. Intelligence Community.....

Nanotechnology opens up the possibility to manufacture mini-nuke components so small that they are difficult to screen and detect. Furthermore, the weapon (capable of an explosion equivalent to about 100 tons of TNT) could be compact enough to fit into a pocket or purse and weigh about 5 pounds and destroy large buildings or be combined to do greater damage to an area. "When we talk about making conventional nuclear weapons, they are difficult to make," he said. "Making a mini-nuke would be difficult but in some respects not as difficult as a full-blown nuclear weapon." Del Monte explained that...

As most of you have read or seen by now, a journalist and NBC/MSNBC media consultant named William “Bill” Arkin has created quite a stir by viciously insulting American soldiers in Iraq. He wrote at his Washington Post blog, “Early Warning: William M. Arkin on National and Homeland Security” column (1/30/07), that “… this NBC (Nightly News) report is just an ugly reminder of the price we pay for a mercenary - oops sorry, volunteer force that thinks it is doing the dirty work” re Iraq. The “report,” according to Arkin, featured “a number of soldiers (who) expressed frustration with...

U.S. Congress resists 'bunker buster' By Nicholas Kralev THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published May 10, 2005 The Bush administration faces strong opposition in Congress to funding for research to bolster the U.S. nuclear arsenal for the second year in a row, but it may receive a limited budget for one program, administration and congressional officials say.     The proposal that met most resistance from both Democrats and Republicans is the creation of a Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP), the "bunker buster" that would be able to break through rock.     "The Pentagon has been interested in improving our capabilities for several years, and...

The United States wants to develop the capability to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities with air strikes.Officials said that the need for US capabilty to destroy underground nuclear facilites has spurred the renewal of the effort to create the so-called 'super bunker busters.'Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, issued the request for the weapon, termed the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, in a letter sent to then Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham in January._Full Text, subscribers

WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers this week pressed U.S. defense officials to explain why the military would need a new earth-penetrating nuclear weapon, which has been under evaluation in a program favored by the Bush administration (see GSN, Feb. 4). The administration has requested $8.5 million in fiscal 2006 funding for the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator program to continue a study of whether an upgraded, existing nuclear weapon might be capable of plowing more deeply through rock prior to a nuclear explosion. The money would enable a first drop test by the Air Force next year of the hardened weapon, without...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress denied the Bush administration funds to study a new generation of nuclear weapons, omitting the money from a huge mop-up spending bill it passed over the weekend, lawmakers said on Monday. The final $388 billion spending bill did not include the $36.6 million President Bush (news - web sites) sought to study so-called bunker-busting nuclear weapons that would be used to destroy underground facilities as well as smaller nuclear arms with half the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The White House said it had no plans to build such weapons, but wanted...

FEINSTEIN-KENNEDY AMENDMENT TO THE FY2004 DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION BILL -- (Senate - June 03, 2003) [Page: S7230] --- [Begin Insert] Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, today I submit into the record a statement to clarify my position on the development of low yield nuclear weapons. Circumstances prevented me from voting last week on the Feinstein-Kennedy amendment to the FY2004 defense authorization bill which would have struck any provisions that might permit research, development, testing, or deployment of low yield nuclear weapons. At the time, my vote was announced as an ``aye'' in favor of a motion to table the amendment. Through no...

Friday, August 6, 2004 at 08:51 JST HIROSHIMA — Hiroshima on Friday morning marked the 59th anniversary of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of the city. An estimated 40,000 people attended the ceremony that started at 8 a.m. at the Peace Memorial Park in the downtown part of the western Japan city that was devastated in the world's first nuclear attack Aug 6, 1945, three days before the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. In his peace declaration, Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba voiced serious concern over the "egocentric worldview" of the United States and moves in Japan to revise the country's pacifist...

Editorial: Nixing nuclear folly Does U.S. President George Bush need more nuclear weapons? Well, not really. He has 11,000 at his disposal right now. As far as we know, they work just fine. So it comes as a relief that a U.S. Congress panel has just denied a Bush request for nearly $100 million to develop and test new "low-yield mini-nukes" and "bunker-busters." These bombs are meant to minimize fallout and to destroy buried targets. Combined with Bush's readiness to consider pre-emptive nuclear strikes, even against non-nuclear-armed adversaries, these "battlefield" weapons would lower the psychological bar to using nukes, and...

WASHINGTON — A House subcommittee told the administration Wednesday to rethink some of its plans for nuclear weapons, including development of a "bunker buster" warhead. The panel refused to provide money for development of a nuclear bunker buster, a weapon that can destroy a deeply buried target. It also denied funding for research into the feasibility of a low-yield "mini-nuke" warhead and for work on a new plant to produce plutonium triggers for the warheads. The programs, while relatively small in terms of funding during the fiscal year beginning in October, have been a priority of the National Nuclear Security...

There's a broiling debate about nuclear weapons going on, one reminiscent of Cold War debates over the implications of possible modifications to the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Some government officials have expressed an interest in having scientists at the national labs examine the potential for modern, precision, low-yield nuclear weapons, the prospective goal being to strengthen the U.S. capability to deter attacks. If ever developed, such capabilities would stand in contrast to the generally high yields and moderate accuracies of the remaining Cold War nuclear arsenal that was deployed to deter the Soviet Union. Opponents of examining the potential for precision,...

No one likes to consider the possibility of nuclear war. But somebody's got to do it, and that sober duty fell recently to a special task force of the Defense Science Board, which has just recommended useful changes to the U.S. strategic arsenal to fit our post-September 11 world. First we should note what the task force does not want to change — the high threshold for use of nuclear weapons. "It is, and will likely remain, American policy to keep the nuclear threshold high and to pursue non-nuclear attack options whenever possible. Nothing in our assessment or recommendations seeks...

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration says in a new report to Congress that a recently repealed ban on U.S. low-yield nuclear weapons research and development will not harm U.S. nonproliferation diplomacy or encourage proliferation, as critics have charged (see GSN, March 22). The White House sought and won a repeal of the 10-year-old law last year despite opposition from congressional Democrats and significant international disapproval, enabling the administration to pursue plans this year for basic research and development on low-yield nuclear weapons, defined as those with yields below five kilotons (see GSN, Nov. 6). “There is no reason to believe...

<p>No one likes to consider the possibility of nuclear war, especially on Easter Monday. But somebody's got to do it, and that sober duty fell recently to a special task force of the Defense Science Board, which has just recommended useful changes to the U.S. strategic arsenal to fit our post-September 11 world.</p>

The Case of Suitcase Nukes Recently, two fascinating topics have grabbed the attention of the Western public: speculation that Russians had sold "suitcase nuclear bombs" to al-Qaida terrorists -- based on a claim by a biographer of Osama bin Laden's factotum, Ayman al-Zawahiri -- and an outbreak of terrorist incidents in the Central Asian ex-Soviet republic of Uzbekistan. These two matters are linked, for as I previously wrote in TCS, Uzbekistan sits in the middle of a dangerous nest of nuclear, ex-nuclear, and aspiring nuclear powers, including its former ruler, Russia; its neighbor Kazakhstan; nearby Pakistan, and China. In addition,...

I will never forget the image. An unassuming looking man walking the streets of London with a bulging briefcase. Inside it, an atomic bomb. It was back in 1950. I was just a kid, and I sat immobilized in my seat at the Manos Theater in Latrobe, Pa., watching a British film "Seven Days to Noon." In it, a leading British atomic scientist, played by now-forgotten actor Barry Jones, posts a letter to the Prime Minister saying he has taken a small nuclear weapon and will detonate it in the center of London in seven days unless the government agrees...

The Nuclear Suitcases Of Sheikh Osama Bin Laden - A Christmas Message From Daleel Almojahid PipeLineNews - Editor's note: As we consider the heightened state of terror awareness, it may be instructive to read a sample of the type of "chatter" that has alarmed the intelligence gathering mechanism of the United States. It comes from an Internet source called Daleel Almohahid which means roughly, Guide or Directive of the Jihad, in Arabic. Internet message boards such as this one have been increasingly cluttered with such ominous warnings. This is a remarkable document. Many of the facts claimed by it are...

Critics say American 'double standard' will undermine efforts to curb nuclear arms. Vienna— Research on a new generation of precision atomic weapons by the Bush administration threatens to undermine international efforts to stop the spread of nuclear arms and to tarnish recent successes, according to diplomats and nonproliferation experts. The criticism focuses on the administration's decision to lay the groundwork for developing low-yield weapons — known as mini-nukes — while pursuing President Bush's doctrine of preemptive strikes against rogue states. The diplomats and independent experts said Washington's strategy weakens support for more stringent controls at a time when the Nuclear...

<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - A memo from a top Bush official to the nation's nuclear weapons labs celebrating the repeal of a ban on low-yield nuclear weapons research is chest-beating reminiscent of a Cold War-era arms climate, anti-nuclear advocates say.</p>