Is Italy capable of delivering a thermonuclear strike? Could the Belgians and the Dutch drop hydrogen bombs on enemy targets?…Germany’s air force couldn’t possibly be training to deliver bombs 13 times more powerful than the one that destroyed Hiroshima, could it?
December 2, one entitled “What to Do About Europe’s Secret Nukes.”
In response to the rhetorical queries posed it adopts the deadly serious tone befitting the subject in stating, “It is Europe’s dirty secret that the list of nuclear-capable countries extends beyond those — Britain and France — who have built their own weapons. Nuclear bombs are stored on air-force bases in Italy, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands — and planes from each of those countries are capable of delivering them.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman may have tipped his Masada hand when he reportedly told Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan that Israel may use nuclear weapons against Gaza. The threat to Israel is not the 1.5 million Gazans who reside in the world’s largest open-air prison.
The threat is the fast-growing global outrage at the abuse inflicted on Palestinians, commencing with the ethnic cleansing of 400-plus villages six decades ago.
More than 13 years after its signature, the Pelindaba Treaty, which establishes Africa as a nuclear-weapon-free zone, officially came into force this summer. However, conflicting British and African interpretations of an oblique footnote about Diego Garcia threaten to put one signatory,
Mauritius, in breach of the treaty. For Africa to truly be considered nuclear-weapon-free, this ambiguity must be clarified–possibly affecting U.S. and British military activities in the region.
Since 1947, India has not fully pledged itself to any camp or global pole during the Cold War and as a result was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement (N.A.M.). Since the post-Cold War era that position has eroded. New Delhi has been gradually moving away from its traditional position, relationships, and policies in the international arena for over a decade.
India has been vied for as an ally in the “Great Game” that is underway, once again. This round of the “Great Game” is, however, being played under a far broader spectrum than the one played between Britain and Czarist Russia. In question is the Indian power relationship with two geo-political entities: the first is the “Periphery” and the second is “Eurasia.”
Filed in Creative-i on Asia, Creative-i on China, Creative-i on India
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Also tagged Clash of Civilizations, Eurasia, G-20, israel, Israel Aerospace Industries, Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, Manmohan Singh, NATO, tibet
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“Don’t be nonchalant about an attack on Iran, it won’t work,” claims former CIA Senior Analyst Ray McGovern. Together with Iraq WMD whistle-blower Greg Thielmann, the two intelligence experts break down the various means at Iran’s disposal of responding to US-Israeli provocations or attacks. Their conclusion is that the US government’s strategic best interest is clearly cooperation with Iran, but such a move requires a break with the Israeli government, not a commonly held position amongst politicians in the US.
Intelligence work is a “fool’s errand” says former CIA senior analyst, Ray McGovern, referring to the tendency of politicians and the press to neglect or manipulate one’s work. Greg Thielmann notes that it isn’t only US intelligence officers that are neglected, adding that the threat assessments of intelligence services around the world indicate their belief that developing a nuclear weapon is one of the best ways to avoid being attacked by the United States.
Intelligence experts Ray McGovern and Greg Thielmann respond to a question from the floor on the significance of Israel’s nuclear weapons arsenal in the discussion of Iran. McGovern notes that “an unpardonable mistake in US politics is to mention the Israeli arsenal as a motivation for Iran.” Adding that, “by acknowledging the Israeli nukes, one realizes that Iran is surrounded on all sides by nuclear powers. Russia to the North, Pakistan to the East, Israel to the West, and US ships in the Persian Gulf to the South.
Video: Iraq whistle-blower Greg Thielmann: Military threats may push Iran to restart suspended weapons program
Video: Retired CIA analyst Ray McGovern speaks on disinformation, Iran, and “faith-based intelligence”
The IAEA, which met in Vienna on September 18, adopted a resolution expressing concern about “Israeli nuclear capabilities” and called on agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei to work on the issue. The motion was adopted by 49 votes to 45, with 16 abstentions. Russia and China, both permanent members of the UN security council, voted in favour. The United States and the European Union initially tried to block the vote, and then voted against it. David Danieli, deputy director of Israel’s atomic energy commission, said: “Israel will not co-operate in any matter with this resolution.”
Missile Defense: Ruse And Reality
As regards the incontestable fact that U.S. and NATO plans for the deployment of interceptor missiles and complementary radar facilities in Europe are not and could not be designed to protect the United States and Western Europe from imaginary Iranian intercontinental ballistic missiles and equally non-existent nuclear warheads, even the vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff General James Cartwright was forced to concede the point at the space and missile defense conference this week.
A devastating US military strike against Iran’s nuclear and military facilities ‘is a technically feasible and credible option,’ a retired general asserted in an article published on Friday.
On May 25, 2009 the Central Telegraph Agency of the DPRK issued the following statement: ‘Another underground nuclear test was carried out successfully… The test was carried out on May 25, 2008 at the request of our scientists and technicians as a measure aimed at strengthening North Korea’s nuclear deterrence potential in the interests of its self-defense… The present nuclear test will contribute to the protection of the country’s sovereignty, nation, and socialism, as well as to the peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and in the adjacent region’. So, what are the truth and the claims of Pyongyang? What is the explanation behind its political U-turn and reorientation from the political scenario to conflict oriented approach?
As the US Administration is fully aware of the state of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces and the outlook for them, its consent to the proposed parameters of the arms reduction was not hard to extract. Speaking precisely, Washington simply tailored the parameters of the proposed cuts to its own military programs whose underlying strategy is to rely less on nuclear arms and more on advanced conventional weapons, especially cruise missiles and space-based, ground-based, and marine missile defense systems. At present the US leadership in conventional warfare goes unchallenged but the nuclear potentials of Russia, China, and other countries still preclude the global US dictate. As a result, the reduction of nuclear potentials plays into the hands of the US.
With military deployments and interventions in Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia from at least as early as 1995-2001 onward, the German Bundeswehr had crossed a barrier, violated a taboo and established a new precedent that paralleled the remilitarization of the Rhineland in 1936, the latter in flagrant contravention of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles.
Had Obama been willing to forego the illusory US missile shield (which is incapable of offering any protection against incoming missiles, since those missiles could easily be accompanied by a barrage of indistinguishable decoys rendering the missile defenses useless) Russia might well have agreed to larger reductions in their mutual arsenals which together now total about 25,000 warheads with only about 1,000 more in the possession of all seven other nuclear powers—UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea.
But in its much advertised effort to become a nuclear power, North Korea is actually displaying more sanity than first meets the eye. The Pyongyang leadership seems to know something about US global policy that our own policymakers and pundits have overlooked. In a word, the United States has never attacked or invaded any nation that has a nuclear arsenal.
It was Vanunu who inspired me to became a citizen journalist, and three weeks after my first trip to occupied east Jerusalem I established my website and have been reporting from day on Vanunu’s historic FREEDOM of SPEECH trial in the ‘democracy’ of Israel which began on January 25, 2006.
In the latest video, TRNN Senior Editor Paul Jay asked Gustavo Zlauvinen about the apparent hypocrisy of the IAEA’s pursuit in limiting Iranian nuclear armament. Jay asks that if the major nuclear powers were not disarming, and not signing the NPT, by what standard should countries like Iran limit their own nuclear programs.
TRNN Senior Editor Paul Jay asked Gustavo Zlauvinen about the apparent hypocrisy of the IAEA’s pursuit in limiting Iranian nuclear armament. Jay asks that if the major nuclear powers were not disarming, and not signing the NPT, by what standard should countries like Iran limit their own nuclear programs.
