Category: Nuclear Weapons

George W. Bush Gives in to Axis of Evil

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Or at least the one member of the axis: It appears that the U.S. dropping North Korea from terror list, as it had to promised to do in negotiations, and the DPRK is resuming dismantling its nuclear program.

The Japanese are pissed off about this, what with the whole bizarre, “Kidnapping Japanese citizens,” thing still unresolved, but pretty much everyone else is happy about this development.

It appears that South Korea will be sending a delayed shipment of steel to the DPRK, and we now have reports that the IAEA has had its access restored.

U.S. Senate Votes to Make Nonproliferation a Joke

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To quote Crooks and Liars on the U.S. Senate voting 86 to 13 to approve the nuclear arms deal with India.

Needless to say, this is one of the few diplomatic accomplishments of this administration, wiping their ass on the non-proliferation regime studiously created over the past 40 years so that US nuclear companies can make a few bucks.

This makes the single most dangerous issue in the world, fully militarized nuclear warheads on delivery systems in Pakistan and India even worse.

I’d say “mission accomplished”, but Condoleeza “The Worst Secretary of State Ever” Rice has managed to screw up even this. She visited India after the Senate’s approval, and could not sign it because of unspecified bureaucratic issues.

I guess someone forgot to pay the service contract on the State Department copying machines.

Incompetent Condi Rice STILL Can’t Manage Her Way Out of a Paper Bag — DPRK Edition

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Well, it appears, that once again Rice is more concerned with being a close confidant to the president than doing her job, and as a result, conflicts between the negotiators and the John Bolton clones in the arms control wing of the State Department have sabotaged the agreement on North Korean nuclear weapons.

Under the proposal, heavily influenced by the State Department’s arms control experts, the U.S. requested “full access to all materials” at sites that might have had a nuclear purpose in the past. It sought “full access to any site, facility or location” deemed relevant to the nuclear program, including military facilities, according to the four-page document, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. Investigators would be able to take photographs and make videos, remain on site as long as necessary, make repeated visits and collect and remove samples.

It’s essentially what they insisted on Iraq, only the Iraqis had already lost a war, and signed an agreement ceding much sovereignty in that area.

What’s more, we know who was pushing for a breakdown in the agreement:

“I am notifying Congress of my intent to rescind North Korea’s designation as a state sponsor of terror in 45 days,” Bush announced June 26. “The next 45 days will be an important period for North Korea to show its seriousness of its cooperation. We will work through the six-party talks to develop a comprehensive and rigorous verification protocol. And during this period, the United States will carefully observe North Korea’s actions — and act accordingly.”

But there was no written document linking North Korea’s performance on verification to its removal from the terror list, sources said. So when Bush let the 45 days pass without any action, North Korea denounced what it called “obviously a violation of the principle of ‘action for action’ essential for realizing denuclearization.”

The Bush administration does not want a deal. They see it as weakness, and besides, California and Hawaii, the likely targets of a missile attack, don’t vote Republican.

Another Failure for Bush and His Evil Minions&trade

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Well, after expending all that time and effort on trying to ram through a US-India nuclear deal, it appears that even with the deal, India will be going with non-US companies for its nuclear needs, they will go to French and Russian companies.

It turns out that the Indian model, of purchasing whole systems from one vendor, does not lend itself to the way that the US nuclear power industry is structured.

So Bush isn’t even making money for GE and Bechtel out of this.

Bush and His Evil Minions&trade Frack it Up Again: DPRK Nukes Edition

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Because Bush/Cheney is unwilling to take the DPRK off a terror watch list, as it has promised, they have stopped dismantling their facilities, and are threatening to reconstitute them.

Because Cheney wants to swing his dick around*, about the only thing remotely like a positive foreign policy accomplishment is about to go down the drain.

It’s behavior like this which make North Korea a paranoid nuclear power. It makes them believe that the US is just waiting to attack them.

*Sorry for that image.

Nuclear Suppliers Group Throws Monkey Wrench into Indo-American Civil Nuke Deal

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Which I consider to be a good thing.

The idea that somehow the technical know-how that the French and the US nuclear industries are so interested in exporting to India won’t flow to their weapons’ program is naive at best.

Right now, the US is lobbying the 45 nation NSG to grant a waiver to India, even though it will not sign the NNPT.

This approval is necessary for the Indo-US deal to go through, and the NSG is looking at adding conditions to the waiver such as periodic reviews, a more intrusive inspection regime of civilian nuclear power plants, and a cancellation of the waiver in the event of additional Indian weapons testing.

India has said that it would reject any such conditions though, so it’s unclear where things go from here.

Honestly, I see this as phenomenally bad policy being pushed by the US Nuclear power industry, and being supported by Bush and His Evil Minions™ because they are reliable Republican donors.

Allegations of Bribery In Indian Nuke Vote

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Details here, here, and here.

The last link gets into the opposition of Kumari Mayawati to the measure. She is the defacto national representative of India’s Dalit (untouchable) population, and based on what I’ve read about her indicates that she is a very skilled politician, and so probably she’s setting herself up for a larger role in the next government.

One thing that I am sure of though is that it won’t make it through this session of the US Congress, because the Hyde Act requires that Congress be in session continuously for 30 days before a vote is held, and that will not happen in late July of an election year.

It Appears that Some People Want to Relive the 1960s

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Specifically, the Cuban Missile Crisis.

There are now rumors that Russia may start basing nuclear capable bombers in Cuba in response to the US installing an ABM system in Europe directed at them (let’s be honest, if it were actually aimed at the Iranians, as claimed, it would be further south, to give coverage to Turkey and Italy).

General Norton Schwartz, the nominee for Air Force chief of staff, said, “I think we should stand strong and indicate that that is something that crosses a threshold, crosses a red line, for the United States of America.“

I agree….as does the expansion of NATO eastward, and a the European missile defense system crosses a red line for the Russians.

Russian political culture is not driven by a need to engage in the world. Russian political culture is driven by a paranoia about the world, and we seem to be taking steps guaranteed to stoke their paranoia.

It’s almost as if someone wanted to recreate the Cold War for political gain.

Indian Government Wins Confidence Vote on Nuke Deal

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The vote was 275 votes to 256 with 10 abstentions.

Honestly, I think that the nuclear deal is a bad one, it provides civilian nuclear technology to India while its weapons program proceeds apace, but it puts me on the side of the the BJP,* which makes me feeling queasy, though their objection is a nationalist one, that there should be no limits on weapons building and testing, and mine is an anti-proliferation one, that we are rewarding a proliferator with the deal, and will inevitably supply technology for weapons development, simply to benefit the moribund US nuclear industry.

It still has to pass Congress, which is unlikely until after Bush leaves office, and a new administration may wish to tweak the deal.

Indian Communist Party Withdraw Support Over US India Nuke Deal

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The arrangement is odd, the Communists are not formally a part of the government, but they have supported the government on confidence votes, but they are now withdrawing their support because of the US-India nuclear deal, which they feel violated Indian sovereignty.

They don’t object to the nuclear cooperation. They object to signing the NNPT and negotiating with the IAEA.

It looks like both the Bush and His Evil Minions™ and the Indian Congress party are rushing to get this deal signed before January 21, 2009.

Background here, here, here, here, and here.

Iranians Sick of Ahmadinejad Too

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While Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the most prominent Iranian leader, it’s also true that he actually has very little role in foreign policy.

It now appears that officials who are involved in Iranian foreign policy are telling him to STFU, with Ali Akbar Velayati, a top foreign policy adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying that, “Iranian officials must avoid making ‘provocative’ statements”, and Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki saying that the EU proposals on Uranium enrichment were “constructive”.

There are more adults in the various executive branches of Iran than there are in the US White House.