Nuclear Weapons

NO ONE should be surprised that the Bush administration may use military force to stop Iran's nuclear capability. Bush, a born-again Christian, informed these anti-Christian nations of the world that they would feel his wrath if they produce any weapons of mass destruction. President Truman, also a Christian, responsible for dropping the bomb that claimed more than 100,000 lives in Nagasaki alone, "thanked God for giving the United States the atomic bomb . . . " Truman was also ready to use the A-bomb on communist North Korea.

If the protests, disturbances, negative polls, critical political commentary and immense press coverage of the French nuclear tests at Mururoa atoll in the South Pacific have proved anything, they've demonstrated that a nerve has been touched - people of many beliefs, from a wide variety of cultures and politics, have concluded that nuclear bombs are no longer the weapon of choice. Nuclear patriotism, French style, seems to be the last refuge of the scoundrel. Nuclear possession by anyone, even the superpowers, is now up for serious question.

Fifty-five years ago this week, America dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So began the nuclear age. It hasn't gone as the experts predicted. There have been no "limited" nuclear wars, and although nine nations did eventually acquire nuclear weapons, an additional 20 countries started down the nuclear path only to stop and reverse course. Today, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), the cornerstone of international efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, has more members than the United Nations.

Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze surprised the United States and its allies yesterday by announcing that the Soviet Union was planning to withdraw 1,500 nuclear warheads and other short-range weapons from Central Europe by the end of the year. Secretary of State James A. Baker 3d welcomed the Soviet announcement, but asked whether it was really new. "We don't know whether the weapons to be removed were going to be removed in any event as a consequence of troop reductions that have already been announced," Baker said.

The risk that nuclear weapons will spread to more countries is acute, especially in Pakistan and the Middle East, and a superpower arms race is increasing the danger of nuclear proliferation, a report by U.S. and European arms control experts released yesterday concluded. The report, published by the private Council on Foreign Relations, said punitive sanctions against countries thought to be seeking nuclear arms were largely ineffective. It said intense U.S. and Soviet arms control efforts and international attempts to defuse regional crises would be more effective at containing the spread of nuclear weapons.

There's lots to wonder about in the Key Judgments of the latest National Intelligence Estimate, which informs us with "high confidence" that Iran halted its nuclear bomb program four years ago. This contradicts its 2005 warning that Iran was "determined to develop nuclear weapons. " That followed the 2003-2004 zig-zag from our intelligence community on Iraq and Saddam Hussein's interest in weapons of mass destruction; which followed the intelligence failure to zero in on the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers before they slammed airplanes into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania.

Now the hands reaching for [nuclear] weapons are those of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda.. . . What can we do to reduce the threat? First, we should help Russia strengthen its protection of nuclear materials and enable its weapons scientists to convert to civilian work. We can help Pakistan develop technology needed to guard against the theft or unauthorized use of its nuclear weapons. Second, the U.S. administration should recommit itself to multinational efforts to control and limit the spread of nuclear weapons.

A federal jury starts deliberating today in the trial of a retired Pakistani general accused of conspiring to violate U.S. export laws to obtain nuclear-weapons-grade metal from a Reading company. The jurors hearing the case against Inam Ul-Haq were sent home yesterday afternoon after closing arguments from lawyers for the government and defense and instructions in the law from U.S. District Judge James T. Giles. Ul-Haq, 63, who did not testify and presented no evidence during the trial, which began June 29, is charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and one count of making false statements to a government agency.

NATO's defense ministers agreed yesterday that there was less need now for short-range nuclear systems in Western Europe, but they did not reach a consensus on which weapons should be withdrawn and which should remain. The NATO ministers noted in a joint communique that "profound changes" have occurred in Eastern Europe, justifying the comprehensive review of Western defense strategy that President Bush requested last week. They also agreed to hold a meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders in London on July 5-6 to determine the precise aim of new arms negotiations with the Soviet Union on tactical nuclear forces.

India is now engaged in an all-out catch-up game with China for who will end up as the dominant power in Asia. Economic competition is the weapon of choice for day-to-day affairs - and India now looks as if it has a good chance of overtaking China in the early decades of the next century. But nuclear weapons are what the game could be about, if they continue to be the currency of power, despite the end of the Cold War. That is all the more so if post-Deng Xiaoping China becomes more assertive and militaristic - and all the indications are that it will be. (If China continues to build up its nuclear armory at its present rate, it will reach parity with the United States in 30 years.

George Bunn, 87, a leading figure in the field of arms control who helped draft and negotiate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968, limiting the spread of nuclear weapons worldwide, died April 21 at his home in Palo Alto, Calif. He had spinal cancer, said his son Matthew Bunn. In 1945, while serving in the Navy, Mr. Bunn was on a ship bound for Japan when atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought an end to World War II. "He was convinced that the atomic bomb saved his life," his son said Thursday.

GENEVA - Ahead of a round of global nuclear talks, five major powers Friday labeled North Korea and Iran as "serious challenges" to the world's nuclear security, citing their repeated defiance of U.N. sanctions. Senior diplomats with the U.N. Security Council's five permanent members singled out North Korea's nuclear test in February and Iran's "continued pursuit of certain nuclear activities" as among the biggest threats to the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the world's most important pact on preventing the spread of nuclear arms.

WASHINGTON - North Korea likely has a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on a ballistic missile, according to a new assessment by the Pentagon's intelligence arm that comes amid growing alarm over Pyongyang's warmongering. The conclusion by the Defense Intelligence Agency said the weapon would have "low reliability," but the disclosure during a congressional hearing Thursday is likely to raise fresh concerns about North Korea's capabilities and intentions. Rep. Doug Lamborn (R., Colo.)

What to do about Kim Jong-un, the world's greatest showman, who is noisily threatening a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula and preparing to test a missile that could reach Guam? Politicians and pundits are furiously debating the answer, but I've heard no ideas likely to persuade North Korea's twenty-something leader to behave better. That is, until Tuesday, when a prominent South Korean legislator suggested a response that would be bitterly opposed by Washington (and Beijing and Pyongyang)

ALMATY, Kazakhstan - Iran and world powers trying to curb Iran's nuclear progress are coming to the negotiating table this week with the window shrinking on diplomacy. Tehran is moving closer to the ability to make atomic arms, and that risks the threat of Mideast conflict. Israel says the Islamic Republic is only a few months away from the threshold of having material to turn into a bomb and has vowed to use all means to prevent it from reaching that point. The United States has not said what its "red line" is, but has said it would not tolerate an Iran armed with nuclear weapons.

ACCOMAC, Va. - A former volunteer firefighter and his girlfriend were arrested Tuesday and are suspected of setting a majority of the 70 recent arsons on Virginia's Eastern Shore. Charles R. Smith III, who served as captain of the Tasley Volunteer Fire Department several years ago, and his girlfriend, Tonya S. Bundick, were arrested early Tuesday, shortly after an abandoned residence was set ablaze. Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said the pair are believed to be responsible for most of the fires set since November.

SEOUL, South Korea - After weeks of war-like rhetoric, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gathered legislators Monday for an annual spring parliamentary session taking place one day after top party officials adopted a statement declaring building nuclear weapons and the economy the nation's top priorities. The meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly follows near-daily threats from Pyongyang, including vows of nuclear strikes on South Korea and the United States. Pyongyang has reacted with anger over routine U.S.-South Korean military drills and a new round of U.N. and U.S. sanctions that followed its Feb. 12 underground nuclear test, the country's third.

WASHINGTON - An erratic North Korea, with its nuclear weapons and increasingly belligerent tone, poses a serious threat to the United States and East Asia nations, the director of National Intelligence warned Tuesday in the annual accounting of threats worldwide. In his extensive overview, James R. Clapper told Congress that a less decentralized terrorist network had significantly altered the threats, while the Arab Spring uprising had created spikes in the dangers facing U.S. interests in the Middle East and North Africa.

Disarming for a safer world The plan approved by President Obama for a further reduction in the nation's nuclear arsenal would serve American and global security. We have seen again in Mali and Algeria that extremists targeting Western interests care nothing about nuclear weapons and are not deterred by nuclear arsenals. Nuclear weapons, after all, cannot defend an oil refinery, or an American military base in, say, Kuwait. Only good intelligence and good relations can do that.

Iranian: Nuclear arms not a goal TEHRAN, Iran - Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, said Saturday that his country was not seeking nuclear weapons, but that if Tehran intended to build them, the United States couldn't stop it. Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters in Iran, also rejected direct talks with the U.S. over its nuclear program. "We believe nuclear weapons must be abolished and we have no intention of building" such weaponry, Khamenei said in remarks posted on his website.