Obama's Golden Nuclear Option: What We're Reading Now
Feb 07, 2012
IRAN
Iran boosts nuclear work in bunker: diplomats
Fredrik Dahl, Reuters - February 6, 2012
Iran is believed to be expanding uranium enrichment activity deep inside a mountain, diplomatic sources said Monday, a move likely to add to tension with Western powers that suspect Tehran is seeking nuclear weapons capability.
Iran Calls New US Sanctions 'Psychological War'
Nasser Karimi, Associated Press - February 7, 2012
Iran has dismissed the new U.S. sanctions on Tehran, with the Foreign Ministry spokesman saying Tuesday they are part of a "psychological war" meant to sow discontent among Iranians and insisting the measures would not halt the country's nuclear program.
Netanyahu Says Only Military Strength Guarantees Security in Middle East
Jonathan Ferziger, Bloomberg - February 6, 2012
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who yesterday announced plans to visit the U.S. in March, said turmoil in neighboring Arab states and threats from Iran show that Israel must build up its military.
Parisa Hafezi, Reuters - February 7, 2012
Iran castigated its U.S. adversary on Tuesday over new financial measures to disrupt Iranian commerce, and a default on payment for rice purchases highlighted the encroachment of sanctions on the staples of everyday life.
Those Were the Weeks that Were: Nuclear Spring
Apr 14, 2010
A poster from Kazakhstan promotes a nuclear weapons free world during the security summit in Washington, DC.
Stepping back from the past few frantic days on nuclear weapons issues, it is useful to realize how much has been accomplished. The last two weeks have arguably been the two most eventful weeks on reducing the dangers posed by nuclear weapons since the advent of the nuclear age.
• On March 29, President Obama, together with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen, announced that the U.S. and Russia had reached agreement on the “New START” nuclear reductions treaty.
• On April 6, the United States released the results of a year-long review of nuclear weapons, called the Nuclear Posture Review.
• On April 8, Presidents Barack Obama and Dimitry Medvedev signed New START in Prague, Czech Republic.
• On April 12-13, the President convened leaders of 47 countries to agree on steps needed to secure and safeguard vulnerable nuclear materials and to cope with the worldwide terrorist threat.
Critics will point to shortcomings in the treaty, the nuclear review and the Washington summit. The millennium has not come and nuclear weapons will not disappear the day after tomorrow. Iran and North Korea continue to break the rules. There remain about 23,000 nuclear weapons across the globe, most much larger than those used against Japan in 1945.
But there has been significant forward movement that had been lacking over the past two decades.
Shocking news out of Washington, D.C.
Jan 08, 2010
Brace yourselves for the news.
A major Administration report on nuclear weapons is delayed one month from February 1 until March 1.
Dear readers, I am sure you are shocked, shocked beyond belief to think that the Executive Branch, Congress, state legislatures, non-profit groups, students, authors or even ordinary citizens would ever fail to meet a deadline.
Pundits and experts are opining about the significance of this nuclear policy delay.
It is said that the Administration is mired in bloody internal policy disputes over President Obama’s far-reaching nuclear weapons agenda.
Or the delay means that good guys (whomever they are, or perhaps even good gals, whomever they are) now have a better chance to prevail in the policy battles.
Or the nuclear weapons review will fizzle into deadlock.
Dear readers, it might just be possible that a delay is simply that, a delay. A failure to meet a deadline. A bureaucracy that could not get its act together. An unprecedented act in Washington, DC.
Not since Claude Rains in the movie “Casablanca” discovered there was gambling in "Rick's Café Américain" have people been so shocked.
So when is a delay just a delay? Ask the former House Majority Leader from Sugerland, Texas, who dances with the stars.