Getting to Zero Update
30 April 2008
Please note, BASIC and Crisis Action have a bi-weekly update
devoted solely to diplomatic developments related to Iran's
nuclear program, which may be found at the following Web address:
http://www.basicint.org/update/iran.htm.
Previous editions of the Washington Nuclear Update are available
at: http://www.basicint.org/update/wnu.htm.
In this issue:
COMMITMENTS TO DISARMAMENT AND ARMS CONTROL
US President George Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin
met in Sochi in south-western Russia on April 6. The meeting
followed a tense NATO Summit in Bucharest and came amid ongoing
disagreements over US missile defense proposals for Eastern
Europe and the fate of arms control treaties. The meeting,
which may be the last one between Bush and Putin as presidents
of their countries, resulted in a Strategic
Framework Declaration. The Declaration included references
to nuclear and conventional arms control, most notably stating
that the two countries would "continue development of a legally
binding post-START arrangement" [emphasis added]. Previous
indications from the Bush Administration (which now has nine
months left in office) had placed in doubt whether US officials
would pursue such a binding agreement.
The U.N.
Disarmament Commission met in substantive session in New
York from April 7-25, 2008. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
opened the session by criticizing
the lack of progress in recent international meetings
on nuclear weapons. The 2nd NPT Preparatory Committee to the
2010 Review Conference started on Monday this week (28th April)
in Geneva. Reports and speeches are available on the Reaching
Critical Will website.
In an op-ed in the Washington Times on April 2, Ambassadors
Thomas Graham and Max Kampelman called for the presidents
of the United States and Russia to appear before the U.N.
General Assembly and propose a resolution calling for the
elimination of all weapons of mass destruction.
Further Reading
Renewed
UN mandate aims to stop spread of weapons of mass destruction,
UN News Centre, April 25, 2008.
Preparing
for 2010: Striking a Balance between Nuclear Disarmament &
Nuclear Nonproliferation, A CNS workshop report, CNS hosted
a two-day diplomatic workshop on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation
of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) on March 7-8, 2008 in Annecy, France.
Report published on April 15, 2008.
Gorbachev
Calls for More International Cooperation, Barry Massey,
AP via Las Cruces-Sun News, April 14, 2008.
Pelindaba
Treaty Resource Page, 12th anniversary of the signing
in Cairo of the African Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Treaty, CNS,
International Organizations and Nonproliferation Program,
April 11, 2008.
Repairing
US-Russian Strategic Relations After Bush and Putin, with
panelists Ambassador James Goodby, Dr. George Lewis, and Ambassador
Avis T. Bohlen, moderated by Daryl Kimball, Arms Control Association
event held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.,
April 11, 2008.
CTR
Program Destroys Final Russian SS-24 Missile, National
Journal Group via NTI, April 10, 2008.
Disarmament
Commission 2008 Substantive Session 286th & 287th Meetings,
April 8, 2008.
Sochi
Declaration on Arms Control and Disarmament, Martin Butcher,
Bucharest Summit Blog, April 6, 2008.
COMMENTARY:
Restoring US nuclear-free leadership, Thomas Graham Jr.
and Max Kampelman, Washington Times, April 2, 2008.
Getting
Real About Nuclear Disarmament, Daryl G. Kimball, Arms
Control Today, April 2008.
The
Future of Nuclear Disarmament: US and Russian Public Opinion
Strongly Supports Eliminating Nuclear Weapons, Bruce Blair,
The Defense Monitor, March/April 2008, pp. 4-5.
Conference
on Disarmament Hears Statements by France, Canada, Chile on
Behalf of 10 Latin American Countries, Russia, Iran, and China,
United Nations Office at Geneva, News and Media, March 27,
2008.
Final
Document of the Tenth Special Session of the U.N. General
Assembly on Disarmament, via Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace, March 24, 2008.
Time to Bury a Deadly Legacy, Three-part series in YaleGlobal,
A
clear agenda combined with determination could prevent a nuclear
9/11, Graham Allison, March 14, 2008; Climatic
catastrophe would follow regional nuclear conflict, Alan
Robock, March 17, 2008; The
notion that more nuclear weapons lead to a safe world is irrational,
Jonathan Schell, March 19, 2008.
The
Future of Nuclear Weapons in an Interdependent World,
Harald Müller, The Washington Quarterly, 31:2; Spring
2008, pp. 63-75.
Time
to Outlaw the Use of Nuclear Weapons, Rebecca Johnson,
Disarmament Diplomacy, Issue No. 87, Spring 2008.
Country Updates
UNITED STATES
Complex Transformation and the "Reliable Replacement Warhead"
Program
Directors of the three national laboratories and the Administrator
of the National Nuclear Security Agency (NNSA) testified
before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and
Water Development on April 16. The director of Lawrence
Livermore, George Miller, said that as long as there is investment
in "science-based programmatic activities", the Stockpile
Stewardship Program will "continue to be a technical success".
Tom D'Agostino, Director of the NNSA, said that while he believed
that the current nuclear weapons stockpile is safe and reliable,
"maintaining certification of the finely-tuned designs of
the aging Cold War stockpile through Life Extension Programs
(LEPs) only, absent nuclear testing, necessarily entails increasing
risk over time". D'Agostino went on to argue that the "reliable
replacement warhead [RRW] concepts" would allow for better
security against unauthorized use. He did not point to specific
evidence that undergirded his concerns.
A day earlier, a group of NGOs (including BASIC) sent a letter
to Representative Peter J. Visclosky, Chairman of the House
Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development,
urging Congress to eliminate funding for the RRW program.
In part, the letter argued that the United States lacks a
comprehensive nuclear weapons policy for the current international
security environment and that "Congressional action now to
fund such a [RRW] program could prejudge and undermine the
integrity" of a recently mandated nuclear weapons policy review.
The NNSA extended
the public comment period to April 30 for the draft Complex
Transformation Supplemental Programmatic Environmental Impact
Statement (SPEIS).
The Secretaries of Energy and Defense sent a white paper
to Congress in early April, titled, "National Security and
Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century." This classified paper
is a more extensive version of the July 2007 paper, National
Security and Nuclear Weapons: Maintaining Deterrence in the
21st Century.
Further Reading
Will
the Bush Administration's New Nukes Program Bomb? Brian
Beutler (The Media Consortium), Mother Jones, April
1, 2008.
Complex Transformation:
Nuclear Weapons Now, Nuclear Weapons Tomorrow, Nuclear Weapons
Forever, Arjun Makhijani, Lisa Ledwidge, and Annie Makhijani,
Science for Democratic Action, April 2008.
The
"public" discussion about the Energy Department's Complex
Transformation, Hugh Gusterson, Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientists, March 27, 2008.
Mishandling of nuclear weapons, missiles parts and information
In light of incidents with nuclear weapons and missile parts
during the past year, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has
ordered
a full inventory of US nuclear weapons and related materials.
The Pentagon announced on March 27 that Secretary Gates gave
the orders for the Navy and Defense Logistics Agency and the
Air Force to submit a report of their inventory control procedures
within 60 days. Two days before, the Pentagon revealed that
four ballistic missile nose cone assemblies and electrical
components were mistakenly shipped to Taiwan in the fall of
2006 and failed to discover the error until a year and a half
later. In August 2007, nuclear weapons were accidentally loaded
onto a bomber in North Dakota and flown over the United States.
The Deseret Morning News out of Salt Lake City, Utah
obtained through the Freedom of Information Act a May 2007
audit of Hill Air Force Base that revealed deficient
record-keeping of ballistic missile parts (the shipment
to Taiwan had occurred in 2006 from Hill AFB). The audit report
warned that weak record-keeping practices could lead to "inadvertent
technology transfers." For the full report, see: Installation
Report of Audit F2007-0043-FCI000, Assets at Contractor
Facilities Ogden Air Logistics Center Hill AFB Utah, Hill
Area Audit Office, May 2007 (posted online by The Deseret
Morning News, April 2008).
General John Corley, the head of Air Combat Command, has
said that the Air Force is considering whether a single
nuclear chain of command would help avoid such problems
as the August 2007 nuclear bomber incident in the future.
The general suggested that a new chain of command might bring
Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) and bombers under
a single heading called "global effects."
Ben-Ami Kadish, who served as a mechanical engineer for the
US Army, has been charged with sharing
classified US nuclear weapons-related documents with Israel.
Kadish is suspected
of supplying the information to Israeli officials when
he worked at the US Army's Armament Research, Development,
and Engineering Center (ARDEC) based at Picatinny Arsenal
in New Jersey from 1979 to 1985.
US Presidential Elections
Republican presidential candidate John
McCain said during a speech at the World Affairs Council
in Los Angeles on March 26 that the United States should renew
its commitment to the NPT. Senator McCain said "We should
work to reduce nuclear arsenals all around the world, starting
with our own," adding "We do not need all the weapons currently
in our arsenal."
During a controversial
debate in Pennsylvania on April 16, Democratic presidential
candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were asked whether
the United States should treat an attack on Israel as on attack
on the United States, with Iran being cited as a key nuclear
threat in the future. Senator Clinton said that while the
United States should threaten massive retaliation against
Iran if it attacks Israel, the United States should create
"an umbrella of deterrence that goes much further than Israel".
She also said that the United States should conduct low-level
diplomacy with Iran, and avoid meeting with President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad. Senator Obama said that he would not take any
options off of the table in dealing with an Iranian nuclear
threat against Israel or any other allies but he emphasized
diplomatic options and that US policy toward Iran should be
one of using "carrots and sticks".
Further Reading
America's
Secret Plan to Nuke Vietnam and Laos, Richard S. Ehrlich,
Scoop Independent News, April 16, 2008.
Scientists'
Statement on US Nuclear Weapons Policy, Toward True
Security, Union of Concerned Scientists, April 2008.
US
nuclear forces, 2008, Robert S. Norris and Hans M. Kristensen,
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March/April 2008.
Radiation
Monitors Cannot Reliably Detect Highly Enriched Uranium at
US Ports and Border Crossings, Natural Resources Defense
Council Press Release, March 25, 2008.
IRAN
IAEA Deputy Director General Olli Heinonen traveled to Tehran
on April 21 to discuss with Iranian officials the remaining
questions that the IAEA has about alleged
weaponization studies. Some Western officials have suggested
that the studies, which Heineonen had shown to Iranian officials
in February, bolster suspicions that Iran wants to pursue
a nuclear weapons program. Iran has rejected the allegations,
maintaining that the studies that were submitted as evidence
to the IAEA were
fabrications and that Iran had answered all outstanding
questions from the Agency. An IAEA spokeswoman announced on
April 23 that the talks
have led to Iran's willingness to discuss the allegations
and further
talks between Iranian officials and the IAEA Deputy Director
resumed on April 28. Reports were also coming out on the same
day saying that Iranian and Russian
officials were meeting to work out a deal that would alleviate
suspicions that Iran intends to weaponize its nuclear program.
Earlier in April, the IAEA's Director, Mohammed
ElBaradei, urged Iranian leaders to conduct more diplomatic
engagement to assuage fears about a possible nuclear weapons
program. On April 16, officials from China, France, Germany,
Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States and the European
Union had met in Shanghai to discuss possible ways forward
on engagement
with Iran, but they failed to reach an agreement. During
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's visit to the United
States, he and US President George Bush said at a joint press
conference that they were considering how to expand
international sanctions against Iran.
On April 8, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that
Iran
had begun installing 6,000 new and modified uranium enrichment
centrifuges. (See Andreas Persbo's Verification Thoughts
for more details on conflicting
media coverage of the announcement and what it may mean.)
Remarking on the announcement, ElBaradei said that Iran possibly
had as many as 3,400 centrifuges recently and noted that they
were not
moving very much, suggesting that production has been
very low. He called on Iran not to hasten the process because
"we need first to have an agreement with the international
community."
Photos
were published in the New York Times of a recent visit on
April 8th to the Natanz enrichment facility by President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad and many of his cabinet members. The NYT
article highlighted the importance of the images in providing
new information on how far the Iranians have gone in perfecting
their technologies, with images in particular of their newer
IR-2 centrifuges.
In a television interview
on Meet the Press, US Central Intelligence Agency Director
Michael Hayden said that he personally feels that Iran is
pursuing a nuclear weapons program even though the US intelligence
community, including the CIA, agreed to a recent National
Intelligence Estimate that says Iran had ceased the pursuit
of a nuclear weapons program in 2003.
WorldPublicOpinion.org conducted a poll of 710 Iranian adults
from January 13 to February 9, 2008 and found that 66 percent
agreed that Iran should have "a full fuel cycle nuclear energy
program, but should not develop nuclear weapons." When asked
specifically whether Iran should develop nuclear weapons,
20 percent said yes. (For more data from the poll, see Public
Opinion in Iran with Comparisons to American Public Opinion,
WorldPublicOpinion.org poll conducted in partnership with
Search for Common Ground and Knowledge Networks, April 7,
2008.)
Further Reading
Prospect
of Iran nukes frightens Saudi royals 'to their core',
World Tribune, April 18, 2008.
Briefing
notes from February 2008 IAEA meeting regarding Iran's nuclear
program The Institute for Science and International Security
(ISIS), ISIS Report, April 11, 2008.
Summary
of Recent United Nations Security Council, European Union,
and United States Sanctions Against Iran, Benjamin Radford
and Leonard Spector, WMD Insights, April 2008.
Communication
dated 26 March 2008 received from the Permanent Mission of
the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Agency, IAEA Information
Circular, March 28, 2008.
INDIA
Indian Foreign Minister Pranap Mukherjee said the government
needed
more time to reach an agreement with leftists in the government's
ruling coalition before his country could proceed with a deal
in which the United States would provide fuel and technology
for civilian nuclear reactors. Some Indian political leaders
have voiced opposition to the plan because they fear that
it will compromise Indian sovereignty, such as the requirement
that India refrain
from testing nuclear weapons. Many people outside India
have opposed the agreement on the grounds that the United
States should not be cutting such a deal with a country outside
the NPT. In addition, concerns remain that the provision of
reactor fuel could free-up India's own enriched fuel and enable
it to produce more nuclear weapons.
On April 22, Indian
officials expressed displeasure with the United States
for suggestions that India use diplomatic pressure against
Iran over its nuclear program ahead of a state visit from
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Further Reading
Are MIRVs
and Satellite Integration and Dispensation Mutually Exclusive?
An Analysis of India's Capabilities, Kartik Bommakanti,
Center for Defense Information, April 10, 2008.
Indian
Politics Stymie US-Indian Nuclear Deal, Wade Boese, Arms
Control Today, April 2008.
Reshaping
the US-Indian Nuclear Deal to Lessen the Nonproliferation
Losses, Charles D. Ferguson, Arms Control Today,
April 2008.
Why
the US-India Nuclear Accord is a Bad Deal, Kingston Reif
and Leonor Tomero, March 31, 2008.
PAKISTAN
One week after the swearing in of the new government in Pakistan
on March 31, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad
Sadiq said there would be no
change to the National Command Authority (NCA), which
oversees Pakistan's nuclear weapons arsenal. He explained
that the NCA is a constitutional body that is headed by the
President, Pervez Musharraf, with the military in control
of nuclear weapons. Reuters was reporting that a source close
to the new governing coalition said they had no plans to change
the nuclear command structure, even though the coalition has
a solid majority in parliament and has opposed President Musharraf.
Two
workers at Pakistan's Khushab nuclear plant were killed
when a gas leak caused an explosion on April 8. The government
said that people outside of the facility were not at any risk
of hazardous exposure. The Khushab plant, which is about 250
km/150 miles from Islamabad, has been suspected of producing
enriched
plutonium for Pakistan's nuclear weapons, although the
government claims the plant's purpose is to produce electricity.
The plant had been closed for maintenance when the explosion
occurred.
Pakistan test fired the Haft-VI (Shaheen-II) missile on April
19 and 21. The Haft-VI has the longest
range of any missiles in Pakistan's arsenal and can carry
nuclear
or conventional warheads.
Further Reading
South Asia's Nuclear Decade, Bruce Reidel, Survival,
April-May 2008, Abstract.
Full article available with subscription only.
Nuclear
scientist says he confessed to 'save' Pakistan (Detained
Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan), AFP, April
7, 2008.
SYRIA
Bush Administration officials have now come out publicly
with evidence
saying that the Syrian site that Israel targeted last year
was a plutonium
reactor. The allegations are particularly serious because
of regional security concerns and the impact on other countries'
choices to develop nuclear programs. Syria had not declared
the development of a reactor with the IAEA. Furthermore, North
Korea is suspected of having provided Syria with the technical
know-how to construct the facility, which the Bush Administration
believes was not intended for peaceful purposes. Syria's President,
Bashar
al-Assad, responded to the public release of the information,
saying that while the purpose of the facility was military,
it was not a nuclear plant. Evidence released by the Bush
Administration included images of the facility before it was
destroyed. The images show a facility that resembles North
Korea's Yongbyon nuclear center. However, senior US intelligence
officials are saying that they lack
firm evidence that Syria was using the reactor to pursue
a nuclear weapons program.
Following the Bush Administration's public release of the
evidence, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei criticized
the United States for having withheld information on the
site that could have been used by the IAEA to determine its
purpose. After the Israeli strike on the facility on September
6, 2007, speculation had persisted as to the purpose of the
site without specific comment from the Bush Administration.
ElBaradei said that the IAEA
would examine the case.
Further Reading
Resources on the
Israeli Strike in Syria, Secrecy News, Federation
of American Scientists, April 28, 2008.
Syria
Update III: New information about Al Kibar reactor site,
David Albright and Paul Brannan, ISIS Report, April
24, 2008.
NORTH KOREA
In mid-April, meetings between the United States and North
Korea appeared to have produced some progress, but the Bush
Administration's recent release of evidence of the alleged
nuclear facility in Syria and its possible links to North
Korea (see section on Syria above) have cast a pall over Six-Party
prospects. Christopher Hill met with his counterpart from
North Korea, Kim Kye Gwan, in Singapore on April 8 and developments
had suggested that the meeting produced
a way for the Six-Party talks to resume, possibly as soon
as May.
The talks
have been on hold since disagreement ensued over whether
North Korea had provided a complete declaration of its nuclear
programs and materials by a December 31, 2007 deadline.
While US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on April
12 that it was too
soon to know whether outstanding issues could be resolved
to the satisfaction of the United States, the rough details
that have emerged indicate that the United States and North
Korea would produce a document that would include a statement
of US concerns about North Korea's alleged uranium enrichment
program and suspected transfer of nuclear technology to Syria.
North Korea would need to "acknowledge" these concerns, halt
any nuclear proliferation activities, and provide a list of
its plutonium stockpile. The
deal may also include US acquiescence in removing North
Korea from the US list
of state sponsors of terrorism, an offer which had been
made before. While the more conservative members of the Bush
Administration were reportedly unhappy with the compromise,
the State Department was emphasizing that the deal will enable
inspectors to have
access to North Korean nuclear sites and allow for verification.
Speculation persists as to the timing
of the Bush Administration's release of evidence against North
Korea and Syria, which includes images that show a facility
in Syria which resembles North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear center.
The Bush Administration maintains that North Korea must have
helped Syria to develop the alleged nuclear plant. Possibly
as part of the agreement that came out of the meeting in Singapore,
the specific allegation would be on the US list of concerns
that North Korea would subsequently need to "acknowledge".
North Korea has apparently been confronted with the specific
allegations over the past several months. Christopher Hill
said that the United States did not believe that North Korea
is continuing to help Syria with a nuclear program and asserted
that the Six Party talks will
continue. Intelligence officials who were part of a briefing
for reporters said that North Korea may have began assisting
Syria in 2001, two
years before the Six Party talks began.
Meanwhile, members of the US Congress were disturbed that
the Bush Administration had not briefed them with the evidence
sooner than April 24. An unnamed senior Bush Administration
official claimed that some congressional members were
briefed last September and October. The Bush Administration
will need
congressional approval of funding that will probably be
necessary to remove plutonium from North Korea and to verify
the dismantlement of the nuclear program.
Prior to the meeting in Singapore, tensions were high after
North Korea had test-fired
several short-range missiles. North Korea also expelled
South Korean officials in retaliation for the recently
announced harder-line approach of the new South Korean President.
On April 20, President George Bush
met with the new South Korean, President Lee Myung-bak,
at Camp David, but they had not announced any additional developments
related to North Korea.
Further Reading
Ambassador
Christopher R. Hill, Assistant Secretary of State for East
Asian and Pacific Affairs, Global Leadership Speaker Series,
Transcript of presentation delivered to the Atlantic Council
of the United States in Washington, D.C., March 25, 2008.
UNITED KINGDOM AND FRANCE
British Prime Minister Gordon
Brown hosted French President Nicolas Sarkozy at Arsenal
Emirates Stadium on March 27 to discuss their plans for pursuing
nuclear energy but indicated during a press
conference that they had also discussed nuclear weapons
proliferation and disarmament issues. They also reviewed a
proposal favored by the UK Prime Minister for a uranium bank
that would supply nuclear fuel for civilian reactors in exchange
for a country's adherence to the NPT. A week earlier, President
Sarkozy had inaugurated a new French nuclear submarine while
announcing that he would pare down the French nuclear arsenal.
He also had iterated his support for a series
of eight steps related to nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation.
The Sunday Herald reported that the UK Atomic Weapons Establishment
had stopped "live nuclear work" at the Burghfield plant in
Berkshire since December because of numerous and persistent
safety
concerns. It is unclear what impact this will have on
the UK's logistics in fielding its nuclear deterrent.
Further Reading
France and
Getting to Zero, Pierce Corden, BASIC's GTZ Blog, April
9, 2008.
An
Unexpected Speech, James Acton, Arms Control Wonk,
April 1, 2008.
France
Upgrades, Trims Nuclear Arsenal, Wade Boese, Arms Control
Today, April 2008.
New
French Nuclear Deals in the Middle East Generate Proliferation
Concerns, Khalid Hilal and Adam P. Williams, WMD Insights,
April 2008.
NEW ZEALAND
The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) announced earlier
in April at a socially responsible investment conference that
it would cease
investing in any companies even tangentially involved
in the nuclear weapons enterprise. (The ACC is New Zealand's
accident compensation scheme, which provides personal injury
insurance for everyone in the country.)
MISSILE DEFENSE
The Bush
Administration reported that it had made progress with
allies at the NATO Summit in Bucharest, Romania on April 2-4
for its ground-based mid-course ballistic missile defense
(GMD) plans in Europe. However, as has been pointed out by
analysts (see for example, this transcript
of an ACA event and this
entry of the Bucharest Summit Blog), the declaration
that came out of the summit appeared to report nothing new.
Czech and US leaders did announce a diplomatic agreement for
the placement of the missile defense radar in the Czech Republic
as part of the proposed system, but the deal will still
be subjected to Czech parliamentary approval.
Plans for European missile defense continued to come up against
opposition from Russia when only a couple of days after the
Bucharest Summit President Bush met with President Putin in
Sochi, Russia. The White House Fact Sheet on the resulting
Strategic
Framework Declaration did not hide their disagreements.
Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov told Komsomolskaya Pravda
on April 17 that his country's concerns would be ameliorated
if the United States simply gave up plans to deploy the missile
defense bases in Eastern Europe, but said that Russian and
US leaders would continue their dialogue. On April 8, Russian
and Polish officials had met to reach an agreement on Russian
demands for a permanent presence of Russian officials
at the missile defense base proposed for Poland. Minister
Lavrov admitted that Czech and Polish officials do not want
to consider a permanent Russian presence at all.
The Pentagon announced on April 15 that Raytheon
has been awarded a $5 million Missile Defense Agency contract
to commence planning for the proposed missile defense radar
in the Czech Republic. Raytheon said that the contract could
amount to a total of $400
million through 2013.
Meanwhile, prominent
scientists and policy analysts testified on April 16 before
the US House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee
on National Security and Foreign Affairs. Several panelists
(Lisbeth
Gronlund, Richard
Garwin, and Philip
E. Coyle) made the case that the US program on Ground-based
missile defense (GMD), including the GMD system for Europe,
is currently incapable of providing the level of security
advertised by the Bush Administration and they also questioned
justifications for the high level of tax payer expenditure
on the program. Jeff
Keuter testified in favor of GMD, saying that with additional
investment and testing, the program would bolster US and European
security.
Further Reading
The
European Missile Defense Folly, George N. Lewis and Theodore
A. Postol, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Vol.
64, No. 2, p. 32-39, 61, May/June 2008.
The
Incredible Shrinking Missile Threat, Joseph Cirincione,
Foreign Policy, May/June 2008.
Missile
Defense Malfunction: Why the Proposed US Missile Defenses
in Europe Will Note Work, Philip Coyle and Victoria Samson,
Ethics and International Affairs, Volume 22.1, April
23, 2008.
Troubling
Questions About Missile Defense, Theodore A. Postol, Boston
Globe, April 15, 2008.
Missile
defense spending FY 09-13-Chart, Victoria Samson, Center
for Defense Information, April 14, 2008.
Lawmaker
plans to attach strings to missile defense funds, Megan
Scully, CongressDaily, April 10, 2008.
Assessment
of progress Made on Block 2006 Missile Defense Capabilities
and Oversight, Statement of Paul Francis, Director, Acquisition
and Sourcing Management, Testimony before the Subcommittee
on Strategic Forces, Committee on Armed Services, US Senate,
US Government Accountability Office, April 1, 2008.
Ballistic
Missile Defense Programs in Review of the Defense Authorization
Request for FY2009 and the Future Years Defense Program,
hearing held on April 1, 2008. (Transcript available only
with a subscription to Federal News Service.)
Reagan's
Strategic Vision for Missile Defense, The Honorable Richard
B. Cheney, Heritage Lecture #1078, April 18, 2008.
Missile
Defense: The Way Forward, by the Honorable Jeff Sessions,
Heritage Lecture #1077, April 18, 2008.
On
25th Anniversary of "Star Wars," Cheney's Missile Defense
Claims Don't Add Up, Kingston Reif, Center for Arms Control
and Non-Proliferation, April 3, 2008.
Twenty-five
Years After Reagan's Star Wars Speech, David Wright and
Lisbeth Gronlund, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,
April 1, 2008.
Europe
Edges Closer to Europe Anti-Missile Deal, Wade Boese,
Arms Control Today, April 2008.
Bucharest
Summit: US Missile Defence Bases Continue to Divide NATO,
Nicola Butler and Martin Butcher, Disarmament Diplomacy,
Issue No. 87, Spring 2008.
Star
Wars Turns 25 Years Old, but Effective and Capable Missile
Defense Still Elusive, Lt. Gen. Robert G. Gard and John
Isaacs, Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, March
26, 2008.
Missile
Defense and the Czech Republic, Philip E. Coyle, March/April
2008, pp. 6-8.
A
Shot in the Dark, Weekly Wastebasket, Taxpayers for Common
Sense, Volume XIII No. 13 - March 28, 2008.
Missile
Defence Deal? Martin Butcher, Bucharest Summit Blog,
Acronym Institute, April 6, 2008.
Vulnerability
of Research Reactors to Attack, Mohammad Saleem Zafar,
Henry L. Stimson Center Research Fellow Final Report, April
2008.
Misguided
Missile Defense, James Tierney and Stephen Flynn, Boston
Globe, March 28, 2008.
Defense
Space Activities: National Security Space Strategy Needed
to Guide Future DOD Space Efforts, Government Accountability
Office (GAO) GAO-08-431R, March 27, 2008.
Missile
Defense in Poland: Not a Done Deal, Katarzyna Bzdak, FAS
Strategic Security Blog, March 26, 2008.
After the
ASAT Tests, Michael Krepon, Henry L. Stimson Center, March
24, 2008.
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Nuclear
Spring, J. Peter Scoblic, The New Republic (via
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), April 23, 2008.
Russia
set to shut down plutonium production reactor Sunday,
US officials say, Charles Digges, Bellona, April 20, 2008.
Russians
to Shut Reactor That Produces Bomb Fuel, C.J. Chivers,
The New York Times, April 20, 2008.
The
Post-Nonproliferation Age, Charles Krauthammer, Real Clear
Politics, April 18, 2008.
The
Realities of Nuclear Fuel Supply Guarantees, Pavel Podvig,
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, April 18, 2008.
Soviet
test site offers insights on nuclear monitoring, New kerala.com,
April 18, 2008.
Symposium
on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Global Politics, video
of discussion with William Potter, Joseph Cirincione, and
Rose Gottemoeller, moderated by Dan Rather, Hollybush at Rowan
University, April 11, 2008.
Proliferation
Analyst Discourages Focus on Intent, Elaine M. Grossman,
Global Security Newswire via NTI, April 10, 2008.
British,
Russian Support May Not Save Ambitious Nuclear Power Club,
Richard Weitz, World Politics Review, April 10, 2008.
The
Crisis in Nonproliferation, American Enterprise Institute
in Washington, DC, April 8, 2008.
Regional
Nuclear Conflict Would Create Near-Global Ozone Hole, Says
CU-Boulder Study, Science Daily, April 8, 2008.
Leadership
Down Under, Deepti Choubey, Washington Post, April
5, 2008.
Elections
and Enduring Realities: Australia's Nuclear Debate, Jeffrey
S. Lantis, Arms Control Today, April 2008.
Reprocessing
Revisited: The International Dimensions of the Global Nuclear
Energy Partnership, Edwin Lyman and Frank N. von Hippel,
Arms Control Today, April 2008.
Is
the NPT Being Overtaken by Events? Rebecca Johnson, Disarmament
Diplomacy, Issue No. 87, Spring 2008.
Risk Analysis
of Nuclear Deterrence, Martin Hellman, The BENT of
Tau Beta Pi, Spring 2008.
Nuclear
Forensics: Role, State of the Art, and Program Needs,
Joint Working Group of the American Physical Society and the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, No date.
UPCOMING EVENTS
NPT PrepCom, Geneva, Switzerland, April 28 - May 9, 2008.
See Reaching
Critical Will for related information.
Event:
Thinking Outside the Bomb - Action on Nuclear Weapons, the
Environment, and Health, Project for Nuclear Awareness,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 10, 2008.
The
Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty at 40: Addressing Current
and Future Challenges, Arms Control Association Annual
Meeting and Luncheon, Washington, D.C., June 16, 2008.
Middle
East Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone 2008, SOAS
in London, June 16, 2008
Visit BASIC's GTZ Blog and post
a comment.
France
and Getting to Zero, Pierce Corden, BASIC's GTZ Blog,
April 9, 2008.
BASIC's work is made possible by the generous support of
our donors: the Ploughshares
Fund, the Ford Foundation,
the Joseph Rowntree Charitable
Trust, and Polden
Puckham Charitable Foundation.
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