WASHINGTON, June 15, 2008
Rogue Nations May Have Nuclear Blueprints
Former Weapons Inspector Says Pakistani Scientist Could Have Given Iran, North Korea Weapons Plans
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Play CBS Video Video Nuke Info On The Black Market? Regimes such as North Korea and Iran, as well as 'rogue' groups, may have purchased electronic blueprints of an advanced nuclear device on the black market. Thalia Assuras reports.
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The founder of Pakistan's nuclear program, Abdul Qadeer (A.Q.) Khan, is seen in Islamabad in a July 2002 file photo. Khan has lived under house arrest in Islamabad since he confessed in early 2004 to leaking sensitive nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya. (CBS/AP)
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Fast Facts Iran Learn about the people, economy and history.
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Fast Facts North Korea Learn about the people, economy and history.
A former U.N. weapons inspector has revealed that blueprints for nuclear devices were found two years ago on computers connected to an international nuclear smuggling ring with links to Iran and North Korea.
Communist North Korea was forced by the United Nations to halt its nuclear development program, and the International Atomic Energy Agency is presently working to verify that Iran is not trying to make nuclear weapons of its own. The Bush administration insists the Islamic Republic has engaged in a secret weapons program for years - charges the country's leaders deny.
Former weapons inspector David Albright says in a new draft report that blueprints for a compact nuclear device, small enough to fit on ballistic missiles already possessed by Iran and North Korea, were found on a computer in Switzerland two years ago.
"These advanced nuclear weapons designs may have long ago been sold off to some of the most treacherous regimes in the world," Albright says in the draft, which was obtained Sunday by the Washington Post. He says Iran and North Korea were known to be customers of the illicit nuclear information network.
"They both faced struggles in building a nuclear warhead small enough to fit atop their ballistic missiles and these designs were for a warhead that would fit," Albright says in the report.
The former U.N. weapons inspector is currently with the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington-based think-tank.
The black-market nuclear trading ring was run for years by the disgraced former head of Pakistan's nuclear program, scientist A.Q. Khan.
Four years ago, Khan admitted to providing less-sophisticated weapons designs to Libya and other dubious regimes, though in a recent phone interview with CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer from Islamabad, where he is under house arrest, he made an about-face.
"I was not involved in any nuclear proliferation," Khan said.
Traveling Sunday in Europe with President Bush, National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley told reporters: "We're very concerned about the A.Q. Khan network, both in terms of what they were doing by purveying enrichment technology and also the possibility that there would be weapons-related technology associated with it."
The drawings were on computers owned by Swiss businessmen connected to Khan's group. The businessmen are currently under investigation.
Assuras reports the electronic blueprints have been destroyed, but there is no telling how many copies were made, or what may still be in circulation.
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 187 CommentsPosted by A_European at 08:44 AM : Jun 17, 2008
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Limiting access to American public education would INCREASE knowledge. People would have to seek other sources of information which must be of higher quality.
it looks really hopeless! The best way to keep it going that way is to limit access to education and this is one of the things that the Republicans do so well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiQJ9Xp0xxU
Posted by robaldrich4
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YES - and it also shows that Democrats have the balls for war and are not pansies like the Republicans like to portray them.
It also shows that Democrats can finish a War - not like Republicans - Republicans just like war to steal money from hard working Americans. Just like:
The Army official who managed the Pentagon%u2019s largest contract in Iraq says he was ousted from his job when he refused to approve paying more than $1 billion in questionable charges to KBR,
The official, Charles M. Smith, was the senior civilian overseeing the multibillion-dollar contract with KBR during the first two years of the war.
Army auditors had determined that KBR lacked credible data or records for more than $1 billion in spending, so Mr. Smith refused to sign off on the payments to the company. %u201CThey had a gigantic amount of costs they couldn%u2019t justify,%u201D he said in an interview. %u201CUltimately, the money that was going to KBR was money being taken away from the troops, and I wasn%u2019t going to do that.%u201D
But he was suddenly replaced, he said, and his successors %u2014 approved most of the payments he had tried to block.
Posted by bhoogren
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YUP! Sounded Just Like a Republican - Didn''t I - Heeheehee
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3137695.ece
From The Sunday TimesJanuary 6, 2008
For sale: West%u2019s deadly nuclear secretsInsight: Chris Gourlay, Jonathan Calvert, Joe Lauria
A WHISTLEBLOWER has made a series of extraordinary claims about how corrupt government officials allowed Pakistan and other states to steal nuclear weapons secrets.
Sibel Edmonds, a 37-year-old former Turkish language translator for the FBI, listened into hundreds of sensitive intercepted conversations while based at the agency%u2019s Washington field office
Edmonds described how foreign intelligence agents had enlisted the support of US officials to acquire a network of moles in sensitive military and nuclear institutions.
Among the hours of covert tape recordings, she says she heard evidence that one well-known senior official in the US State Department was being paid by Turkish agents in Washington who were selling the information on to black market buyers, including Pakistan.
The name of the official %u2013 who has held a series of top government posts %u2013 is known to The Sunday Times. He strongly denies the claims.
Posted by watcher269 at 12:04 PM : Jun 16, 2008
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Anger? You appear to know nothing about Truman''s agonizing over whether to drop the bomb or not.
Apparently, you no little about Emperor Hirohito, either. I''m glad Truman decided to save eleven MILLION lives by dropping the nukes.
Have I mentioned the daily death toll and devastation from carpet bombing Japan with over a hundred bombers every night?
Rob
Posted by watcher269
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LOL!! The only President to use a Nuke is a Democrat. HOW FUNNY you are!!
What a ruthless liar YOU are!! LOL!!
Posted by bhoogren at 12:58 PM : Jun 16, 2008
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EXACTLY!!!! Truman dropped the bomb. Republicans freed the slaves.
Posted by watcher269
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LOL!! THe only President to use a Nuke is a Democrat. HOW FUNNY you are!!
What a ruthless liar YOU are!! LOL!!
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And still to this day - The United States are the only ones that have ever used an Atomic Bomb in Anger!
So - America - Start digging your Bomb Shelters again - I hear that the Republicans are going to give out Tax Credits to Americans who build bomb shelters.
Start looking for the fallout shelter signs again - because the Republicans will make sure that someone will use an Atomic Bomb to get what they want! Remember that! Republicans are ruthless liars!
1. Israel has 150 Nuclear War Head Missiles an is the Only Country in that Region, to have enough Nuclear Weapons to Destroy the World Times Over !!!
2. Israel has the Right to Exist in the Middle East an other Nations in that Region, have the Right to Exist and Defend themselves as well.
There is No Nuclear Threat to Israel or The USA..
3. Just like Iraq, that had Nothing to do with (911) Iran, now Provides an opening in Bush, Cheney, Albright & Rice, in Justifying an Attack.
Israel has not Laid down their Flesh Blood, Bone & Spirit, in Iraq & Afghanistan...
Think about that !!!
If Iraq is Attacked, whether it be via Military Invasion or Nuclear Attack, look forward to World War 3 and Our Allies Siding with the Russia & China.
I Dread, We will be Nuked as well. The Europeans have always said...
We have never been through what they went through, we may get our chance...I Fear Russia & China..
And the W. European World are getting Fed Up with these Invasions.
Go head Enlist and sign your name on that Dotted Line and Prove how heoric you really are.
CHEBARKUL TESTING RANGE, Russia: President Vladimir Putin said Friday he had ordered strategic bombers to resume regular long-range patrols as Russian and Chinese forces held their first joint military exercise on Russian soil %u2014 a show of armed muscle aimed at sending a pointed message to the United States.
The resumption of bombing patrols, which analysts say signaled a significant change for Russian military policy, comes amid a growing chill in U.S.-Russian relations, strained over Washington''''s criticism of Russia''''s democracy record, Moscow''''s objections to U.S. missile defense plans and differences over global crises.
Both Moscow and Beijing share a heightening distrust of what they see as the United States'''' oversized role and influence in global politics, and the two former Cold War rivals have forged a "strategic partnership" aimed at counterbalancing Washington''''s policies.
The Russian-Chinese war games, which took place near the Urals Mountain city of Chelyabinsk, coincided with Russian air force maneuvers involving 20 strategic bombers which ranged far over the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans.
One of those drills, involving 11 Russian aircraft, prompted NATO member Norway to scramble F-16 fighter jets to observe and photograph the Russian planes as they flew over the Norwegian Sea.
McClatchy Newspapers
Obama: But when they were asked how confident they are that the next president will make good foreign-policy decisions, Obama beat McCain in almost every nation, including 72-19 percent in Spain, 82-33 percent in Germany, 52-17 percent in Indonesia and 31-23 percent in Egypt.
Some foreign-policy experts say that preliminary discussions about an Obama visit already are under way.
"I do think he`ll probably come," said John Hulsman, a scholar with the German Council on Foreign Relations, based in Berlin. "He`s going to show he`s a new kind of politician, and to do that you can`t just go to London."
Hulsman suggested that in Iraq, Obama might consider staying outside the fortified Green Zone to show that he wants to see (Real Conditions) and to..
Contrast his trip with McCain`s infamous 2007 tour of an open-air Baghdad market. McCain claimed then, under the protection of Helicopter Guns and 100 U.S. troops, that people could "Walk Freely" there.
Note: In Western Europe, Hulsman said, Obama is "Fanatically Popular. People , they`re Mesmerized by the notion an African-American could be elected president. They see Obama talking and hear (Kennedyesque strains)
Note: Some Obama campaign backers privately acknowledge concerns about him leaving the country now, the argument being why take the risk when he`s leading McCain slightly in national polls.
During sanctions period,IAEA had been very active with inspections in Iraq.There were conflicting reports about the inspections,but Sadams alleged contacts in south Africa to procure enriched U239 was the main lie,which dumped IAEA efforts aside.
It is immaterial what IAEA said for Iraq,or what report they gave for Iran, factual position is Iran''s Nuclear energy case is closed.
How ever gwb & allies may exercise their desire of attacking any country,as it pleases to them.
As such, IAEA should keep up their independent inspections & make reports to UN.
When will IAEA & UN will look in to 200 nukes of Israel?
Note: Bush could`ve held these people until, Osama`s Surrender or capture, but he flew them Home !!
Members of Osama bin Laden`s family were allowed to fly out of the US shortly after the September 11 terror attacks, a senior official has said.
`Bush government sanctioned bin Laden family repatriation`Even though American airspace had been shut down, the Bush administration allowed a jet to fly around the US picking up family members from 10 cities, including Los Angeles, Washington DC, Boston and Houston.
Some 140 high ranking Saudi officials were also on the plane.
The revelations come from former White House counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke.
He said the Bush administration sanctioned the repatriation of the family in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.
`Repatriation approved`
"Somebody brought to us for approval the decision to let an airplane filled with Saudis, including members of the bin Laden family, leave the country," he told Vanity Fair magazine.
Mr Clarke said he checked with FBI officials, who gave the go ahead. "So I said, `Fine, let it happen`."
He first asked the bureau to check that no one "inappropriate" was leaving.
"I have no idea if they did a good job. I`m not in any position to second guess the FBI," he said.
But Dale Watson, the FBI`s former head of counter-terrorism, said the Saudis "were not subject to serious interviews or interrogations".
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