This is no smoking gun, nor Iranian bomb

Nothing in the published 'intelligence documents' shows Iran is close to having nuclear weapons

Seven years ago Condoleezza Rice said "there will always be some uncertainty" in determining how close Iraq may be to obtaining a nuclear weapon, but "we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud". Now the focus is on Iran, not Iraq. Iran's nuclear projects are in the news again.

According to the Times last week, alleged "confidential intelligence documents" show Iran is working on testing a key final component of a nuclear bomb. The notes, the newspaper claims, describe "a four-year plan to test a neutron initiator, the component of a nuclear bomb that triggers an explosion". President Ahmadinejad yesterday denounced the documents as more American forgeries. But even if we take them as genuine, is this a real "smoking gun" – and what do the documents show anyway? More >>>

Norman Dombey [pictured] is professor emeritus of theoretical physics at Sussex University.

The Prince of Wales speaks at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference

Temperature warning as Copenhagen climate deal emerges

A deal appears to be in sight for the final day of the UN climate change talks, but there are fears it may not prevent a 3C (5.4F) temperature rise.

Denmark's prime minister spoke of "very fruitful" talks as Copenhagen prepared to receive US President Barack Obama and 118 other world leaders.

Both the US and China, the two largest emitters of greenhouse gases, have indicated they may make concessions.

It is hoped these may help overcome sharp divisions at the two-week talks.

China signalled concessions on the monitoring of emission curbs while the US said it would commit money for developing countries. More >>>

Iran Avows Willingness to Swap Some Uranium

December 12, 2009 - BEIRUT, Lebanon — Iran’s foreign minister said Saturday that his country was willing to exchange most of its uranium for processed nuclear fuel from abroad — as the United Nations has proposed — but only according to a timetable that Western powers appear to have already rejected.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki of Iran spoke at a regional security conference in Bahrain about Iran’s nuclear plans.

The statement by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki came just days before a scheduled meeting of the United States and its allies to discuss possible new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program — and may be aimed at trying to divide them, analysts said.

Mr. Mottaki said Iran would agree to hand over 400 kilograms, or 882 pounds, of uranium initially — about a third of the amount proposed in a draft agreement reached under United Nations auspices in October — in exchange for an equivalent amount of enriched material to fuel a medical research reactor, according to Iranian news agencies.
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Nepal Cabinet holds meeting on Mt. Everest

Nepalese ministers have held a cabinet meeting on Mount Everest to raise awareness of the effects of climate change. Ministers hope the world's highest cabinet meeting will attract the same attention as a similar event held underwater in the Maldives in October. The meeting comes ahead of next week's climate summit in Copenhagen.

Scientific studies show temperatures are rising faster in the Himalayas than the rest of South Asia. It has led to reduced snowfall and caused glaciers to melt. Before Friday's meeting, teams ferried in medical equipment, oxygen canisters, soldiers and journalists to Kalipatar - a plateau at 5,200m (17,000ft) next to Everest's base camp.

Resolution endorsed
Then the entire cabinet of 21 ministers including the prime minister arrived in Kalipatar by helicopter. During their half-hour meeting, the ministers - some wearing oxygen masks - endorsed a resolution on climate change. They then left by helicopter.
Environment Minister Thakur Prasad Sharma shrugged off criticism that the meeting was just a costly publicity stunt. "The fact is that the glaciers are melting due to global warming. That has become a critical issue and we want to draw global attention to it," Mr Sharma told the AFP news agency.
The trip was funded by a group of Nepalese private organisations, many of them from the tourist sector. Mount Everest is the highest point on earth, with a summit 29,035 ft (8,850 m) above sea level. More >>>

Peter Gleick on Peak Water

A Hotter Planet Means Less On Our Plates

November 23, 2009

In the Sunday November 22, 2009 issue of Outlook in the Washington Post, Lester Brown discusses the significant implications of food security in the upcoming Copenhagen Conference.

As the U.N. climate-change conference in Copenhagen approaches, we are in a race between political tipping points and natural ones. Can we cut carbon emissions fast enough to keep the melting of the Greenland ice sheet from becoming irreversible? Can we close coal-fired power plants in time to save at least the larger glaciers in the Himalayas and on the Tibetan plateau? Can we head off ever more intense crop-withering heat waves before they create chaos in world grain markets?

These are all climate-change issues, but they have something else in common: food. Copenhagen will be about climate, of course, but in a fundamental sense, it must also be about whether we will have enough to eat in the decades to come.

We need not go beyond ice melting to see that the world is in trouble on the food front. As the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets continue to shrink, sea levels will rise, threatening rice harvests around the globe. Recent projections show that the sea could rise up to six feet this century (if the Greenland ice sheet were to melt entirely, it would rise by 23 feet). According to the World Bank, it would take only a three-foot rise in sea level to cover half the rice fields in Bangladesh, a country of nearly 160 million people. Such an increase would also inundate much of the Mekong Delta, which produces half the rice crop in Vietnam, the world’s No. 2 rice exporter. And it would submerge parts of the 20 or so other rice-growing river deltas in Asia.

Melting mountain glaciers are even more worrisome. The World Glacier Monitoring Service in Switzerland recently reported the 18th consecutive year of shrinking mountain glaciers around the world, from the Andes to the Rockies, from the Alps to the mountain ranges of Asia. Of these, the disappearance of glaciers in the Himalayas and on the Tibetan plateau threatens to shrink food supplies most sharply. Their annual ice melt sustains the major rivers of India and China—the Indus, Ganges, Yangtze and Yellow—during the dry season. And this water in turn supplies irrigation systems. More >>>

Center for Arms Control Praises Obama for Not Rushing U.S.-India Nuclear Agreement

WASHINGTON - November 24 - The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation praised the Obama administration today for outlining broad areas of cooperation with India and not rushing nuclear energy negotiations, which could further undermine nuclear weapons non-proliferation efforts.

The United States and India are still negotiating a subsequent arrangement that would lay out the details for whether and how the United States would give its consent to India for reprocessing U.S.-origin fuel. Reprocessing separates plutonium from nuclear waste. While India plans to use the plutonium to fuel power reactors, plutonium can also be used to make nuclear weapons. India used plutonium derived from U.S. and Canadian nuclear energy assistance intended for peaceful purposes to conduct its first nuclear weapons test in 1974. More >>>

Sy Hersh and Pakistan’s Nukes

November 19, 2009 by Michael Krepon - Seymour Hersh deserves every one of many awards for investigative journalism he has received, but not for his reporting on Pakistan, where his sourcing is weak and his conclusions are suspect.

Hersh’s latest, Defending the Arsenal, Can Pakistan’s nuclear weapons be secured? (The New Yorker, November 16, 2009) has one headline grabbing assertion:
Current and former officials said in interviews in Washington and Pakistan that [the Obama] Administration has been negotiating highly sensitive understandings with the Pakistani military. These would allow specially trained American units to provide additional security for the Pakistani arsenal in case of a crisis.
In return, Hersh says, “the Pakistani military would be given money to equip and train Pakistani soldiers and to improve their housing and facilities.” More >>>

Inspectors Fear Iran Is Hiding Nuclear Plants

WASHINGTON —November 17, 2009 - International inspectors who gained access to Iran’s newly revealed underground nuclear enrichment plant voiced strong suspicions in a report on Monday that the country was concealing other atomic facilities.

The report was the first independent account of what was contained in the once secret plant, tunneled into the side of a mountain, and came as the Obama administration was expressing growing impatience with Iran’s slow response in nuclear negotiations.
In unusually tough language, the International Atomic Energy Agency appeared highly skeptical that Iran would have built the enrichment plant without also constructing a variety of other facilities that would give it an alternative way to produce nuclear fuel if its main centers were bombed. So far, Iran has denied that it built other hidden sites in addition to the one deep underground on a military base about 12 miles north of the holy city of Qum. More >>>

Poor nations vow low-carbon path

Poor countries considered vulnerable to climate change have pledged to embark on moves to a low-carbon future, and challenge richer states to match them.
The declaration from the first meeting of a new 11-nation forum calls on rich countries to give 1.5% of their GDP for climate action in the developing world.
It also calls for much tougher limits on greenhouse gas emissions.
The forum was established by Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed to highlight the climate "threat" to poor nations.
The declaration contends that man-made climate change poses an "existential threat to our nations, our cultures and to our way of life, and thereby undermines the internationally protected human rights of our people".
More >>>

Land Grabs for Food Production Under Fire

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 23 - A move by governments and rich investors to raise food crops on farmland purchased in some of the world's poorer countries is coming under fire.

"The purchase of vast tracts of land from poor, developing countries by wealthier, food-insecure nations and private investors have become a widespread phenomenon," says a new study by the Oakland Institute, an independent policy think tank based in San Francisco.

The sudden rush for these "land grabs" - prompted primarily by the global food crisis - is threatening food security and the livelihoods of some 1.5 billion small farmers worldwide, according to the study titled "The Great Land Grab", released early this week.

Between 2006 and mid-2009, some 37 million to 49 million acres of farmland have changed hands or are under negotiation. More >>>

Read the International Land Coalition Paper - Increasing commercial pressure on land: Building a coordinated response.

THE COPENHAGEN CONFERENCE ON FOOD SECURITY

For the 193 national delegations gathering in Copenhagen for the U.N. Climate Change Conference in December, the reasons for concern about climate change vary widely.

For delegations from low-lying island countries, the principal concern is rising sea level. For countries in southern Europe, climate change means less rainfall and more drought.

For countries of East Asia and the Caribbean, more powerful storms and storm surges are a growing worry.
This climate change conference is about all these things, and many more, but in a very fundamental sense, it is a conference about food security. 


We need not go beyond ice melting to see that the world is in trouble on the food front. The melting of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets is raising sea level. If the Greenland ice sheet were to melt entirely, sea level would rise by 23 feet. Recent projections show that it could rise by up to 6 feet during this century. 



The world rice harvest is particularly vulnerable to rising sea level. More >>>

Top Level Group Urges UK Leadership on Multilateral Disarmament

Cross-Party Group Urges End to Nuclear Weapons Threat

• A cross-party group of senior politicans joined former defence chiefs today to promote the cause of nuclear disarmament, an issue they described as critical but too often ignored.
• They launched the Top Level group of parliamentarians, including former foreign and defence secretaries from both main parties.
• Des Browne, a former defence secretary and convener of the group, said it would provide an authoritative voice in support of Barack Obama's appeal for nuclear disarmament. He hoped similar groups would be set up elsewhere around the world.
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Turmoil from climate change poses security risks

WASHINGTON - 29 October 2009 — An island in the Indian Ocean, vital to the U.S. military, disappears as the sea level rises. Rivers critical to India and Pakistan shrink, increasing military tensions in South Asia.

Drought, famine and disease forces population shifts and political turmoil in the Middle East. [And for South Asia and China] Himalayan glaciers are likely to recede, producing fresh water shortages in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and parts of China.

U.S. defense and intelligence agencies, viewing these and other potential impacts of global warming, have concluded if they materialize it would become ever more likely global alliances will shift, the need to respond to massive relief efforts will increase and American forces will become entangled in more regional military conflicts.
It is a bleak picture of national security that backers of a climate bill in Congress hope will draw in reluctant Republicans who have denounced the bill as an energy tax and jobs killer because it would shift the country away from fossil fuels by limiting carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and industrial facilities.
More >>>

The Day te World Came Together for Climate Change

U.S. official resigns over Afghan war

Foreign Service officer and former Marine captain says he no longer knows why his nation is fighting

When Matthew Hoh joined the Foreign Service early this year, he was exactly the kind of smart civil-military hybrid the administration was looking for to help expand its development efforts in Afghanistan.

A former Marine Corps captain with combat experience in Iraq, Hoh had also served in uniform at the Pentagon, and as a civilian in Iraq and at the State Department. By July, he was the senior U.S. civilian in Zabul province, a Taliban hotbed.

But last month, in a move that has sent ripples all the way to the White House, Hoh, 36, became the first U.S. official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war, which he had come to believe simply fueled the insurgency.
"I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan," he wrote Sept. 10 in a four-page letter to the department's head of personnel. "I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end." More >>>

Military 'In War Against The White House'

Sy Hersh: Military 'In War Against The White House'


October 20, 2009 "Crooks and Liars" -- So many of the saner people were driven out of the military during the Bush administration, it doesn't surprise me that the people left include a lot of the right-wing, racist fringe elements. Still, it's shocking to hear this:

DURHAM — The U.S. military is not just fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, America’s most renowned investigative journalist says. The army is also “in a war against the White House — and they feel they have Obama boxed in,” Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Seymour Hersh told several hundred people in Duke University’s Page Auditorium on Tuesday night. “They think he’s weak and the wrong color. Yes, there’s racism in the Pentagon. We may not like to think that, but it’s true and we all know it.” In a speech on Obama’s foreign policy, Hersh, who uncovered the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War and torture at Abu Ghraib prison during the Iraqi war, said many military leaders want Obama to fail. “A lot of people in the Pentagon would like to see him get into trouble,” he said. By leaking information that the commanding officer in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, says the war would be lost without an additional 40,000 American troops, top brass have put Obama in a no-win situation, Hersh contended.
“If he gives them the extra troops they’re asking for, he loses politically,” Hersh said. “And if he doesn’t give them the troops, he also loses politically.” The journalist criticized the president for “letting the military do that,” and suggested the only way out was for Obama to stand up to them.
“He’s either going to let the Pentagon run him or he has to run the Pentagon,” Hersh said. If he doesn’t, “this stuff is going to be the ruin of his presidency.” Hersh called the “Af-Pak” situation — the spreading conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan — Obama’s main challenge. The only way for the U.S. to extricate itself from the conflict, Hersh said, is to negotiate with the Taliban. “It’s the only way out,” he said. “I know that there’s a lot of discussion in the White House about this now. More >>>

PM Gordon Brown Speaking on Climate Catastrophe

More >>>

India to deploy BrahMos in Ladakh to boost counter-strike capacity

Tibetan Review
October 13, 2009 - In order to deter China and bolster defence along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), India is to deploy BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir, reported Times Now.tv [on] Oct 11.

These missiles have a range of 300 km and would be able to hit tactical and strategic targets in Tibet.

The world's fastest cruise missile would be able to fly over the mountains and hit targets and are very fast and almost impossible to counter, the report said.

The report said the deployment will be part of India's counter offensive capacity in the region. Other measures include deploying tanks in Ladakh, as well as more choppers, infantry and more troops. More >>>

Afghans trained by Blackwater defect to Taliban

Is Iran Close to Nukes?

Retired CIA analyst Ray McGovern speaks on disinformation, Iran, and "faith-based intelligence"

Nuclear Risk Reduction in South Asia: Michael Krepon

Talk – South Asian Strategic Stability Institute (SASSI)

Nuclear Risk Reduction in South Asia

Tuesday- October 6, 2009

Old-fashioned Nuclear Risk Reduction measures are not that helpful against the new paradigm of the India-Pakistan Conflict. New Risk Reduction Measures such as intelligence sharing and strategic monitoring programs are needed given the new geo strategic environment in the region, stated Mr. Michael Krepon, the Co-founder of the Henry L. Stimson Center and also a former member of the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, while speaking at a talk hosted by SASSI on October 6, 2009.

Mr. Krepon said both India and Pakistan should trust each other and share their intelligence information to curb the common enemy. Only then they would be successful in bringing effective nuclear risk reduction measures to South Asia. Moreover he said that geographical zones like Kashmir are no longer a nuclear flashpoint for South Asia, but rather it has become more symbolic in nature, such as the terrorist attacks on the economic venues, religious shrines etc. However, the bottom line of his presentation was that nuclear risk reduction measures would suffer and face enormous challenges in the next few years.

In her concluding remarks Director General SASSI Maria Sultan thanked the speaker and the audience.

The South Asian Strategic Stability Institute (SASSI) is an independent think tank dedicated to promoting peace and stability in South Asia. The South Asian Strategic Stability Institute takes a multi-disciplinary approach focused on strategic stability, aimed at bringing together the various streams of thought from the social and natural sciences, the policy makers and academia.

Iran focuses on nuclear disarmament in Geneva

Geneva - Thu, 01 Oct 2009- Iran emphasizes on the need for nuclear disarmaments in the first round of talks between Iran and the six P5 +1 group nations in Geneva.

The Representatives from Iran and the six world nuclear powers have ended the first round of their talks in Geneva, with the second session set to begin in a few hours. A statement released by Iran's National Security Council said that the diplomats left the talks in a "calm atmosphere," and plan to return to the negotiating table after a short break. It also said that Saeed Jalili, the representative from Iran, had laid out the framework of Tehran's package of proposals and explained how it should be implemented during the initial talks.

In the first meeting, Jalili reiterated the need for a global nuclear disarmament, a long-standing Iranian demand. Other than Iran, the six countries that were represented at the summit were members of the group known as the P5+1 consisting of the permanent members of the Security Council (Russia, China, the United States, Britain, and France) plus Germany. More >>>

The Pentagon’s Nuclear Posture Review

August 10, 2009 - Defense officials are writing a new U.S. nuclear policy that could blow up President Obama's declared agenda. The White House must reassert its control.

The Nuclear Posture Review, or NPR, will be issued at the end of the year, but Obama's defense officials are briefing others in the administration this week, hoping to lock in their policies before the end of the month.
Why should you care? Joan Rohlfing, vice-president of the Nuclear Threat Initiative headed by Sam Nunn and Ted Turner, explained in a speech before the Arms Control Association on May 20: Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-cirincione/the-pentagons-nuclear-pos_b_255517.html

A World Without Nuclear Weapons

Keeping Iran Honest. By Scott Ritter

Iran's secret nuclear plant will spark a new round of IAEA inspections and lead to a period of even greater transparency

September 27, 209 "The Guardian" -- It was very much a moment of high drama. Barack Obama, fresh from his history-making stint hosting the UN security council, took a break from his duties at the G20 economic summit in Pittsburgh to announce the existence of a secret, undeclared nuclear facility in Iran which was inconsistent with a peaceful nuclear programme, underscoring the president's conclusion that "Iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow".

Obama, backed by Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy, threatened tough sanctions against Iran if it did not fully comply with its obligations concerning the international monitoring of its nuclear programme, which at the present time is being defined by the US, Britain and France as requiring an immediate suspension of all nuclear-enrichment activity.

The facility in question, said to be located on a secret Iranian military installation outside of the holy city of Qom and capable of housing up to 3,000 centrifuges used to enrich uranium, had been monitored by the intelligence services of the US and other nations for some time.
But it wasn't until Monday that the IAEA found out about its existence, based not on any intelligence "scoop" provided by the US, but rather Iran's own voluntary declaration. Iran's actions forced the hand of the US, leading to Obama's hurried press conference Friday morning. More >>>

Prominent nuclear disarmament organization welcomes UN nuclear-free call

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Global Zero, a prominent organization for international nuclear disarmament, on Thursday hailed a new United Nations resolution that aims at nuclear-free world.

The UN resolution, endorsing calls by U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev to eliminate all nuclear weapons, "indicates a global consensus for this goal has been achieved," Global Zero said in a press release.

Global Zero, a group of more than 200 political and military leaders from around the world, will hold a plenary session in February for strategy talks on the phased elimination of arsenals and launch of global public campaign, the release said. The UN Security Council on Thursday unanimously adopted a resolution to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons in a bid to seek a safer world for all and to create the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons. More >>>

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Climate Change Risks Could Cost Developing Countries Up to 19% of GDP by 2030

Climate Change Risks Could Cost Developing Countries Up to 19% of GDP by 2030 Report says action on climate adaptation may significantly reduce losses and increase economic sustainability.

NEW YORK, Sept. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- (WORLD-WIRE) A report from the Economics of Climate Adaptation Working Group released today indicates that climate risks could cost nations up to 19% of their GDP by 2030, with developing countries most vulnerable. The report concludes, however, that cost effective adaptation measures already exist that can prevent between 40 and 68 percent of the expected economic loss with even higher levels of prevention possible in highly target geographies.

The report, titled "Shaping Climate-Resilient Development", offers a comprehensive and replicable methodology to determine the risks that climate change imposes on economies. It provides a set of tools for decision makers to adopt a tailored approach for estimating these costs based on local climate conditions, and for building more resilient economies. These tools do not include estimates or measures for emissions reduction, which would need to be examined separately. More >>>

UN chief makes appeal for disarmament on International Day of Peace

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Friday called on nations to intensify efforts to reduce stockpiles of weapons capable of inflicting large-scale devastation and death as the United Nations held a series of events worldwide to observe the annual International Day of Peace.

"As long as such weapons exist, no one is safe," Ban said after ringing the UN Peace Bell in a ceremony at the UN Headquarters in New York. "On this International Day of Peace, I have a simple message for all: We Must Disarm! We must have peace." More >>>

Human-made Crises 'Outrunning Our Ability To Deal With Them,' Scientists Warn

ScienceDaily (Sep. 17, 2009) — The world faces a compounding series of crises driven by human activity, which existing governments and institutions are increasingly powerless to cope with, a group of eminent environmental scientists and economists has warned.
Writing in the journal Science, the researchers say that nations alone are unable to resolve the sorts of planet-wide challenges now arising.
Pointing to global action on ozone depletion (the Montreal Protocol), high seas fisheries and antibiotic drug resistance as examples, they call for a new order of cooperative international institutions capable of dealing with issues like climate change – and enforcing compliance where necessary. More >>>

Jordan signs deal for first nuclear power plant

AMMAN, Jordan - Jordan signed a $12 million deal Saturday with a Belgium-based company as it pushes forward with a plan to build the first nuclear power plant for the oil-barren desert kingdom.

The head of Jordan's Atomic Energy Commission, Khaled Toukan, signed the deal in Amman with Georges Cornet, the head of Tractebel Engineering, a French-Belgian company.
Toukan said the company would first carry out a two-year environmental impact study to determine whether the planned location -- a desert area near the Saudi border about 15 miles (25 kilometers) south of the Red Sea port of Aqaba -- is in fact the best location for protecting "both public health and the environment."
In January 2007, the country's ruler, King Abdullah II, announced his intention to develop a peaceful nuclear program, a plan that has U.S. backing. More >>>

Disarmament: Assessing the Prospects for an FM(C)T

The May 29 adoption of a program of work by the Conference on Disarmament (CD) in Geneva marked the first time in 11 years that the 65-member body had taken such action.

That step was a cause for celebration as it appeared to open the door to the negotiation of a treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.
The White House was quick to applaud the development with a statement by President Barack Obama welcoming “today’s important agreement at the Conference on Disarmament to begin negotiations on a Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty, which will end production of fissile materials for use in atomic bombs.”[1] Regrettably, the applause now seems premature as events since May 29 suggest that hopes for rapid progress in the CD are unrealistic. More >>>

Inequalities between north and south

The Hidden Truth Behind Drug Company Profits

August 05, 2009 -- This is the story of one of the great unspoken scandals of our times. Today, the people across the world who most need life-saving medicine are being prevented from producing it.

Here's the latest example: factories across the poor world are desperate to start producing their own cheaper Tamiflu to protect their populations - but they are being sternly told not to. Why? So rich drug companies can protect their patents - and profits. There is an alternative to this sick system, but we are choosing to ignore it.
To understand this tale, we have to start with an apparent mystery. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has been correctly warning for months that if swine flu spreads to the poorest parts of the world, it could cull hundreds of thousands of people - or more. Yet they have also been telling the governments of the poor world not to go ahead and produce as much Tamiflu - the only drug we have to reduce the symptoms, and potentially save lives - as they possibly can. More >>>

Sinking billions into nuclear weapons (when half your population are malnourished)

When Ms Gursharan Kaur, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's wife, broke a coconut on the hull of the INS Arihant amidst the chanting of Vedic verses, the Indian government took a step towards realising its post-1998 quest for a grand nuclear weapons power status.

When the submarine is commissioned in a few years, India will have a 'second-strike capability': Even if its land-or air-based nuclear weapons are destroyed/immobilised, India can still fire a nuclear-tipped missile at the adversary from the ship, which can stay underwater for months at a time and is therefore hard to detect.

The Arihant's launch has been called a great achievement of indigenous technology, which gives 'real teeth' to nuclear deterrence and enhances India's security without threatening others.

Dr Singh said: 'We do not have any aggressive designs, nor do we seek to threaten anyone...' But the rationale of nuclear deterrence is based on inducing terror through mass destruction weapons.

According to that doctrine, you prevent your enemy from nuking you by threatening 'unacceptable damage' through an attack which instantly kills hundreds of thousands or millions of civilians. Nuclear deterrence is a deeply flawed doctrine and was described for half-a-century by India as morally 'abhorrent' and strategically irrational. More >>>

Nuclear Review to Make "Progress" in Advancing Obama Disarmament Vision, Official Says

WASHINGTON -- Thursday, July 23, 2009. A major nuclear weapons review under way at the Defense Department should result in "progress" toward implementing U.S. President Barack Obama's long-term vision for disarmament, a senior Pentagon official said today.

"The vision is clear and I think progress will be made," Michael Vickers, who advises Defense Secretary Robert Gates on strategic capabilities and operations, told reporters at a Defense Writers Group breakfast.
The Pentagon is leading the congressionally mandated Nuclear Posture Review, a sweeping assessment of nuclear strategy, forces and operations that is to conclude by the end of the year.
In an April speech in Prague, Obama pledged that "the United States will take concrete steps towards a world without nuclear weapons." He called the "existence of thousands of nuclear weapons" the "most dangerous legacy of the Cold War," vowing to launch negotiations with Moscow to take reductions in force levels. More >>>

Global Environmental Change and Human Security Conference

More than 150 experts from around the world are assembled this week in Oslo, Norway, for the capstone conference of the Global Environmental Change and Human Security (GECHS) Project.

Monday, July 20, 2009 - Indian and U.S. officials are set tomorrow to discuss arrangements under which New Delhi could reprocess nuclear fuel purchased from the United States, the Indo-Asian News Service reported

India would use a facility within its borders to reprocess spent fuel, an effort that can generate nuclear-weapon material. The site would operate under monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency, under the terms of the U.S.-Indian nuclear trade deal.
New Delhi might also today identify locations today for two civilian nuclear facilities that the United States plans to build. Anticipated locations are in the states of Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, sources indicated (Indo-Asian News Service I/Hindustan Times, July 19). More >>>

Bin Laden deputy warns Pakistan the US wants to seize its nuclear arsenal

Zawahiri tries to halt slide in support for al-Qaida in country by playing on fears that Washington is orchestrating violence

Wednesday 15 July 2009 - Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has attempted to halt al-Qaida's plunging popularity in Pakistan by exploiting widely held fears that the US is plotting to seize the country's nuclear bombs.
In an audio message released today Zawahiri warned Pakistanis that the US was striving to "break up this nuclear-capable country and transform it into tiny fragments, loyal to and dependent on the neo-crusaders".
"The only hope to save Pakistan from this disastrous fate is jihad," said Zawahiri who, along with Bin Laden, is believed to be sheltering in the tribal belt along the Afghan border. He called on Pakistanis to band together and form a "citadel of Islam" on the subcontinent. More >>>

The planet's future: Climate change 'will cause civilisation to collapse'

14 July, 2009 - An effort on the scale of the Apollo mission that sent men to the Moon is needed if humanity is to have a fighting chance of surviving the ravages of climate change. The stakes are high, as, without sustainable growth, "billions of people will be condemned to poverty and much of civilization will collapse".

This is the stark warning from the biggest single report to look at the future of the planet - obtained by The Independent on Sunday ahead of its official publication next month. Backed by a diverse range of leading organizations such as UNESCO, the World Bank, the US army and the Rockefeller Foundation, the 2009 State of the Future report runs to 6,700 pages and draws on contributions from 2,700 experts around the globe. Its findings are described by Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the UN, as providing "invaluable insights into the future for the United Nations, its member states, and civil society". More >>>
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The geopolitical consequences of climate change

Sunday, July 5, 2009 - VENICE -- Europe will be wrangled for the next six months by a lanky, no-nonsense Swede named Carl Bildt. His country chairs this semester's cascade of European Union summits, procedural debates and other gabfests. As Sweden's foreign minister, it is Bildt's job to make sense of it all -- a task akin to herding not cats but eels.

Well, he asked for it, didn't he? When he was Sweden's prime minister in the 1990s, the conservative politician relentlessly overhauled his country's socialist economic policies and neutralist orientation to push it into the European Union. Now Sweden is stuck picking up the pieces of a deepening European economic crisis, paralyzed national governments and a constitutional stalemate.
But it was Bildt's description of the strategic consequences of climate change that galvanized my attention when he spoke here to the Council for the United States and Italy. The rapid melting of the Arctic ice sheet at the North Pole will bring "revolutionary new transport possibilities between the Atlantic and the Pacific," he told the gathering, expanding that thought for me later in an interview. More >>>

Planned shredding of nuclear papers "illegal"

Switzerland -June 30, 2009 A parliamentary control delegation has rejected plans by the cabinet to destroy sensitive documents related to an international nuclear smuggling ring.

The committee called on the government to seek an acceptable solution with justice authorities for about 100 pages of evidence linked to an investigation of three Swiss engineers suspected of smuggling nuclear weapons technology.

"There is no international obligation to destroy the documents," said Hansruedi Stadler, a Christian Democratic senator, on Tuesday.

The committee said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) agreed that Switzerland was capable of safely storing the file, which contains more than 1,000 pages including documents on bomb designs, until a court rules on the case of Urs Tinner, his brother Marco and their father Friedrich. More >>>

Former US President Jimmy Carter's Addressin Gaza

Gaza: Bombs, Missiles, Tanks And Bulldozers

Transcript of former US President Jimmy Carter's Address to the United Nations Relief Works Agency's Human Rights Graduation in Gaza, June 16, 2009.

By Jimmy Carter

June 19, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- June 16, 2009 -- Director of UNRWA operations John Ging, thank you for inviting me to Gaza. Distinguished guests, children of Gaza, I am grateful for your warm reception.

I first visited Gaza 36 years ago and returned during the 1980s and later for the very successful Palestinian elections. Although under occupation, this community was relatively peaceful and prosperous. Now, the aftermath of bombs, missiles, tanks, bulldozers and the continuing economic siege have brought death, destruction, pain, and suffering to the people here. Tragically, the international community largely ignores the cries for help, while the citizens of Gaza are being treated more like animals than human beings. More >>>

Non-proliferation 'going in circles'

19 June 2009 - Trying to maintain a global freeze on nuclear weapons technology has been tough for Mohamed ElBaradei, the outgoing head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), although he has hopes for progress on disarmament in the near future.

ElBaradei made an intervention on non-proliferation during the IAEA board of governors meeting in Vienna on 17 June. He said that much that was under discussion was the same as three years ago: "We have been going around in circles on some of the issues we are facing." More >>>

Disarmament lessons from the Chemical Weapons Convention

BY MIKHAIL GORBACHEV AND ROGELIO PFIRTER

The recent joint declaration by U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to negotiate a new treaty reducing their countries' nuclear stockpiles as a first step toward "a nuclear-weapon-free world" has spurred hopes for renewed progress in global disarmament after a decade of gridlock.

An excellent example of how nations can work together effectively within a multilateral framework to eliminate weapons of mass destruction is the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

The convention is unique in the sphere of disarmament and nonproliferation--an international treaty that abolishes an entire class of weapons of mass destruction under a stringent regime of inspections to verify compliance. Since its entry into force in April 1997, the convention has attracted 188 States Parties representing 98 percent of the world's population and chemical industries, the fastest rate of accession for any arms control treaty in history. More >>>

Washington, Israel and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

Jun 15, 2009 - Eyebrows were raised in Jerusalem when, last month, US Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller declared that "universal adherence to the NPT [the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty] itself, including by India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea... remains a fundamental objective of the United States."

Washington's chief nuclear arms negotiator may have been reiterating official US policy, but what set off alarm bells among Israeli policymakers is the possibility that her comments might represent a shift in the long-standing US practice of avoiding any real pressure on Israel to sign and ratify the NPT. MORE >>>

Abrupt Global Warming Could Shift Monsoon Patterns, Hurt Agriculture

June 11 2009 - At times in the distant past, an abrupt change in climate has been associated with a shift of seasonal monsoons to the south, a new study concludes, causing more rain to fall over the oceans than in the Earth's tropical regions, and leading to a dramatic drop in global vegetation growth.

If similar changes were to happen to the Earth's climate today as a result of global warming – as scientists believe is possible - this might lead to drier tropics, more wildfires and declines in agricultural production in some of the world's most heavily populated regions. The findings were based on oxygen isotopes in air from ice cores, and supported by previously published data from ancient stalagmites found in caves. More >>>

North Korea Could Face New Round of Sanctions

UNITED NATIONS —June 10, 2009- The Security Council’s five permanent members agreed on Wednesday on a draft resolution that would ratchet up sanctions against North Korea by concentrating on its financial transactions and its arms industry, including allowing for inspections of its cargo vessels on the high seas.

Text of United Nations Draft Resolution on North Korean Sanctions (June 11, 2009)
The sharply worded resolution, while diluting some of the sanctions sought by the West and Japan, would still serve notice on North Korea that its nuclear and other weapons programs had created sufficient alarm to forge a rare unified front among the world’s major powers. More >>>

Nuclear Aims By Pakistan, India Prompt U.S. Concern

Thursday, May 28, 2009 - Sometime next year, at a tightly guarded site south of its capital, Pakistan will be ready to start churning out a new stream of plutonium for its nuclear arsenal, which will eventually include warheads for ballistic missiles and cruise missiles capable of being launched from ships, submarines or aircraft.

About 1,000 miles to the southwest, engineers in India are designing cruise missiles to carry nuclear warheads, relying partly on Russian missile-design assistance. India is also trying to equip its Agni ballistic missiles with such warheads and to deploy them on submarines. Its rudimentary missile-defense capability is slated for a major upgrade next year.

The apparent detonation of a North Korean nuclear device on Monday has renewed concerns over that country's efforts to build up its atomic arsenal. At the same time, U.S. and allied officials and experts who have tracked developments in South Asia have grown increasingly worried over the rapid growth of the region's more mature nuclear programs, in part because of the risk that weapons could fall into the hands of terrorists. More >>>

China strongly committed to nuclear weapons free world

BEIJING, May 23 (Xinhua) -- China is strongly committed to a world without nuclear weapons, Gareth Evans, co-chair of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND), told a press conference on the sidelines of the North-east Asia Regional Meeting of the ICNND here Saturday.

The regional meeting, which was held Friday and Saturday, allowed the ICNND to engage in intensive action with key nuclear experts providing insights on global and regional nuclear issues and challenges, including proliferation threats and the safe and secure management of the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

Evans said, "There is a need to energize a very high-level global political debate on what remains very important risks and threats for the future of this world." More >>>

Clinton details humanitarian aid to Pakistan

WASHINGTON (AP) 19 May 2009 — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday the United States was sending $110 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Pakistan, part of the administration's new strategy for countering the appeal of Taliban militants in the nuclear-armed American ally.

Clinton detailed the aid package at the White House, saying the money is flowing to ease the plight of about 2 million Pakistanis who have fled fighting in the country's Swat Valley and are living in squalid tent cities.

The White House said Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had appointed Brig. Gen. Nadeem Ahmad to lead the Pakistani relief effort. He was highly praised for his work in the relief effort after the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir. More >>>

Pakistan denies it is expanding nuclear arsenal

ISLAMABAD (AP) - 18 May 2009 — Pakistan denied Monday it was expanding its nuclear arsenal, a week after the top U.S. military officer said there was evidence it was doing so.

Pakistan is battling a growing insurgency by Islamist militants with links to al-Qaida and the Taliban. Washington is considering giving it billions of dollars in aid to help fight the insurgents, who are also blamed for attacks on U.S. and foreign troops in neighboring Afghanistan.

At a congressional panel last week, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked whether there was evidence that Pakistan was adding to its nuclear weapons systems and warheads. He simply replied: "Yes."

But Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira denied that assertion Monday. More >>>

"Pakistan does not need to expand its nuclear arsenal but we want to make it clear that we will maintain a minimum nuclear deterrence that is essential for our defense and stability," he said. "We will not make any compromise."

United States Claims Pakistan Increasing Nuclear Arsenal

Pak increasing nuclear weapons: US

Washington: The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, has confirmed reports that Pakistan is increasing its nuclear weapons programme, but has provided no details. The confirmation came during a Senate Armed Services committee hearing when Democrat senator Jim Webb, an expert on defence issues, raised fears that Pakistan is adding to the nuclear weapons it traditionally has pointed toward India, and questioned whether US aid could be funding it. More >>>

Global warming may make monsoons harder to predict, say researchers

May 14, 2009 Monsoons will be more difficult to predict in the future because of global warming, researchers have warned.

Scientists will need improved weather prediction models, conclude researchers from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), in a report published in Geophysical Research Letters last month (23 April). Reliable prediction of monsoon rains five to seven days in advance is crucial for farmers, for managing water resources and for disaster management, they say.

The researchers say that weather in tropical regions is inherently more difficult to predict than in regions further north. One reason is that daily changes in temperature and wind are small in the tropics and the signals are difficult to pick up with recording instruments. Another is the way wind systems are driven in the tropics, which makes the tropical atmosphere more unstable.

The increased frequency and intensity of rainfall due to global warming will make the tropical atmosphere even more unstable and prediction more difficult in the future, they say. More >>>

US wants India to sign NPT

In what is a toughening of stance on nuclear non-proliferation, the US has said its “fundamental objective” continues to be to see that India — along with Israel, Pakistan and North Korea — signs the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

This message was delivered at the preparatory committee meeting for the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference on Tuesday by Rose Gottemoeller, US Assistant Secretary of State (for verification, compliance and implementation). In a not-so-subtle reference to Pakistan, she also referred to limiting and verifiable end to fissile material production worldwide, especially in South Asia, to avoid “theft or seizure (of nuclear materials) by terrorist groups”.
India has rejected the NPT as being discriminatory, for it allows the permanent members of the UN Security Council (US, Russia, China, UK and France) to have nuclear arsenals without any obligations to disarm, while India, despite being a nuclear weapons state, has to sign the treaty as a non-nuclear weapons state and subject itself to inspections. India also believes that the NPT has failed to institutionalise nuclear non-proliferation and verifiable reduction in nuclear arsenals globally. More >>>

Washington negotiator calls on Israel to sign nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty

Washington: Wednesday 6 May 2009 - A diplomatic row broke out today between the US and Israel after Washington's chief nuclear arms negotiator called on Israel to sign the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT), breaking a US tradition of discretion over Israel's nuclear arsenal.

Israeli officials said they were puzzled by a speech to an international conference in New York by Rose Gottemoeller, an assistant secretary of state, who said: "Universal adherence to the NPT itself - including by India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea - also remains a fundamental objective of the United States."

By including Israel on a list of countries known to have nuclear weapons. Gottemoeller broke with normal US diplomatic practice. Since 1968 when the CIA reported Israel had developed a nuclear weapon , Washington has pursued a policy of not demanding transparency from its close ally, and in return Israel agreed not to test a bomb or it declare its nuclear capability - a policy of "strategic ambiguity". More >>>

Wealthy nations must lead on climate change: Economist

The citizens and leaders of rich countries who aren't willing to ditch their SUVs and embrace other facets of a low-carbon lifestyle will sabotage attempts at reaching a global deal for tackling climate change, prominent British economist Lord Nicholas Stern is warning.

"This has to be the biggest international collaboration in history if we are to tackle this challenge," Stern told an audience of Toronto's business elite during a speech today at the Economic Club of Canada.

If we're not prepared to show developing countries such as China and India that we're serious about doing our part, he said, "then get a hat, some suntan lotion and write an apology letter to your grandchildren." More >>>

Obama's Nuclear Realism

April 24 2009 - In a major foreign policy address in Prague, President Obama declared America's commitment "to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons." The president warned that this goal would not be reached quickly, "perhaps not in my lifetime." Nevertheless, some critics have charged that Obama is caught up in a nuclear disarmament fantasy.

In fact, the president's approach is one of steely-eyed realism. Nuclear weapons present us with a set of bad choices. Obama's choice -- to take nuclear arms control and nonproliferation seriously -- is the one most likely to lead to a secure future.

In one sense, there isn't a choice at all. Article 6 of the U.S. Constitution declares that ratified treaties are the "supreme law of the land," and the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), ratified by the United States almost 40 years ago, commits us to pursue nuclear disarmament. And in fact, a realistic foreign policy will recognize this as an important goal. More >>>