49 posts
You may have noticed that the New York Times ran a story entitled “C.I.A. Says Pakistanis Gave Iran Nuclear Aid” that led: A new report from the Central Intelligence Agency says the arms trafficking network led by the Pakistani scientist…
Both Washington and Tehran are both balking at the EU’s draft IAEA resoution. The resolution hints that the IAEA will refer Iran to the Security Council if it resumes uranium enrichment. That goes too far for Tehran and not far…
In June, ArmsControlWonk.com reported that Representative David Hobson (R-OH), chairman of the House Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee, had eliminated almost $100 million worth of nuclear weapons related spending in the FY 2005 Appropriations Bill including: * $27.6 million for…
Peter Beaumont, writing in the British paper The Observer, captures my feelings about the role of domestic politics in Iran perfectly. The European view, which has sought to negotiate a uranium enrichment freeze rather than confront Tehran, is more subtle…
In March 1969, Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird was asked “Did the deployment by the Russians of their antiballistic missile system around Moscow and Leningrad encourage us to negotiate or didn’t it encourage us to retaliate …” Laird replied, “I…
Slashdot notes the recent publication of images of Polyus-Skif—a Soviet satellite unsuccessfully launched in May 1987 Polyus-Skif is an object of interest because some space hawks claim it was a space-weapon. Typical is Jim Oberg, who wrote in the New…
The answer to that question determines whether or not one supports the Iran-EU3 deal. NPR asked Matt Bunn that very question this morning. (You can listen to they story, “Iran Agrees to Halt Uranium Enrichment, here and Matt’s answer at…
Belated praise to Edward Tufte who skewered Colin Powell’s UN presentation on Iraq at the time, noting: The cognitive style of Powell’s PP presentation resembles that of JFK assassination theorists: small highly selected bits of information that, along with some…
If the Bush administration really is trying to get China to put more pressure on North Korea, Hu and Bush’s press appearance today suggests that the effort isn’t going all that well: PRESIDENT BUSH: Mr. President, thank you for this…
We’ve all heard the stories: playboy, alocholic, wack-job, etc. Typical is a recent book by one Kenji Fujimoto (a psuedonym), who claims to have been Kim Jong-Ils cook. An excerpt in The Atlantic leaves no doubt that Fujimoto thinks Kim…
