Arms Control Wonk Outage
I’ve had a case of the flu. I should resume posting over the weekend.
February 2005
38 posts
North Korean Nuclear Weapons Estimate
Long Island’s Newsday reports on the contents of a recent intelligence community-wide assessment of North Korea’s nuclear arsenal. The estimates run from the CIA (2-3 bombs) to DIA (12-15 bombs, “tops”), with DOE in between. Newsday reports that discrepancies “reflect…
Rice Approves Merger of Arms Control and Nonproliferation Bureaus
Apparently even its memory is too much. In mid-January, I reported that the State Department was poised to merge the bureaus responsible for arms control and nonproliferation. SecState Rice has agreed in principle to the merger, sources tell InsideDefense.com. As…
The Strange Case of Rod Barton
Rod Barton (right) is an Australian microbiologist who served on the Iraq Survey Group (click here for Charlie Duelfer’s letter of gratitude). Barton has given an interview to an Australian television program, Four Corners, about his time on the ISG.…
Scrounging for Iraq Excuses
It’s late, so I thought I’d take aim at this barrel of fish. Someone asked a question at the ACA meeting about how, given the Iraq intel debacle, the US can build a credible case regarding Iran and North Korea’s…
Life Imitates Art: Another Missile Defense Test Failure
In the popular television program Sex and the City, Trey MacDougal, the husband of a principal character, has a little problem, um, performing under pressure. The Missile Defense Agency’s own Trey, Henry “Trey” Obering III, seems to be having a…
More on North Korea, Pakistan, Uranium
Jon Wolfstahl has an analysis of recent reports indicating that North Korea shipped UF6 to Libya. He covers a lot of the same issues that I did here, but includes a sentence which speaks to an important question: how can…
North Korean Ballistic Missiles
The Detroit Free-Press has a helpful FAQ on Iran and North Korea with one significant factual error: Q: Is the United States threatened by a North Korean weapon? A: Yes. North Korea has missiles that could hit Alaska and Hawaii.…
National Security Presidential Directives
The National Security Presidential Directive process is essential to making and implementing foreign policy. Every Administration since the National Security Act of 1947 has made extensive use of such documents to coordinate and implement policy directives, as is evident for…
480 Nuclear Weapons in Europe
Gravity Bombs of a different design, (c), Shambroom. Hans Kristensen concludes that the United States keeps 480 nuclear weapons at air bases in Europe, about twice the previous estimate of outside analysts (including Hans himself). The smoking gun is Presidential…