Piers Millett at New America
The first time I met Piers Millett, we were having a drink at Mr. Pickwick Pub in Geneva. Now, Piers — one of only three members of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) Implementation Support Unit in Geneva — is in…
2009
377 posts
Yinhe Revisted
James collected a couple of articles on Yinhe incident for an October 2008 post entitled, The Yinhe Incident. Worth revisiting.
Institutional Memory
According to David Sanger in the NYT, some folks in the Administration are thinking very carefully about the intelligence problem in interdiction: Pentagon officials are clearly not eager to confront the Kang Nam 1. The intelligence about what is on…
Postol and Wright on the Unha-2
A couple weeks ago, Benn Tannenbaum invited Ted Postol to come down to Washington. Ted gave a fascinating talk, in which he argued that the second stage of the Unha may be a re-purposed SS-N-6. This is a plausible answer…
Operation Gunnerside
Many nuclear experts recently gathered in Oslo for an event on nuclear disarmament, organized by the Nobel Institute. Bruno Tertrais, attendee and friend of wonk, sends along this photo of what, for him, was the highlight of the meeting: A…
What Does Natanz Cost?
Iran is obviously investing a lot of its political, intellectual, and financial resources into the Natanz enrichment center. But can we come up with a figure for how much it has cost Iran? Perhaps we can estimate it based on…
Yura's Brew
Dan Pinkston pointed out this gem from KCNA: Taedonggang Beer Pyongyang, June 25 (KCNA) — The beers including black beer and rice beer made by the Taedonggang Beer Factory are these days popular with the Pyongyang citizens. Beer houses are…
Revisiting the W76-1 SLEP
A couple of weeks ago, I complained that the Los Angeles Times‘s Ralph Vartabedian wrote a misleading story on the W76-1 stockpile life extension program (W76 Problems Seem Overblown, June 3, 2009). Bascially, Vartabedian used a relatively minor delay in…
Best One-Liners About the Bomb
This shoe box entry could benefit greatly from reader participation. I have three great one-liners about the quest for the Bomb in my 4×6 card collection. My definition of a one-liner is different from Henny Youngman. (Am I showing my…
HASC Language on Stockpile Management
The House Armed Services Committee defense authorization bill contains language that would repeal language creating the RRW program in favor of a “stockpile management program.” I notice that the term of art is management, not modernization, although I wouldn’t object…