Holy cow. When I read Pavel Podvig’s excellent “The Window of Vulnerability That Wasn’t: Soviet Military Buildup in the 1970s,” I was struck at his sourcing: The main source of these data is the archival collection of Vitalii Kataev at the Hoover Institution Archive at Stanford University: Vitalii Leonidovich Kataev, papers, 10 boxes. The collection …
Cut and Cover
by | 2009-09-30 | 19 Comments
On the left, a GoogleEarth image dating from March 2005 showing the uncovered facilities existing at that time (before being buried); on the right, the probable main centrifuge hall as it appeared in late September 2009, also before being buried. At the risk of stating the obvious, there are no tunnels at the Qom site; …
Rethinking US Nuclear Posture
by | 2009-09-29 | 1 Comment
Mike Gerson (the one from CNA, not the Bush speechwriter) and I are giving talks on the Nuclear Posture Review at the Carnegie Endowment today — he on declaratory posture; me on extended deterrence. James Acton is moderating. It will be nice to take a break from attempting to moderate the comment trolls. Here are …
Qom Enrichment Facility Roundup
by | 2009-09-28 | 16 Comments
There has been a lot of back-and-forth on the blog, especially in the comments, about the ongoing revelation of Iran’s enrichment facility near Qom. A couple of points: 1. Iran has unequivocally violated its safeguards obligations James Acton laid this out in exquisite detail. The short version is this: US officials said they new about …
