Avi Dichter, Israel’s public security minister, said today that the Iran NIE could result in another Yom Kippur War. Dichter is referring to the surprise 1973 attack on Israel led by Egypt and Syria on Yom Kippur, the most important Jewish holiday. Israel ultimately clobbered the Arab coalition, although not before losing some early battles. …
Follow-On White Paper Rumor
by | 2007-12-14 | 2 Comments
I have mocked the living hell out of this forthcoming administration follow-on white paper to <a href="http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/1587/maintaining-deterrence-in-the-21st-century. “>Maintaining Deterrence in the 21st Century, (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Fund the RRW). My teasing has been based, in part, on the lame list of myths that Administration plans to dispel. The myths were …
MAD nukes and Englishmen
by | 2007-12-14 | 10 Comments
Sorting out my accumulated junk that has, for the past few years, been slowly mouldering in my dad’s attic, I recently found my copy of Peter Hennessy’s brilliant The Secret State, a political history of British nuclear policy during the first half of the Cold War. In one memorable section (particularly relevant given recent revelations …
Non-Weapons Grade HEU Bust in Slovakia
by | 2007-12-13 | 10 Comments
Two weeks ago, a story broke involving the arrest in Slovakia of two Hungarians and one Ukrainian for allegedly trying to peddle around 1 pound of weapons-grade highly-enriched uranium. Days later, the incident was reported as involving 481.4 grams of a substance containing uranium 235, with a Slovak lab technician saying “Preliminary examinations showed it …
