James A. Van Allen, discoverer of the Earth’s radiation belts, died on Wednesday, aged 91. Others will record Van Allen’s scientific achievements and the loved ones he leaves behind. I remember Van Allen most, however, for how then-President John F. Kennedy invoked Van Allen’s repution to deflect brilliantly a tough question about the possible environmental …
Iran Sought Significant Quantities of Uranium from Africa
by | 2006-08-09 | 8 Comments
Sorry, couldn’t resist. By now, most of you have probably heard that the London Sunday Times reports that a shipment of smuggled uranium from Congo was intercepted on its way to Iran: IRAN is seeking to import large consignments of bomb-making uranium from the African mining area that produced the Hiroshima bomb, an investigation has …
Department of Ass-Clownery
by | 2006-08-09 | 3 Comments
I recently ran across this December article from La Repubblica which contains an interesting piece of information RE: the Iraq/Niger/uranium thing. [Translation and original link via the Leftcoaster.] Members of the “Iraq really was uranium shopping” crowd, such as Christopher Hitchens, frequently argue (yes, present tense) that Niger has nothing else that Iraq would want. …
Chinese Nuclear Warhead Facility
by | 2006-08-04 | 7 Comments
Cool huh? All things considered—access control, double perimeter, revetted buildings—that looks a lot like nuclear weapons storage to me. I’ve oft noted that the intelligence community believes the Chinese keep their warheads stored seperately from their ballistic missiles. A declassified Department of Defense cable explained: Each base has its own warhead storage facility … In …
