Maybe that’s more impressive if you say it in Austin Powers’ voice. I realize that Capitol Hill’s attitude toward money is a billion here, a billion there – you add it up in order to start getting real money. But in certain cases, $1 billion can actually mean something. In the FY 2007 budget request, …
Iran and the Shahab 3
by | 2006-03-07 | 6 Comments
A couple of weeks ago, Dafna Linzer had a long, detailed story (and online chat) on intelligence found by German intelligence on a laptop computer stolen by an Iranian citizen in 2004. I am writing a four-part series looking at the key pieces of information: a schematic of a shaft that might be for a …
MDA changes…not in the slightest
by | 2006-03-06 | No Comments
I know that a little bureaucrat-speak is endemic to most of the Pentagon (and a good chunk of Washington), but the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) must be one of the most fluent organizations when it comes to talking circles around its responsibilities. In MDA’s FY 2007 budget estimates overview, it proclaims that there is a …
Subcritical Nuclear Test
by | 2006-03-06 | 4 Comments
The Department of Energy has released a video of a subcritical nuclear test. A subcritical test results in no yield and would be permissable, even under a comprehensive test ban. Subcritical tests are used to determine the physical properties of fissile materials. Of course, subcritical tests can raise suspicion, as Wolfgang Panofsky has noted, that …
