Avatar photoImpasse at the Conference on Disarmament

My talk at the UN went well today. I heard a couple of especially blunt comments by officials from national delegations to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. Among the things I heard: The Conference remains at an “impasse” created by the United States. The United States has a responsibility to issue “at least a …

Avatar photoPaul Nitze, 1907-2004

The New York Times and Washington Post have excellent obituaries that capture Nitze’s good and bad qualities. Decorum inhibits candor, however. Nitze’s role in slandering Paul Warnke, during Warnke’s confirmation hearing for Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency is an unseemly moment that defined Nitze for a great many of his colleagues. To …

Avatar photoCSRS and CounterCom (Blame it on Nanjing)

While I was in Nanjing, Space News confirmed (“U.S. Declates Satellite Jammer Ready” October 11, 2004, p.1) that the Air Force canceled the Counter Surveillance Reconnaissance System (CSRS or “scissors) and has delivered the first Counter Communications System (now called CounterCom). [Early Bird readers can access it here] The confirmations were provided by Gen. Lance …

Avatar photoCuba BW "Program" Redux

I had an interesting conversation with Steve Weisman at the New York Times regarding his story on the “new” intelligence estimate that concludes “it is no longer clear that Cuba has an active, offensive bio-weapons program.” We still disagree about whether his story is misleading or not—in part, I suppose, because we see different things …