Right Truth

Nuclear and Other Threats

I do not understand the decision by the United States nor do I trust the North Koreans. -- However, the U.S. has pledged to remove the North Korean regime from its list of state sponsors of terrorism and lift some trade sanctions.  Can anyone believes the North Koreans?   They have submitted an inventory of nuclear plants and materials.  (Bloomberg)

The information was required under a September 2005 agreement by the government in Pyongyang and the U.S., China, South Korea, Japan and Russia to rid the Korean peninsula of atomic weapons. North Korea's refusal to submit the declaration on its programs had stalled the negotiations for months.

``The United States has no allusions about the regime in Pyongyang,'' President George W. Bush said in the White House Rose Garden. ``Yet we welcome today's development.''

The U.S. and other nations involved in the disarmament talks will review the document to see how much plutonium North Korea has produced and try to gain insight into the extent of North Korea's weapons' program, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in Japan today.

According to the International Herald Tribune:

The declaration was believed to provide a partial, though important, view of North Korea's nuclear capability, and it marked a significant step forward in a multinational effort to end the country's drive to build nuclear weapons.

On Iran, which most of us see as the real and present danger, "The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency Mohamed ElBaradei, said Iran could create a nuclear weapon in six months. Yes, this is the same guy that a couple of months ago said we have a few years before Iran would have that capability."  (WBC.STV  via National Terror Alert)  Yet ElBaradei went on to say, " ...  that he will resign as chief of the UN nuclear agency if Iran is attacked by any country."

The word moron comes to mind when reading ElBaradei's comments.

Terrorists Could Launch Satellite Strikes In 12 Years

The Defense Intelligence Agency believes that terrorists could be able to “disrupt” American satellites by 2020 and that states like China could have “robust destructive capabilities” in space around the same time. The question is, how good are the Pentagon’s spies at figuring out our enemies’ space programs, really?

In a presentation obtained by DANGER ROOM, Randy Jones, the associate technical director of the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Missile & Space Intelligence Center, warned that terror groups could use lasers, radio frequency jammers, and even nuclear weapons to knock out U.S. satellites. Countries like China might launch anti-satellite [ASAT] ballistic missiles or position weapons in orbit. These states might be “hesitant,” at first, to start blasting American orbiters, Jones observes, “but [would] probably be willing under appropriate conditions” to attack. (Danger Room, via National Terror Alert)

Saudi Arabia Disrupts Planned Terror Attacks on Oil Facilities - Arrests Hundreds

During the last six months, Saudi security forces have arrested 701 militants for allegedly plotting to carry out terrorist attacks on oil facilities and other vital installations across the Kingdom, the Interior Ministry announced yesterday.

“Some of the arrested suspects were planning to stage terrorist attacks on oil fields and installations,” Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, spokesman for the ministry told Arab News.

He said the militants — Saudis and foreigners — were trying to regroup and strengthen the Al-Qaeda terror network in Saudi Arabia. (Arab News via National Terror Alert)

Benazir Bhutto Carried Nuke Secrets To North Korea?

Benazir Bhutto, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, had consistently denied any role of the Pakistani government in Korea’s nuclear ambitions. But now, it has come to light that a CD containing vital nuclear data was carried by her personally to be handed over to her Korean counterpart as part of a secret deal!  (ATS)

As she was due to visit North Korea at the end of 1993, she was asked and readily agreed to carry critical nuclear data on her person and hand it over on arrival in Pyongyang…..The gist of what she told me was that before leaving Islamabad she shopped for an overcoat with the deepest possible pockets into which she transferred CDs containing the scientific data about uranium which the North Korean wanted.

Pakistan’s Nuclear Facilities

Map courtesy: Carnegie Endowment For International Peace

Pakistan’s Strategic Imperative

Kashmir has been a bone of contention between India and Pakistan since the last 60 years and four wars have been fought by Pakistan in its unsuccessful bid to wrest it from India by force. Conventionally, they could never hope to match the Indian war machine. The biggest force leveler would be a viable nuclear deterrent against conventional force asymmetry. With a nuclear deterrent, an incursion into Kashmir would prevent an all out assault by India’s huge military juggernaut against Pakistan which lacked strategic depth.

Thus commenced a covert nuclear program and by the early 1990s Pakistan had acquired the capability to build nuclear weapons using highly enriched uranium cores. But it lacked the delivery systems. American made F-16s were not a viable option and missiles armed with nuclear warheads were a system of choice as they are not as vulnerable to air defense systems as are aircraft, and are also more cost effective.

But Pakistan did not possess the wherewithal to build a delivery system consisting of long range missiles which it was desperate to acquire, whatever the cost.

Pakistan’s Quest For Missile Delivery Systems

Since the Chinese were reluctant to provide Pakistan with the ‘M’ series of longer range missiles due to American pressure, Pakistan turned to North Korea to view their Nodong prototype. In 1995, the missile deal was consummated and in April 1998, Pakistan test fired the Nodong which was re-christened as Ghauri.

Evidence for the missile-for-uranium enrichment technology trade probably emerged sometime in 1999. But when U.S. officials raised the subject with the Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, he denied any knowledge of it.

And there it rested. Nawaz Sharif’s word was taken as confirmation that there was no such trade going on. Or did it?  (continue reading at ATS)

 

    You can form you own opinion after reading the entire article.