WASHINGTON: China's dirty little secret of nuclear proliferation to Pakistan, including virtually giving Islamabad two nuclear weapons on a platter while the US remained oblivious and smug, has exploded in Washington. Embarrassingly for President Barack Obama, the disclosures come on the eve of his much-anticipated visit to Beijing.
The broad story is known to every Tom, Dinesh, and Hamid in strategic circles that sometime in the early 1980s, China provided Pakistan with nuclear know-how and materials to enable it to make the bomb, in part to weigh down India and in part out of gratitude to Islamabad for facilitating its opening to US. But astonishing details of the transaction, which China has blithely denied because it is in violation of its nuclear non-proliferation obligations, have been exposed courtesy A.Q.Khan, Pakistan's Dr Strangelove, to spite the military which incarcerated him. h/t goodsh*t
Go read the whole thing. Seriously. We'll wait 'til you get back.
Evangelist Tony Alamo was sentenced Friday to 175 years in prison for taking underage girls across state lines for sex, effectively punishing him for the rest of his life for molesting children he took as "brides" in his ministry...
#3
I can see him forty years from now pushing the Library Cart down the Cellblock Hall and being nicknamed old "Goodp*ssy" for so long none of the inmates remember what his real name is...and neither does he.
#4
I can see him forty years from now pushing the Library Cart down the Cellblock Hall and being nicknamed old "Goodp*ssy" for so long none of the inmates remember what his real name is...and neither does he.
As satisfying as that may be, that's not justice; it's revenge, and if that's the best our criminal justice system can do then maybe it's time to dismantle it.
Researchers on Thursday announced the discovery of two World War II Japanese submarines, including one meant to carry aircraft for attacks on American cities and the Panama Canal, in deep water off Hawaii, where they were sunk 63 years ago.
The submarines, among five that were captured by American forces at the end of the war and taken to Pearl Harbor for study, were found off Oahu at a depth of about 2,600 feet using submersibles from the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory, which is financed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and located at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The five were towed to sea in 1946 and torpedoed, and the researchers said one probable reason for that was to avoid having to share any of the technology with the Russian military....
Mr. Kerby said the discovery of the I-401 helped lead the researchers to the I-14. When the I-401 was announced, retired Navy personnel contacted the laboratory to describe what happened to some of the other subs. One sailor provided 16-millimeter footage he had taken of the I-14 being torpedoed. While shooting the event, he panned the camera to show Diamond Head and other features on the coast.
We were able to pick some landmarks and triangulate and get a rough position of where the I-14 went down, Mr. Kerby said....
Posted by: Mike ||
11/14/2009 08:05 ||
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"...to avoid having to share any of the technology with the Russian military..."
I'm curious about that--did we have any such agreement with the USSR to give them intel on Japanese technology? After all, they weren't interested in fighting in that theater until well after Germany was defeated, so they weren't exactly an ally in the Pacific War.
Posted by: Dar ||
11/14/2009 18:53 Comments ||
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I-401 was a monster sub carring below deck bombers. Check it out on the web...
[Iran Press TV Latest] South African President Jacob Zuma says the county's police do not have a "license to kill", but vowed to crackdown on rampant crime ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
His words came on Friday, a day after his deputy police minister, Fikile Mbalula, told reporters in Cape Town that he has told his officers to "shoot the bastards" in fighting criminals.
"No police officer has permission to shoot suspects in circumstances other than those provided for by law. The law does not give the police a license to kill," said Zuma.
"We have stated our position very clearly. It is the duty of the police to protect all people against injury or loss of life. But ... police sometimes have no choice but to use lethal force to defend themselves and others," Zuma said.
After taking office in May, Zuma's government has tried to decrease the country's crime rate, but still, an average 50 killings a day sometimes for as little as a mobile phone, displays severe lack of security.
Zuma, who has backed stronger gun-powers for the police, said that crime was at the top of his government's agenda. He said the police force would be boosted by some 24,000 in the next three years with detectives increasing by 19 percent this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2009 00:00 ||
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I have to agree, the Cops MUST be stronger than the thugs, or there's no police protection at all.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/14/2009 1:31 Comments ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Nahid Parvin Champa, detained cadre of outlawed Gono Mukti Fouz (GMF), admitted to police that she along with four other women activists took part in the killing of local Awami League leader Meherul on August 15, police said.
Anwar Hossain alias Chhoto Anu, commander of the party's killing mission unit, led the operation.
According to police, Champa gave the information to the investigators during a three-day remand that ended yesterday. She was sent to jail after the remand.
A group of 15 to 16 armed outlaws shot several rounds of bullet at Bheramara upazila unit AL joint secretary Meherul in front of his business centre in Railway Bazar area around 8:30pm on the day.
Fattah Mohon, college teacher and a friend of Meherul, also got killed in the incident. Six others including AL activists and a bank official were bullet injured.
Sources including in the police said the outfit took decision of killing the ruling party leader who came in conflict with GMF chief Aminul Islam Mukul over a dropping tender.
Meherul, reportedly a first class contractor, started attending biddings bypassing GMF directives, especially after the AL came to power, said the sources.
He was also patronising "another" outfit in the areas to trump GMF. Meherul was warned by the underground party several times but he ignored them all.
According to police, Gono Mukti Fouz engaged around 20 trained cadres including four women to keep an eye on Meherul.
Arms including AK-47 rifle recovered from Taslima Khan Ankhi on November 3 were used in the operation.
Champa, her sister Nasrin and two other women cadres carried the weapons to the spot and left with the arms after the operation. Nasrin has been absconding since the weapons were recovered.
Champa also named some persons including "important figures" involved with outlawed party activities in the district, said police. They, however, refused to give further details for the sake of investigation.
Police have so far arrested four women cadres in special drives launched on November 5 to nab suspected women activists of underground parties in the district.
ASP (HEADQUARTERS) TRANSFERRED
Assistant Police Super (headquarters) Alamgir Hossain, who led the entire operation to arrest the women outlaws, has been transferred to Barguna.
District police sources said a letter in this regard is under way to reach the district. When contacted Alamgir said he will report to the station after receiving the letter.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2009 00:00 ||
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As presidential elections draw closer in Honduras, the deposed president has blamed the US for changing its course towards the country's political crisis. Manuel Zelaya said on Thursday that US officials "have suddenly declared they are going to wait for the elections because they changed their position midstream."
Washington sent Craig Kelly, deputy assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, for the presidential poll. Kelly is to push for "a free and fair election and the seating of a new government in Honduras," according to the US State Department.
The de facto government has announced that it would welcome the new US bid.
This is while another US-brokered agreement formulated to end the crisis failed last week when the Honduran Congress refused to vote to reinstate Zelaya.
Zelaya declared the deal a failure when Micheletti announced the creation of a national unity government even though Zelaya had not proposed any candidates.
"The United States weakened in the face of the dictator," Zelaya told Radio Globo, referring to de facto leader Roberto Micheletti.
Zelaya, a leftist president who was ousted after a judicial order military coup, has demanded he be reinstated before the November 29th presidential elections. He is urging the international community not to recognize the outcome of the election.
The US initially announced that it would not recognize the vote if Zelaya were not reinstated first. However, after brokering the pact, US diplomats indicated Washington would support the elections.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2009 00:00 ||
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Problem is not "Obama scrwed up" but "Obama screwed up PUBLICLY".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/14/2009 1:33 Comments ||
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Bambi may have screwed up; more likely, he got played by Micheletti and the Honduran Congress. I'm impressed with Micheletti, he bluffed his way clear with a pair of threes.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/14/2009 11:45 Comments ||
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#6
I'm so glad we have an administration that's pursuing "smart diplomacy".
[Iran Press TV Latest] Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has renewed his charges that the US and Colombia have sealed a "devil's pact" to wage war against Venezuela.
For the second time in little over a week, Chavez called for his military and the country's militia to prepare for war to protect the sovereignty of Venezuela against the threat posed by the US using Colombian soil.
"I am not calling for war. The party provoking war is the imperial Yankee. It is my duty to call all Venezuelans to prepare for the struggle to defend this fatherland," Chavez said on Friday, Dpa reported.
Chavez is furious over last month's signing of a military cooperation deal between Bogota and Washington granting the US the use of seven military bases on Colombian soil.
Colombia and the US signed the pact in late October. The agreement allows for a maximum of 800 US military personnel and 600 contractors in Colombia. Prior to the deal, there were anywhere from 71 to 210 US military officers in Colombia.
Chavez also warned that US President Barack Obama was traveling "the same path" as former US president George W. Bush.
He called Colombian President Alvaro Uribe a "traitor" who has signed over Colombian Sovereignty to the "imperial" power of the US.
"We are obligated to protect the fatherland of Simon Bolivar," Chavez said, referring to the famous hero of the South American independence movement.
Chavez reassured that Venezuela would never attack anyone else, "but we are prepared to defend ourselves, and it will be costly for the aggressor."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2009 00:00 ||
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How about we just shut down the cracking plants in Texas that handle your crude oil?
Assailants hurled a grenade at the building housing ballots for the upcoming Honduran presidential elections, which are taking place under the shadow of a four-month crisis caused by a coup.
The grenade exploded 550 yards (500 meters) from the building, and there were no damages.
Police spokesman Orlin Cerrato said Friday "the intention was to destroy election material to sabotage the elections." The attack happened Thursday night.
Ousted President Manuel Zelaya is urging the international community not to recognize the Nov. 29 election if he is not reinstated beforehand.
The government that took power in the June 28 judicial order coup is hoping the election will end the country's diplomatic isolation.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2009 00:00 ||
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550 yards away? Hek's girls?
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/14/2009 15:04 Comments ||
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Police in Russia have arrested three homeless men suspected of killing a man, eating part of the body and selling other parts to a kebab shop.
The men were held in the city of Perm, some 1,400km (870 miles) east of Moscow, local investigators said. Their statement said that the suspects had targeted the 25-year-old victim out of "personal hostility".
It was not clear when the incident occurred. The men - who have not been named - have been charged with murder.
The investigators said on Friday that the body of the man had been found in a forested area near a public transport stop in Perm. They said the three men attacked their victim with knives and a hammer.
"After carrying out the attack, the corpse was dismembered. Part of it was eaten and part was also sold to a kebab and pie kiosk," their statement said.
It was not immediately clear if any customers had been served.
#4
Meant ironically, I suspect TW. The dark irony is that this is the weekend in which Ukrainians remember Stalin's forced starvation and the millions who died that year.
At least two people have been killed after a series of explosions and fires at a weapons depot in central Russia, officials say.
The blasts ripped through the defence ministry navy depot on the outskirts of Ulyanovsk when soldiers attempted to decommission munitions.
The officials later said that 43 people who were feared dead had been found safe in a bomb shelter near the site. Some 3,000 people were evacuated from the surrounding area.
The depot is about 900km (550 miles) south-east of the capital Moscow.
Officials said artillery shells and torpedoes were kept at the arsenal, adding that a nearby chemicals weapons depot was not in any danger. A criminal investigation into the accident is now under way.
Ulyanovsk sits beside the Volga river and is the birthplace of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin.
#1
...Nice to see the Soviet Russian ammo guys haven't improved their style any.
The last big accident there was in 84 or 85 at the primary weapons storage site for the Soviet Atlantic Fleet near Murmansk. That one was a hoot:
1)Two vehicle carrying ammo run head on into each other (ALL Western WSAs/bomb dumps have one way traffic patterns - cuts down on this sort of thing)
2)They explode in front of a storage building whose protective doors are open (apparently the doors either didn't close well or could'nt close at all)
3)The ammo in the building goes up and takes the buildings next to it with them, starting a chain reaction of all the storage buildings. (Western sites use Quantity/Distance requirements that keep this sort of thing from happening - I saw the results of a Daisy Cutter cooking off inside a mag in CA many years ago, and although the building was replaced with a 75 ft crater the mags on either side were damaged beyond repair but protected the ammo inside)
3)A spectacular visual display that was - at first - mistaken for a low yield nuclear detonation. So much ammo went up that for about a year, the Soviet Atlantic Fleet was pretty much incapable of combat operations.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/14/2009 13:16 Comments ||
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That's ok, 3dc. People don't go off the way that tightly packed explosives do, so the explosion would no doubt damp off fairly quickly once it got into the neighborhoods. :-(
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has criticized the country's raw-material based economy and urged a speedy modernization of the 'whole' system.
Medvedev scolded the Soviet era economic and governance policies and pledged to overhaul the country's political and financial institutions which, he stated, have been built on a primitive infrastructure.
The Russian leader who was delivering his annual state of the union address before the country's economic and political elite at the presidential palace at the Kremlin on Thursday, pledged to fight corruption, deal with "unprincipled" officers in law enforcement and called for a change in the country's foreign policy agenda.
He also hinted at the possibility of liberalism without resorting to chaos and instability in Russia's polity, noting, "Instead of the archaic society, in which the leaders think and make decisions for everyone, we will be a country of intelligent, free and responsible people."
In the long Thursday speech, Medvedev slammed the country's dependence on oil and natural gas revenues and branded the 'primitive' economic model of raw material exports as "humiliating" for the nation.
And so it is. Mortifying, too.
"The nation's prestige and welfare can't depend forever on the achievements of the past," he said, urging a swift modernization and 'disciplined democratization' of the system.
He also called for an increase in foreign investment and a complete overhaul of the socialist era military and civilian programs and said "We are interested in the flow of capital, new technologies and modern ideas."
Russia is the world's largest non-OPEC producer of oil and natural gas and has suffered from the latest global economic downturn despite its early exit from the economic recession.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2009 00:00 ||
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Medvedev has an interesting predicament. During the era of the Tsars, before Peter the Great, in Russia there was Moscow, and the parts of the country that were noblemen owned landholdings, worked by peasant slaves.
Peter created St. Petersburg so that the country would have two centers, instead of just Moscow, but things were still terribly centralized. Stalin tried to force the building of new cities in the hinterland, but nobody wanted to live there.
And, with the fall of communism, everybody wanted to move back to Moscow, which is where all the action is.
The irony of this is that if you take the Trans Siberian railroad in summer, you will pass through hundreds upon hundreds of miles of what looks like Indiana, but all empty.
Central government of this kind leads to just exploiting raw materials, instead of anything more complex, which requires lots more people "out there".
And Russians don't "lure" very well, by prospects of a better life in the frontier, as do Americans, they tend to need to be forced to leave the cities.
In short, Russia needs suburbs. As things stand right now, the country is like a cramped 10 story tall apartment building in the middle of a plowed field.
#2
'moose,
As well as Central government of this kind leads to just exploiting raw materials the whole Marxist accounting system almost forces this. The concept is that nothing that does not have a human labor component has no value (i.e. a free-good) which sounds fine except it means that to cut costs you cut labor and exploit the "free" material. Therefore, you maximise profit by minimizing manufacturing and maximising raw material removal & sale.
Accounts by controversial scientist assert China gave Pakistan enough enriched uranium in '82 to make 2 bombs
In 1982, a Pakistani military C-130 left the western Chinese city of Urumqi with a highly unusual cargo: enough weapons-grade uranium for two atomic bombs, according to accounts written by the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, and provided to The Washington Post.
The uranium transfer in five stainless-steel boxes was part of a broad-ranging, secret nuclear deal approved years earlier by Mao Zedong and Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto that culminated in an exceptional, deliberate act of proliferation by a nuclear power, according to the accounts by Khan, who is under house arrest in Pakistan.
U.S. officials say they have known about the transfer for decades and once privately confronted the Chinese -- who denied it -- but have never raised the issue in public or sought to impose direct sanctions on China for it. President Obama, who said in April that "the world must stand together to prevent the spread of these weapons," plans to discuss nuclear proliferation issues while visiting Beijing on Tuesday.
According to Khan, the uranium cargo came with a blueprint for a simple weapon that China had already tested, supplying a virtual do-it-yourself kit that significantly speeded Pakistan's bomb effort. The transfer also started a chain of proliferation: U.S. officials worry that Khan later shared related Chinese design information with Iran; in 2003, Libya confirmed obtaining it from Khan's clandestine network.
China's refusal to acknowledge the transfer and the unwillingness of the United States to confront the Chinese publicly demonstrate how difficult it is to counter nuclear proliferation. Although U.S. officials say China is now much more attuned to proliferation dangers, it has demonstrated less enthusiasm than the United States for imposing sanctions on Iran over its nuclear efforts, a position Obama wants to discuss.
Although Chinese officials have for a quarter-century denied helping any nation attain a nuclear capability, current and former U.S. officials say Khan's accounts confirm the U.S. intelligence community's long-held conclusion that China provided such assistance.
"Upon my personal request, the Chinese Minister . . . had gifted us 50 kg [kilograms] of weapon-grade enriched uranium, enough for two weapons," Khan wrote in a previously undisclosed 11-page narrative of the Pakistani bomb program that he prepared after his January 2004 detention for unauthorized nuclear commerce.
"The Chinese gave us drawings of the nuclear weapon, gave us kg50 enriched uranium," he said in a separate account sent to his wife several months earlier.
China's Foreign Ministry last week declined to address Khan's specific assertions, but it said that as a member of the global Non-Proliferation Treaty since 1992, "China strictly adheres to the international duty of prevention of proliferation it shoulders and strongly opposes . . . proliferation of nuclear weapons in any forms."
Asked why the U.S. government has never publicly confronted China over the uranium transfer, State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said, "The United States has worked diligently and made progress with China over the past 25 years. As to what was or wasn't done during the Reagan administration, I can't say."
Khan's exploits have been described in multiple books and public reports since British and U.S. intelligence services unmasked the deeds in 2003. But his own narratives -- not yet seen by U.S. officials -- provide fresh details about China's aid to Pakistan and its reciprocal export to China of sensitive uranium-enrichment technology.
A spokesman for the Pakistani Embassy in Washington declined to comment for this article. Pakistan has never allowed the U.S. government to question Khan or other top Pakistani officials directly, prompting Congress to demand in legislation approved in September that future aid be withheld until Obama certifies that Pakistan has provided "relevant information from or direct access to Pakistani nationals" involved in past nuclear commerce.
Insider vs. government
The Post obtained Khan's detailed accounts from Simon Henderson, a former journalist at the Financial Times who is now a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and who has maintained correspondence with Khan. In a first-person account about his contacts with Khan in the Sept. 20 edition of the London Sunday Times, Henderson disclosed several excerpts from one of the documents.
Henderson said he agreed to The Post's request for a copy of that letter and other documents and narratives written by Khan because he believes an accurate understanding of Pakistan's nuclear history is relevant for U.S. policymaking. The Post independently confirmed the authenticity of the material; it also corroborated much of the content through interviews in Pakistan and other countries.
Although Khan disputes various assertions by book authors, the narratives are particularly at odds with Pakistan's official statements that he exported nuclear secrets as a rogue agent and implicated only former government officials who are no longer living. Instead, he repeatedly states that top politicians and military officers were immersed in the country's foreign nuclear dealings.
Khan has complained to friends that his movements and contacts are being unjustly controlled by the government, whose bidding he did -- providing a potential motive for his disclosures.
Overall, the narratives portray his deeds as a form of sustained, high-tech international horse-trading, in which Khan and a series of top generals successfully leveraged his access to Europe's best centrifuge technology in the 1980s to obtain financial assistance or technical advice from foreign governments that wanted to advance their own efforts.
"The speed of our work and our achievements surprised our worst enemies and adversaries and the West stood helplessly by to see a Third World nation, unable even to produce bicycle chains or sewing needles, mastering the most advanced nuclear technology in the shortest possible span of time," Khan boasts in the 11-page narrative he wrote for Pakistani intelligence officials about his dealings with foreigners while head of a key nuclear research laboratory.
Exchanges with Beijing
According to one of the documents, a five-page summary by Khan of his government's dealmaking with China, the terms of the nuclear exchange were set in a mid-1976 conversation between Mao and Bhutto. Two years earlier, neighboring India had tested its first nuclear bomb, provoking Khan -- a metallurgist working at a Dutch centrifuge manufacturer -- to offer his services to Bhutto.
Khan said he and two other Pakistani officials -- including then-Foreign Secretary Agha Shahi, since deceased -- worked out the details when they traveled to Beijing later that year for Mao's funeral. Over several days, Khan said, he briefed three top Chinese nuclear weapons officials -- Liu Wei, Li Jue and Jiang Shengjie -- on how the European-designed centrifuges could swiftly aid China's lagging uranium-enrichment program. China's Foreign Ministry did not respond to questions about the officials' roles.
"Chinese experts started coming regularly to learn the whole technology" from Pakistan, Khan states, staying in a guesthouse built for them at his centrifuge research center. Pakistani experts were dispatched to Hanzhong in central China, where they helped "put up a centrifuge plant," Khan said in an account he gave to his wife after coming under government pressure. "We sent 135 C-130 plane loads of machines, inverters, valves, flow meters, pressure gauges," he wrote. "Our teams stayed there for weeks to help and their teams stayed here for weeks at a time."
In return, China sent Pakistan 15 tons of uranium hexafluoride (UF6), a feedstock for Pakistan's centrifuges that Khan's colleagues were having difficulty producing on their own. Khan said the gas enabled the laboratory to begin producing bomb-grade uranium in 1982. Chinese scientists helped the Pakistanis solve other nuclear weapons challenges, but as their competence rose, so did the fear of top Pakistani officials that Israel or India might preemptively strike key nuclear sites.
Mohammed Zia ul-Haq, the nation's military ruler, "was worried," Khan said, and so he and a Pakistani general who helped oversee the nation's nuclear laboratories were dispatched to Beijing with a request in mid-1982 to borrow enough bomb-grade uranium for a few weapons.
After winning Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's approval, Khan, the general and two others flew aboard a Pakistani C-130 to Urumqi. Khan says they enjoyed barbecued lamb while waiting for the Chinese military to pack the small uranium bricks into lead-lined boxes, 10 single-kilogram ingots to a box, for the flight to Islamabad, Pakistan's capital.
According to Khan's account, however, Pakistan's nuclear scientists kept the Chinese material in storage until 1985, by which time the Pakistanis had made a few bombs with their own uranium. Khan said he got Zia's approval to ask the Chinese whether they wanted their high-enriched uranium back. After a few days, they responded "that the HEU loaned earlier was now to be considered as a gift . . . in gratitude" for Pakistani help, Khan said.
He said the laboratory promptly fabricated hemispheres for two weapons and added them to Pakistan's arsenal. Khan's view was that none of this violated the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty, because neither nation had signed it at the time and neither had sought to use its capability "against any country in particular." He also wrote that subsequent international protests reeked of hypocrisy because of foreign assistance to nuclear weapons programs in Britain, Israel and South Africa.
U.S. unaware of progress
The United States was suspicious of Pakistani-Chinese collaboration through this period. Officials knew that China treasured its relationship with Pakistan because both worried about India; they also knew that China viewed Western nuclear policies as discriminatory and that some Chinese politicians had favored the spread of nuclear arms as a path to stability.
But U.S. officials were ignorant about key elements of the cooperation as it unfolded, according to current and former officials and classified documents.
China is "not in favor of a Pakistani nuclear explosive program, and I don't think they are doing anything to help it," a top State Department official reported in a secret briefing in 1979, three years after the Bhutto-Mao deal was struck. A secret State Department report in 1983 said Washington was aware that Pakistan had requested China's help, but "we do not know what the present status of the cooperation is," according to a declassified copy.
Meanwhile, Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang promised at a White House dinner in January 1984: "We do not engage in nuclear proliferation ourselves, nor do we help other countries develop nuclear weapons." A nearly identical statement was made by China in a major summary of its nonproliferation policies in 2003 and on many occasions in between.
Fred McGoldrick, a senior State Department nonproliferation official in the Reagan and Clinton administrations, recalls that the United States learned in the 1980s about the Chinese bomb-design and uranium transfers. "We did confront them, and they denied it," he said. Since then, the connection has been confirmed by particles on nuclear-related materials from Pakistan, many of which have characteristic Chinese bomb program "signatures," other officials say.
Hans M. Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, said that except for the instance described by Khan, "we are not aware of cases where a nuclear weapon state has transferred HEU to a non-nuclear country for military use." McGoldrick also said he is aware of "nothing like it" in the history of nuclear weapons proliferation. But he said nothing has ever been said publicly because "this is diplomacy; you don't do that sort of thing . . . if you want them to change their behavior."
Posted by: john frum ||
11/14/2009 05:44 ||
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The Chinese very likely don't make a connection between giving nukes to the Paks and having the Indians re-arm the border ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/14/2009 13:46 Comments ||
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But Steve, the more troops India moves to the Pakistani border, the less there will be to face China. What's not to like?
U.S. President Barack Obama will be given an honorary taekwondo belt to mark his first visit to Korea on Wednesday and Thursday. A government official said that President Lee Myung-bak will present Obama with an honorary taekwondo degree certificate and a uniform embroidered with his name.
Oh boy! A Nobel peace prize AND a black belt!
Obama practiced taekwondo for about four years with an American master in Chicago from 2001 while he was serving in the Illinois state senate. He obtained a green belt.
If the belt is wide enough Michelle will want it ...
For perspective, it takes normal people three years to earn a black belt. The mentally and physically handicapped generally take longer, and we know the president is not physically handicapped -- you've seen the man shoot hoops!
Meanwhile, the government has yet to choose whether to serve the traditional Korean rice wine makgeolli or a Californian wine during the welcome luncheon on Thursday. Some government officials say that makgeolli does not seem like a good idea since it has been served on several occasions such as the recent Korea-Japan summit and meetings with foreign diplomats stationed in Korea.
Some government officials are idiots. One always serves one's country's best, at such affairs. Do the Chinese serve foreign wines at their multi-course feasts?
The government is considering a Californian wine as the leaders will discuss the ratification of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement, and the California wine industry stands to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the deal.
I recommend the shimmering pink muscatel ...
*shudder*
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/14/2009 00:00 ||
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Thunderbird mixed w/ a packet of Red Obama KoolAid.
Posted by: ed ||
11/14/2009 1:46 Comments ||
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Nah ... they should break out one of Korea's finest vintages - Peach Oscar! (For those who have never heard of it, this is/was a very cheap and nasty Korean brand of bubbling wine. It is so nasty and cheap, it makes Thunderbird taste good.)
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/14/2009 11:20 Comments ||
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#5
Bambi is no Elvis.
Posted by: ed ||
11/14/2009 12:16 Comments ||
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#6
The way Obama is winning awards for doing nothing, I can't wait until the Academy Awards next year. He should get best actor (in a leading AND supporting role), best director, and should be named the producer of the best picture.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/14/2009 13:15 Comments ||
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#7
More likely to win a Rasberry for his acting role as a U.S. president.
(Bloomberg) -- Confidence among U.S. consumers unexpectedly dropped in November as the loss of jobs threatened to undermine the biggest part of the economy.
What's unexpected about that?
The Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary sentiment index decreased to a three-month low of 66 from 70.6 in October. A report from the Commerce Department showed the trade deficit widened in September by the most in a decade as rising demand for imported oil and automobiles swamped a fifth consecutive gain in exports.
Rising joblessness puts the economy at risk of slipping into a vicious circle of firings and declines in consumer spending that will limit the emerging recovery. The dollar's 12 percent decline since March and growing demand from Asia and Europe will probably spur exports further, giving factories a lift and making up for some of the weakness among households.
"Consumers face a lot of headwinds, and rising unemployment is the No. 1 worry," said David Sloan, a senior economist at 4Cast Inc. in New York, whose forecast for confidence was the lowest of economists surveyed. "The recovery, in its early stages, will be led by increases in manufacturing rather than by consumers. Markets in Asia are rebounding quite nicely."
The U.S. trade gap widened 18 percent to the highest level since January, the Commerce Department said. Imports rose 5.8 percent, the most since March 1993, as the cost of a barrel of crude climbed to the highest level since October 2008 and volumes also rose. Exports increased 2.9 percent, propelled by sales of aircraft and industrial machines.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2009 00:00 ||
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Think it could it have anything to do w/ unemployment rising to 10.2%?
Posted by: ed ||
11/14/2009 1:48 Comments ||
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..or people talking with family and friends who don't seem to fit the Happy-Glad economy reports the government keeps printing up. The party run media isn't doing its job very well. It certainly isn't filling the columns and airtime with continuous anecdotal stories of hardship and dread that would accompany a Trunk President and administration.
The government-chartered company that insures the pensions of one in seven Americans said Friday that its deficit this year nearly doubled to $22 billion.
That's an improvement over the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.'s midyear record deficit of $33.5 billion, which spiked as auto makers and other companies faltered and caused the insurance fund's liabilities to spike.
Yet experts and officials say the long-term picture is grim. They say that without major changes, such as higher insurance premiums and less risky investments, the fund eventually will require a taxpayer bailout.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2009 00:00 ||
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Doesn't seem so much an insurer than a taxpayer funded bag holder.
Posted by: ed ||
11/14/2009 1:51 Comments ||
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Regulators shut down two banks in Florida and one in California on Friday, boosting to 123 the number of U.S. bank failures this year as loan defaults rise in the worst financial climate in decades.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over Orion Bank, based in Naples, Fla., with about $2.7 billion in assets and $2.1 billion in deposits, and Sarasota-based Century Bank, with $728 million in assets and $631 million in deposits.
Pacific Coast National Bank in San Clemente, Calif. was also shut down. It had $134.4 million in assets and $130.9 million in deposits.
IberiaBank, based in Lafayette, La., agreed to assume all of Orion Bank's deposits and $2.4 billion of its assets, as well as Century Bank's deposits and $706 million of its assets.
The FDIC will retain the rest for eventual sale.
In addition, the FDIC and IberiaBank agreed to share losses on roughly $1.9 billion of Orion Bank's loans and other assets, and on about $656 million of Century Bank's.
Orion Bank's 23 branches will reopen Saturday as offices of IberiaBank. Century Bank's 11 branches will reopen during normal business hours, starting Saturday, also as IberiaBank.
Tustin, Calif.-based Sunwest Bank agreed to assume all of Pacific Coast National Bank's deposits and essentially all of its assets.
Pacific Coast National Bank's two branches will reopen Monday as branches of Sunwest Bank.
The failure of Pacific Coast National Bank will cost the federal deposit insurance fund an estimated $27.4 million. Orion Bank's will cost $615 million, while Century Bank's failure will cost $344 million.
As the economy has soured, with unemployment rising, home prices tumbling and loan defaults soaring, bank failures have cascaded and sapped billions out of the federal deposit insurance fund. It has fallen into the red.
To replenish the fund, the FDIC on Thursday mandated the roughly 8,100 insured banks and savings institutions pay about $45 billion in premiums in advance that would have been due over the next three years. It is the first time the agency has required prepaid insurance fees. The idea is for banks to spread the costs over three years rather than paying a one-time fee that would deplete their capital reserves.
The FDIC expects the cost of bank failures to grow to about $100 billion over the next four years.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2009 00:00 ||
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The India-based Hindustan Times newspaper reported Thursday that India is quietly enhancing its defenses along the Chinese border in southern Tibet, a disputed region India calls Arunachal Pradesh.
The Indian Army will deploy its new 15,000-strong 56 Division in the region within four weeks, the paper quoted a senior defense official as saying. It has also put out a Request for Information (RFI) to acquire 300 lightweight tanks that can be deployed in the Northeast, Jammu and Kashmir, according to the report.
A second division will be deployed in the area in the next 12- 18 months, the official added.
The army's RFI said the light tanks should be capable of destroying bunkers and soft-skin vehicles up to 3,000 meters away and should have armor-piercing anti-tank guided missiles and anti-aircraft machine guns. The RFI also stipulates these tanks should "have protection against nuclear, chemical and biological warfare," the newspaper said.
Fu Xiaoqiang, an expert on South Asian studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Studies, told the Global Times, "As has been repeatedly discussed in the Indian media, the beefing-up of military power in southern Tibet is a strategy of India to fix its control, in addition to other motives, such as encouraging the visit of the Dalai Lama and armament adjustment."
"But I don't think the rivalry of two rising powers in Asia will do any good to either side," Fu added.
"It is a very ruthless move because it is against the trust treaty reached by the two countries," said Zhao Gancheng, director at the South Asia Research Division of the Shanghai International Affairs Research Institute.
"India officials have tried to convince us that the border is peaceful. But now the fact betrays the words," he added.
The escalating tension has drawn the attention of other countries, such as the UK.
An article in The Times Thursday went a step further, saying that a "cold war" is "brewing ... between China and India," citing India's plan to reopen a Cold War outpost on the Maldives abandoned by the British Royal Air Force decades ago.
"It is natural that the UK is concerned about India, which is its former colony," Fu said. "It is like sitting on top of the mountain to watch the tigers fight."
Posted by: john frum ||
11/14/2009 06:00 ||
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[Dawn] The Pakistan People's Party has won 12 of 23 contested seats and became the largest party in the 33-seat Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly, according to unofficial results released by the region's Election Commission.
PML-N secured only two seats. The result in one constituency was withheld after the polling agent of an independent candidate was killed in a clash in Darel of the southern Diamer district on Thursday while polling was put off in another area after the death of a candidate.
The fiercely-contested elections were largely peaceful with a high voter turnout. There were allegations of rigging in some constituencies.
The newly-elected lawmakers will first elect six women and three technocrats on reserved seats, after which the assembly, minus LA-19 (Sher Qila-Chatorkhand in Ghizer district), would elect the region's first chief minister.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2009 00:00 ||
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President Obama has given a much-hoped-for endorsement of the eight -member free trade arrangement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The endorsement, made during a speech in Japan, came as virtually all Asian leaders used the APEC summit in Singapore to vent frustration about creeping US protectionism, and its threat to global recovery and the US economy.
Speaking at the APEC meeting, Australia's Trade minister Simon Crean says President Obama's endorsement is a breakthrough.
"I'm not trying to underestimate the difficulties going forward," he said. "But the advances will only be made if the political will is there to try and address those difficulties and today's commitment by the US is a clear statement that they have such political will and we welcome it."
US trade representative Ron Kirk has echoed President Obama's support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade arrangement at the APEC meeting. "We're focused on shaping stronger more open trading system," he said.
Mr Crean says it is the signal the region needed from the United States. "This announcement is really terribly important in demonstrating the political will," he said.
To advance the trans-Pacific trade agenda, officials are scheduled to meet quickly during APEC in Singapore, with more meetings already set down for next year.
Mr Obama also said America's commitment to the security of the Asia-Pacific region was unshakeable. He warned the US would continue to use its nuclear deterrent to protect its allies, and would not be intimidated by nuclear threats from North Korea.
But the President stressed it was not too late for a new start in relations with the communist country.
"The United States is prepared to offer North Korea a different future," he said. "Instead of an isolation that has compounded the horrific repression of its own people, North Korea could have a future of international intergration. And instead of increasing insecurity it could have a future of greater security and respect."
[Straits Times] CAMBODIA has detained a Thai man for allegedly spying on fugitive former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in the latest sign of worsening relations between the two neighbours.
Thaksin, a fugitive from justice in Thailand, was named an adviser to Cambodia's government on economic affairs last week, angering the Thai government and prompting it to recall its ambassador, with Cambodia following suit.
Thaksin then arrived this week for a visit to Cambodia, further straining ties. He was expected to depart late on Friday.
Siwarak Chothipong, a 31-year-old employee of the Cambodia Air Traffic Service, which manages flights in the country, was accused of stealing Thaksin's flight schedule and sending it to diplomats at the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh, said National Police Deputy Chief Lt Gen. Sok Phal.
Siwarak appeared in municipal court on Thursday and was charged with stealing information that could impact national security. If found guilty, he faces up to 15 years in jail.
A Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2009 00:00 ||
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South Carolina and Maryland emerged from their locker rooms Saturday wearing camouflage uniforms with military values such as "Duty," "Honor," and "Courage" on the back in place of names to honor those who have served.
Few understand as well as 26-year-old Gamecocks long snapper Matt Grooms, who served four years in the Marine Corps.
Grooms spent six months in Kuwait outfitting and fixing transport trucks in Iraq. He was nearly killed by a virus and was rattled by an American missile that exploded too close to camp. Still, he said it was "the best four years Ive had."
Grooms and his Gamecocks teammates, playing No. 1 Florida, and Maryland, losing to No. 20 Virginia Tech, sported different uniforms -- desert and black camo. The jerseys and equipment will go up for auction, and some of the money will help The Wounded Warrior Project, which aids wounded service members.
Terps defensive lineman Travis Ivey said the military connection adds a dimension to the game.
"Knowing were playing not just for ourselves, but for wounded veterans, I think it will encourage us to persevere because thats their life," he said. A feel-good story of one Marine/football player
When it came time to try to return to the football field, Grooms drew inspiration from Tim "Pops" Frisby, South Carolinas 40-ish former Army Ranger receiver who played for Lou Holtz and Steve Spurrier.
Grooms football days looked done after Marlboro County High School. A so-so offensive linemen with average grades and no college options, Grooms followed older brother, Donald, into the Marine Corps in August 2001. After basic training, Grooms shipped off to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina where he worked as a mechanic on military trucks. Soon, though, his direction changed with the Sept. 11 attacks. "We knew we were going to war," he said.
Grooms, a corporal, was deployed to Kuwait for a six-month stint in 2004. He mostly stayed at camp, repairing five-ton troop transports and Humvees. But he was rarely out of sight or earshot of gunfire. "You could see the little flashes all the time," he said.
As his four-year hitch ended in 2005, Grooms considered a military career-- until a faulty U.S. Tomahawk missile blew up a building on base and rattled Grooms nerves.
Once home, Grooms wasnt sure what to do next. He worked at a hospital, yet couldnt shake his desire for football and remembered Frisby, the 20-year veteran who walked on to the Gamecocks and shared his story with late night hosts Jay Leno and David Letterman.
"If he could do, then I could stick it out, too," Grooms said.
Grooms moved to Columbia and spent two years improving his grades at a technical school, dropping by South Carolina practices for inspiration. He enrolled at South Carolina in spring 2008 and went to a walk-on tryout, where he caught the eye of then special teams coach Ray Rychleski.
When he showed up for spring workouts, the once-in-shape Marine was about 90 pounds or so over his Parris Island weight and not ready for gassers. He blacked out during 100-yard wind sprints and staggered to the sidelines. The next day, Grooms got so dehydrated, he left practice in an ambulance. And Rychleski, now the Indianapolis Colts special teams coach, figured hed never see Grooms again.
Wrong.
Grooms got on a workout plan every bit as intense as boot camp. And a few months later, Grooms was a trimmer, stronger, focused athlete ready to go.
"I lost weight, gained a bunch of speed, really felt good," Grooms said.
The improvement showed, and "Groomsy," as coach Spurrier calls him, earned his spot.
Grooms isnt South Carolinas only vet. Walk-on linebacker Matt Ansley, 20, spent 18 months served on the front lines in Iraq with the Army Reserves as a gunner. A request to speak with Ansley was turned down.
Every so often, Grooms gets questions from teammates about life in Iraq. Sometimes, they touch nerves. "They dont understand," Grooms said quietly.
Thats a bond for the veterans, who inspire others to follow them back onto the football field.
Although he last played four years ago, Frisby continues to receive letters, e-mails and calls from ex-military men turned players grateful for his example. "Its often not too late to do anything," he said.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
WASHINGTON: China's dirty little secret of nuclear proliferation to Pakistan, including virtually giving Islamabad two nuclear weapons on a platter while the US remained oblivious and smug, has exploded in Washington. Embarrassingly for President Barack Obama, the disclosures come on the eve of his much-anticipated visit to Beijing. 
[Bangla Daily Star] Nahid Parvin Champa, detained cadre of outlawed Gono Mukti Fouz (GMF), admitted to police that she along with four other women activists took part in the killing of local Awami League leader Meherul on August 15, police said.
As presidential elections draw closer in Honduras, the deposed president has blamed the US for changing its course towards the country's political crisis. Manuel Zelaya said on Thursday that US officials "have suddenly declared they are going to wait for the elections because they changed their position midstream." 
[Iran Press TV Latest] Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has renewed his charges that the US and Colombia have sealed a "devil's pact" to wage war against Venezuela. 
Assailants hurled a grenade at the building housing ballots for the upcoming Honduran presidential elections, which are taking place under the shadow of a four-month crisis caused by a coup.
(Bloomberg) -- Confidence among U.S. consumers unexpectedly dropped in November as the loss of jobs threatened to undermine the biggest part of the economy.
The government-chartered company that insures the pensions of one in seven Americans said Friday that its deficit this year nearly doubled to $22 billion.
Regulators shut down two banks in Florida and one in California on Friday, boosting to 123 the number of U.S. bank failures this year as loan defaults rise in the worst financial climate in decades.
