Nuclear weapons

The 166-page February 2004 report by the Defense Science Board Task Force on Future Strategic Strike Forces, the result of the DSB Summer Study 2003, recommends a nuclear payload that would shift "toward a new vision: a stockpile based on previously tested nuclear devices/designs to provide weapons more relevant to the future threat environment," i.e. nuclear weapons.

• Also see the "Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator Budget Request and Plan," FY2005-FY2009 prepared by Jonathan Medalia, Specialist in National Defense, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division, Updated March 24, 2004, as well as other documents on nuclear weapons in the Federation of American Scientists' archive.

In the article "Neocons: The men behind the curtain" published in the November/December 2003, issue of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Khurram Husain writes:

"... nuclear war-fighting doctrine began to attract the interest of specialists from outside the uniformed services. The RAND Corporation emerged as the site most suited for this type of work, and a network of analysts gravitated there. They have left an indelible stamp on America's relationship with the rest of the world.

"James R. Schlesinger, who served as defense secretary in the Nixon administration, was at Rand. So was Herman Kahn, famous for arguing that the United States could fight and win a nuclear war (and for being caricatured as Dr. Strangelove in Stanley Kubrick's film by the same name). There was Albert Wohlstetter, the Columbia-trained mathematician described by Henry Kissinger as a 'brilliant strategist,' and Andrew Marshall, whose network in the defense establishment reads today like a who's who of the Bush administration/cabinet. There was Alain Enthoven, the leader of the 'Whiz Kids,' a team that advised Robert Strange McNamara on the conduct of the Vietnam War. And there was Daniel Ellsberg, who broke ranks by going public about the nature of his work.

"Together these men introduced assumptions and techniques into the study of nuclear war that resonate to this day."

A June 2, 1997, article in Forbes magazine (cache file) states that, in the late 1950s,

"At RAND the formidable strategist Albert Wohlstetter was demonstrating that in a matter of minutes Soviet short-range missiles could take out all U.S. foreign strategic air command bases encircling the Soviet Union. Then the Soviets could say stick 'em up-demanding surrender on the basis of the vulnerability of remaining U.S. missiles to superior Soviet forces. In many vivid papers and speeches, Wohlstetter relentlessly presented his argument that U.S. forces faced a 'missile gap.' The famed Alsop brothers, leading columnists of the day (Stewart was the father of the computer writer), echoed the Wohlstetter claims. [President] John F. Kennedy listened and made the gap a theme of his 1960 presidential campaign.

"Wohlstetter and his colleagues urged that the Pentagon redeploy its strategic forces to the United States and endow them with a second-strike capability-that is, to withstand a first strike and retaliate in kind. Greatly reducing the temptation to go first, this posture would escape the dangerous hair-trigger tenterhooks of the early cold war."

Related SourceWatch Resources

Also see Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Syria for current information on those countries' weapons programs.

• China-Iran-Russia axis
• Depleted Uranium
• Directed Energy Weapons
• Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations
• Hutchison Whampoa Ltd.
• Iraq Coalition Casualty Statistics
• Iraq Coalition Casualty Statistics/Depleted Uranium
• Global Security Institute
• National Counterproliferation Center
• National Nuclear Security Administration
• Nonproliferation Policy Education Center
• nuclear weapons complex
• Nuclear Weapons Council
• Peace Education Fund
• Post-war Iraq/Iraqi casualties
• preemptive war
• Roberta Wohlstetter
• Russia-China-India "strategic triangle"
• U.S. presidential election, 2004
• Weapons of mass destruction

External links

Websites

• ArmsControlWonk.com: "All the stuff about WMD, intel and the national security bureaucracy."

United States

• Keay Davidson, "Nuclear-Powered Spacecraft Plan Feared. Opponents See 'Chernobyl in Sky' Should Vehicle Fail," San Francisco Chronicle, February 4, 2003.
• Julian Borger, "US Plan for New Nuclear Arsenal. Secret talks may lead to breaking treaties," Guardian/UK, February 19, 2003.
• James Sterngold, "Fallout Seen from White House Nuclear Policy. Plans for Small Bombs, Resumed Tests Could Prompt Other Nations to Follow," San Francisco Chronicle, March 1, 2003.
• Julian Borger, "Pentagon Wants Mini-Nuke Ban Ended. Congress asked to permit US to develop 'more usable' bombs," Guardian/UK, March 7, 2003.
• James Sterngold, "Bush Still Backs Nuclear Arms, Says They're Needed in Today's Climate," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 7, 2003.
• Matthew W. Wald, "Veterans' Nuclear Exposure Underestimated, Panel Says," New York Times, May 9, 2003.
• Paul Richter, "Door Opened for New Era of Nuclear Arms. A key Senate panel backs a bill that would end a 10-year ban on research, upgrade the Nevada test site and let the president pursue smaller weapons," Los Angeles Times, May 10, 2003.
• Paul Richter, 13 "Bush Is Seeking Newer, Smaller Nuclear Bombs," Los Angeles Times, May 13, 2003.
• J.R. Pegg, "House Votes More for Nuclear Space Flight than Earth Cleanup," oneworld.net, July 29, 2003.
• Robin McKie, "Protesters Fear Nuclear Arms in Space," Observer/UK, October 5, 2003.
• Miriam Kagan, "Report Urges U.S., NATO to Rethink New Nuke Policy," Inter Press Service, October 8, 2003.
• Olivia Ward, "Armageddon Back on the Table. U.S. ratchets up debate on `usable' nuclear weapons. Critics fear fallout from Bush cadre's pro-nuke strategy," Toronto Star, November 16, 2003.
• Paul Harris, "Bush Plans New Nuclear Weapons. 'Bunker-buster' bombs set to end 10-year research ban," Observer UK, November 30, 2003.
• James Sterngold, "A New Era of Nuclear Weapons as Bush's Buildup Begins with Little Debate in Congress," San Francisco Chronicle, December 7, 2003: "Congress, with only a limited debate, has given the Bush administration a green light for the biggest revitalization of the country's nuclear weapons program since the end of the Cold War, leaving many Democrats and even some hawkish Republicans seething."
• Sean Gonsalves, "The cockroaches are celebrating. U.S. leads way toward new nuclear arms race," Cape Cod Times, December 8, 2003: "The Energy and Water Appropriations Bill signed by President Bush last week is being celebrated by cockroaches the world over. ... The bill, among other things, provides funding for research in developing nuclear weapons with first-strike capability. ... We are now one step closer to nuclear war and if the path we are following is pursued to its logical conclusion, the Information Age will be followed by a radioactive Cockroach Era."
• Jonathan Medalia, "Nuclear Weapon Initiatives: Low-Yield R&D, Advanced Concepts, Earth Penetrators, Test Readiness" (Star Wars), Congressional Research Service, December 11, 2003.
• "Confronting the threat of nuclear weapons. What are the U.S. and U.N. doing?," The Week, May 6, 2005.
• Chris Floyd, "Behind Bush's Nuclear Gift to Terrorism," Empire Burlesque, November 4, 2006. re war on terrorism
• Robert Gehrke, "Feds pull plug on desert blast. Public outcry derails Pentagon's planned test," The Salt Lake City Tribune, February 23, 2007.

China

• Paul Craig Roberts, "Why is VP Lobbying for a Boost in China's Nuclear Capablity?" Human Events Online, August 10, 2005.

Iran

• "Iran 'rushing to build nuke bomb'," CNN, April 27, 2004.
• Kevin Drum, "Iranian Apocalypse Update," Political Animal/The Washington Monthly, January 29, 2007.

Iraq

• David Pratt and Felicity Arbuthnot, "Looted and For Sale in Iraq: The Deadly Core of Nuclear Weapons. Exclusive: Potentially lethal radioactive sources missing from Saddam's biggest N-plant," Sunday Herald (Scotland), August 3, 2003.
• "Probe Shows Iraq Nuke Facilities Unguarded," Guardian/UK, April 15, 2004.

Libya

• "Libya 'not close to nuclear arms'. Libya was not close to producing nuclear weapons, the head of the United Nations nuclear agency has confirmed. Mohamed ElBaradei was speaking at the end of a two-day trip to Libya - the first since the country agreed to give up its weapons drive," BBC/UK, December 29, 2003: "Mr. ElBaradei said the Libyans were being fully co-operative - but there was still 'a lot of work to do'. ... Earlier this month, Libya said it would abandon its aspirations of developing weapons of mass destruction."
• George Jahn, "Nuclear Agency Rejects U.S. Help in Libya," Guardian/UK(AP), December 30, 2003.

North Korea

2000

• Robert Parry, "Moon, North Korea & the Bushes," Consortium News, October 11, 2000.

2004

• Glenn Kessler, "N. Korea Nuclear Estimate To Rise. U.S. Report to Say Country Has At Least 8 Bombs," Washington Post, April 28, 2004.
• Fred Kaplan, "Rolling Blunder. How the Bush administration let North Korea get nukes," Washington Monthly, May 2004.

2006

• "Recognizing North Korea as a Strategic Threat: An Intelligence Challenge for the United States." Staff Report of the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Subcommittee on Intelligence Policy, September 28, 2006.
• Robert D. Kaplan, "When North Korea Falls," The Atlantic Monthly, October 2006: "The furor over Kim Jong Il's missile tests and nuclear brinksmanship obscures the real threat: the prospect of North Korea’s catastrophic collapse. How the regime ends could determine the balance of power in Asia for decades. The likely winner? China."
• News Release: "Statement on North Korean Nuclear Test," Office of the White House Press Secretary, October 3, 2006.
• "North Korea claims nuclear test," BBC, October 9, 2006.
• "Full text of North Korea's claim," CNN, October 9, 2006.
• "N Korea 'nuclear test' condemned," BBC, October 10, 2006.
• Amanda Terkel, "VIDEO: McCain Blames Clinton For North Korean Nuke Test," Think Progress, October 10, 2006.
• Robert Scheer, "Dear Leader Brings It On," truthdig, October 10, 2006.
• Anthony H. Cordesman, "Crashing the nuclear club," Boston Globe, October 11, 2006.
• Jimmy Carter, Opinion: "Solving the Korean Stalemate, One Step at a Time," New York Times, October 11, 2006.
• "N.Korea nuclear test may never be verified: US envoy," Reuters, October 11, 2006.
• "Nervous Asia worries over 2nd test," CNN, October 11, 2006.
• Robert Parry, "Bush's Tough-Talkin' Korean Bungle," Consortium News (AlterNet), October 11, 2006: "In 2002, Bush put North Korea on a list of potential targets for U.S. nuclear weapons. It's no surprise, then, that Kim Jong Il has responded by creating a threat of his own."
• Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo, October 11, 2006.
• Ehsan Ahrari, "Pyongyang and the 'p' word," Asia Times, October 17, 2006.
• AJ in DC, "North Korea test was plutonium: produced under Bush I or Bush II, not Clinton," AMERICAblog, October 17, 2006.
• Aidan Foster-Carter, "From Sunshine to sunset," Asia Times, October 18, 2006.
• James Gordon Prather, "A tell-tale little nuke," Asia Times, October 19, 2006.
• Adam Tanner, "Carter says Bush partly to blame for N.Korea test," Reuters, October 20, 2006.
• "REPORT (WaPo): Bush Officials Were 'Rooting' For North Korea to Test Nuclear Weapon," Think Progress, October 23, 2006.

2007

• hilzoy, "Idiots. Idiots," Obsidian Wings Blog, February 28, 2007.
• David E. Sanger and William J. Broad, "U.S. Had Doubts on North Korean Uranium Drive," New York Times, March 1, 2007: "The odds look decent, in other words, that the administration effectively let the DPRK build nuclear weapons for absolutely no reason at all other than its generally bad attitude toward diplomatic agreements and 'stuff Bill Clinton did.'"
• Maha, "North Korean Uranium: Never Mind," The Mahablog, March 1, 2007.

Pakistan

• "Pakistan 'building new reactor'," BBC, July 24, 2006.