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US: The Era of Nuclear Neglect
by Peter Huessy
April 15, 2014 at 5:00 am
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Looking at the most recent
developments in Russia, China, Iran and Pakistan, as well as North Korea, it
would seem urgent that the U.S. end as soon as possible its era of nuclear
neglect.
On March 24, 2014 the Energy Department's Inspector General [IG]
determined that many of our nuclear laboratories had not been archiving with
care designs used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons.According to Inspector General Gregory Friedman, "Over the decades of nuclear weapons development, neither NNSA nor its sites treated the maintenance of original nuclear weapons... information as a priority.[1] The IG also concluded that the Energy Department leadership concurred with its findings and had taken effective steps to remedy the problems identified.[2] Problem solved, right? Unfortunately not. Just two days after the IG report was released, the House Armed Services Committee held a March 26 hearing on our nuclear enterprise with the former Commander of the US Strategic Command, Admiral Richard Mies (Ret) and Norman R. Augustine, retired chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin. As co-chairman of the Advisory Panel on the Governance of the Nuclear Security Enterprise, Augustine explained that "the absence of a widely accepted understanding of, and appreciation for, the role of nuclear weapons in the 21st century, [resulted in] well-documented and atrophied conditions of plans for our strategic deterrent's future..." [including those found by the IG report of March 24, 2104]. [3] Co-chairman Mies specifically identified five "systemic disorders" which prevented an overarching "compelling national narrative" that could be cemented into place, representing a "widely accepted role for our nuclear deterrent".[4] The five disorders, according to Admiral Mies, are: (1) the lack of attention to nuclear issues by our senior military and civilian leadership, (2) a flawed design for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) under which the nuclear enterprise is held, (3) an entrenched oversight bureaucracy in the Energy Department lacking a commitment to mission accomplishment, (4) an erosion in the management relationship between the NNSA and the Department of Energy and finally, (5) a lack of an affordable and doable program for the future of nuclear weapons. The Admiral is correct. One hopeful sign is that the Senate confirmed the new Administrator of NNSA, USAF Lt. Gen Frank Klotz (Ret) just last week. But recovery will take time. In addition to the US having seriously neglected the sustainment and improvement of its nuclear deterrent enterprise for over two decades, equally serious is that the U.S. seems to have lost sight of some of the alarmingly real nuclear dangers America still faces. Since 1972, for example, the U.S. and the Soviet Union -- and now Russia -- have concluded seven major nuclear arms agreements regulating or reducing the level of nuclear weapons. Now the U.S. is seeking another round of U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons cuts beyond the 2010 New Start Treaty. But should there be other, more pressing, priorities -- such as, for instance finally dealing with the huge stockpile of thousands of Russian tactical nuclear weapons -- small, mobile, easily hidden, and not subject to any arms control agreement? Or China's nuclear proliferation record? Former Secretary of the Air Force and national security adviser to President Reagan, Thomas C. Reed, warns that China has transferred nuclear technology to Pakistan; "catered to the nuclear ambitions of the Iranian ayatollah's," and has also been the lead supplier of WMD technology to the third world.[5] Reed's warnings are confirmed in a new report. Recently declassified information shows that China gave Pakistan the nuclear weapons technology that led to the creation in Pakistan of the world's "Nukes 'R Us" nuclear-smuggling group, led by Abdul Qadeer Khan.[6] To date, of course, China's nuclear weapons enterprise remains shrouded in secrecy, as do its dealings in proliferation. The U.S. is also therefore facing a nuclear-armed Pakistan and a potentially nuclear armed Iran -- both Islamic terror-sponsoring states.
Since the Iranian Revolution, Iran blew up Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, an attack that until recently was blamed only on Libya. Iran also attacked the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983; and according to a 2011 ruling by U.S. District Judge George Daniels, Iran has also been found complicit in the attacks of 9/11. As for Pakistan, it is already in possession of a substantial nuclear stockpile, and created the Taliban, which gave sanctuary to Al Qaeda, which attacked the U.S. on 9/11. Mark Fitzpatrick, director of the Nonproliferation and Disarmament Programme at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, warned on March 26, 2014, that "Pakistan has the fastest growing nuclear arsenal and the largest concentration of terrorist groups" in the world. The same day, at the Hague in the Netherlands, where the Nuclear Security Summit was held, 53 world leaders including those from China and Pakistan (but not Iran), made commitments to secure "dangerous nuclear materials" and prevent them from ending up in the hands of terrorists by "holding all states accountable to a common set of standards and best practices" and ensuring that the International Atomic Energy Administration's (IAEA) voluntary guidelines would be reflected in regulations.[7] Sound good? The problem is that even though Pakistan claims its nuclear weapons are secure, it remains outside the oversight of the UN's IAEA -- and both Iran and China's nuclear weapons programs remain as hidden as ever. Looking at the most recent developments in Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran and North Korea, it is would seem urgent that the U.S. end as soon as possible its era of nuclear neglect.
Related Topics: Peter Huessy
Pakistan: How the Blasphemy Law Really Works
by Mohshin Habib
April 15, 2014 at 3:30 am
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Sawan Masih has been sentenced to
death, but what about those found guilty of inciting and committing violence
and arson?
It [is] a travesty of justice that
more than 3,000 people who burned the Christian neighbourhood in Lahore were
free, while one man who was tried for a disputed charge was sentenced to
death.
He said Pakistan's administration,
police, military and courts want to contribute to their religion by somehow
punishing the non-Muslims.
Sawan Masih, a poor Pakistani Christian who had been working as a sanitary
worker in a section of Lahore surrounded by factories, was accused during the
course of a conversation with a Muslim friend of insulting the Prophet
Mohammed on March 6, 2013.When the police arrested him two days later, he was accused of allegedly saying, "Jesus is true. He is the Son of God. He will come to save me, while Muslims' Prophet is fake." After the accusation, based on the verbal statement of a Muslim barber Shahid Imran, more than 3,000 Pakistani Muslims rioted and torched about 100 Christian homes in a small neighbourhood of Christians called Joseph Colony. While the Christians fled, the police silently watched as the Muslim protestors destroyed the Christians' homes and stole their possessions. Since the accusation, Sawan Masih has been in jail. On March 27, 2014, a court of additional session Judge Chaudhry Ghulam Murtaza handed down the death sentence to Sawan Masih after "finding him guilty of blasphemy" and also ordered him to pay fine of 200,000 Pakistani rupees, equivalent $2,044 USD. Masih denied the charge against him. The Center for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement [CLAAS], an interdenominational organization working for Christians persecuted because of their faith in Pakistan, has provided lawyers for Masih. On April 1, CLAAS's lawyers appealed the verdict to the Lahore High Court.
"This is not the only blasphemy case where this has happened," said the director of the UK-based division of CLAAS, Nasir Saeed. "There are examples including the trial of Younis Masih. Several blasphemy-law victims have been killed during their hearings, including Rashid Emannuel and Sajid Emannuel who were killed by extremists in broad daylight in 2010 in front of hundreds of people in the district court's compound in Faisalabad." "Unfortunately," Saeed said, the blasphemy law has become a powerful tool in the hands of extremists and is continually being used to attack churches, burn down Christian towns and villages and kill innocent people. The government is under pressure from extremist groups, and hesitates to bring this matter to the parliament. A week ago, a Hindu temple and other properties in Larkana-Sindh were torched and a man was taken into police custody without any proof that he had burnt the holy Quran." According to Saeed, religious minorities, particularly Christians, live in constant fear for their lives, and have quietly begun migrating to different countries to save their lives. After the judgment, only two National Assembly members out of 342 spoke out -- interestingly, both female. Pakistan Teherik-e-Insan [PTI] party legislator Dr. Sheerin Mazari called it a travesty of justice that more than 3,000 people who burned the Christian neighbourhood in Lahore were free while one man tried for a disputed charge has been sentenced to death. Pakistan Peoples Party [PPP] legislator Sahazia Marri raised question: Sawan Masih has been sentenced, but what about those found guilty of inciting and committing violence and arson? A week later, on April 4, 2014 the court in Toba Tak Singh announced a death sentence for a Christian couple, Shafaqat Emmanuel and his wife, Sagufta Kauser, accused of sending blasphemous text messages. The couple was arrested on July 21, 2013. World Vision in Progress [WVIP] reported that the couple were not fluent enough to write the alleged texts in English, and that the SIM card cited was not registered. A recent report from a U.S. government advisory panel said that Pakistan uses blasphemy laws more than any other country; they list 15 people on death row and 19 others serving life sentences. A Pakistani businessman (who said he wished to remain anonymous) said, "The Pakistani Christians are like martyrs. They are just sacrificing blood without an iota of fault, just for their religious beliefs." The Pakistani businessman said, "I am damn sure that the poor Christian man, Sawan Masih, had not the least idea or knowledge about the Muslim prophet. The officials of Pakistan are just going with the sentiment of Muslim population." He said that Pakistan's administration, police, military, and courts want somehow to contribute to their religion by punishing the non-Muslims. According to him, the Pakistani minorities, more than 2 million Christians, are highly vulnerable to being accused of breaking the blasphemy laws Even if Masih and the other convicted couple were released by the high court, he said, how they ever get normal life back in Pakistan?
Related Topics: Pakistan
| Mohshin
Habib
Welcome to the Islamic Republic of Iran
by Shabnam
Assadollahi
April 15, 2014 at 3:00 am
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According to Iran's penal code, a
father is exempt from severe criminal prosecution for killing his child; a
woman "will be sentenced to be hanged."
According to reports
from Khuzestan region of Iran, a 30-year-old man married to a 20-year-old
woman buried his one-year-old twins alive due to a "family
conflict."According to Article 220 of the penal code of Islamic Republic of Iran, a child's father and his father are exempt from criminal prosecution and ghesas ["eye for an eye" punishment] if they kill their children, and they are only liable for the payment of blood money (diyeh) and flogging. But in contrast, if a woman kills her children, she is subject to criminal prosecution and ghesas, in which she will be sentenced be hanged.
Related Topics: Iran
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Assadollahi
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