Venezuela and
The Mighty Wurlitzer

Posted by: ruralito | Oct 6 2012 21:11 utc | 3

Something that deserves a great deal more attention & focus than it has been given, is the GCC countries large-scale plans for the development of a massive nuclear power industry, with full US backing.
In light of the ongoing US/EU/GCC/Israeli driven sanctions against Iran, with the western aligned Asian nations fully on board, the hypocricy is quite staggering, as US, EU & Asian firms along with their legions of associated lobbyists have been extremely busy across the GCC over the last few years, extolling the virtues of their wares & benefits of nuclear power…
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UAE advances with US-backed nuclear plan
The United Arab Emirates has awarded $3bn worth of contracts to provide, convert and enrich uranium, as the Gulf state pushes ahead with its US-backed plans to develop the Arab world’s first civilian nuclear program.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/774a8fc8-e6e4-11e1-af33-00144feab49a.html
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Can US nuclear supply chain compete and win abroad?
By K. Steiner-Dicks on Sep 12, 2012 @ NuclearEnergy Insider
Making progress in the US supply chain
The Ex-Im this month approved a $2bn financing for a nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates, a line of credit that the US Census Bureau statistics expects will support close to 5,000 US jobs across 17 states.
The direct loan is going to the Barakah One Company of the UAE to underwrite the export of American equipment and service-expertise for the construction of a nuclear power plant in Abu Dhabi.
The transaction will finance the construction of the first nuclear power plant on the Arabian Peninsula, which upon completion will number among the largest nuclear-generating facilities in the world. Additionally, the loan ranks as Ex-Im Bank’s largest transaction in the UAE to date and counts as Ex-Im Bank’s first greenfield nuclear-plant financing since the late 1990s.

http://analysis.nuclearenergyinsider.com/new-build/can-us-nuclear-supply-chain-compete-and-win-abroad
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Breaking News: Saudi Arabia Commits Over $100 Billion to Nuclear New Build
By tonyjack on Jun 6, 2011 @ NuclearEnergy Insider
This week Saudi Arabia’s KA CARE (King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy) confirmed plans to build the nation’s first fleet of 16 nuclear reactors by 2030.
At a cost of over $100 Billion this nuclear mega-project is the most lucrative energy contract in the Middle East and North Africa and over five times as large as the current nuclear contract from neighbouring nuclear utility ENEC in the UAE.

http://analysis.nuclearenergyinsider.com/new-build/breaking-news-saudi-arabia-commits-over-100-billion-nuclear-new-build
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And this has been attracting a great deal of lobbying activity in the US:

…until the United States and Saudi Arabia conclude a bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement under Section 123 of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act, none of the U.S. firms can supply nuclear technology, material or equipment to the kingdom.
While as the UAE has already signed this agreement with the U.S. in 2009, the negotiation for a 123 agreement with KSA will possibly be delayed for a few years- until the recently implemented U.S.-UAE pact is evaluated. Although U.S. firms cannot participate until this bilateral agreement is reached, companies from other countries are potential suppliers.
Thus, Saudi Arabia can elect to contract with French or Japanese firms to set up reactors, following a bilateral cooperation agreement with each country.

http://analysis.nuclearenergyinsider.com/new-build/saudi-arabia-tap-nuclear-energy-market
And US companies may be starting to panic as they see that after all their lobbying work in the GCC, they risk missing the bus as the giant Saudi contracts are now officially on offer.
Expect an enormous sustained lobbying offensive in the US to grant exemptions.

U.S. firms may miss out as Saudi nuke plan advances
By Amena Bakr DUBAI | Wed Apr 25, 2012 8:26pm IST
(Reuters) – Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia expects to finalize its atomic energy plans this year but the U.S. nuclear industry may miss out on multi-billion dollar contracts to turn it into a reality unless Washington and Riyadh sign a non-proliferation deal soon….
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… U.S. companies lost out to a lower-bidding Korean consortium in the first Gulf region nuclear plant tender in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2009. They could be sidelined again until Washington and Riyadh sign a “123 agreement” under the U.S. Atomic Energy Act – opening the door for U.S. nuclear exports…
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… A U.S. embassy cable released by Wikileaks warned in 2009 that Saudi Arabia pressing ahead with one of the world’s largest atomic energy programmes without U.S. involvement was a “near-term risk to U.S. interests.”

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Some of the twists & turns:

Riyadh, may not wait until 2014 for a U.S. non-proliferation deal and has several other options if the door to U.S. companies remains shut.
“It would constrain American suppliers of reactors or of services, like conversion or enrichment, but as far as anybody else is concerned, no,” Ian Hore-Lacy, spokesman for the World Nuclear Association (WNA), a group representing nuclear power companies around the world, said.
“But there would be plenty of options. Even in a worst case scenario, there are still other avenues of buying equipment and services … It certainly wouldn’t be a show stopper,” he said.
It is unclear how the use of some U.S.-patented technologies by other nuclear plant builders would be affected if the United States and the kingdom do not strike a 123 deal.
The UAE signed the 123 agreement with the United States in early 2009, forfeiting its right to enrich uranium domestically, before awarding a $40 billion contract to a Korean-led consortium later that year.

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And the kicker:

Prince Turki al-Faisal, a key Saudi royal, has said the kingdom would not surrender its right to enrich its own uranium for energy use in the long term, although it expects to have to import fuel in the medium term.

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/04/25/saudi-nuclear-idINDEE83O0CY20120425
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Posted by: KenM | Oct 6 2012 23:41 utc | 5

“…..until the United States and Saudi Arabia conclude a bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement under Section 123 of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act…..”
Considering the way we are treating Iran, DESPITE the fact that they are not violating the terms of the NPT, the Saudis would be well advised to assume that any agreement with the United States is not worth the paper it is written on.

Posted by: PissedOffAmerican | Oct 7 2012 3:00 utc | 7

@b
Guvecci-Khirbat-al-Jouz-incident
I have here an interesting report in German language with strong evidence how the western mass media turns a murderous terrorist attack from Turkish territories in the vicinity of Guvecci on the Syrian village of Khirbat al-Jouz into a “shell fired from Syria on Turkey”:
http://nocheinparteibuch.wordpress.com/2012/10/07/wenn-die-tagesschau-den-snackshop-mal-nicht-zitiert/
Maybe it’s worth to present this case to your readers in English language? See also the videos embedded in the comment section of that article.

Posted by: Bandolero | Oct 7 2012 4:05 utc | 9

Venezuela? Ho-hum. Been there; done that. If there’s unrest, it will be the usual suspects–hired guns of wealthy plutocrats, just like 2002.
What they’re all secretly hoping for is for Chavez to die. I hope he appoints a successor as soon as he’s elected. Otherwise, the wealthy will create enormous problems for Chavez’ supporters, who will certainly splinter if he goes.

Posted by: JohnH | Oct 7 2012 4:39 utc | 11

I have absolutely no idea what precipitated this, but I also have absolutely no doubt that it will be interpreted precisely the way it is intended.

Posted by: Monolycus | Oct 7 2012 13:02 utc | 13

Chavez must be most often elected pres. in the world. And with the best scores moreover.
Oil money, the curse of the black gold. Used in large part to uplift the poor. Good on Chavez.
Yeah, / press / media / TV in is more free and pluralistic than in the US. Afaik. As for the voting system, it is top class. (see colm)
However, Chavez has not been able or has not bothered to eradicate, curtail, control, etc. violence – murder, probably at or close the top rate in world outside of countries in war or civil war or occupation or above them – not to mention kidnapping, armed robbery, street crime, other horrors, police corruption, etc.
V holds the world hit parade on many of those kinds of ugly stats.
Now one might argue it is an irrepressible, endemic characteristic of V, or that the ‘opposition‘ is responsible in an underground way, or that border-region troubles (e.g Columbia, the drug war, the US, etc.) bear heavy responsibility.
But it has been a LONG time.
Social progress does not in itself fix crime. Or not in V.
Living in fear of drones or of murderous street killers is much the same.
VICE offers a 3 part vids (short) on violence in V.. just an ex. of reportage on this issue.
http://www.vice.com/vice-news/venezuela-body-count-part-1

Posted by: Noirette | Oct 7 2012 15:46 utc | 15

Interesting piece of news, Monolycus @13, & something that will have some very major knock-on effects :
South Korea extends missile range under new deal with U.S.
In order to carry this out, the US will be essentially ripping up the Missile Technology Control Regime, which limits the range of exportable missiles for the major players – essentially the US & Russia, but Europe & China are also major potential players.
http://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/mtcr
This will backfire on the US in a major way, as many nations are keenly interested in sophisticated ballistic & cruise missiles with greater range as a way to target potential enemy bases. This is a very good way of deterring an attack by such nations as, for instance, the US & it’s NATO allies, as you can’t concentrate the forces necessary for an attack if the bases they use can be destroyed in a matter of minutes.
Expect India to be the launch customer/developer of the new enhanced range Russian/Indian Brahmos missile, & expect a solid array of enhanced range versions of the enormously sophisticated cruise missiles from the Russians to selected customers. China ofcourse will be looking to compete in a major way.
Likely early customers – Algeria, Vietnam, Malaysia, & much of South America, with Iran ofcourse being very interested. The Saudi’s for Chinese & maybe even European missiles, while the rest of the GCC goes shopping.
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Yet another clear example of the incompetence of US administrations, run exclusively for special interest groups & whose decision making processes are purely the result of lobbying activity. No thought of consequences at all – their little bubble world has left any relation to reality long ago.
The only thing keeping them going is the vast wealth they have accumulated in the 20th century, but with this level of astonishing incompetence as the norm they surely can’t last for much longer.

Posted by: KenM | Oct 7 2012 19:57 utc | 17

Ruralito this is no longer the case
The US ended it by a) “quantitative easing” which is a kind of devaluation of debt, b) by Iran sanctions including the international payment system SWIFT, forcing Iran to switch to other currencies for payment. India by the way has a population of 1.210.193.422 i.e. over one billion compared to 314.167.157 US citizens.

Posted by: somebody | Oct 7 2012 22:07 utc | 19

“somebody” I recall Papa Bush saying, The American Way of Life is not negotiable. ie, Murka will always have protection to sell if funding goes scarce.

Posted by: ruralito | Oct 8 2012 1:28 utc | 21

Thanks for the analysis, KenM @17. I’m just trying to work out the timing.
Lee Myung Bak is on the way out (and, hopefully, the militant Grand National Party with him,) and the neighbours in the North have been overtly very quiet since the leadership transition, so I am at a loss as to why the US is tossing out this concession to them at this time. Seems to be more than just a case of doing more harm than good… there doesn’t seem to be any obvious US motive beyond pointless and random antagonism at all as far as I can tell.
I suspect that the message being sent here is in response to something that never made the papers, but I thought I’d ask around here to see if somebody had heard something that I hadn’t anyway.

Posted by: Monolycus | Oct 8 2012 2:03 utc | 23

*heh* Let the gnashing of teeth begin in the DC Beltway…! Hugo Chavez re-elected as Venezuelan president…

Posted by: CTuttle | Oct 8 2012 4:26 utc | 25

“The BDS clearly changed its goal statement.”
“BDS has given up on the most essential and crucial Palestinian principles.”
BDS mission statement which many organizations have endorsed in 2005 reads:
“1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall”
BDS mission statement of TODAY reads:
“1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands occupied in June 1967 and dismantling the Wall”
http://uprootedpalestinians.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/hijacking-and-steering-bds-movement.html

Posted by: brian | Oct 8 2012 6:07 utc | 27

Well, brian @27… “1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands occupied in June 1967 and dismantling the Wall”
It’s not like even that reduced demand will ever come to fruition…! 8-(

Posted by: CTuttle | Oct 8 2012 8:02 utc | 29

@Monolycus 23: atleast some of it seems to be driven by this administrations ‘leading from behind’ policy, which involves strengthening ‘allied’ nations within a US-led & managed framework – these nations strengthening their military potential but under US guidance.
Same process is at work in the GCC, with the US maintaining control of advanced radar & communications infrastructure, while heavily arming the GCC countries with advanced weaponry, the majority of which depends on this infrastructure to be effective.
Another thread is:
The range boost may benefit the outgoing president’s Conservative Party during the December presidential election. Lee is banned from re-election by the constitution, but a major diplomatic victory in the last months of his presidency would build voter confidence and help the party remain in power, South Korean news agency Yonhap said.
http://rt.com/news/south-korea-missile-range-807/
Some of the reactions relating to it’s impact on the MTCR already in:
U.S., South Korea to forge joint response to North’s missile force
Arms-control advocates say a U.S. decision to help South Korea boost its missile range beyond the MTCR limits would undermine the pact and open the flood gates to missile proliferation, notably by others who may feel less constrained.
“Agreeing for any country to develop 800-km range missiles, well outside the MTCR limits, would be a big mistake,” said Thielmann, now of the private Arms Control Association in Washington.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/06/us-usa-korea-missiles-idUSBRE89502Q20121006
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Daryl G. Kimball, the executive director of the Arms Control Association, expressed worries over adverse effects.
“The agreement to allow South Korea to extend the range and increase the payload of its ballistic missiles is a serious mistake because it is unnecessary for South Korea’s security and could very easily undermine Asian security for years to come,” he said.
He added, “The announcement will also undermine the credibility of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) and could easily provide the DPRK with a cynical excuse to undertake further provocative actions, including long-range ballistic missile tests or a third nuclear weapon test, in the future.”
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/2012/10/08/56/0200000000AEN20121008001200315F.HTML
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Agree with Maxcrat @30 – this will likely worsen an already volatile, complex set of disputes. The 800km range puts Beijing within range…

Posted by: KenM | Oct 8 2012 21:19 utc | 31

Amazing ruralito,
I was never a huge fan of Terry and the Pirates but would follow it as a kid back in the 40’s & early 50’s. Never, of course, got any significance out of it then but just checking your link I am blown away by just how profound so many comics were who’s profundity were totally missed by my youth. Oh yeah, Gulliver’s Travels, etc. etc.!!
There’s a message here. Gracias.

Posted by: juannie | Oct 9 2012 0:19 utc | 33

b, you might be interested to read this:
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/iran-slowed-progress-on-nuclear-weapons-program-by-eight-months.premium-1.468768
It appears that Amos Harel (“one of Israel’s leading media experts on military and defense issues”) finally got around to reading the last IAEA report on Iran. Either that or it took this long for him to replace the batteries in his pocket calculator…..
How else to explain why it took him this long to report something that you mentioned back in August i.e. the latest IAEA report showed that the Iranian stockpile of 20% uranium has actually decreased.
And, furthermore, the reason WHY it went down was because the Iranians did exactly what they said they were going to do i.e. turn that UF6 into reactor fuel.
So here we have “one of Israel’s leading media experts on military and defense issues” breathlessly reporting a “scoop” that you first noted way back in August.
Which I guess tells you all you need to know about the level of debate inside Israel on this topic…….

Posted by: Johnboy | Oct 9 2012 8:07 utc | 35

The US has maintained a state of war, under armistice, in Korea for sixty years in order to justify keeping large military forces in the western Pacific. North Korea (DPRK) is claimed to be a threat by the US, however the South Korean (ROK) forces are much stronger.
The US/ROK regularly provoke the DPRK and then complain about the consequences as in this recent news report. Sep 21, 2012 — South Korea navy fires at North Korea fishing boats in the Yellow Sea, adjacent to North and South Korea. The South Korean navy has fired warning shots at North Korean fishing boats that crossed disputed borders in the Yellow Sea, reports say. No shots hit the vessels which retreated, said an Associated Press report citing an unnamed official with South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The official also said that no North Korean navy ships were involved.//
The DPRK didn’t retaliate this time but they understandably have in the past, as with the case of the Yeonpyeong islands a year or so ago. Military actions, to certainly include provocative exercises and live firing into disputed waters, are prohibited by the 1953 Armistice Agreement
Preamble: “. . . with the objective of establishing an armistice which will insure a complete cessation of hostilities and of all acts of armed force in Korea until a final peaceful settlement is achieved, . . .”
The 1953 Armistice Agreement established a demarcation line and a demilitarized zone (DMZ) on the land, but not on the water. The UN unilaterally set a “Northern Limit Line” (NLL) off North Korea’s coast in August 1953. This line is only 3nm from the coast, which according to recognized maritime terminology is the boundary of “coastal waters.” not “territorial waters” (12nm).
This map shows the “Northern Limit Line” (NLL). The line was unilaterally set by the US led United Nations military forces on August 30, 1953. It is not officially recognized by DPRK (North Korea). In particular, it is not included into the Armistice Agreement of 1953.
Pyongyang has never been happy about the arrangement, but only in the 1970s did it begin to challenge it. North Korea has subsequently proposed a different line — one that would roughly extend the DMZ southwest out into the Yellow Sea, rather than hug the North Korean shoreline. This is the red line on the map.
North Korea doesn’t recognize the western sea border demarcated by the United Nations after the war and demands it should be drawn further south to include Yeonpyeong and neighboring islands in North Korean waters. “No one in the world would allow those who drew a line inside other’s court, without its owner’s knowledge, and insist it belongs to them and shamelessly conduct saber-rattling to preserve it,” KCNA [[DPRK Korean Central News Agency]] said.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 9 2012 13:37 utc | 37

I find this story about Israel marble very funny in lot of ways.
Iranian marble “a hit” in Israel through Turkish middlemen: report
So people’s business decisions are not ideological :-)) You don’t say.

Posted by: somebody | Oct 9 2012 18:03 utc | 39

The two thousandth US military member has died in Afghanistan, due to a misunderstanding.
Sgt. 1st Class Daniel T. Metcalfe(photo), 29, of Liverpool, N.Y., was the 2,000th member of the U.S. military killed in Afghanistan. He died from injuries suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire. Stationed in Vicenza with his wife, Vesna, and their three children, Alexis, 6, Edward, 3 and Ethan, 11 months, Sgt. Metcalfe was on his fourth tour of duty when he was killed, said his father, Tom Metcalfe.
Metcalfe was a prankster who matured when he joined the Army. He smiled easily, loved to make others laugh and, his family said, was distinguished by devotion: to his wife, his four kids, his country. “He was a kind of natural-born leader, charismatic,” his father, Tom Metcalfe, told the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle this week. “Everybody just liked him, and he could lead anybody anywhere, practically — not always in a good way when he was younger.”
Metcalfe was killed by small arms fire Saturday on foot patrol when insurgents attacked a checkpoint set up by U.S. forces, according to provincial government officials. The Americans thought they were under mortar attack from their allies at a nearby Afghan army checkpoint and fired on it. The Afghan soldiers returned fire. An Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman told The Associated Press that the shooting broke out as a result of a “misunderstanding.”
In other news,
NATO Ministers Discuss ‘Smart Defense’ Initiative
WASHINGTON, Oct. 9, 2012 – NATO defense ministers held discussions in Brussels today on the alliance’s “Smart Defense” initiative and how to provide security during tough financial times, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen briefed reporters on the defense ministers’ consultations, in which Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is participating.
“This is one of the most urgent challenges facing our alliance today,” Rasmussen said, noting that during May’s summit in Chicago, the alliance’s heads of state and government endorsed the program for the NATO militaries to work together more closely. . .The interest shows European allies are aware of their security responsibilities and are looking for smart ways to strengthen the alliance, the secretary general said.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Oct 9 2012 19:08 utc | 41

‘The two thousandth US military member has died in Afghanistan, due to a misunderstanding.’
sorry not absolutely NO sympathy to the american occupying forces

Posted by: brian | Oct 9 2012 20:34 utc | 43

*heh* Just imagine the possibilities…
…All the World’s major religions, with their emphasis on Love, Compassion, Patience, Tolerance, and, Forgiveness can and do promote inner values. But the reality of the World today is that grounding ethics in religion is no longer adequate. This is why I am increasingly convinced that the time has come to find a way of thinking about spirituality and ethics beyond religion altogether…! -Dalai Lama

Posted by: CTuttle | Oct 10 2012 3:57 utc | 45

On a slightly cheerier note, while we’ve been watching how the psychotic’s look to expand their influence – spread chaos & blow everything to sh*t ;
Here’s how the professionals do it:
“The Beijing Conference”: See How China Quietly Took Over Africa
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/beijing-conference-see-how-china-quietly-took-over-africa
Definitely worth a look.

Posted by: KenM | Oct 10 2012 5:15 utc | 47

My wife,totally apolitical,said this morning,what happened to Hugo Chavez,she hadn’t heard his name lately.I replied,before perusing the net,that he must have won in a landslide.Viola!
Viva Chavez,and a pox on every Zionist monstrosity of misinformation,from the former bastion of reason,the stinking Guardian to our MSM of bloviating Zionists,We aren’t going to get anywhere until we purge our info system from the 2% that translates into at least 90% of bloviators.Amazing,the absolute paucity of reason or substance found from the borg.
Boycott the monsters,its their Achilles heel.

Posted by: dahoit | Oct 10 2012 15:30 utc | 49

And here’s another professional at work…
Putin is apparently hitting the Middle East big time over next month after tying up a good part of Central Asia, looking to sell a win-win scenario to the countries & pull things back from the brink. The signing of the major Iraqi deals looks to of generated the momentum he needs to start operating seriously, & hopefully he can get the Turks & Saudi’s to start pulling back support for the ‘FSA’ & de-escelate things.
From the excellent M K Bhadrakumar at Asia Times:

Russia bridges Middle Eastern divides
By M K Bhadrakumar
A multi-billion dollar arms deal with Iraq, a summit meeting with Turkey, a fence-mending exercise with Saudi Arabia, a debut with Egypt’s Sphinx-like Muslim Brothers – all this is slated to happen within the period of a turbulent month in the Middle East. And all this is to happen when the United States’ “return” to the region after the hurly-burly of the November election still seems a distant dream. Simply put, Russia is suddenly all over the Middle East….
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/NJ11Ag01.html
Expect the Western MSM to go into hysteria, & for Putin to not give a sh*t…

Posted by: KenM | Oct 10 2012 18:11 utc | 51

so, what’s gonna happen first – the “Guns of August” thundering in the Middle East, or the flare-up of the Eurozone (less bloody, but just as messy)? the latter case would rule out Nato intervention in the ME, so it would be a good thing; besides, economists say it’s inevitable because the Euro is unsustainable, so the sooner the better

Posted by: claudio | Oct 15 2012 23:56 utc | 53

plutonium smuggling?

Posted by: somebody | Oct 16 2012 20:26 utc | 55

Complete known information should be here
Illicit Trafficking Database (ITDB) – IAEA

Posted by: somebody | Oct 16 2012 21:16 utc | 57

@jdmckay – some of the threat reduction stuff was not canceled under Bush but continued until recently when Russia pulled the plug on it because it now has enough money to do it themselves: Nunn-Lugar No Longer?
As for stolen stuff. Lots of rumors and few have been plausible and even less true. I am not aware of any report on a successful deal.
Uranium, even highly enriched, is ineffective as dirty bomb – one would need tons of it to be useful. Polonium and some other stuff is useful for that but also much harder to get in sizable quantities.
This whole “dirty bomb” thinking is just hyping a very small potential threat.

Posted by: b | Oct 17 2012 18:15 utc | 59

b@59:
Thx.
Agree about Nunn-Lugar, time to cancel and for reasons you state.
Critical time, w/which I’m concerned… between ’01`-’04. As for rumors… I remember several, after 9/11, from European press, just haven’t been able to find ’em.
Gores’s program went beyond Nunn-Lugar, CTR & DTRA. It was called: The Chernomyrdin Commission. And… it was in fact defunded, by Bush. It also was very effective, filling in gaps between US <> Russian agreements, when negotiations where dragging out, while insecure facilities were vulnerable.
Still poking around, but found a few things. this for me, is as much a “wit sharpening” exercise for other things I am doing, but also because some critical local issues in ABQ, currently dominated by key people who have claimed things in these programs I believe to be false, are holding up critical changes needed here, based on far more demonstrable, but similar… convincingly disprovable assumptions.
If you wish, I’d be happy to update on this later. If not… no biggie.
Thanks for taking a moment, and ok to contact me by private mail, if you wish.
…
I would hope your statement on dirty bomb material is true. I would also hope that… those able, and with resources, dot their i’s and cross their t’s… rather then leave uncertainty to a wished for, but non-determining “hope”. At least on US shores, I can think of few core “things”, holding us in a tail-chasing circle, then…. hope. Kept us at a standstill, for a good many years now.
Ok… thx again.

Posted by: jdmckay | Oct 18 2012 20:47 utc | 61

@ jdmackay
there’s is probably more Nuke material missing form british sources alone than there is from Russian ones.
I vaguely remember a few years back circa ’06 reading a Guardian report that claimed that there was somewhere in the region of at least 30 Kilos of high-grade nuke material “unaccounted for” (i.e: missing) from UK Nuke facilities. My memory is not that good so it could have been as high as 300 kilos
Their explanation for this was something along the line of “little bits go missing all the time, and over the years it has accumulated to something like 300 kilos – No biggie!”
Wonder if they’d have the same attitude were the Iranians to mislay 300 k of their low-enriched nuke material? Somehow I think not, eh?

Posted by: SF | Oct 20 2012 23:14 utc | 63

another plus for dems
they will get more suckers to pay for ur rnr fun
*our Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (Democrat) was asked where we can cut the federal budget. Her answer was that we can cut back on some of the money we spend on foreign bases by getting our allies to build them for us. She didn’t say we shouldn’t have or use the bases for our military empire. This “liberal” instead said we should get others to pay the costs for us.*
http://space4peace.blogspot.sg/2012/10/more-bases-on-jeju.html

Posted by: denk | Oct 22 2012 10:30 utc | 65