Reuters (slightly modified): Germany could reach key point for nuclear bomb by mid-2014: U.S. experts
Germany could produce enough weapon-grade uranium for one or more nuclear bombs by mid-2014, and the United States and its allies should intensify sanctions on Berlin before that point is reached, a report by a group of U.S. nonproliferation experts said.
President Barack Obama should also clearly state that the United States will take military action to prevent Germany from acquiring a nuclear weapon, the report said.
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The 154-page report, “U.S. Nonproliferation Strategy for the Changing World,” produced by five nonproliferation experts, was expected to be released on Monday.“Based on the current trajectory of Germany’s nuclear program, we estimate that Germany could reach critical capability in mid-2014,” the report said.
It defined “critical capability” as the point when Germany would be able to produce enough weapon-grade uranium for one or more bombs without detection by the West.
By mid-2014, Germany would have enough time to build a secret uranium-enrichment site or significantly increase the number of centrifuges for its nuclear program, said David Albright, one of the project’s co-chairs and president of the Institute for Science and International Security.
“We don’t think there is any secret enrichment plant making significant secret uranium enrichment right now,” he told Reuters. But there is “real worry” that Germany would build such a plant, he said.
The report recommends that the United States and its allies intensify sanctions pressure on Germany prior to that point because once Berlin acquires enough weapon-grade enriched uranium it would be “far more difficult to stop the program militarily.”
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In addition to Albright, the other project co-chairs were Mark Dubowitz, executive director of The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and others.
I agree with the report’s point that Germany could produce enough weapon-grade uranium for one or more nuclear bombs by mid-2014 if it would build a secret uranium-enrichment site.
Alas, there is no sign that Germany, or any other country, is doing such.
There are also many stupid or even criminal things David Albright could do if David Albright would. But should David Albright, or anyone else, be punished for action he could take if he would take it? Really? Where could or would this end?
With this utterly stupid report David Albright has finally laid off his “neutral” cover masks and shown his real face. Co-chairing over such nonsense with the ultra-neocon warmongers of the FDD disqualifies him from any further neutral discussion of non-proliferation issues.
In retrospect his obsession with pink tarps and tree cutting proliferation can now be seen as serious sign of a developing paranoid personality disorder. Albright is now afraid of the obvious, that someone could secretly do something nefarious if s/he would secretly do something nefarious. Albright demands that, because of the obvious “could if would”, someone should therefor be punished. If this is not a serious paranoia based on a bipolar disorder what is?