Threatening World Order: US and Israel Quietly Announce
Plans to Reconstitute Their Nuclear Stockpiles
16 July 2010By Anthony DiMaggio
The world looks like it's about to become a more
dangerous place. A recent report from Israel's
newspaper Haaretz finds that the United States is
moving forward with plans to strengthen Israel's
nuclear weapons stockpile. The report, exposed within
the last few days, originated from Israel's Army
Radio, which sent along a secret document chronicling
the nuclear cooperation between US and Israeli
leaders.(1) Israel has not signed the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), meaning that it is not
technically violating international rules under the
NPT regarding the development and reconstitution of
nuclear weapons, despite longstanding efforts of the
international community to establish a "nuclear
weapons free zone" in the Middle East.
Part of the fear of those advocating nuclear abolition
in the Middle East is that the United States will
agree to send nuclear materials - extracted from its
own civilian nuclear power plants - to Israel, much as
it did for India, another country that refuses to sign
the NPT.
The Obama and Netanyahu governments are seeking to
obscure their contempt for nuclear abolition by
calling for "nonproliferation" in the Middle East,
while Israel simultaneously boycotts New-York-based
discussions (at the 2010 NPT conference) of the need
for a "nuclear free" Middle East.(2)
"Nonproliferation," within this context, can be
understood to apply only to other countries such as
Iran, which has long been a target for US and Israeli
military planners.
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The Obama and Netanyahu governments recently announced
that they will oppose efforts at singling Israel out
in any "nuclear weapons free" Middle East discussion.
The problem with this announcement is that Israel is
the only country in the Middle East to currently have
nuclear weapons. In light of this fact, any attempts
to shield Israel from being "singled out" will
inevitably prevent progress in moving toward nuclear
disarmament in the region.
Much is made of Iran's alleged efforts to develop
nuclear weapons by Israel and the United States. This
propaganda campaign appears to be paying off in light
of Iran's recent announcement of its planned opening
this September of a nuclear power plant in the
southern port city of Bushehr.(3) US and Israeli
officials maintain that Iran is enriching uranium
under the auspices of a civilian nuclear program,
while secretly using its uranium stockpile to develop
nuclear weapons. Those who make such claims are at a
loss to explain why the International Atomic Energy
Agency - in addition to the US National Intelligence
Estimate - found no evidence of nuclear weapons
development in Iran, despite countless inspections by
international observers.(4) Those claiming that Iran
is a threat are also unable to explain why inspectors
are unable to uncover any evidence that Iran is
producing highly-enriched uranium (of a quality
suitable to develop a nuclear weapon), but instead
only produces low-enriched uranium suitable for use in
nuclear power plants.(5)
Despite the critical evidence above, the US-Israeli
propaganda campaign is succeeding in obscuring
Israel's and the United States' own open contempt for
nuclear disarmament. It should be remembered that the
US openly violated the NPT late last year when it
announced it would extract plutonium from its own
nuclear reactors in order to create a new generation
of nuclear weapons (for more see the original news
report here).
According to Fox News polling, as recently as April
2010, 65 percent of Americans support "the United
States taking military action to keep Iran from
getting nuclear weapons."(6) This represents a four
percent increase since September 2009. As of late
2009, CNN polling found that an astounding 88 percent
of Americans believed that Iran is developing nuclear
weapons - a 27 percent increase since December
2007.(7) Similarly, a poll from the Center for Iranian
Studies at Tel Aviv University found that 81 percent
of Iranians believed Iran will develop a nuclear bomb,
according to polling done in mid 2009.(8)
Recent revelations that Israel is moving forward with
US help in reconstituting its nuclear weapons program
are ignored in the US press. At the same time, the
United States' own efforts to redevelop its nuclear
stockpile are completely suppressed, despite the
obsession of both the United States and Israel with
Iran's fictitious nuclear weapons. The Obama
administration and the mass media are now promoting a
false narrative depicting the US as committed to
nuclear transparency and disarmament, and its enemies
as opposed to such practices. Nowhere is this strategy
more evident than in the Obama administration's
continuous attacks on Iran's "nuclear threat," pursued
alongside Obama's announcement of a new commitment to
"nuclear transparency." More specifically, the Obama
administration publicly disclosed the (previously
classified) total number of operational US nuclear
warheads in existence today - which stands at just
over 5,000.(9) While this step was a move in the right
direction in terms of drawing attention to the United
States' massive stockpile, it was cynically pursued
alongside a quiet announcement by the Department of
Energy (originally made in September 2009) that the US
is moving forward with developing a new generation of
nuclear weapons, rather than working toward nuclear
disarmament as legally required under the NPT.(10)
The Obama administration makes Orwellian claims that
it is moving toward disarmament - when in fact it's
doing the opposite by reconstituting its aging
arsenal. At the same time, Obama demonizes foreign
nations such as Iran, which international inspectors
and US intelligence agencies concede is not developing
nuclear weapons (at least according to all available
intelligence).
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced,
following the administration's report on the US
nuclear stockpile, "We think it is in our national
security interest to be transparent as we can be about
the nuclear program of the United States ... the
important part is that the US is no longer going to
keep other countries in the dark."(11) Such statements
are disingenuous at best when the US decides to
redevelop its aging weapons, while any discussion of
this is omitted in media and political discourse.
Instead, readers are subject to reporting from The
Associated Press that frames the Obama administration
as "serious about stopping the spread of atomic
weapons and reducing their numbers."(12)
US attention to Iran's nonexistent nuclear weapons
program is all the rage in the US media.
According to a comprehensive search of the Lexis Nexis
database, the words "Iran" and "nuclear weapons"
appeared in nearly 1,000 stories across The New York
Times, Washington Post, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox and
MSNBC from January through June 2010. In contrast, the
United States' own openly declared "Complex
Modernization" program - in which the US allocated $55
billion to extracting plutonium pits and enriched
uranium from existing nuclear power plants to place in
new nuclear warheads(13) - received not a single
mention in any of the above media outlets from
September 2009 when the plan was first announced,
through June 2010, shortly following Obama's
announcement of his renewed commitment to nuclear
"transparency" and "disarmament."
It is disturbing that the US plan for nuclear weapons
production is completely censored from public
discourse. Obama promised to "seek the peace and
security of a world without nuclear weapons."
The Department of Energy's plans clearly violate this
promise, and run counter to US obligations under the
NPT to pursue US nuclear disarmament, rather than
rearmament. It is no surprise that the US media
establishment is ignoring this story, considering that
American journalists are heavily reliant on official
sources to write their stories and since journalists
see US foreign policy as benevolent and humanitarian
in intent. By ignoring the United States' contempt for
nonproliferation, the mass media is guaranteeing that
Americans will remain ignorant of the United States'
brazen commitment to power politics at the expense of
global security and stability.
Footnotes:
1. Barak Ravid and Reuters, "Report: Secret
Document Affirms US Israeli Nuclear Partnership,"
Haaretz, 8 July 2010.
2. Mark Weiss, "Israel to Boycott Nuclear Free Middle
East Plan," Irish Times, 31 May 2010,
3. DPA, "Iran Says Bushehr Nuclear Plant to be Ready
by September," Haaretz, 7 July 2010.
4. Sylvia Westall, "No Sign Iran Seeks Nuclear Arms:
New IAEA Head," Reuters, 3 July 2009.; Mark Mazzetti,
"US Says Iran Ended Atomic Arms Work," New York Times,
3 December 2007.
5. BBC, "Iran Claims Higher Enriched Uranium
Production," BBC, 24 June 2010.
6. For the figures provided on public opinion of Iran,
see the poll aggregator, Polling Report.
7. Ibid.
8. Djallal Malti, "Israel Keeps Anxious Eye on Iran
Turmoil," Agence France Presse, 24 June 2009.
9. Associated Press, "US Releases Details of Nuclear
Weapons Inventory," Foxnews.com, 3 May 2010.
10. Matthew Cardinale, "US Nukes Agency Pushes New
Bomb Production," Truthout/Inter Press Service, 30
September 2009.
11. Associated Press, "US Releases Details of Nuclear
Weapons Inventory," Foxnews.com, 3 May 2010.
12. Ibid.
13. Matthew Cardinale, "US Nukes Agency Pushes New
Bomb Production," Truthout/Inter Press Service, 30
September 2009.
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