Showing posts with label Nuclear Proliferation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nuclear Proliferation. Show all posts
Monday, September 28, 2009
AfPakistan... PakGhanistan... 'Themistan'... Why The Obama Administration Is "Gravely Concerned"
Saturday, June 6, 2009
PetroChina about to buy McDermott International, a Panama “based” corporate tax-avoider and the US Navy’s sole source for nuclear fuel
Mind you, this article was published April 20, 2009... Over a month ago, and not a word from the MSM, or anyone else, about the outcome of the deal.
McDermott International also manages the National Strategic Petroleum Reserve
If the rumors are true, PetroChina, a Chinese “Government Controlled Entity” (pdf), is on the verge of buying McDermott International, a company that, as I understand things, is the U.S. Navy’s sole provider of nuclear fuel and nuclear fuel assemblies. McDermott, a Panama “based” corporate tax-avoider, also manages the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. (along with a lot of other critical national defense infrastructure. Take a look.)This rumored buy-out comes at a very interesting time. First, McDermott subsidiary Babcock and Wilcox bought out NFS (a competing nuclear fuel provider for the Navy) in January of this year.
(NFS was a troubled company that the Springboard covered previously–here, here and here.)
Second, the 2007 National Defense Authorization act, thanks to Representative Gene Taylor (D-MS), mandates that all future big Navy ships employ nuclear propulsion. But, now that we’re locked in and want high-energy/big power generation capabilities, where will the fuel come from? And at what price?Third, what better way to transform the Chinese Navy’s expected “carrier-building” announcement into a great-power referendum?
Rather than a simple, “hey, we’re building our first carrier, whee!” the announcement becomes, “Not only are we building carriers, we now own the means to build…nuclear supercarriers.”
Fourth, given that the purchase may be announced as early as Monday morning, this buy-out of a critical piece of the U.S. Defense Industrial Base risks putting an undeniably sharp edge on China’s upcoming naval celebration.
In the event the rumor is real, and the sale is announced tomorrow (or later this week), as the USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) arrives for China’s Naval Review and CNO Roughead begins his effort to positively engage China, this takeover offers a humbling example of how financial power can trump even the largest of navies. If true, this is an old-fashioned big-power nose-tweaking, pure and simple.To be frank, if this buy-out happens during China Naval Review, we, the United States, will have lost face throughout China and, well, pretty much the rest of Asia.
To China’s credit, this financial maneuver is a fascinating geopolitical endeavor that speaks far louder than any conciliatory language the world is likely to hear during China’s Naval Review.
Finally, China’s economic jockeying comes at a time when the Obama Administration is still racing to reset national security policy. There’s a heck of a lot going on, and it all gives SECDEF Gates’ recent comments regarding America’s ability to confront modern-day economic warfare a particular poignancy.
To Gates, a recent wargame was, according to insidedefense.com (subscription):
“…an eye-opening experience and it also reflected some shortcomings in the ability and willingness of different parts of the government to share information openly…”Amen. Look, has anyone–besides the little ‘ole Springboard–who, I might add, has been hollering about this for a long time–gamed this? Where’s the policy discussion? Why no public or market preparation?
What, pray tell, is the implication of China’s aggressive business play, and, if this takeover does happen, what are our options?
Article Source, US Naval Institute
More @ Springbored's Springboard
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Lied To Again - Iranian Uranium Edition
Liberally excerpted from Juan Cole's Informed Comment: IAEA Inspectors: Iran not Producing Weapons-grade Uranium and a follow up comment at another posting.(For a complete trip down the "Orwellian memory hole", watch Norman Solomon's War Made Easy: How Presidents and pundits keep spinning us to death. Narrated by Sean Penn.
Torrents are probably available [Here]).
Also see: How To Sell a War, A writeup on the Rendon Group, the folks who brought you the Firdoz Square, Iraq "Saddam Statue 'Teardown'", for more on how the media has a hold on your 'Believe Button', versus what is real and truthful.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
IAEA Inspectors: Iran not Producing Weapons-grade Uranium
As I mentioned yesterday, Iran is not producing weapon-grade uranium, and could not easily do so without detection. The Hindu, which despite its name is left of center (and which is one of India's finest newspapers) writes:' Iran has not converted the low-grade uranium that it has produced into weapon-grade uranium, inspectors belonging to the International Atomic Energy Agency have said.
The Austrian Press Agency quoted an IAEA expert as saying that the uranium substances that Iran has produced at its Natanz enrichment facility have been carefully recorded and remote cameras have been installed to supervise part of the stockpile.
“If the Iranians intend to transport these uranium substances to a secret location for further processing, agency’s inspectors will find out,” he said.
The expert added that “so far, Iran has carried out good cooperation with us in relevant verifications”.
IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei has said that Iran has slowed down its uranium enrichment programme.'
US newspapers are complaining that they are losing money and may not survive. After they put all sorts of falsehoods about Iraq on their front pages, it may be that they fatally wounded their credibility with the US public. In any case, the above report does not show up anywhere on the web or in Lexis that I can find, except here in The Hindu, which tells me that someone is not doing their job.
(See also Dr. Jeffrey Lewis).
So... HOW IS the Western media 'reporting' on this?
(and I AM using the term 'reporting' rather loosely here...)
Anonymous said...
I don’t think it is entirely correct to say that there has been no press response to the IAEC report. Consider the following headlines:
“Iran holds enough uranium for bomb”Financial Times 19 Feb 09
“Iran has enriched enough uranium to make bomb, IAEA says”
Guardian 19 Feb 09
“Iran Has More Enriched Uranium Than Thought”
NYT 19 Feb 09
(A Buffalo favorite... RFE/RL makes it sound like a 'sport')
"New IAEA Report Shows Iran Nearing Nuclear Breakout Capability”
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty 20 Feb 09
Clearly there is a difference in slant between the Hindu article and those listed above.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
SHOCKED! Shocked I Say! US Documents on Iran Nukes Forged? (Juan Cole)
Monday, November 10, 2008
US Documents on Iran Nukes Forged?
I'm shocked, shocked that allegations are emerging at the International Atomic Energy Agency that US-supplied "documents" from a laptop acquired in 2004 indicating a secret Iranian weapons program were probably forgeries.The IAEA clearly hopes that the Obama administration will end the previous administration's attempts to undermine it and will stop the Washington habit of using forged documents as a basis for aggressive military responses to nuclear programs and instead will opt for diplomacy.
Source
Since I've got your attention... A comparison is in order... to those Colombian FARC laptops the CIA and the Colombian military killed a number of people over (including a hostage negotiator and a number of Mexican college students) in a high tech (beyond the capabilities of the Colombian military) raid earlier in 2008:
"Using their forensic tools, they (the Interpol experts) found a total of 48,055 files for which the timestamps indicated that they had either been created, accessed, modified or deleted as a result of the direct access to the eight seized exhibits by Colombian authorities between the time of their seizure on 1 March 2008 and 3 March 2008 at 11:45 a.m.Or, to put it graphically:
"The actual seizure of the eight computer exhibits occurred between 5:50 a.m. and 7:50 a.m. (local time at the place of seizure, GMT -5:00) on Saturday, 1 March. However, it was not until more than 48 hours later that the eight seized exhibits were given to the computer forensic specialists of the Colombian Judicial Police," the report goes on to say.
"Access to the data contained in the eight FARC computer exhibits between 1 March 2008, when they were seized by Colombian authorities, and 3 March 2008 at 11:45 a.m., when they were turned over to…the Colombian Judicial Police, did not conform to internationally recognised principles for handling electronic evidence by law enforcement.
Source, IPS News
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