China - Airforce: the warplanes ‘training for strikes against US targets’

The Pentagon has highlighted China’s growing military clout in a new report, saying the air force is developing its bombers to hit targets as far away as possible – and “likely training for strikes” against the United States and its allies.

The report said the People’s Liberation Army was pursuing nuclear capability for its long-range bombers, and the air force had “been reassigned a nuclear mission”, in its annual report to the US Congress on China’s military developments released on Thursday.

“Over the last three years, the [PLA] has rapidly expanded its overwater bomber operating areas, gaining experience in critical maritime regions and likely training for strikes against US and allied targets,” the report said.

Read more: Chinese bombers: the warplanes ‘training for strikes against US targets’ | South China Morning Post

North Korea Rocket Recovery Proves They Were Building The Missile’s Cone At Dimensions For A Nuclear Warhead

When North Korean engineers launched a satellite into space on December 12, it seemed like business as usual, with the familiar cycle of condemnations from the west and statements of defiance from the Hermit Kingdom. But that launch also led many U.S.intelligence analysts to assess that Pyongyang possessed the ability to miniaturize the components necessary to yield a nuclear explosion for a crude warhead that would sit atop a ballistic missile.

After the North Korean launch, U.S. Navy ships managed to recover the front section of the rocket used in it, according to three U.S. officials who work closely on North Korean proliferation. That part of the rocket in turn provided useful clues about North Korean warhead design, should the next payload be a warhead rather than a satellite.

The same basic engineering and science needed to launch a satellite into space is also used in the multi-stage rockets known as inter-continental ballistic missiles. The front of the satellite rocket, according to three U.S. officials who work closely on North Korean proliferation, gave tangible proof that North Korea was building the missile’s cone at dimensions for a nuclear warhead, durable enough to be placed on a long-range missile that could re-enter the earth’s atmosphere from space.

Read more: North Korea Rocket Recovery Proves They Were Building The Missile’s Cone At Dimensions For A Nuclear Warhead | Market Daily News

North Korea: Nuclear test is part of a dangerous balancing act

Pyongyang has carried out its third nuclear test, provoking angry criticism across the western world. The UN Security Council has condemned the move in strong terms after calling an emergency session. 

The detonation of a nuclear device in the far northeast of the Korean peninsula shortly before midday local time on Tuesday comes as little surprise to other governments, both near and far. Since the blast, which was measured as a magnitude 5.1 underground tremor, officials from Tokyo to Washington and London to Seoul have been quick to repeat their condemnations of a regime that has carried out two previous atomic tests and in December launched a rocket based on ballistic missile technology.

Those harsh words and existing sanctions have not had the effect of moderating North Korea's behavior, however. Not even strongly worded warnings from Beijing - which is Pyongyang's sole meaningful international ally - have had any impact on its belligerent neighbor.

The key questions are what the North wants of the international community and what might be done to reign in an increasingly unpredictable and isolated - yet well-armed - dictatorship.

"North Korea is attempting to strengthen its status as a nuclear-armed state and these actions follow the steps the regime there took in 2006 and 2009," said Professor Hiroyasu Akutsu, a North Korea analyst at the National Institute of Defense Studies in Tokyo, referring to the previous nuclear tests conducted by the North.

"In both cases, they carried out missile launches that were condemned internationally and then they went ahead with nuclear tests about one month later," he pointed out. "This test comes exactly two months after the North successfully launched a rocket into space."


Read more: Nuclear test is part of a dangerous balancing act | Asia | DW.DE | 12.02.2013

Forget Iran - Israel is bigger threat to world peace - by David Cronin

Is a war with Iran inevitable? I don’t have the answer to that question. But I do feel a sense of déjà-vu when I scan the headlines. Iran is capable of assembling a bomb within a year, Leon Panetta, the US defence secretary, told CBS News recently. Though not as outlandish, his “warning” carried a chilling reminder of Tony Blair’s claim that Iraq could deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes.

Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress (EJC), issued a comical statement in December last. It referred to “reports” – the source of which went unmentioned – that Iran may be preparing to strike Germany in response to an American attack on Iranian nuclear installations. “Whether or not these reports are valid is beside the point, we know certain facts and they are that Iran sees much of Europe as its enemy,” he added. It should be emphasized that the EJC does not represent all Europe’s Jews, despite how it purports to do so. I have a number of Jewish friends and acquaintances who disagree sharply with its agenda.

Fast forward to December 2011, when George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was guest of honour at the Conservative Friends of Israel annual lunch at a plush London hotel. Osborne was interviewed onstage by the right-wing pundit Danny Finkelstein, who asked his views on the “threat” from Iran. “Well, first of all I think Israel is right to identify this as one of the greatest threats to peace and human life in the world at the moment,” Osborne replied, before speaking of “this government’s determination to use all the tools at our disposal to stop Iran getting a nuclear weapon”.

Pause for a moment and consider those lines. Osborne thinks Israel is right to identify Iran as one of the greatest threats to world peace. If he believes his own baloney, he should brush up on world affairs. Iran is not occupying the land of another people. By contrast, Israel occupies the West Bank and Gaza, as well as parts of Lebanon and Syria. Iran’s most recent war was with Iraq in the 1980s. Israel attacked Gaza as recently as the past few weeks.

True, Iran’s human rights record is deplorable. It was the world’s second highest user of the death penalty in 2010. But invoking that as a casus belli would be grossly hypocritical, when one considers that the US was at number five on the global executions table.

Iran may be less than candid about its nuclear ambitions but it has signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel has not. 


For more: Forget Iran - Israel is bigger threat to world peace | New Europe

Europe's Five "Undeclared Nuclear Weapons States" - by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky

Nuclear bombs are stored on air-force bases in Italy, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands — and planes from each of those countries are capable of delivering them." ("What to Do About Europe's Secret Nukes." Time Magazine, December 2, 2009) . Five countries, the US, UK, France, China and Russia are considered to be "nuclear weapons states" (NWS), "an internationally recognized status conferred by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)". Three other "Non NPT countries" (i.e. non-signatory states of the NPT) including India, Pakistan and North Korea, have recognized possessing nuclear weapons.

Israel is identified as an "undeclared nuclear state". It produces and deploys nuclear warheads directed against military and civilian targets in the Middle East including Tehran.

The US has supplied some 480 B61 thermonuclear bombs to five so-called "non-nuclear states", including Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey. Casually disregarded by the Vienna based UN Nuclear Watchdog (IAEA), the US has actively contributed to the proliferation of nuclear weapons in Western Europe.

Among the five "undeclared nuclear states", "Germany remains the most heavily nuclearized country with three nuclear bases (two of which are fully operational) and may store as many as 150 [B61 bunker buster ] bombs" (Ibid). In accordance with "NATO strike plans" (mentioned above) these tactical nuclear weapons are also targeted at the Middle East. 

While Germany is not categorized officially as a nuclear power, it produces nuclear warheads for the French Navy. It stockpiles nuclear warheads (made in America) and it has the capabilities of delivering nuclear weapons. Moreover, The European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company - EADS , a Franco-German-Spanish joint venture, controlled by Deutsche Aerospace and the powerful Daimler Group is Europe's second largest military producer, supplying .France's M51 nuclear missile.

For more; Europe's Five "Undeclared Nuclear Weapons States"

MehrNews.com: Lebanese FM says U.S. must rein in Israel nuclear arsenal

For the complete report from Mehrnews.com click on this link

Lebanese FM says U.S. must rein in Israel nuclear arsenal

Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Fawzi Salloukh has called on the United States as the main backer of the Zionist regime to take action against Tel Aviv for stockpiling nuclear weapons. “Israel is full of nuclear warheads and the United States and international organizations have the duty to respond to this issue,” Salloukh told the Mehr News Agency on the sidelines of the 15th meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement foreign ministers last Wednesday.