Nuclear Security Summit
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-04-12/nuclear-security-summit
President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hold a bilateral meeting during the APEC Summit, at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore, November 15, 2009
President Obama hosts an unprecedented two-day Nuclear Security Summit in Washington.
Guests
Joseph Cirincione
President, Ploughshares Fund
Stephen Rademaker
Senior Counsel with the BGR Group. Former Assistant Secretary of State from 2002 to 2006, where he directed nonproliferation policy toward Iran and North Korea.
David Sanger
chief Washington correspondent for "The New York Times," author of "The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power."
Comments
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I encourage all listeners interested in this issue to read "The Dead Hand" by David Hoffmann. He details a real-life scenario of discovering unsecured uranium after the fall of the Soviet Union in the early '90's. SCARY STUFF!!!
This morning I was driving my kids to work, listening to the show, and I just got so down and anxious at the same time. When I was in college the nuclear waste and destruction struck me so hard, and it seemed like we were inevitably moving to a more dangerous and unstable world (it was 1984-1988 and I was in school in Boulder), that I decided I could not sensibly bring children into this world. I married at 31, and did decide to have children. Now we have 4 girls, 4-9 years old. And here we are, talking about this very issue which shook me deeply back in the '80s. I am deeply against the weapons and this new laser technology. It seems that we have to make the tough decision not to use it. And we have to seriously lead the world to rid the arsenals of such indiscriminate weapons. What can I do, as a housewife in Arkansas, to have any voice in this discussion?
I personally believe Iran has every right to have and use nuclear energy. They have just as much a right to have a nuclear weapon as Israel does. If we sanction Iran, then we should also rein in Israel. I am not anti Semitic, I am a realist, and favor neither side. Thank you for your forum and decor, Diane you are an Angel of love and light.
I keep hearing the Israelis say they see a nuclear Iran as an "existential threat". From
my point of view, when Martin Van Creveld, an Israeli military historian, points out that
Israel has nuclear tipped missiles aimed at Europe, implying that the will be used if
Israel's agenda is thwarted , I feel existentially threatened.
The reason why Israel has never acknowledged its nuclear deterrent is very pragmatic. The only way a nation can legally withdraw from the NPT is to be threatened by a nuclear power. If ISrael has signed the NPT, or had publicly acknowledged a nuclear deterrent, it would have given all the Muslim countries still technically at war with Israel the RIGHT to withdraw from the treaty. North Korea withdrew from the NPT claiming it was being threatened by the United State, and that is its excuse for withdrawing. If ISrael had gone public, as have Indian and Pakistan, Egypt, Syria, and all the countries surrounding would have a BONAFIDE legal excuse to withdraw from the treaty. That is why Israel has never "fessed up."
In addition to my previous comment, the reason why Israel had to go nuclear in the first place was because the United States refused to give Israel a formal treaty of alliance which would have placed Israel under the US nuclear umbrella as are all the NATO, ANZUS, Japan and some other countries with FORMAL treaties of alliance. As for Israel's potential threat to Europe, all of Europe is under the US nuclear umbrella. A nuclear strike by ISrael on Europe would be followed not only by a UK and French attack, but also a US attack on Israel.
Had Israel been made a formal ally of the US by treaty, as is Germany, Poland, Italy and all the rest, Israel would not have had to gone through the great expense and effort to build its own nuclear deterrent.
Israel, Pakistan and Indian did NOT sign the NPT, and hence DO have the right to indigenously develop nuclear weapons provided they get no help or materials from abroad.
Iran, Iraq, Libya and 180 other countries DID sign the NPT and hence DO NOT have the right to have nuclear weapons. Signing the treaty meant signing AWAY the right to have them UNLESS the party seeking to withdraw from the treaty can produce credible evidence of its being threatened by a nuclear attack from a nuclear power. Since Israel has never been proved to be a nuclear power, Iran cannot use that as an excuse to withdraw from the treaty as North Korea has done.
NK withdrew claiming the US had threatened to use nukes against it. The US is a open nuclear power; Israel is not. At least not as can be PROVEN.
Every country should be allowed to have nuclear bombs, as many as they can afford. We deceive ourselves along with obama in thinking laying down your arms will works. History has proven it will not work. WE have been threatened with nuclear bombs since the 40's. I think every country has enough intelligence to know if one was set off, it would be the end of all mankind including them. There hasn't been a mad man yet to set one off, the reason, because countries have nuclear bombs!!
Having just watched the PBS American Experience on the Japan War, the last sentence was the wife of the Emperor that said " they relied on spirit, but forgot about science" For the second time I am contacting you to please address the issue of HEMP High altitude Electro Magnetic Pulse that is the result of a SINGLE atomic explosion in the atmosphere that would fry our electronics and reintroduce our Nations to the DARK AGES where we will be forced to eat each other for food. The missle that could deliver this event can be on a tramp steamer off the coast or other locations. The Soviet Union has already said they would use this destruction of our American Nation, letting us kill ourselves without bombing a single city that you continue to talk about. Further, what is Conservative about so many useless atomic bombs that were never a true solution?
Cirincione said that there is a direct correlation between reduction of nukes by those who have them and reduction of desire to have nukes by those who do not have them but are "threatened" by those who do have them. Then later he states that Israel's nukes have not stimulated an arms race in that region.
Just does not make sense.
How many times have we heard Israel threaten to attack Iran? And please do not respond by repeating that endlessly repeated and debunked (by Professor Juan Cole at Informed Comment) statement that the Iranian President wants to 'wipe Israel off the map" He did not say this.
But Israel and the I lobby continue to repeat it. Flynt Leverett finally corrected a talk show host on Charlie Rose when Rose repeated that endlessly repeated unsubstantiated claim
Jack could you link or provide direction to the documents that would veryify your claim that the "U.S. refused to give Israel a formal treaty of alliance" Have never heard such a thing anywhere about the development of Israel's nuclear, biological and chemical stockpiles.
Even if this were true which I doubt very much. Why would that be any excuse for Israel to not sign the NPT.
Your run around about why Israel has not signed the NPT makes no sense at all. It is Israel who has endlessly threatened Iran. Based on what you have said that would give Iran a verifiable reason to withdraw from the NPT. That paragraph about why they refuse to sign was a run around filled with hollow excuses.
The last President to demand that Israel open up to inspections was President Kennedy. You can read documents and the letters at the IAEA website. You can also read letters from other nations at the IAEA website who have strongly stated that "Israels nuclear capability is a threat to peace in the middle east"
Israel, Pakistan and India should be pressured to sign the NPT
The majority of threats in regard to the Iran/Israel situation have come from Israel. and the Israeli lobby here in the U.S. Have heard Ariel Sharon, Richard Perle (at the last AIPAC conference that Sharon attended the one where the I lobby set up a Hollywood style set up of an alleged Iranian nuclear weapons site). Micheal Ledeen, Reuel Marc Gerecht, Liz and Dick Cheney, Woolsey, etc etc have been repeating "Iran wants to wipe Israel off the map" That debunked statement by Professor Juan Cole who speaks and translates Persian and I believe speaks Farsi, Arabic, Persian and a few other languages. You can find the direct translation at Professor Cole's website "Informed Comment". Great site
This alleged statement has been repeated by the same warmongers that lied this nation into Iraq. Most MSM host do not challenge those who repeat the debunked claim. I have even heard it go unchallenged on the Diane Rehm show.
The other day on Charlie Rose's interview with Former CIA middle east analyst Flynt Leverett trumped Charlie Rose when he emphatically repeated that Iran "wants to wipe Israel off the map" Flynt corrected him. Was the first time I have heard this correction in the MSM. Flynt and Hillary mann Leverett's website is "The Race for Iran" Great site.
I hope the Rehm show has Flynt Leverett and Juan Cole on her program....again...been awhile
Israel has threatened Iran over and over again all based on unsubstantiated claims.