Family Atomics Revisited
Last month I had blogged on the fact that Middle Eastern countries were secretly researching and developing nuclear weapons in such places as Egypt for example and how the Egyptian government clandestinely assisted in Iraq's biological weapons program as well as assisting in Iraqs production/upgrade of SCUD missles. Well, lo and behold, its now Saudi Arabia's turn. This is from the Washington Post dated April 20th:
Saudi Arabia has quietly begun talks on a U.N.-sanctioned agreement that could curtail any outside probe of its atomic intentions - a move that heightens concerns in a region already edgy about rival Iran's nuclear program....
The protocol frees countries from reporting the possession of up to 10 tons of natural uranium - or up to 20 tons of depleted uranium, depending on the degree of enrichment - and 2.2 pounds of plutonium. It also allows them to keep silent about work on nuclear facilities secret until six months before they are ready for operation. And once a protocol is signed, the country's word is normally not questioned....
While the Saudi government insists it has no interest in going nuclear beyond a small research reactor built in the 1970s, in the past two decades it has been linked to prewar Iraq's nuclear program, to Pakistan and to the Pakistani nuclear black marketeer A.Q. Khan. It has expressed interest in Pakistani missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, and credible reports say Saudi officials have discussed taking the nuclear option as a deterrent in the volatile Middle East.
A Vienna-based diplomat familiar with the issue said that while there is no firm evidence that the Saudis "have been playing around, we can never be sure" should the IAEA's authority to inspect be curtailed and it be restricted to taking the word of the government that all is well.
So now the Saudi's too have been up to no good as well. When we consider the reality that Nuclear Weapons are slowly becoming the doomsday weapon of choice for Islamic states throughout the world, it certainly raises the spectre that the 21st century could witness the first Atomic War in man's history. The bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the exclamation marks on the Second World War on what was otherwise a bloody "conventional" conflict. Would nations that are essentially military paper-tigers resort to using a weapon of mass destruction as their FIRST line of defense/offense? The Washington Post continues:
Worries about Saudi Arabia were nonexistent in the 1970s, when the first small quantities protocols were negotiated. The overriding fear back then was that the Cold War could turn nuclear.
While the Nonproliferation Treaty, which came into force in 1970, was designed to contain the spread of nuclear weapons, the focus was on developed countries on both sides of the ideological U.S.-Soviet divide.
But the Saudi case is even more disquieting considering the country's past record. British newspapers and several think tanks have reported independently on the existence of a Saudi position paper as recently as two years ago that listed the possible acquisition of a nuclear weapons capability as a deterrent.
Further back, Saudi defector Muhammad Khilewi produced documents in 1994 purporting to show that the Saudi government had paid up to $5 billion to Saddam Hussein to build nuclear weapons on condition that should the project succeed, some of the bombs would be given to the Saudis.
The former diplomat's papers also appeared to show Saudi payments for Pakistan's nuclear weapons program. Later, in 1999, Prince Sultan Bin Abd al-Aziz, the Saudi defense minister, toured part of Pakistan's secret nuclear facilities.
Have the Saudi's made a deal with the devil? Is this the prelude to greater Jihad glory over Israel or a grand scheme to produce and use these weapons against enemies farther north? Dar Al Islam is at war across the globe against Israel, America, Europe, Africa, India and Russia. She is outnumbered and out-gunned, with her culture all but dead being kept alive by artificial means in the form of petrol dollars. Islam is a dying animal that will strike out at her neighbors one last time before she herself is consumed by history.
Saudi Arabia has quietly begun talks on a U.N.-sanctioned agreement that could curtail any outside probe of its atomic intentions - a move that heightens concerns in a region already edgy about rival Iran's nuclear program....
The protocol frees countries from reporting the possession of up to 10 tons of natural uranium - or up to 20 tons of depleted uranium, depending on the degree of enrichment - and 2.2 pounds of plutonium. It also allows them to keep silent about work on nuclear facilities secret until six months before they are ready for operation. And once a protocol is signed, the country's word is normally not questioned....
While the Saudi government insists it has no interest in going nuclear beyond a small research reactor built in the 1970s, in the past two decades it has been linked to prewar Iraq's nuclear program, to Pakistan and to the Pakistani nuclear black marketeer A.Q. Khan. It has expressed interest in Pakistani missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, and credible reports say Saudi officials have discussed taking the nuclear option as a deterrent in the volatile Middle East.
A Vienna-based diplomat familiar with the issue said that while there is no firm evidence that the Saudis "have been playing around, we can never be sure" should the IAEA's authority to inspect be curtailed and it be restricted to taking the word of the government that all is well.
So now the Saudi's too have been up to no good as well. When we consider the reality that Nuclear Weapons are slowly becoming the doomsday weapon of choice for Islamic states throughout the world, it certainly raises the spectre that the 21st century could witness the first Atomic War in man's history. The bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the exclamation marks on the Second World War on what was otherwise a bloody "conventional" conflict. Would nations that are essentially military paper-tigers resort to using a weapon of mass destruction as their FIRST line of defense/offense? The Washington Post continues:
Worries about Saudi Arabia were nonexistent in the 1970s, when the first small quantities protocols were negotiated. The overriding fear back then was that the Cold War could turn nuclear.
While the Nonproliferation Treaty, which came into force in 1970, was designed to contain the spread of nuclear weapons, the focus was on developed countries on both sides of the ideological U.S.-Soviet divide.
But the Saudi case is even more disquieting considering the country's past record. British newspapers and several think tanks have reported independently on the existence of a Saudi position paper as recently as two years ago that listed the possible acquisition of a nuclear weapons capability as a deterrent.
Further back, Saudi defector Muhammad Khilewi produced documents in 1994 purporting to show that the Saudi government had paid up to $5 billion to Saddam Hussein to build nuclear weapons on condition that should the project succeed, some of the bombs would be given to the Saudis.
The former diplomat's papers also appeared to show Saudi payments for Pakistan's nuclear weapons program. Later, in 1999, Prince Sultan Bin Abd al-Aziz, the Saudi defense minister, toured part of Pakistan's secret nuclear facilities.
Have the Saudi's made a deal with the devil? Is this the prelude to greater Jihad glory over Israel or a grand scheme to produce and use these weapons against enemies farther north? Dar Al Islam is at war across the globe against Israel, America, Europe, Africa, India and Russia. She is outnumbered and out-gunned, with her culture all but dead being kept alive by artificial means in the form of petrol dollars. Islam is a dying animal that will strike out at her neighbors one last time before she herself is consumed by history.
posted by Bruce R. McConnell | 4:52 PM
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