NationStates Jolt Archive


Conservative bloggers may have assisted Iran's nuclear weapons program

Daistallia 2104
03-11-2006, 11:44
The short version: An online campaign to release US documents related to Iraq's WMD programs has caused detailed plans for nuclear weapons that would be of help to Iran, to be openly published.

U.S. Web Archive Is Said to Reveal a Nuclear Primer
By WILLIAM J. BROAD

Last March, the federal government set up a Web site to make public a vast archive of Iraqi documents captured during the war. The Bush administration did so under pressure from Congressional Republicans who had said they hoped to “leverage the Internet” to find new evidence of the prewar dangers posed by Saddam Hussein.

But in recent weeks, the site has posted some documents that weapons experts say are a danger themselves: detailed accounts of Iraq’s secret nuclear research before the 1991 Persian Gulf war. The documents, the experts say, constitute a basic guide to building an atom bomb.

Last night, the government shut down the Web site after The New York Times asked about complaints from weapons experts and arms-control officials. A spokesman for the director of national intelligence said access to the site had been suspended “pending a review to ensure its content is appropriate for public viewing.”

Officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency, fearing that the information could help states like Iran develop nuclear arms, had privately protested last week to the American ambassador to the agency, according to European diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity. One diplomat said the agency’s technical experts “were shocked” at the public disclosures.

Early this morning, a spokesman for Gregory L. Schulte, the American ambassador, denied that anyone from the agency had approached Mr. Schulte about the Web site.

The documents, roughly a dozen in number, contain charts, diagrams, equations and lengthy narratives about bomb building that nuclear experts who have viewed them say go beyond what is available elsewhere on the Internet and in other public forums. For instance, the papers give detailed information on how to build nuclear firing circuits and triggering explosives, as well as the radioactive cores of atom bombs.

“For the U.S. to toss a match into this flammable area is very irresponsible,” said A. Bryan Siebert, a former director of classification at the federal Department of Energy, which runs the nation’s nuclear arms program. “There’s a lot of things about nuclear weapons that are secret and should remain so.”

The government had received earlier warnings about the contents of the Web site. Last spring, after the site began posting old Iraqi documents about chemical weapons, United Nations arms-control officials in New York won the withdrawal of a report that gave information on how to make tabun and sarin, nerve agents that kill by causing respiratory failure.

The campaign for the online archive was mounted by conservative publications and politicians, who said that the nation’s spy agencies had failed adequately to analyze the 48,000 boxes of documents seized since the March 2003 invasion. With the public increasingly skeptical about the rationale and conduct of the war, the chairmen of the House and Senate intelligence committees argued that wide analysis and translation of the documents — most of them in Arabic — would reinvigorate the search for clues that Mr. Hussein had resumed his unconventional arms programs in the years before the invasion. American search teams never found such evidence.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/03/world/middleeast/03documents.html?ei=5065&en=9b92b000e0a064e6&ex=1163134800&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print
Lunatic Goofballs
03-11-2006, 11:54
It's okay. I've learned enough. :D
Andaras Prime
03-11-2006, 11:55
Oh yeah right, like they could tell them anything A.Q. Khan hasn't already, Iran getting the bomb is just a matter of time with the centrofuge technology they already have, they just need more plutonium & yellow cake.
Daistallia 2104
03-11-2006, 11:57
Oh yeah right, like they could tell them anything A.Q. Khan hasn't already, Iran getting the bomb is just a matter of time with the centrofuge technology they already have, they just need more plutonium & yellow cake.

The documents give more detail than has been available before.

The documents, roughly a dozen in number, contain charts, diagrams, equations and lengthy narratives about bomb building that nuclear experts who have viewed them say go beyond what is available elsewhere on the Internet and in other public forums. For instance, the papers give detailed information on how to build nuclear firing circuits and triggering explosives, as well as the radioactive cores of atom bombs.
Cannot think of a name
03-11-2006, 12:03
Seems stretchy to me. I mean, sure, I'd love for conservative windbags to be hoisted etc. but this still seems like a stretch. Honestly, the cat is more or less out of the bag with nuclear bomb technology. If they want one, they'll get one.
Delator
03-11-2006, 12:12
Meh...if nothing else it will get the the right wing off of the back of the "liberal media" for a while.

Nothing the NY Times has printed comes close to plans for nuclear bombs. :rolleyes:
Zagat
03-11-2006, 12:15
Not even a page and the apologists have started up already. When was there a worst threat to national security caused by a single government act?

All the crap done in the name of 'national security'; baggin a friggen newspaper for publishing details of what the government does in regards to international bank account monitoring, all the accusations of 'dissent is a security risk to our troops and national security' due to its moral effects....all the 'national security' historonics that get thrown any time anything that might look bad for Bush & Co. Ltd get published, but hey if it might possibly generate some PR in favour of Bush and Co. Ltd, publish a 'how to' manual of 'everything you ever wanted to know about acquiring your own nuclear programe', by all means...

National security my arse....I always knew Bush & Co. Ltd didnt care about national security, no way the New York Times, the Dixie Chicks, and getting retrospective warrants in secret closed and specially appointed proceedings are a friggin national security risk, but not even checking to make sure you are not publishing a nuclear acquisition manual isnt....
Cannot think of a name
03-11-2006, 12:23
Not even a page and the apologists have started up already. When was there a worst threat to national security caused by a single government act?

All the crap done in the name of 'national security'; baggin a friggen newspaper for publishing details of what the government does in regards to international bank account monitoring, all the accusations of 'dissent is a security risk to our troops and national security' due to its moral effects....all the 'national security' historonics that get thrown any time anything that might look bad for Bush & Co. Ltd get published, but hey if it might possibly generate some PR in favour of Bush and Co. Ltd, publish a 'how to' manual of 'everything you ever wanted to know about acquiring your own nuclear programe', by all means...

National security my arse....I always knew Bush & Co. Ltd didnt care about national security, no way the New York Times, the Dixie Chicks, and getting retrospective warrants in secret closed and specially appointed proceedings are a friggin national security risk, but not even checking to make sure you are not publishing a nuclear acquisition manual isnt....
I'm not appologizing for anyone. I think that all that stuff was even stupider and ill founded, I'm just not going to start stretching to do something 'not as bad...' that's their tactic...
Daistallia 2104
03-11-2006, 12:31
Seems stretchy to me. I mean, sure, I'd love for conservative windbags to be hoisted etc. but this still seems like a stretch. Honestly, the cat is more or less out of the bag with nuclear bomb technology. If they want one, they'll get one.

It was the bloggers who were plumping for the info to be released.

And do I need to quote the section about how this helps yet again?
Kradlumania
03-11-2006, 12:52
Why should this be a surprise? It was Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz who were behind the Iranian nuclear program in the 70's. They were part of the team that came up with the plan to sell US reprocessing plants to the Iranians. Funny how the shit the Republicans did during the 70's and the 80's keeps coming back and biting them on the ass. Sure, they and their cronies made loads of money from it at the time, but it's the US taxpayers who are paying for it now.

I wonder what shit they did in the 90's and 00's will be coming back to bite our kids in the ass?
German Nightmare
03-11-2006, 13:19
Somebody set up us the bomb.