@@ Nuclear Bait & Switch @@
Arash
October 9, 2004
Nuclear Bait and Switch
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/images/Prather.jpg
By Dr. James Gordon Prather
Nuclear weapons physicist
gpra...@worldnetdaily.com
President Clinton inherited a congressional mandate to help Russia -
financially and technically - dismantle thousands of excess Soviet nukes,
securely store and eventually dispose of the hundreds of tons of excess
weapons-grade materials recovered thereby. The Nunn-Lugar objective was to
prevent terrorists from getting their hands on Soviet nukes and/or the
weapons-grade materials.
However, by the end of Clinton's presidency, very little assistance had
actually been provided Russia for that purpose, and the chances of
terrorists getting their hands on nuke materials was greater than ever. Oh,
billions of dollars had been spent in the name of "nuclear threat
reduction." But most of that Nunn-Lugar money was spent by the Pentagon on
projects that had nothing to do with keeping nukes out of the hands of
terrorists.
As for the rest of it, Clinton had placed a much higher priority on getting
the other nuke powers - starting with Russia, using Nunn-Lugar funding as
bait - to just get rid of their nuke stockpiles rather than keeping them out
of the hands of terrorists.
Clinton's plan had been to promise U.S. and Russian nuke disarmament in
return for every Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) signatory - as well as
states like Israel and India, who were not NPT signatories, but were
suspected of having nukes - signing on to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
If nuke tests were prohibited from now on, nukes in existing stockpiles
would eventually turn into "duds." Furthermore, no new nuke designs - much
less new nuke states - could emerge.
Meanwhile, Clinton hoped to get the United Kingdom, France and China to join
us in getting rid of our nukes, as promised under Article VI of the NPT.
Fat chance.
And why would nation-states without nukes forever forego acquiring them?
After all, nation-states without nukes sometimes get invaded, but
nation-states with nukes never do.
Well, the five NPT signatories with nukes essentially assured the 180 NPT
signatories without nukes that they would never need nukes to defend
themselves.
In addition, NPT signatories had an "inalienable right" to acquire any and
all nuclear technology. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was
given the job of ensuring that the nuclear technology so acquired was used
for peaceful purposes only.
However, by 1993, it was realized that countries like Iraq, Iran and
possibly North Korea might feel threatened and attempt to "game" the
NPT-IAEA Safeguards system. Hence, the IAEA needed authority to conduct
unannounced inspections at suspect - but undeclared - sites as well. The
additional authority was to be provided by an Additional Protocol to the
existing IAEA-NPT Safeguards Agreement.
So, when Bush took office, Iraq and North Korea were already subject to what
amounted to an Additional Protocol, and Iran had agreed to negotiate one
with the IAEA.
Well, that presented a problem.
You see, for at least a decade, the neo-crazies had wanted to inflict regime
change on oil-rich Iran and Iraq, as well as a few oil-poor countries, such
as North Korea. But public opinion polls told them they wouldn't be allowed
to invade a country unless the American electorate could be convinced that
the country to be invaded was on the verge of providing nukes to terrorists
for use against Americans.
Well, according to Bush, getting Congress to vote for Operation Bait &
Switch was easy. He just showed them the "intelligence" George "Slam-Dunk"
Tenet had provided him.
But getting you to believe that Saddam Hussein had nukes and intended to
give them to al-Qaeda turned out to be "hard work." Especially since IAEA
Director General ElBaradei reported to the UN Security Council, just days
before Bush launched Operation Bait & Switch, that: "As of 17 March 2003,
the IAEA had found no evidence or plausible indication of the revival of a
nuclear weapons program in Iraq."
But even Bush couldn't have baited you with a nonexistent nuke terrorist
threat without the combined assistance of Tony Blair, Dick Cheney, Scooter
Libby, Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, Richard Perle, Ahmed Chalabi, Khirdir
Hamza, Paul Gigot, Judith Miller, Bill Gertz, Bill Kristol, Joe Centrifuge,
and last - but not least - Fox News.
However, Bush now has a problem. How to convince you that the invasion and
occupation of Iran is necessary? That Iran is on the verge of providing
nukes to terrorists for use against you?
Well, by continuing to insist right through the election that Saddam Hussein
was on the verge of providing nukes to al-Qaeda for use against you. Surely
you're not going to take the word of Mohamed ElBaradei, or Scott Ritter, or
David Kay, or Charles Duelfer that he wasn't.
* Physicist James Gordon Prather has served as a policy implementing
official for national security-related technical matters in the Federal
Energy Agency, the Energy Research and Development Administration, the
Department of Energy, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the
Department of the Army. Dr. Prather also served as legislative assistant for
national security affairs to U.S. Sen. Henry Bellmon, R-Okla. -- ranking
member of the Senate Budget Committee and member of the Senate Energy
Committee and Appropriations Committee. Dr. Prather had earlier worked as a
nuclear weapons physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in
California and Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico.
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