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Arash

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Aug 24, 2005, 7:11:46 AM8/24/05

AntiWar
August 23, 2005

Zero Tolerance

Dr. James Gordon Prather
Nuclear weapons physicist
Nuclear bomb tester at Lawrence Livermore
Technical director of nuclear bomb testings at Sandia
Chief scientist of the U.S. Army
U.S. Navy veteran

In President Bush's first State of the Union message, he essentially accused North
Korea, Iran, and Iraq of having clandestine nuke programs and – in his first
enunciation of what later became known as the Bush Doctrine – warned them he would
"not tolerate" their having the nuke programs he accused them of having.

No matter that all three nation-states were signatories to the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).

Every NPT signatory not already in possession of nukes pledges to not acquire – or
even seek to acquire – nukes, in return for being guaranteed "INALIENABLE" rights of
access to everything "nuclear" that is peaceful.

However, all "source and special nuclear materials" – as well as all activities
involving the chemical or physical transformation thereof – have to be "declared" and
made subject to a Safeguards Agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The IAEA was created in 1957, primarily to facilitate the international transfer of
nuclear energy, but the IAEA Statue requires the agency to "ensure" – through its
Safeguards and Physical Security regime – that "adequate measures" are taken "to
prevent the source and special fissionable materials" transferred or produced,
subsequently, "from being used in furtherance of any military purpose".

If IAEA inspectors discover any such activity, the IAEA Board of Governors can refer
the matter to the UN Security Council, which could – under the UN Charter – impose
sanctions.

When the Treaty on Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons was opened for signature in
1968, the IAEA Safeguards regime – with its Security Council enforcement mechanism –
had been in operation for more than a decade.

So the NPT simply required every signatory without nukes to enter into a IAEA
Safeguards Agreement "with a view to preventing diversion of nuclear energy from
peaceful uses to nuclear weapons".

Note that the NPT makes use of, but does not in any way modify, the IAEA Charter and
its Safeguards regime.

However, in the aftermath of the second Persian Gulf War, the IAEA Board of Governors
concluded that existing Safeguards Agreements did not ensure that adequate measures
could be taken to ensure that "special fissionable materials" were not used in
furtherance of some military purpose. So in 1997, the IAEA unveiled a Model
Additional Protocol
(http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Infcircs/1998/infcirc540corrected.pdf),
which they hoped all countries having Safeguards Agreements would accept and adhere
to.

In late 2003, Iran VOLUNTARILY did sign an Additional Protocol, vastly expanding the
authority of IAEA inspectors to go anywhere and see anything. In particular, under
the Additional Protocol, the Iranians were required to provide all pertinent
information about their plans to acquire and/or manufacture and operate gas
centrifuges.

Under their existing Safeguards Agreement, the Iranians had NOT been required to
divulge any information about the planning, acquisition, or manufacture of gas
centrifuges, nor any information about a future uranium-enrichment facility until
shortly before introducing "source or special nuclear materials" into the
centrifuges.

In other words, under the existing Iranian Safeguards Agreement, only those
activities that actually involved chemical or physical transformation of source or
special nuclear materials were required to be reported to the IAEA.

Since Iran began voluntarily adhering to the Additional Protocol, Director General
Mohamed ElBaradei has repeatedly reported to the IAEA Board that he has found no
evidence that Iran has even planned to engage in activities – including those not
even involving safeguarded materials – in furtherance of any military purpose.

So after

"Recalling the Director General's assessment in GOV/2004/83 that all the
declared nuclear material in Iran had been accounted for, and that such material had
not been diverted to prohibited activities…"

and after

"Recognizing the right of states to the development and practical application of
atomic energy for peaceful purposes, including the production of electric power…"

the IAEA Board, nevertheless, expressed last week
(http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Board/2005/gov2005-64.pdf) "serious
concern" that "Iran had decided to resume the uranium conversion activities at the
Uranium Conversion Facility in Esfahan".

Hadn't those activities been subject to IAEA scrutiny for many months? And hadn't
ElBaradei found no evidence that they were doing anything at Esfahan to "further a
military purpose"?

So why did the Board urge "Iran to reestablish full suspension of all enrichment
related activities" at Esfahan "on the same voluntary, non-legally binding basis as
requested in previous Board resolutions"?

Well, believe it or not, because after 2 years of go-anywhere, see-anything
inspections, "the Agency is not yet in a position to conclude that there are no
undeclared nuclear materials or activities in Iran".

There is nothing in the IAEA Statute that requires such a conclusion.

But even if the IAEA did come to that conclusion, do you suppose Bush would tolerate
it?

Dr. Prather's past radio interviews:
August 2, 2005
http://www.charlesgoyette.com/archive/media/2005-08-02-Charles-01.mp3
July 23, 2005
http://www.weekendinterviewshow.com/audio/prather5.mp3
May 7, 2005
http://www.weekendinterviewshow.com/audio/prather4.mp3
May 4, 2005
http://www.charlesgoyette.com/archive/media/2005-05-04-Charles-01.mp3
April 9, 2005
http://www.weekendinterviewshow.com/audio/prather3.mp3
February 16, 2005 (Part 1)
http://www.charlesgoyette.com/archive/media/2005-02-16-Charles-04.mp3
February 16, 2005 (Part 2)
http://www.charlesgoyette.com/archive/media/2005-02-16-Charles-05.mp3
February 5, 2005
http://www.weekendinterviewshow.com/audio/prather2.mp3
December 4, 2004
http://www.weekendinterviewshow.com/audio/prather.mp3

* 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
(http://www.llnl.gov) in California and Sandia National Laboratory
(http://www.sandia.gov) in New Mexico. http://www.antiwar.com/prather

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