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Invaluable lessons have emerged from the Ukraine crisis — one is the validation of India’s age-old apprehension of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Promoted with the supposed objectives of preventing the misuse of nuclear weapons and fostering complete nuclear disarmament...[snip]Not only have the NPT ‘nuclear weapon States’ not destroyed their stockpile, their belligerence and intimidatory expansionism on the ‘have-not’ nations has been disconcerting. From unsubstantiated case of the WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction) in Iraq, reneging of Iran N-treaty despite IAEA’s confirmation of full compliances, China’s blatant territorial expansionism, to now Russia’s free run in Ukraine — the privileged five...

IPAWS National Test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) The national WEA test has been postponed to the backup date of October 3, 2018 at 2:18 p.m. EDT.

Israel on Saturday denounced as "hypocritical" a UN resolution by members of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty calling for a conference on a nuclear-free Middle East and said it would not participate. "This resolution is deeply flawed and hypocritical. It ignores the realities of the Middle East and the real threats facing the region and the entire world," said a statement issued by the Israeli government in Toronto, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Canada. The Jewish state has reacted furiously to the agreement reached Friday at the 2010 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference, which called for a regional conference in...

UNITED NATIONS — After 15 years, Arab nations finally won agreement from the United States and the other nuclear powers to take the first step toward banning nuclear weapons from the Middle East. Now, the next move is Israel's. Although the U.S. joined the 188 other member nations of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty on Friday in giving a green light to a conference in 2012 "on the establishment of a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction," senior U.S. officials appeared to backtrack afterward, setting several conditions for the talks to go ahead....

Netanyahu must not permit Obama's public relations campaign to divert him from this mission. The Democratic Party is feeling the heat for US President Barack Obama's hostility towards Israel. In an interview with Channel 10 earlier this month, Democratic Party mega-donor Haim Saban characterized the Obama administration as ideologically aligned with the radical Left and harshly criticized its treatment of Israel. Both Ma'ariv and Yediot Aharonot reported this week that Democratic congressmen and senators are deeply concerned that the administration's harsh treatment of Israel has convinced many American Jews not to contribute to their campaigns or to the Democratic Party...

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – Israel and Iran would be expected to attend talks on making the Middle East free of nuclear weapons, according to a draft final document of a UN non-proliferation conference released Tuesday. A nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East is among the most contentious issues at the conference reviewing the 189-nation Non-Proliferation Treaty, a global mandate for fighting the spread of atomic weapons. The draft calls for an initial conference in 2012 "to be attended by all states of the Middle East, leading to the establishment of a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and...

Washington – There are three ways in which I believe recent decisions by the Obama administration are, unintentionally, actually fostering the proliferation of nuclear weapons rather than constraining them. When judging the various policies President Obama has put forth in recent weeks to move toward zero nuclear weapons, we should bear in mind the old dictum of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.: In order to understand the law you have to look at it from the perspective of a bad man. First, the president and others have proposed to enhance nonproliferation by sequestering nuclear material into one international depository. The...

Defense: The administration proudly reveals a state secret to our enemies before a U.N. conference on nuclear nonproliferation. It wants to lead by example on disarmament, but Iran and North Korea aren't following. Not since the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact that sought to outlaw war as an instrument of national policy has there been such a stunning display of dangerous naivete. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton disclosed U.S. nuclear secrets to the U.N. conference while proudly proclaiming it showed America is sending "a clear, unmistakable signal" that this nation is committed to nuclear disarmament. Kellogg-Briand laid the groundwork for Munich in...

Citing unnamed US officials, Wall Street Journal reports White House seeking conference on non-binding agreement emerging from 1995 UN review of Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Initiative could raise new tensions between President Obama, Prime Minister Netanyahu US officials are in talks with Egypt over a plan to make the Middle East a nuclear-free zone, part of an effort to block the Iranian nuclear program, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. Citing unnamed US officials, the newspaper said the White House wanted to build on a non-binding agreement that emerged from a 1995 UN review of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). That agreement...

US will push for all states that are not members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) including India and Pakistan to join the nuclear accord during the NPT Review Conference to be held next week at the U.N. headquarters. “The U.S. has had a long—standing policy of supporting the universal adherence to NPT,” Susan Burk Special Representative of the President for nuclear non—proliferation told PTI, in response to a question whether Washington will address the question of New Delhi and Islamabad’s absence from the NPT. “And I am quite confident that the issue will be raised during the review conference,...

The Obama administration is likely to reveal a closely guarded secret -- the size of the U.S. nuclear stockpile -- during a critical meeting starting Monday at which Washington will try to strengthen the global treaty that curbs the spread of nuclear weapons, several officials said. The numbers could be released as soon as Monday, when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is to address the NPT Review Conference in New York, officials said. She will speak after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is likely to repeat his demands for more global controls over the stockpiles of the nuclear nations.

Note: The following text is a quote: www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/statement-president-barack-obama-release-nuclear-posture-review Home • Briefing Room • Statements & Releases The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release April 06, 2010 Statement by President Barack Obama on the Release of Nuclear Posture Review One year ago yesterday in Prague, I outlined a comprehensive agenda to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and to pursue the peace and security of a world without them. I look forward to advancing this agenda in Prague this week when I sign the new START Treaty with President Medvedev, committing the United States and Russia to...

National Security: Aiming at a world where nuclear weapons are obsolete, the administration's nuclear posture review leaves a world without American nuclear weapons and the backbone to use them. After his stunning bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, Japanese Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto lamented that all that had been accomplished was to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve. Under policies announced by the Obama administration, a devastating chemical or biological attack on this country might merely awaken our very own Hamlet and fill him with a terrible sense of angst. We have said before that rather...

Defense: President Obama dreams of a world without nuclear weapons. Unless testing and maintenance of our nuclear deterrent is resumed, it will be a world without American nuclear weapons.In his Prague speech this spring, the president spoke of "America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons," ignoring the fact that before 1945 we lived in such a world and it was neither peaceful nor secure. We recently observed the anniversaries of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, actions that brought an abrupt end to the carnage of World War II and arguably...

Iran has pursued its nuclear project with a strategy inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s story The Purloined Letter. In that short story, the police fail to find a stolen letter because they think it must be elaborately hidden. Instead, the thief outwits them by placing it right under their noses. To those who have followed the evolution of Iran’s military doctrine since the 1980s, the leak to The Times of confidential intelligence documents indicating that Iran is working on a key final component of a nuclear bomb comes as no surprise. The regime in Tehran has not hidden its nuclear...

The international community has treated the recent disclosure of another secret uranium enrichment facility in Iran the way it has treated Tehran's previous violations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty—with calls for yet more "dialogue." The continued pursuit of fruitless diplomacy at tomorrow's talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany is based on an incorrect understanding of international law, one that was spearheaded by the Europeans and is now unfortunately shared by the U.S. president. "Any nation—including Iran—should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power," Barack Obama declared in his famous Cairo...

Iran warns West against "past mistakes" Tue Sep 29, 2009 9:02am EDT By Parisa Hafezi and Fredrik Dahl TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Tuesday it would refuse to discuss a newly declared nuclear plant at forthcoming international talks and cautioned Western powers it could curb cooperation further if they repeated "past mistakes." An Iranian MP suggested that parliament might advocate withdrawal from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if Thursday's Geneva talks with major powers fail and "if the Zionists (Israel) and America continue their pressure on Iran" -- a reference to policies including economic sanctions. Washington has suggested possible...

Kim Jong Il's bombshell May 28th 2009 From The Economist print edition Isolated it may be, but North Korea’s antics do damage far beyond its own reach Reuters/AlamyHE HAS been coaxed, cajoled, censured and sanctioned. Yet whenever it suits North Korea’s boss, Kim Jong Il, he spews out new threats. For years he has managed to extort cash, oil and other goodies for then quietening down, only to behave even more threateningly next time. Can nothing be done to make this serial rule-breaker blink? With his second nuclear test and multiple missile launchings (see article), North Korea’s Dear Leader has...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel should join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the global pact meant to limit the spread of atomic weapons, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday. Speaking on the second day of a two-week meeting of the 189 signatories of the pact, Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller also defended a U.S.-India civilian nuclear deal, which developing nations have complained rewards New Delhi for staying outside the NPT. "Universal adherence to the NPT itself, including by India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea ... remains a fundamental objective of the United States," Gottemoeller...

Tokyo, Apr 28 (PTI) Warning that there are "seeds of military conflict" between India and Pakistan, Japan has said this is a "cause of concern to the world" since the Asian neighbours possessed nuclear weapons and pressed both to sign the NPT as "non-nuclear weapon States". "There are three states that stay outside the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, namely India, Pakistan and Israel. The fact that there are seeds of military conflict between India and Pakistan, both possessing nuclear weapons while maintaining a moratorium on nuclear testing, is a cause of concern to the world," Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said....