Axis of Proliferators-Nuclear missiles in Saudi Arabia? Could happen if we go light on North Korea

Wall St Journal ^ | August 19, 2003 | HENRY SOKOLSKI

[SJackson]

On Aug. 27, the U.S. will join China, Russia, North Korea, Japan and South Korea in negotiations over how best to neutralize the North Korean nuclear threat. One country that's sure to be watching is Iran.

Earlier this summer, I attended a meeting in Geneva that included Tehran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency and several members of Iran's Expediency Council. After the formal session, they pulled me aside. The one question -- the only question -- they pressed me about was what Washington planned to do about North Korea.

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

[DianaN]

Interesting that Saudi Arabia's interest in acquiring wmd was mentioned. I found some articles on the Internet that certainly suggested the Saudis were interested in acquiring them; that's a scary thought. I don't know much about the issue, however, it certainly seems like we should do whatever we can to insure that North Korea (if it hasn't acquired any already) and especially Iran do not acquire these weapons.

[happygrl]

President Bush has inherited a Pandora's Box of problems from Clinton.

I do not see how we will get around this other than to take the nuclear plants out with force, then deal with the fallout.

More talk is more of the same that created the problem.

[Cronos]

They must've already got nukes, courtesy of our ally the Pakstnais courtesy of our Most Favoured Trading Nation, the chicoms.

[TexasRepublic]

Appeasement of NK will never work. Talks will go nowhere. I imagine seeing Dubya on TV someday waving a scrap of paper, saying "Peace in our time".

[AdamSelene235]

PING.

[Southack]

Idiots "Cynics, on the other hand, are already arguing that the talks are simply designed to kick the can on the entire set of axis nuclear headaches until sometime after Mr. Bush wins re-election."

Oh please. Bush has at least 6 ABM silos that will be online in Alaska by September of 2004, and 4 more at Vandenberg in California will be ready before the end of 2004.

It's safe to say that everything that we do prior to those systems being online will simply be to stall for time. North Korea, after all, has so far been incapable of hand building more than one long range rocket every 5 or so years, so 10 or more ABM systems should suffice to innoculate the U.S. from any rogure missile that might escape our eventual and inevitable offensive against the Pyongyang Commies.

...And all this talk about Bush doing this, that, or the other thing for his own re-election is nonsense. That's not how he operates. He'll do the right thing even if it means that he won't be re-elected. Moreover, Bush would be even more inclined to act quickly if he **lost** re-election to some type of appeaser.

We simply can't let certain severe problems fester.

[Southack]

Algeria's new nuclear reactor

[Southack]

Legend: Definition Field Listing Rank Order

Introduction

Algeria

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Background:

After a century of rule by France, Algeria became independent in 1962. The surprising first round success of the fundamentalist FIS (Islamic Salvation Front) party in the December 1991 balloting caused the army to intervene, crack down on the FIS, and postpone the subsequent elections. The fundamentalist response has resulted in a continuous low-grade civil conflict with the secular state apparatus, which nonetheless has allowed elections featuring pro-government and moderate religious-based parties. The FIS's armed wing, the Islamic Salvation Army, disbanded in January 2000 and many armed militants of other groups surrendered under an amnesty program designed to promote national reconciliation. Nevertheless, small numbers of armed militants persist in confronting government forces and carrying out isolated attacks on villages and other types of terrorist attacks. Other concerns include Berber unrest, large-scale unemployment, a shortage of housing, and the need to diversify the petroleum-based economy.

Geography

Algeria

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Location:	Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Morocco and Tunisia
Geographic coordinates:	28 00 N, 3 00 E
Map references:	Africa
Area:	total: 2,381,740 sq km water: 0 sq km land: 2,381,740 sq km
Area - comparative:	slightly less than 3.5 times the size of Texas
Land boundaries:	total: 6,343 km border countries: Libya 982 km, Mali 1,376 km, Mauritania 463 km, Morocco 1,559 km, Niger 956 km, Tunisia 965 km, Western Sahara 42 km
Coastline:	998 km
Maritime claims:	exclusive fishing zone: 32-52 NM territorial sea: 12 NM
Climate:	arid to semiarid; mild, wet winters with hot, dry summers along coast; drier with cold winters and hot summers on high plateau; sirocco is a hot, dust/sand-laden wind especially common in summer
Terrain:	mostly high plateau and desert; some mountains; narrow, discontinuous coastal plain
Elevation extremes:	lowest point: Chott Melrhir -40 m highest point: Tahat 3,003 m
Natural resources:	petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, phosphates, uranium, lead, zinc
Land use:	arable land: 3.21% permanent crops: 0.21% other: 96.58% (1998 est.)
Irrigated land:	5,600 sq km (1998 est.)
Natural hazards:	mountainous areas subject to severe earthquakes; mudslides and floods in rainy season
Environment - current issues:	soil erosion from overgrazing and other poor farming practices; desertification; dumping of raw sewage, petroleum refining wastes, and other industrial effluents is leading to the pollution of rivers and coastal waters; Mediterranean Sea, in particular, becoming polluted from oil wastes, soil erosion, and fertilizer runoff; inadequate supplies of potable water
Environment - international agreements:	party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands signed, but not ratified: Nuclear Test Ban
Geography - note:	second-largest country in Africa (after Sudan)

People

Algeria

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Population:	32,818,500 (July 2003 est.)
Age structure:	0-14 years: 32.8% (male 5,485,197; female 5,285,434) 15-64 years: 63% (male 10,460,475; female 10,224,389) 65 years and over: 4.2% (male 624,839; female 738,166) (2003 est.)
Median age:	total: 22.5 years male: 22.3 years female: 22.6 years (2002)
Population growth rate:	1.65% (2003 est.)
Birth rate:	21.94 births/1,000 population (2003 est.)
Death rate:	5.09 deaths/1,000 population (2003 est.)
Net migration rate:	-0.4 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2003 est.)
Sex ratio:	at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.85 male(s)/female total population: 1.02 male(s)/female (2003 est.)
Infant mortality rate:	total: 37.74 deaths/1,000 live births female: 35.02 deaths/1,000 live births (2003 est.) male: 40.34 deaths/1,000 live births
Life expectancy at birth:	total population: 70.54 years male: 69.14 years female: 72.01 years (2003 est.)
Total fertility rate:	2.55 children born/woman (2003 est.)

[AdamSelene235]

Oh please. Bush has at least 6 ABM silos that will be online in Alaska by September of 2004, and 4 more at Vandenberg in California will be ready before the end of 2004.

Oh please. I've been working on ABM stuff for years, and Bush has never stopped by to help out.

ABM will only work on a nuke that is launched not one stashed in a cargo ship or a sailboat or a small airplane or a fruit truck from Mexico, etc.

[Southack]

It's much easier to intercept North Korean cargo ships than to intercept North Korean ICBM's.

And we'll have no trouble with either by the end of next year.

[AdamSelene235]

I doubt less than 5% of all cargo containers entering the US are opened. Plutonium is an only alpha emitter, btw.

[Southack]

Both weapons grade and reactor grade plutonium contain some plutonium-241. Plutonium-241 decays into americium-241 by emitting a beta particle. Since americium-241 has a far longer half-life (432 years) than plutonium-241 (14.4 years), it builds up as plutonium-241 decays. The gamma radiation from americium-241 decay, which is far stronger than that from plutonium-239, also builds up with the age of the plutonium sample. Therefore, the more plutonium-241 there is and the older the sample, the greater the gamma radiation from the build-up of americium-241.

[AdamSelene235]

You really should credit the original author of your comments.

[Southack]

The point is that Plutonium emits more than just Alpha particles, so Plutonium **can** be detected remotely by our security forces.

[AdamSelene235]

Is that you, Jason Blair?

[Southack]

Why are you going after me personally? Does that help one of your arguments?

[AdamSelene235]

Why are you going after me personally?

Because I object to plagarism.

Does that help one of your arguments?

Well, I've never taken a geiger counter to weapons grade plutonium to measure the impurities's daughters emissions. Now I'm curious how strong the signature is.

Nevertheless, tons of contraband like cocaine, easily detected by dogs, enters the country. It not unreasonable to believe a nuke could enter as well. A sailboat would be sufficient and unlikely to be checked with geiger counters.

I pinged you because apparently I'm not the only one who believes our good friends the Saudis have provided unstable Islamic nations with nukes.

[Southack]

"I pinged you because apparently I'm not the only one who believes our good friends the Saudis have provided unstable Islamic nations with nukes."

Pinged me?! More like pinged me and zinged me!