Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon has thrown a cloak of secrecy over assessments of the safety and security of its nuclear weapons operations, a part of the military with a history of periodic inspection failures and bouts of low morale. Overall results of routine inspections at nuclear weapons bases, such as a "pass-fail" grade, had previously been publicly available. They are now off-limits. The change goes beyond the standard practice of withholding detailed information on the inspections. The stated reason for the change is to prevent adversaries from learning too much about U.S. nuclear weapons vulnerabilities. Navy Capt. Greg Hicks,...

VIENNA, Austria - Iran abruptly froze further U.N. inspections of its nuclear program for six weeks on Friday, throwing into turmoil international attempts to verify Tehran's claims that it is developing atomic power and not weapons. The move was dismissed as unimportant by Iranian representatives. But diplomats familiar with the work of the International Atomic Energy Agency described it as a potentially insurmountable obstacle to the agency's efforts to deliver a judgment by June on the nature Tehran's past and present nuclear ambitions. One diplomat described the freeze until the end of April as counterproductive to Iran's stated aim of...

<p>U.S. programs to help safeguard Russia's nuclear and biological weapons materials are being severely hampered by the lack of access to Russian sites, a congressional report says.</p> <p>The report released Monday by the General Accounting Office said that although the United States has spent $1.8 billion over the past decade to help Russia improve security at these sites, nearly two-thirds of Russia's nuclear material still may not be adequately protected.</p>