US legislative bid against limiting nukes

The floor of the US House of Representatives

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/179557.html

US lawmakers have approved a defense bill that limits President Barack Obama's authority in slashing nuclear arsenal and blocks the implementation of a US-Russia arms control treaty.

Despite objections by the Defense Department and Democratic Congressmen, the Republic-controlled Armed Services Committee of the US House of Representatives approved a series of amendments that would limit Obama's authority to reduce the US arsenal of nuclear weapons, AP reported on Thursday.

By a 35-26 vote, the panel passed an amendment that would make the allocation of money for disabling nuclear weapons conditional on the submission of an administration report to congress on the measure.

The other amendment passed by the panel also denies the US president the authority to modify the target list or move nuclear weapons out of Europe until Congress is officially informed.

Last year, the United States and Russia signed an agreement that would reduce the number of deployable nuclear weapons of both countries by one-third.

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) will cut the number of deployable long-range warheads to 1,550 each, down from the current ceiling of more than 2,000.

Russia may review START treaty with US

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/164160.html

Russian officials say Moscow will reconsider its strategic nuclear arms reduction treaty with Washington in case the US government builds up its missile system.

“If the US increases the size and quality of missile defense individually or together with NATO partners and the situation changes; a question will [then] arise: Should Russia comply with the treaty or take measures in response?” a Press TV correspondent quoted Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying in a news conference on Monday.

The senior Russian diplomat noted that the new Russian-US Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) makes the link between strategic defensive and offensive armaments legally binding.

The landmark nuclear arms pact between the two sides came into effect during a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and State Secretary Hillary Clinton in Munich, Germany, on February 5.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had signed the ratification of the new START agreement on January 28.

The new nuclear disarmament pact between Moscow and Washington was passed in Russia's lower house, the State Duma, on January 25. The treaty won the final approval from the upper house, Federation Council, the next day.

The new START treaty, signed by Russian President Medvedev and US President Barack Obama in the Czech capital of Prague in April last year, replaced START 1, which expired in December 2009.

In December, 2010, the US Senate attached non-binding amendments to Washington's historic nuclear weapons reduction treaty with Moscow.

The additions recommit the United Sates to deploy a missile system to Europe, modernize its nuclear arsenal and seek talks with Russia on curbing tactical nuclear weapons.

Lavrov criticized the amendments, saying the Senate decision was “an arbitrary interpretation of the principles of international law."

The new arms reduction pact would limit Washington and Moscow to a maximum of 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads each.

Report: US allots billions to nukes

The White House has allocated 84.5 billion dollars for modernizing America's nuclear arsenal over the next decade

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/157529.html


The United States has allocated billions of dollars to its nuclear weapons complex, despite agreeing to the New START treaty which demands a reduction of nuclear warheads.

According to Newsweek, US President Barack Obama's administration has earmarked 84.5 billion dollar for modernizing America's nuclear arsenal over the next decade.

That is an increase of at least 20 percent compared to money spent on nuclear laboratories during Obama's predecessor George W. Bush's tenure.

The new development comes months after Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev signed a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) to reduce the number of their active nuclear warheads.

The pact inked on April 8, 2010, would limit Washington and Moscow to a maximum of 1,550 deployed warheads each, about 30% down from the current level of 2,200.

The ratification of the New START in US Congress was seen as a huge win for Obama.

Many said that the endorsement of the deal would finally enable Washington to slash its way toward its so-called "nuclear free world" motto.

However, the recent move by the White House to spend tens of billions of dollars to rejuvenate its nuclear warheads questions Washington's decade-long slogans for a nuke-free world.

This is while previous US actions have also indicated Washington's inconsistency with its much-publicized world denuclearization plan.

The United States is the first country in the world to develop nuclear weapons and is the only one to have used them.

More than 210,000 people were killed in Japan's Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945, when the US bombers dropped atomic bombs on the cities.

Before and during the Cold War the US conducted over 1000 nuclear tests and developed long range delivery systems.

Figures show that the Pentagon has also built over 67,500 nuclear missiles from 1951 to the present day, and some 4,680 nuclear bombers from 1945 until now.

In addition to deploying weapons on its own soil, America has also stationed nukes in 27 foreign countries and territories, including Japan, Taiwan, Germany and Turkey.

Arms control advocates believe that these facts question the very basic idea that the US is after a world free of nuclear weapons.

US circumvents New START

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/157341.html


The US is slashing its nuclear arsenal by signing the New START treaty with Russia, but, ironically enough, is spending billions more on its nuclear-weapons complex.

With fingertips nervously tapping desks in the White House, the Kremlin, and the offices of anti-nuke folks around the world, the Senate in the final hours of its term has ratified the New START agreement, which will force both the United States and Russia to dismantle a good chunk of their nuclear-weapons arsenals, reports Newsweek.

The two countries agree to limit the number of nuclear warheads to 1,550 each, down from a ceiling of 2,200. So why is Washington now poised to spend tens of billions more on nuclear weapons in the next decade?

“Sen. John Kyl was making a point,” says Sharon Squassoni, director of the proliferation-prevention program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“Many parts of the nuclear-weapons complex have not been updated. But estimates of what it takes to modernize vary widely,” he says.

And in this case, the “expert witnesses” are the same ones cashing in. For months Kyl (R-Ariz.) stood like a roadblock in front of New START.

He argued that the treaty offered the US no advantage over Moscow and crippled plans for a missile-defense system in Europe.

But his qualm, which translated into spending big bucks, centered on “modernization” of the U.S.'s nuclear-weapons complex.

Speaking of the network of nuclear-weapons labs on the Senate floor earlier this month, he said the country's “facilities are inadequate.”

To placate him -- and the Republican senators in his corner -- the Obama White House assembled a plan with $84.5 billion to be spent over 10 years to modernize America's nuclear cache, a marked increase over the kind of money that trickled into the labs during the George W. Bush administration.

The head of the National Nuclear Security Administration during that time, former ambassador Linton Brooks, said in April of the new increase, “I will say flatly, I ran that place for five years and I'd have killed for [this] budget.”

So, although US stockpiles of nuclear warheads have dropped from the 22,217 in 1989 to the 2,200 today and are expected to continue to decrease in the next decade, Washington will spend boatloads more money-approximately 20 percent more-on the nuclear-industrial complex in coming years.

Another issue is a lack of oversight as aging nuclear weapons are dangerous antiques to have lying around, posing very serious danger.

US Senate approves New START

US Minuteman nuclear missile (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/156719.html


The US Senate has approved an arms control treaty, known as New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), with Russia that aims at reducing nuclear weapons in both countries.

The Senate, presided over by Vice President Joe Biden, obtained the necessary two-thirds vote after 13 Republicans and two independents voted in favor of the new strategic arms reduction treaty, giving the Democrats a political victory. The treaty was ratified by a vote of 71 to 26.

But the accord, passed Wednesday, after months of delay, has still to be approved by the Russian parliament, a move expected next spring, reports said.

The New START will pave the way for new cuts in American and Russian nuclear warheads by some 30% - to 1,550 - from a limit set eight years ago.

The treaty would also allow each side visually to inspect the other's nuclear capability, with the aim of verifying how many warheads each missile carries.

The treaty, which will replace its lapsed predecessor, START, was signed by President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, in April 2010.

The treaty gives Obama a major foreign policy success in the closing hours of the outgoing session of the current Congress, who argued that ratification of New START was vital to US national security.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had previously warned that the treaty would be scrapped if Republicans succeeded in altering its form from the document signed in April.