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Africa North
Six other arab countries considering nuke programs
2006-11-04
via Drudge
The Spectre of a nuclear race in the Middle East was raised yesterday when six Arab states announced that they were embarking on programmes to master atomic technology. The move, which follows the failure by the West to curb IranÂ’s controversial nuclear programme, could see a rapid spread of nuclear reactors in one of the worldÂ’s most unstable regions, stretching from the Gulf to the Levant and into North Africa. The countries involved were named by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. Tunisia and the UAE have also shown interest.

All want to build civilian nuclear weapons energy programmes, as they are permitted to under international law. But the sudden rush to nuclear power has raised suspicions that the real intention is to acquire nuclear technology which could be used for the first Arab atomic bomb. “Some Middle East states, including Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Saudi Arabia, have shown initial interest [in using] nuclear power primarily for desalination purposes,” Tomihiro Taniguch, the deputy director-general of the IAEA, told the business weekly Middle East Economic Digest. He said that they had held preliminary discussions with the governments and that the IAEA’s technical advisory programme would be offered to them to help with studies into creating power plants.
Posted by:Jackal

#29  What frightens me most is that we will have our great wake-up morning call only when, sadly, we turn on our TV sets and watch Fox, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS broadcasting the horrible news of a major metropolitan area being vaporized in a mushroom cloud courtesy of our presumed "Arab" friends.

How do you know this couldn't happen regardless? Or as a side-effect of the policies you are currently undertaking? I sense a self-fulfilling prophecy. Seems more like you are rushing toward this outcome more than anything. Nuke technology will become ubiquitous one day. How you act today will determine how many people will want to nuke you tomorrow. Alternatives do exist, you know.
Posted by: Contrarian   2006-11-04 17:17  

#28  Good call .com. His solution means the removal of Israel, women wearing Burkas, and Allahs laws. He's in a Toranto state of mind. Good thing there are others out there to protect him.
Posted by: 49 Pan   2006-11-04 21:05  

#27  Ah, verba-non-facta. I remember it well.

It won't get any more attention from me. Just a waste of bandwidth.
Posted by: .com   2006-11-04 18:10  

#26  Challenge, baby, it was a challenge

You wouldn't like my solution so what's the point?
Posted by: Contrarian   2006-11-04 18:09  

#25  Further communication is pointless, it just wants to moan and groan and be a-skeered. A Voice of Doom complex.
Posted by: .com   2006-11-04 18:09  

#24  Other nyms for this IP: "Raphael", "NWFP Assembly", "facta non verba", "Nero", "Scumbag Defense Atty", "Papa Smurf", "Bob" and "GH". As well as a slew of auto-generated nyms.

Posted by: Dave D.   2006-11-04 18:09  

#23  I guess the hugs begin for warmth... and it goes downhill from there...
Posted by: .com   2006-11-04 18:07  

#22  He's in Toronto. Same state of mind. ;-)
Posted by: lotp   2006-11-04 18:04  

#21  And right there your "Grand Plan" falls apart.
Nuclear Power for Electricity, and Nuclear Power to blast cities is an entirely different thing.

We are NOT talking about the Electricity Generating type here.

I was thinking something along the lines of 100 years into the future or more, when bomb making technology will likely be of the plug-able kind; build the different pieces everywhere and assemble in one place. In other words, you won't have to start from scratch. Keeping track of all this for someone who is worried about it would be one heck of a pain.
Posted by: Contrarian   2006-11-04 18:03  

#20  Rofl!!! Only a loser would view it as intimidation, lol.

Challenge, baby, it was a challenge - and our people stepped up to the bar and delivered.

You must be in civil disservice at some level.
Posted by: .com   2006-11-04 18:00  

#19  the #1 Rule was that you could not complain about a problem unless you coupled it with a workable solution.

LOL! Great intimidation tactic.
Criticism not allowed. Yeah anyway. I wonder why people bother voting, if that's the case.
Posted by: Contrarian   2006-11-04 17:57  

#18  There's 20 countries in Africa alone considering nuclear power as a source of energy in the future.

And right there your "Grand Plan" falls apart.
Nuclear Power for Electricity, and Nuclear Power to blast cities is an entirely different thing.

We are NOT talking about the Electricity Generating type here.
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2006-11-04 17:52  

#17  Ah, I see. You're not a contrarian, you're another useless little dog who yaps and pees. Puddles would be a better nym.

I worked at a very successful company (for about 8 years) and the #1 Rule was that you could not complain about a problem unless you coupled it with a workable solution.

But, on second thought, you would never have been hired there - interviews were conducted by 3 peers - and if you didn't pass muster with them you were politely sent on your way.

Zit.
Posted by: .com   2006-11-04 17:48  

#16  *in Africa alone
Posted by: Contrarian   2006-11-04 17:42  

#15  I've decided to stick with 'Contrarian', thanks. (I prefer Contrarian Babblemonkey but I don't think that would be allowed.)

.com, when you go to the movies, and the movie you're watching utterly sucks, is it your duty to show them how it's done by producing a film yourself? Neither do I think it is my duty to come up with a Grand Plan.

Instead, I made the following observation: Nuclear technology will become ubiquitous one of these days. What you do now will greatly affect how many people would want to use nukes on you later. It could be very many, it could be one or two, or it could be zero. Makes sense doesn't it?

National Geographic had an article on nuclear technology not so long ago. There's 20 countries in Africa lone considering nuclear power as a source of energy in the future.
Posted by: Contrarian   2006-11-04 17:40  

#14  I passed a few lawn signs today arranged like the old Burma Shave sequence. They spelled out various imagined current problems, then ended with HAD ENOUGH ? and finally, VOTE DEMOCRAT.

The stock market is booming
Unemployment rate is low
No terrorism since 911
Our pros fight terrorism in Iraq
Gas prices are down
What planet are you on ?
vote republican
Posted by: Unique Anginenter5677   2006-11-04 17:38  

#13  Sheesh, I typed as fast as I could, lol.

"I searched the world over,
And thought I found true love.
You met another
and Phht! you were gone sink-trapped."
Posted by: .com   2006-11-04 17:27  

#12  Contrarian -- For once, just once, why don't you cut the fuzzy-wuzzy and spell out your Grand Plan.

The idiocy of triangulation, accommodation, and appeasement is so thoroughly discredited that it's a boggle anyone trots it out anymore. Sway-backed hag.

If only we'll give Kimmie and Ahmedinnerjacket some terrific Big Hugs and seek out those root causes and admit we asked for it then, somehow, all would be better. They would cease and desist - or something.

Cough up something other than a hairball, dimwit tool.
Posted by: .com   2006-11-04 17:25  

#11  
Redacted by moderator. Comments may be redacted for trolling, violation of standards of good manners, or plain stupidity. Or for continually switching 'nyms. Please correct the condition that applies and try again. Contents may be viewed in the sinktrap. Further violations mayare increasingly likely to result in banning.
Posted by: Contrarian   2006-11-04 17:17  

#10  To cut some slack on the Bush admnistration regarding the PR war, they've got the whole weight of the global mass media, or at least not far from that, against them. So, even if they had been less timid and passive, it's not even sure they could have changed much on that level.
Posted by: anonymous5089   2006-11-04 12:31  

#9  Excellent commentary! And the elected administration should have done a much better job at countering the BS from the Left early and often. Instead, it was too little, too late.
Posted by: Lancasters Over Dresden   2006-11-04 12:19  

#8   I continue to doubt the American people will wake up to what's happening. Instead those who survive will be sleeping in late because their digital alarm clocks won't ring to wake them up, the TV won't be showing a local nuclear holocaust since EMP will have destroyed the electronics, and their cell & cordless phones won't work with the power off.
------- I found this comment from a blog useful.
While our incredibly foolish internal politics, increasingly driven by an increasingly unhinged left focuses [sic, probably "focusing" would work better] on sideshows and the carnival barkers touting the distractions fumble toward election day, the rest of the world watches and realizes we are in disarray...This is the payback for undermining, at every turn, the elected administration of this nation. This is what happens when bitter screeching partisanship and finger-pointing replaces citizenship and loyal opposition. This is what a partisan and irresponsible media transmits to the world and what convinces our Friends and enemies alike that we are weak and useless, both as a friend and as an enemy. This is the world we are left with.
Posted by: Croling Shineck2383   2006-11-04 10:56  

#7  "including both the Wahhabi-Sunni *variant* as well as the Shiite one."

I should add, the Pakistani-ISI supported Deobandi Islamist movement and its Taqfiri variant that's really big these days in the UK also need to destroyed... Now!
Posted by: Lancasters Over Dresden   2006-11-04 10:41  

#6  Time to fumigate.
Posted by: gromgoru   2006-11-04 10:32  

#5  The genie out of the bottle?

This is what happens when a grand, visionary, history-shaping agenda replete with big ideas is handled by incremental, petty, and small actions.

President Bush had the correct vision, to an extent, in calling forth drastic changes in the Middle East. What has failed the grand agenda is that one cannot do it on the cheap nor with a nation that has an attention span of a flea. What was needed shortly after 9-11 was an all-out commitment to smashing, utterly smashing all sources of radical, Jihadi Islam, including both the Wahhabi-Sunni varient as well as the Shiite one.

Right now the only Americans called upon to make any sacrifice are the military and their families. Much of the rest of the country is uninvolved and or disinterested in victory because of a massive failure to state clearly what we're up against and what that entails.

The American people are not stupid, they're just a bit slow to "get it." What frightens me most is that we will have our great wake-up morning call only when, sadly, we turn on our TV sets and watch Fox, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS broadcasting the horrible news of a major metropolitan area being vaporized in a mushroom cloud courtesy of our presumed "Arab" friends.
Posted by: Lancasters Over Dresden   2006-11-04 10:27  

#4  GODDAMN.
Posted by: closedanger@hotmail.com   2006-11-04 10:24  

#3  How North KoreaÂ’s nuclear test
affects the Doomsday Clock



North Korea's recent underground nuclear test is part of a worrisome trend of increased nuclear proliferation. Before making a decision about moving the hands of the Clock, however, the Board of Directors is also watching to see how the international community responds to North Korea's actions.

As outlined in its 2002 Clock statement the Board worries most about the large quantities of unsecured nuclear weapons material in Russia and elsewhere, along with Al Qaeda's stated intentions to acquire the necessary materials to produce a nuclear device.

Likewise, Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, about which the International Atomic Energy Agency and other experts know very little, causes great concern; the A. Q. Kahn network originated in Pakistan, and, despite Khan's arrest, the illicit trade in nuclear technologies and materials continues. North Korea already plays a role in this trade.

The Board also closely monitors disarmament efforts around the world, and there is not much progress to report. Almost two decades after the Cold War, Russia and the United States together possess a total of 26,000 nuclear weapons. Each side maintains nearly 1,000 weapons on high levels of launch readiness, ready to strike targets thousands of miles away in as little as 30 minutes.

While we continue to follow closely the actions surrounding North Korea's first nuclear test, we are mindful as well of the larger context of nuclear proliferation and disarmament. All these considerations continue to inform the Board's decisions about the state of global security.



Kennette Benedict
Executive Director
Bulletin ofthe Atomic Scientists
773-702-0077
kbenedict@thebulletin.org
Posted by: 3dc   2006-11-04 10:21  

#2  Oh, the doomsday clock has not been changed as the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has fallen asleep at the wheel...

The clocks home is here

The Doomsday Clock was last moved on February 27, 2002 and currently stands at seven minutes to midnight.
Posted by: 3dc   2006-11-04 10:20  

#1  Let's see. The Pak bomb was financed by the Saudis and the bank of crooks and thieves as the Musilm bomb.

But, Muslim bomb was not specific enough so Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Iran, Iraq and maybe some others began building their variants of the Muslim Bomb

Then operations by various SpecOps of some different countries convinced some of these to give up the effort. Also, the US invading Iraq kind of end that effort and scared the shit of of Libya.

Now with Iraq being slow and Iran being abrasive they all want to restart the shit in a public way.

First I have to say they are really lucky that Israel is a vary tolerant society based on their experince with the Holocast. If they were not they could be pre-emptive with their nukes as most other nations in that sort of situation would be.

The US and the ROW is not playing hardball enough. We have gone into full multi-cultural confusion mode and the EU nations have reached a fully clueless state.

Meanwhile Puttie and China play a very dangerous game.

Where is the clock hand on the doomsday clock right now?

Posted by: 3dc   2006-11-04 10:17  

00:00