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Southeast Asia
Photos expose Burmese nuclear weapons project
2010-08-02
A week old but we didn't take sufficient note of the story.
Burma is working on a nuclear weapons programme, experts have concluded, after its existence was exposed by leaked photographs. Intelligence monitoring of the country's arms purchases from North Korea has been intensified as a result.

Satellite tracking and electronic surveillance in particular have been stepped up. Concerns over the regime's attempts to develop a nuclear bomb prompted the US State Department to demand last week that the ruling junta disclose an inventory of its nuclear technology.
How exactly do we plan to back up our demand?The world has figured out that there is no penalty for opposing Barack Obama ...
Secret documents and hundreds of photographs smuggled out of the country by a defector indicated that it was intent on developing nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. Jane's Intelligence Review published a separate batch of photographs showing similar activities in buildings and behind security fences near the capital, Naypyidaw.

Fears that Burma had joined a clandestine nuclear network linking North Korea, Iran, Pakistan and Syria have been growing for some time, but there has not been hard evidence until now.
More than just those four countries, as A. Q. Khan demonstrated. What are the Saoodis doing in this? How about Malaysia?
Is Libya interested in getting back into the game? President Bush isn't around to give them nightmares any more...
Sai Thein Win, the defector, is an army major who trained as a defence engineer and missile expert. He said he had access to two secret nuclear facilities including a "nuclear battalion" north of Mandalay, "charged with building up a nuclear weapons capability".

Robert Kelley, an American former senior weapons inspector with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said the evidence was the most compelling yet.

The photographs, which were passed to the Democratic Voice of Burma, part of the Burmese opposition, showed components built with German machine tools imported through Singapore, which Mr Kelley believed indicated "nefarious purposes".

They included a fluidised bed reactor that is used to turn a powdered form of uranium into a gas that can then be enriched to weapons grade. "They are either trying to make reactor fuel which they could buy for nothing from another country, or they are trying to make a weapon clandestinely," said Mr Kelley.

"There is just not much point doing that unless it is for a bomb."

Intelligence agencies are seeking to provide the IAEA with proof of a clandestine programme in the hope of a formal inquiry. Regular shipments of rocket platforms and missile technology between North Korea and Burma, as well as other clandestine links, are under scrutiny.

"There are strong suspicions over the contents of shipments, including a delivery of rockets within the last month," said one international nuclear expert.

Washington has told Burma's ruling generals that "they have international obligations we expect them to heed", a State Department official said. He said the Burmese relationship with North Korea was "something that we watch very, very carefully".
Oh great, another 'strongly worded statement'. That'll show 'em ...
Burma, which its generals have renamed Myanmar, has made clear its nuclear ambitions by agreeing terms with Russia for the sale of a light-water research reactor. But the deal is on hold after the generals refused to update its "small quantities protocol" with the IAEA, which exempts it from regular inspections.

The Burmese government has dismissed the latest claims as "accusations based solely on the fabrications of deserters, fugitives and exiles".

Mr Kelley, a veteran of inspections in Libya, Iraq and South Africa, said that the machines photographed by Win were all prototypes.

"The quality of workmanship is extremely poor and their expertise is poor. I am not saying that this is a nuclear weapons programme that is about to scare us tomorrow," he said. "What I am saying is the intent to build nuclear weapons is much more clear now."

Burma has signed a memorandum of understanding with North Korea to build Scud missiles, a conventional medium-range weapon. North Korea has also offered assistance with underground facilities and to develop missiles with a range of 1,860 miles.
So they're going to develop a nuke program and missiles to deliver nukes. Nothing to see here, move along.
It's practically a turnkey operation, now. It was only a few years ago that Israel destroyed Syria's, with North Korean engineers and scientists included.
Posted by:Steve White

#9  But then I repeat myself.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2010-08-02 21:33  

#8  why would Burma think they need nuclear weapons?

1. They're taking a page from North Korea and Iran, in that there will be political benefits from owning such weapons.

2. They're a Chinese client.
Posted by: Pappy   2010-08-02 21:14  

#7  I'm sure Sun Tzu wrote
"profilerate nuclear stuff but don't let anybody see you do it"

Posted by: john frum   2010-08-02 17:17  

#6  The end result will be a nuclear Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. China is playing a foolish game by aiding and abbetting this nonsense.
Posted by: Rjschwarz   2010-08-02 14:30  

#5  OK, peanalties is a typo, but thinking of how Carter's and Clinton's pussyfooting bought us 9/11, the typo almost makes sense...
Posted by: M. Murcek   2010-08-02 12:43  

#4  The world has figured out that there is no penalty for opposing Barack Obama ...

There'll be peanalties aplenty for the o-hole's dithering and dictator dallying. Hopefully it won't be Americans on the receiving end...
Posted by: M. Murcek   2010-08-02 12:40  

#3  I guess the question is... why would Burma think they need nuclear weapons?
Posted by: DarthVader   2010-08-02 11:44  

#2  COMMUNISM RETURNS TO BANGLADESH?

The Pakistan Defence Forum is behind the times, JosephM. A great many stories of the Rab involve communist miscreants, each with a criminal record as long as your arm.
Posted by: trailing wife   2010-08-02 09:51  

#1  PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > COMMUNISM RETURNS TO BANGLADESH?
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2010-08-02 02:56  

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