Lets not forget about India and Pakistan.......Indian Army To Get World's First Supersonic Cruise Missiles

"With all thats going on right now these guys may be on the back burners of our minds, but there are some alarming developements going on".....................................Pakistan may be building powerful nuclear reactor
By Joby Warrick, Washington Post | July 24, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Pakistan has begun building what independent analysts say is a powerful new reactor for producing plutonium, a move that, if verified, would signal a major expansion of the country's nuclear weapons capabilities and a potential new escalation in the region's arms race.

Satellite photos of Pakistan's Khushab nuclear site show what appears to be a partially completed heavy-water reactor capable of producing enough plutonium for 40 to 50 nuclear weapons a year, a 20-fold increase from Pakistan's current capabilities, according to an assessment by Washington-based nuclear experts.

The construction site is adjacent to Pakistan's only plutonium production reactor, a modest, 50-megawatt unit that began operating in 1998. By contrast, the dimensions of the new reactor suggest a capacity of 1,000 megawatts or more, according to analysis by the Institute for Science and International Security. Pakistan is believed to have 30 to 50 uranium warheads, which tend to be heavier and more difficult than plutonium warheads to mount on missiles.

``South Asia may be heading for a nuclear arms race that could lead to arsenals growing into the hundreds of nuclear weapons, or at minimum, vastly expanded stockpiles of military fissile material," the institute's David Albright and Paul Brannan concluded in the technical assessment, a copy of which was provided to The Washington Post.

The assessment's key judgments were endorsed by two other independent experts who reviewed the commercially available satellite images, provided by Digital Globe, and supporting data. In Pakistan, officials would not confirm or deny the report, but a senior Pakistani official, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged an expansion was underway.

``Pakistan's nuclear program has matured. We're now consolidating the program with further expansions," the official said. The expanded program includes ``some civilian nuclear power and some military components," he said.

The development raises fresh concerns about a decades-old rivalry between Pakistan and India. Both countries have dozens of nuclear warheads, a variety of missiles and other means for delivering them.

Pakistan, like India, has never signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The evidence of a possible escalation comes as Congress prepares to debate a controversial nuclear cooperation agreement between the Bush administration and India. The agreement would grant India access to sensitive US nuclear technology in return for placing its civilian nuclear reactors under tighter safeguards.

© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company. [link to www.boston.com]

Hmmm, they're getting new-klee-are technology and fuel from GWB too.



Things that make you go, India is the next puppet, er, hmmm..

Um... is that Indian with a "dot" or Indian with a "feather"?

This latest development is actually a warning to China. Pakistan is a proxy for China.

We do make cruise missiles, but that doesn't stop other countries from making better ones. Things are moving fast, very fast.

India says no compromise on US nuclear deal

India needs energy to fuel its booming economy.
by Staff Writers
New Delhi (AFP) Jul 26, 2006
India said on Wednesday it would make no compromises on a landmark deal with the United States to get civil nuclear technology amid criticism that the pact could endanger national security.
"We will never compromise in a manner which is inconsistent with the provisions of the joint statement" signed with the United States in July 2005, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told parliament.

Earlier, India's junior foreign affairs minister Anand Sharma told parliament that India would accept "no fresh obligations" or "new conditions" to win approval of the deal from the US Congress.

The government's assurances came amid recent Indian news reports that Washington was planning to impose new conditions on the deal that would include an annual review of India's nuclear policies by US lawmakers.

India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has said it fears the agreement would make the country "perpetually dependent" on the United States for all initiatives in the application of nuclear energy.

The government's communist allies have also expressed concern, saying they fear it could bind India to supporting US foreign policy and jeopardise the country's security interests.

The US House of Representatives was poised Wednesday to take up the agreement, which supporters say will form the cornerstone of a closely-knit partnership between the two powers.

Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress have expressed strong support for the bill, under which the United States will aid the development of civil nuclear power in India in return for New Delhi placing its civil nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency inspections.

The agreement stipulates that India's nuclear weapons sites would remain off-limits for inspection.

Indian and US supporters of the agreement have praised it as a sign of a geopolitical re-alliance following the Cold War, one which would allow India to jump-start its quest for alternate energy sources as its economy booms.

But some US lawmakers have expressed doubts about extending civil nuclear technology to India, which is not a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. [link to www.terradaily.com]

If I am not mistaken,Russia was the first country to field supersonic cruise missiles. I believe they are called "sunburns" and they can hit Gibraltar from the Black Sea.
Furthermore if you were reading the Israeli newsites during the Kosovo invasion you would have noticed that Arik Sharon was spending a lot of time in Moscow, when he should of been on the election campaign trail (he was Likud Foreign Minister at the time).
Why was he in Moscow? Because Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov was floatin the "Primakov Plan" for peace in the Middle East.
This plan, called for regional peace based on mutual assured destruction. He was going to give Iran and Syria nuclear armed sunburns, but Russians would have the launch codes.
Nobody was paying attention at the time but according to the late Joe Vialls (the man who correctly named the invasion of Iraq "Shekinah/Shock and Awe" 2 years before it happened)the plan went ahead and these two countries are now nuclear armed.
If you don't believe that,just look at the technology Iran demonstrated in their May war games- "Shkval" type torpedoes etc.
The really cool thing about these sunburns is that they skim the surface at mach 2 and just before they hit the target, they fly straight up and then drop onto the top of the ship. They say that the phalanx anti missile guns can't stop them.

Thanks for that, AC!

Certainly helping me keep track of the 'players' in this 'endgame'...

Awe shucks, while Bush and co play toy soliders Mother Nature will simply pound us to our senses.

The darned thing is that we may all have to live in peace.

Well, if we can get rid of religion, there is a chance of peace.

Make that religious fundies and extremest and I argee.

Don't you wish Einstein would have kept the cork on the nuclear genie's bottle? It always makes me think of Pandora's box.