Russia urges us to explain nuclear plan

[Grave]

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The Russian foreign minister has called for Washington to clarify reports that the Pentagon is preparing a contingency plan for nuclear strikes against Russia.


We hope there will be a statement at a higher level offering clarification

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov
Russia, China, Iraq, Iran, Libya, North Korea and Syria all feature in a classified Pentagon nuclear report, according to the Los Angeles Times newspaper which claimed to have obtained a copy of the document.

The report, presented to Congress in early January, allegedly revealed that the military had been asked to draft plans to use nuclear weapons against these seven countries.

"We hope there will be a statement at a higher level offering clarification and reassuring the international community," said Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, cited by the Interfax news agency.

He added that such reports "can only cause regret and concern" if they transpired to be true.

US Vice President Dick Cheney played down the report at a news conference in London after a meeting with UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.

"Right now, the United States on a day-to-day basis does not target nuclear weapons on any nation," he said.

Arms row

The latest spat between Moscow and Washington comes as both sides gear up for a summit in May between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart George W Bush.


Putin will discuss nuclear issues with Bush in May

Both men are hoping to sign a deal on nuclear arms reduction, but Mr Ivanov said that work on an agreement was going very slowly and that negotiators might fail to meet the May deadline.

President Bush has promised to cut the US nuclear arsenal to 1,700-2,200 warheads from the 6,000 both countries are currently permitted, while President Putin has said Russia could go even lower, possibly to 1,500.

But the US has since made clear that it will place some of the weapons in storage, rather than destroy them.

The Pentagon said it needed to keep weapons in reserve in case of "unforeseen international events", but Mr Ivanov said this would mean the promised cuts would only exist on paper.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi....532.stm

[Wobble]

this has been covered, and theis plan is nothing new its been in place since the 50s.. there is ALWAYS a plan.. the target just changes now and then..

and the Russians should be the last people to point a finger at anyone.. seeing as how for many years they were the Nuclear arms superstore for any 3rd world nuttjob with enough money to buy one..

maby when they explain where the several warheads and several tons of nuclear weapons grade material and weapons documents that they "lost a few years ago went.. then maby they can get the explanation they ask for.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">
this has been covered, and theis plan is nothing new its been in place since the 50s.. there is ALWAYS a plan.. the target just changes now and then..
[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>

True, it&#39;s really nothing new, but it is still not PC to talk about it.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">
and the Russians should be the last people to point a finger at anyone.. seeing as how for many years they were the Nuclear arms superstore for any 3rd world nuttjob with enough money to buy one..
[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>

Pure BS. As opposed to the US, the Russians have never shared their nuclear program with any of their allies.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">
maby when they explain where the several warheads and several tons of nuclear weapons grade material and weapons documents that they "lost a few years ago went.. then maby they can get the explanation they ask for.
[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>

I can&#39;t even beign to say what utter nonsense this is. Please don&#39;t say anything, if only you can come with is exaggerations and lies. Can you come up with a reference to back your claims? ... and please no "I saw it on history channel"...

[Wobble]

read up on it... in the early 90s there were rumors of several individuals and orginizations who were going to buy nukes.. eventually the UN asked the USSR about it and their reply was "we cannot locate some warheads and some material"

"some" being at lest 12 nukes that are ofically "lost" and several tons of uranium and plutonuim..

the USSR was dead broke and the only asset it had was its vast and expensive to maintain nuclear weapons.. so it sold them to anyone who could pay.. no questions asked.. of course this is not &#39;OFFICALLY" acknowledged but neither was Area 51

You really have to stop watching bad action movies and playing the "Ranibow Six" games... it is getting to you...

So I guess that you have no references to back up your claims...

Of course there has been some smuggeling of nuclear material from the former Soviet Union, but not warheads. Don&#39;t you think that a rich guy, like Osama would have leveled NY or Washington to the ground by now, if it was so easy to buy usable nuclear weapons...

[Wobble]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/1205/p1s3-wogi.html
http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/lebedlg.htm

Former Russian Security Council Secretary Aleksandr Lebed has stirred controversy in both Russia and the United States with his allegations that the Russian government is currently unable to account for some eighty small atomic demolition munitions (ADMs) which were manufactured in the USSR during the Cold War.

sorry, add 80 small nukes to the list..


Police find a highly radioactive container with Strontium-90 in a Kiev apartment while investigating a September smuggling case. Investigators previously said that the smuggling operation was carried out by an international group illegally transporting nuclear substances out of Russia

Georgian officials confiscate a kilogram of low-enriched Uranium-235 fuel pellets just miles from the Turkish border. Georgian scientists claim that the material did not originate in their country; the material may have come from Russia

A Russian officer is arrested in possession of highly radioactive substances that police say had been stolen from Baikonur space center. The officer was attempting to smuggle the materials to Uzbekistan

Two employees from one of Russia&#39;s nuclear-powered ships in the port of Murmansk are arrested while trying to sell radioactive material.

A naval conscript steals and sells components containing precious metals from a nuclear submarine of the Northern Fleet. The sailor stole 24 coils of palladium-vanadium alloy wire

A scientist employed by a Krasnoyarsk-based research facility is criminally prosecuted for manufacturing and exporting radioactive materials

Chechen rebels leave a container of radioactive Cesium-135 at Izmailovsky Park and inform Russian secret services through journalists. The stunt demonstrates that the rebels have access to nuclear materials

Authorities arrest nine people and confiscate over 100 pounds of nonfissile uranium-238. Officials at the IAEA have identified nuclear reactors and weapons plants of the former USSR as the "chief source of radioactive materials being smuggled.

Prague police stop a Czech nuclear scientist and discover nearly six pounds of enriched uranium in the back seat. The uranium is traced back to the Russian nuclear research center at Obninsk

Russian authorities arrest two men possessing 21 pounds of industrial uranium-238. The material was stolen from a secret nuclear center.11

German officials seize 500 grams of weapons-grade plutonium smuggled in from Russia.10 The material may have originated in Obninsk

Undercover German police catch thieves in sting operation. The suspects possess 800 mg of highly enriched uranium, which may have originated in Obninsk

Russian security forces arrest thieves with 1.8 kg of highly enriched uranium before they can smuggle the material out of Russia. The material was stolen from the Naval base storage facility

Detectives in Lithuania discover over 4 tons of beryllium in bank vaults in Vilnius and Kaunas. Russian organized crime is found to be behind the shipment

Russian police intercept a smuggler with 1.5 kg of highly enriched uranium in the Podolsk train station. The material was stolen from Luch Scientific Production Association
its no big secret.. the USSR

the list is virtually endless..

every once in a while the USSR police would bust a "smuggler" but later investigation found that most times the person was either not convicted or spent no time in prison.. kinda lean for stealing nuclear material eh?

Christian Science Monitor??? Are you fucking kidding me... come up with something serious please....

The second link is better, (Center for nonproliferation studies)... more serious and solid.. but please read it yourself, especially the conclusion:
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">There is no convincing evidence that any former Soviet nuclear warheads have been lost, stolen, or misplaced.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>

The other list is of fissile material, and yes there is such smuggeling, but not complete nuclear devices&#33;


</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">
every once in a while the USSR police would bust a "smuggler" but later investigation found that most times the person was either not convicted or spent no time in prison.. kinda lean for stealing nuclear material eh?
[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>

Now *where* did you get that from?

[Wobble]

now *where* did you get that from?

there was a big stink about it in late 1990, it was in the news for a few days.. something about 4 or 5 guys who had been arrested form smuggleing and let go 3 times in 1 year.. when people started getting suspicious they were rounded up and jailed for 6 years, then when they were out the left the USSR to i *think* england and told their story and when it was reaserched (the dates of the arrests and charges) it was found that on average they served between 1 and 2 months per smuggleing offence and each time they were realeased and for some strange reason their criminal record did not show it and they somehow managed to get jobs in areas (goverment) where they could steal again.. and then get caught again.. etc etc. etc.. records showed they were arrested up to 6 times each all told but it never went on their criminal records... the story kinda fizzeld out because it surfaced in late 1990 just a few weeks before the gulf war started.. and of couse everyone forgot about it..

[Grave]

Its all speculations. US does not have the right to point their nukes at Russia. I dont think they would like 6000 or more nukes of Russia and China pointing at US. As for China, what had it done? I think Bush and others should really recondider this idea using their minds this time or atleast give a dicent explonation which I see Wobble cant really come up with.

[Wobble]

any country that has nukes has them targeted.. right now as I type this there are missles in china targeted at US cities and US missles pointed at China... USSR probably the same..

as for "pointed at"... so what.. all you need to have it "pointed at" someone is have the ballistic targeting data.. which can be had in a matter of seconds.. like I said.. they have been targeted since the 50s.. its nothing new.. of course there is almost NO chance of them being used.. but they are still pointed that way..