ACA’s productivity has obviously shot through the ceiling since I left.
For instance, you can now leave comments about _ACT_ articles. I left one at the bottom of “this piece”:http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2008_01-02/cfe.asp by Wade about Russia’s suspension of CFE implementation:
bq. Wade’s CFE article is the greatest ever written on the subject in the history of the universe.
I am obviously being a bit snarky, but the article is really good.
Go leave some of your own.
It’s out. Shockingly, ISIS “posted it.”:http://www.isis-online.org/publications/iran/IAEA_Iran_Report_22Feb2008.pdf I’ll write some more about it soon, but they have “an issue brief”:http://www.isis-online.org/publications/iran/ISISIssueBriefIran22Feb2008.pdf as well.
While I’m on the subject, check out “the report”:http://www.isis-online.org/publications/iran/ISIS_Iran_P2_7Feb2008.pdf they wrote about Iran’s IR-2 centrifuge. For more on that subject, check out “these two”:http://verificationthoughts.blogspot.com/2008/02/irans-ir-2-centrifuge.html excellent “posts”:http://verificationthoughts.blogspot.com/2008/02/irans-new-toy-continued.html by Andreas Persbo.
!/images/38.jpg!
These uranium glass marbles from the “Titan Missile Museum”:http://www.titanmissilemuseum.org/ were a gift from FoKerr _MBN._ I’m told they are safe.
A new word I have learned. According to “Sarah Boxer”:http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21013 in the NYRB,
bq. In Japan neglected or abandoned blogs are called _ishikoro_, pebbles.
Here’s some live Melvins, performing what is, IMO, one of their best. And Dale Crover is in a dress.
*Update:* So is Buzzo.
“STFU, wingnuts.”:http://dni.gov/press_releases/20071208_statement.pdf
Quick post from a cool little coffee shop/flower shop/art gallery in Littleton, NH.
Barbara Slavin argued at a “recent CAP event”:http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/12/iran_event.html that people interested in Iran ought to take a look at the 1981 Algiers Accords.
I agree. “Here they are.”:http://www.parstimes.com/history/algiers_accords.pdf
*Update:*
Link fixed. Also, per the recommendation of a reader, I should point out that Barbara Slavin emphasized the below portion of the agreement when she spoke. It’s interesting, given subsequent U.S. policies:
The United States pledges that it is and from now on will be the policy of the United States not to intervene, directly or indirectly, politically or militarily, in Iran’s internal affairs.
About a month ago, the Nixon Library declassified a bunch of documents. A “selection”:http://www.nixonlibrary.gov/virtuallibrary/documents/mandatoryreview.php#selection of them is available online.
Most of the attention was directed toward “this memo”:http://www.nixonlibrary.gov/virtuallibrary/documents/mr/071969_israel.pdf about Israel’s nuclear weapons program. But there are some other intriguing items.
For example, in the middle of a 1969 “Memorandum of Conversation”:http://www.nixonlibrary.gov/virtuallibrary/documents/mr/082169_korea.pdf regarding talks between Nixon and ROK President Pak, Nixon reveals a US intel assessment of China’s future nuclear arsenal:
bq. President Nixon: According to our intelligence, Communist
China will have *25 to 50 ICBM’s by 1976* which can hit targets in the U.S.
You may have noticed that this didn’t happen by 1976. Nor has it happened 31 years after 1976.
I’m not a Chinese nuke specialist, so I’m not sure how new this is. But a good illustration of the point.
Incidentally, Nixon also explained in the same conversation that China’s arsenal was motivating his decision to deploy a missile-defense network:
bq. Nixon:…without the ABM network a nuclear armed China might be able to use nuclear blackmail against non-nuclear countries in Asia and pose a danger to the U.S. That is why this subject is so important for the defense and security of the Free World.
Fortunately, the Free World is still here.
*Update:* Some related Israel documents can be found “here.”:http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB189/index.htm
Miles tells me that the _WSJ_ published his response, first blogged “here,”:http://www.totalwonkerr.net/1558/j-schlesinger-on-iran to J Schlesinger’s piece on Iran. Sub. Req., so no link as of yet.
And “vote for”:http://www.totalwonkerr.net/1557/arms-control-person-of-the-year ACA Arms Control Person of the Year.
*Update:*
-“Here’s the link,”:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119862828617249709.html courtesy of a loyal reader.-
You can tell I have other things to do…
Anyhow, I said “in this post”:http://www.totalwonkerr.net/1552/the-iran-niehow-long-until-a-nuke that
bq. …it looks as if the time frame for Iran to build a nuclear weapon in the new NIE is the same as the one in the 2005 NIE. But I think the new estimate might actually suggest that the time frame is slightly longer.
Well, the first glance was right; according to a transcript of a BG briefing about the NIE that was given by some senior intel officials, the time frame in the 07 estimate is the same as the one given two years before.
I don’t think I can post my copy of the transcript, but anyone is welcome to share if they have one.