US Nuclear Materials to India Violates NPT

Comment by Larry Ross, March 23, 2006

Prof. Klare shows how Bush has gone against 35 years of US policy supporting the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, by selling India nuclear technology. This is allegedly only to help India's nuclear energy program. But it will allow India to double it's production of nuclear weapons. That effectively scraps a cornerstone of US policy - the NPT.

Bush considers his law above international law and international treaties. Thus he believes it is okay for him to violate a range of articles in the NPT thus encouraging others to do so. He welcomes India and Pakistan into the nuclear club of 9 countries. Naturally that will encourage other states to develop their own nuclear weapons, thus increasing the risks of a nuclear war. The NPT was designed to reduce nuclear war risks and all nuclear weapon states agreed to proceed to nuclear disarmament. But they have done the opposite and all are engaged in developing and manufacturing nuclear weapons and making them a key element in their military strategies. The U.S. is now making new nuclear weapons which it may actually use to prevent, it falsely claims, Iran from getting nuclear weapons.

Years of IAEA inspections show that Iran has no nuclear weapons and no program to make them. Nevertheless, Bush insists that Iran may make nuclear weapons and therefore he is preparing to make war on Iran and kill thousands of Iranian men, women and children to prevent them from doing what they have no plans to do. Sound crazy? It is crazy.

Well it makes sense under Bush law, as he has decided to implement the Neo-conservative plan for global military domination. Iran is the next target, and as Bush has shown with the Iraq war, any excuse, however phoney, will do.

 

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Reigniting the Arms Race

By Michael Klare, The Nation, March 22, 2006

During the early cold war era, both superpowers provided nuclear technology to selected Third World countries -- the United States to South Korea and Iran (under the Shah), the Soviet Union to China and North Korea -- as a way of cementing ties with favored allies and shifting the global balance of power in their favor. Later, as concern over the spread of nuclear weapons intensified, the superpowers agreed to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and to cease transferring weapons-related nuclear technology to nonweapons states.

For thirty-five years nuclear nonproliferation was a major priority of U.S. foreign policy. But now, in a throwback to early cold war power politics, President Bush has agreed to supply nuclear technology to India in blatant violation of the NPT.

Under the deal with India, announced by Bush on March 2 during a state visit to New Delhi, the United States will provide technology, equipment and nuclear fuel to India's civilian nuclear industry, which will be separated from the military establishment and placed under some form of international inspection.

This arrangement was described by Nicholas Burns, the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, as a "major win" for nonproliferation because it will place approximately 65 percent of India's nuclear capacity (as measured in megawatts) under inspection. What he failed to acknowledge is that 35 percent of India's capacity will remain exempt, and thus usable for making weapons.

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