Obama, NYT Keep Israeli Nuke Secrets

Recently by Robert Parry: Cheney Exposes Torture Conspiracy

      Overall, the New York Times praises President Barack Obama’s revised policy on when to launch nuclear attacks, though agreeing with some critics that it was a mistake to continue brandishing nukes at Iran, the only non-nuclear-armed state still being threatened.

“It would have been better if Mr. Obama made the ‘sole’ purpose of nuclear weapons deterring a nuclear attack,” the Times wrote in a lead editorial on Wednesday. “No one in their right mind can imagine the United States ever using a nuclear weapon again. …

“But any loophole undercuts Washington’s arguments that nonnuclear states have no strategic reason to develop their own arms.”

Exactly. So why did Obama carve out a special exception intended for Iran, claiming that any nation not “compliant” with the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty – even one without nuclear weapons – can be targeted for nuclear annihilation by the United States?

Though Iran is an NPT signatory and asserts that it wants to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes only, Obama’s position is that since Iran arguably violated some technical provisions of the treaty, it is not “compliant” and thus open to U.S. nuclear attack.

The chief violation that the United States has cited is Iran’s failure to disclose the Qum nuclear reactor before construction began. Instead, Iran announced the existence of the facility last September while construction was underway but before it was operational.

The technical – and debatable – nature of this violation, however, suggests that Obama’s pledge not to nuke non-nuclear-armed states may not mean much. It’s likely that any country with a nuclear energy program could be found to be in some such “non-compliance.”

The Times suggests that Obama included the caveat mostly “to deter hard-line critics on Capitol Hill” who want to get even tougher with Iran. There may be some truth to that – as well as suspicions that Obama was bowing to pressure from his hard-line secretaries of State and Defense – but there is also the Great Unmentionable, Israel.

Typically, U.S. presidents – and the New York Times – seem incapable of acknowledging that Israel is possibly the world’s most egregious violator of international non-proliferation regimens, not only having refused to sign the NPT but having amassed the largest undeclared nuclear arsenal on earth.

Still Coy

Yet, Israeli officials have remained coy about whether they have nukes, though there is no doubt that they do, most likely several hundred.

Not only have Israeli leaders refused to declare their nuclear arsenal – and have harshly punished whistleblowers who have spoken up – but U.S. presidents have fallen in line, too, playing along with the charade. [For a brief history of the Israeli nuclear program, click here.]

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Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush, was written with two of his sons, Sam and Nat. His two previous books are Secrecy & Privilege: The Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq and Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & ‘Project Truth’.