President Barack Obama on Tuesday vowed to constrain the use of the nation's Cold War-era nuclear arsenal, in a bold but politically risky move aimed at discouraging the technology from spreading.
Obama's plan, a sharp departure from his predecessor's policy, is a bid to play down the threat posed by nations like Russia and China while emphasizing the threat posed by terrorists or states believed to encourage terrorism.
"To stop the spread of nuclear weapons, prevent nuclear terrorism, and pursue the day when these weapons do not exist, we will work aggressively to advance every element of our comprehensive agenda – to reduce arsenals, to secure vulnerable nuclear materials, and to strengthen" international agreement, Obama said in a statement.
Under the new plan, the U.S. promises not to use nuclear weapons against countries that don't have them. The policy would not apply to states like North Korea and Iran, however, because of their refusal to cooperate with the international community on nonproliferation standards.
Obama's plan would lessen the role nuclear weapons play in America's defense planning.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he welcomes the president's reaffirmation of his commitment toward a nuclear-free world and believes the new Nuclear Posture Review "is a timely initiative in that direction."
Congressional Democrats also hailed the decision, while some Republicans said it could weaken the U.S. defense capability.
Rep. Buck McKeon of California, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said the policy change could carry "clear consequences" for security and said he was troubled by "some of the language and perceived signals imbedded" in the policy.
At a Pentagon news conference, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the unprecedented limits being placed on the U.S. nuclear arsenal won't weaken the nation's defense and will send a "strong message" to Iran and North Korea to "play by the rules."
"All options are on the table when it comes to countries in that category," Gates said.
Obama has stopped short of saying the U.S. will never be the first to launch a nuclear attack, as many arms control advocates want.
Gates said the administration decided against limiting the nation's options further because of the danger still being posed by the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
"This is obviously a weapon of last resort," Gates told reporters. But "we also recognize the real world we continue to live in."
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Moscow vows to 'wipe out' those behind bombings
Russian leaders vowed to avenge the twin rush-hour suicide bombings on packed metro trains in Moscow that killed at least 38 people on Monday.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin vowed those behind the attacks would be destroyed as authorities pointed the finger at militants from the Northern Caucasus and perhaps beyond for the deadliest attack in Moscow in years.
The first explosion shortly before 8:00 am (0400 GMT) ripped through a train that had stopped in the Lubyanka station just below the headquarters of Russia’s FSB security service, the successor to the Soviet KGB.
About 40 minutes later, a second explosion went off in a carriage of a train on the platform at the Park Kultury metro station, named after Moscow’s iconic Gorky Park.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited the Lubyanka metro station to lay a wreath of red roses on the platform, and vowed we will find and wipe out those behind the blasts, calling them wild beasts
Rescuers grimly hauled out body bags from the depths of the Moscow metro, one of the world’s biggest transit systems with an average of more than 6.5 million passengers every day, an AFP correspondent saw.
Video shot with mobile phones and aired on state television showed dazed passengers holding their heads in despair and corpses strewn on the ground as dust and smoke swirled through the tunnel.
Officials said the attacks were carried out by women wearing belts packed with explosives, marking a return of the so-called Black Widows who terrorized Moscow a decade ago with a string of attacks.
Body parts of two terrorists female suicide bombers were found at the scenes of the blasts, FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov said in a televised meeting at the Kremlin.
According to preliminary information, these people had links to places of residence in the Northern Caucasus, he added.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that foreign involvement in the attacks had not been ruled out.
We all know very well that clandestine terrorists are very active on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as saying in Canada at a Group of Eight ministers meeting.
We know that several attacks have been prepared there, to be carried out not only in Afghanistan, but also in other countries. Sometimes, these journeys go as far as the (Russian) Caucasus.
Video surveillance footage has allowed investigators to establish the bombers identities; a security source told Interfax, as well as those of two other women who accompanied the attackers to the metro.
The two women and a man, another possible accomplice, are being sought by police, the source said.
Bortnikov said the bombers belts were packed with the explosive hexogen equivalent to several kilograms (pounds) of TNT and metal shrapnel.
Emergency officials said the death toll had reached 38, not including the bombers. Another 64 people were wounded.
The injured included a woman from the Philippines and two women from Malaysia who were released from hospital after treatment.
Putin who cut short a visit to Siberia to return to Moscow, where he visited survivors in hospital warned earlier in the day that law enforcement agencies will do everything to find and punish the criminals.... The terrorists will be destroyed.
Western leaders offered their condolences to Russia, and US President Barack Obama called Medvedev to pledge Washington would help bring to justice those who undertook this attack.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the so-called Caucasus Emirate group led by Chechen militant Doku Umarov has repeatedly warned in recent months it was planning to strike the capital.
Umaro’s group claimed responsibility for last November bombing of a passenger train that killed 28 people.
The Moscow city government declared Tuesday a day of mourning.
Monday’s explosions were the deadliest suicide attacks in Moscow since 2004 when the bombing of a metro train killed 41, part of a string of attacks carried out by Chechen militants.
Chechnya has seen rising violence in recent months as pro-Kremlin regional authorities seek to clamp down on an Islamist insurgency that has also spread to the neighboring majority-Muslim regions of Ingushetia and Dagestan.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin vowed those behind the attacks would be destroyed as authorities pointed the finger at militants from the Northern Caucasus and perhaps beyond for the deadliest attack in Moscow in years.
The first explosion shortly before 8:00 am (0400 GMT) ripped through a train that had stopped in the Lubyanka station just below the headquarters of Russia’s FSB security service, the successor to the Soviet KGB.
About 40 minutes later, a second explosion went off in a carriage of a train on the platform at the Park Kultury metro station, named after Moscow’s iconic Gorky Park.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited the Lubyanka metro station to lay a wreath of red roses on the platform, and vowed we will find and wipe out those behind the blasts, calling them wild beasts
Rescuers grimly hauled out body bags from the depths of the Moscow metro, one of the world’s biggest transit systems with an average of more than 6.5 million passengers every day, an AFP correspondent saw.
Video shot with mobile phones and aired on state television showed dazed passengers holding their heads in despair and corpses strewn on the ground as dust and smoke swirled through the tunnel.
Officials said the attacks were carried out by women wearing belts packed with explosives, marking a return of the so-called Black Widows who terrorized Moscow a decade ago with a string of attacks.
Body parts of two terrorists female suicide bombers were found at the scenes of the blasts, FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov said in a televised meeting at the Kremlin.
According to preliminary information, these people had links to places of residence in the Northern Caucasus, he added.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that foreign involvement in the attacks had not been ruled out.
We all know very well that clandestine terrorists are very active on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as saying in Canada at a Group of Eight ministers meeting.
We know that several attacks have been prepared there, to be carried out not only in Afghanistan, but also in other countries. Sometimes, these journeys go as far as the (Russian) Caucasus.
Video surveillance footage has allowed investigators to establish the bombers identities; a security source told Interfax, as well as those of two other women who accompanied the attackers to the metro.
The two women and a man, another possible accomplice, are being sought by police, the source said.
Bortnikov said the bombers belts were packed with the explosive hexogen equivalent to several kilograms (pounds) of TNT and metal shrapnel.
Emergency officials said the death toll had reached 38, not including the bombers. Another 64 people were wounded.
The injured included a woman from the Philippines and two women from Malaysia who were released from hospital after treatment.
Putin who cut short a visit to Siberia to return to Moscow, where he visited survivors in hospital warned earlier in the day that law enforcement agencies will do everything to find and punish the criminals.... The terrorists will be destroyed.
Western leaders offered their condolences to Russia, and US President Barack Obama called Medvedev to pledge Washington would help bring to justice those who undertook this attack.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the so-called Caucasus Emirate group led by Chechen militant Doku Umarov has repeatedly warned in recent months it was planning to strike the capital.
Umaro’s group claimed responsibility for last November bombing of a passenger train that killed 28 people.
The Moscow city government declared Tuesday a day of mourning.
Monday’s explosions were the deadliest suicide attacks in Moscow since 2004 when the bombing of a metro train killed 41, part of a string of attacks carried out by Chechen militants.
Chechnya has seen rising violence in recent months as pro-Kremlin regional authorities seek to clamp down on an Islamist insurgency that has also spread to the neighboring majority-Muslim regions of Ingushetia and Dagestan.
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