Ghosts of the Cold War

Report: Cancel the LRSO - “The Obama administration plans to spend about $30 billion over the next two decades on a new nuclear air-launched cruise missile. Called the Long-Range Stand-Off weapon (LRSO), the missile would replace the existing nuclear air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) when it is retired in 2030… Experts, including former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry, have warned that following through on these plans unnecessarily risks sparking a new arms race,” writes Will Saetren in a new report for the Ploughshares Fund.

--“If the new cruise missile is ever used for limited nuclear warfighting, as military plans call for, the exchange could spiral out of control, igniting a nuclear war that would kill millions. Because air-launched cruise missiles come in conventional and nuclear variants, their use could prompt a miscalculation, leading an adversary to launch a nuclear response to a conventional attack.”

--“All nuclear-armed states are adversely impacted by the instability posed by these weapons, and all would benefit from their elimination. President Obama can strengthen America’s security by canceling the new nuclear air-launched cruise missile, and he can use it as a starting point to push for a global ban on all nuclear cruise missiles. Once conceived as a means of strengthening America’s national security interests, the nuclear air-launched cruise missile has become a liability.” Read the full report here. http://bit.ly/26gGykx

Asking the right questions about nukes - “Many Americans have probably forgotten about nuclear weapons. But they are, once again, threatening world security… The world is at the brink of a new nuclear arms race... Why? Has the world become more dangerous? And if it has, will upgraded nuclear weapons keep America safer? Even if all of these questions were asked and answered during the Cold War, it is important to examine them again as the U.S. prepares to spend $1 trillion on a new generation of nuclear weapons,” writes Joe Cirincione for The Atlantic.

--“Is it possible to really get rid of all nuclear weapons? Is it possible that nothing terrible will happen if we don’t? A great deal depends on White House priorities. Will the next U.S. president care as deeply about this issue as Kennedy, Reagan, and Obama did? He or she will have to confront the argument that the world—and the United States specifically—can’t afford to get rid of nuclear weapons. But can it afford to keep them?” Full article here. http://theatln.tc/1MKkxVb

Call for Pentagon savings - The Council for a Livable World, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Peace Action, Project on Government Oversight, Taxpayers for Common Sense, Win Without War, Women’s Action for New Directions and other organizations signed a letter to members of Congress offering suggestions for how to keep the Pentagon’s budget request in line with spending caps. “Keeping the Fiscal Year 2017 budget in line with the caps will help the Department of Defense avoid sequestration and save valuable resources in an era of budgetary constraint,” the organizations write.

--The letter suggests canceling the long-range standoff missile, a weapon with “a redundant mission.” Other proposals include canceling the F-35 and canceling or pausing the ground based strategic deterrent. Full letter here. target="_blank">http://bit.ly/1NzonLm

See also - “Analysis of the FY 2017 Defense Budget,” a report by Todd Harrison for the Center for Strategic and International Studies. http://bit.ly/1XGy3tf

MOX has been politicized - “In the coming days, Congress has an opportunity to begin unraveling a billion dollar boondoggle that’s been fleecing American taxpayers for more than a decade... In South Carolina, there’s an outrageously expensive, partially-completed building called the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MOX). It is one of the biggest and baddest earmarks of all time. It’s a staggering one-thousand percent over budget, years behind schedule, and nobody knows what use it will be when (if) it’s ever completed,” writes David Hobson for The Hill. http://bit.ly/1rgigHC

Progress on sanctions relief - “U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reported some progress Tuesday on Iranian complaints that it's not getting the sanctions relief it deserves under last year's landmark nuclear deal… The White House, Treasury and the State Department have all said the U.S. has done what is required, but U.S. officials say the Obama administration is considering easing or formally clarifying financial restrictions that prevent U.S. dollars from being used in transactions that enable business with Iran,” writes Edith Lederer for the AP.

--“The officials have ruled out granting Iran access to the U.S. financial system or direct access to the dollar, but they have left the door open to other steps to encourage trade that is now legal under the nuclear deal. Kerry told reporters that he and Zarif are working to make sure the nuclear agreement ‘is implemented in exactly the way that it is meant to be, and that all the parties... get the benefits that they are supposed to get out of the agreement.’" Full story here. http://apne.ws/1VE6mUI

Keep the Iran Deal - “The question is no longer whether the deal should have been done. It's whether it should be undone. Whether to enlist in the Army is a different question from whether to go AWOL during boot camp. What would we lose from renouncing the deal? Just every concession Iran had to make and implement... Without the deal, Iran would be free to evict the international monitors and resume the activities it was compelled to stop,” writes Steve Chapman for the Chicago Tribune.

--“In exchange for those curbs, the Obama administration agreed to lift some economic sanctions and release some $100 billion in Iranian funds that had been frozen… But we didn't give Iranians that money; it was theirs all along. Regaining access to it was one of the chief incentives for them to negotiate… For us to abandon the agreement would mean the Iranians would keep those funds but be released from their obligations. They'd get to keep the new car without making the payments.” Read the full piece here. http://trib.in/1r1SeaE

Tweet - @jstreetdotorg: J Street's @Bayroff was on @i24NEWS_EN to discuss #JStreetGala and #IranDeal. Watch it here: http://bit.ly/1QpP70N

New activity in North Korea - “New commercial satellite imagery of North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site from April 19 shows limited vehicle and equipment activity… These activities by themselves do not establish that test preparations are imminent. However, the possibility of an impending test cannot be ruled out. Pyongyang has clearly demonstrated… the ability to conduct detonations on short notice while masking indicators of its preparations from satellite view,” reports Jack Liu for 38 North. Full story here. http://bit.ly/1QnEw6G

Tweet - @ctbto_alerts: On powerful National Technical Means that complement the #CTBT verification regime (@BBCScienceNews: Satellite maps nuclear blast aftermath http://bbc.in/23LAQsq)

We need a new deal with Russia - A new report from Hans Kristensen and Robert Norris for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist finds, “Russia is in the middle of a broad modernization of its strategic and nonstrategic nuclear forces, including some new developments… The modernization program reflects the government’s conviction that strategic nuclear forces are indispensable for Russia’s security and status as a great power.”

--“Unless a new arms reduction agreement is reached in the near future, the shrinking of Russia’s strategic nuclear arsenal that has characterized the past two decades will likely come to an end, with the force leveling out at around 500 launchers with roughly 2400 assigned warheads. Combined with an increased number of military exercises and operations, as well as occasional explicit nuclear threats against other countries, the modernizations contribute to growing concern abroad about Russian intentions.” Full report here. http://bit.ly/1SUns9R

Divesting from the bomb - Every year PAX, a peace organization, releases a report on the financial institutions involved with nuclear weapons. “‘Don't Bank on the Bomb’ identifies both financial institutions that invest heavily in companies involved in nuclear weapon programmes and those that have policies limiting or prohibiting such investments,” according to the project’s website. Read the report and watch the “Don’t Bank on the Bomb” video here. http://bit.ly/1ipunwG

Preview of the bomb - Watch an excerpt from the bomb, an immersive multimedia installation by Smritri Keshari, Eric Schlosser and Kevin Ford. http://bit.ly/23LA3rk

Quick Hits:

--“Fuzzy math on Indian nuclear weapons,” by Elizabeth Whitfield for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. http://bit.ly/1T1liWo

--“Islamic State could steal Pakistan's nuclear weapons and make ‘dirty bomb’, defence analysts warn,” by Ashraf Ali for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. http://ab.co/1pkVNau

--“Nato raises 'justified concern' that Isil is plotting nuclear attack on Britain,” by Tom Whitehead for the Telegraph. http://bit.ly/1WcItSG

--“Hanford Officials Prepare to Pump Nuke Waste Back Into Tank,” by Nicholas Geranios for the AP. http://abcn.ws/1peGfoG

--“The U.S. Is Playing a Dangerous Game of Musical Chairs With Nuclear Waste,” by Sarah Zhang for Wired. http://bit.ly/1Qo06rA

--“U.S. says North Korean remittances at risk if it conducts nuclear test,” by Arshad Mohammed and David Brunnstrom for Reuters. http://reut.rs/1XH4S9t

--“The Inevitability of Nuclear War?” by Winslow Myers for CounterPunch. http://bit.ly/1QpNzns

--“Iran issues first progress report on nuclear deal,” by Ariane Tabatabai for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. http://bit.ly/1XIc2dJ

Events:

--World premiere of the bomb at the Tribeca Film Festival. April 23 and 24 at 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., Gotham Hall, 1356 Broadway, New York. Tickets available online. http://bit.ly/1RsGbK1

--“What We Talk About When We Talk About the Bomb,” discussing nuclear weapons with Michael Douglas, Eric Schlosser, Emma Belcher, Joe Cirincione, Robert Kenner and Smriti Keshari. April 23 at 5:00 p.m. at SVA Theater 2 Beatrice, 333 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10011. Tickets available online. http://bit.ly/1WnDYVR

--“Nuclear Weapons: Iraq, Iran and Beyond,” with Joe Cirincione, Ploughshares Fund, and Valerie Plame, former career covert CIA operations officer. April 25 at 3:00 p.m. at the University of Washington, Husky Union Building, Room 214, Seattle. Open to the public. http://bit.ly/1Ml5MYC

--“Missile Defense and Deterrent Issues Facing NATO and Europe,” with Tom Karako, Center for Strategic and International Studies, and James Acton, Carnegie Endowment. April 27 from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. at the Capitol Hill Club, 300 First St. SE, Washington. RSVP online. http://conta.cc/25ULZFH

--“Exploring a New Paradigm on the Korean Peninsula,” with 18 speakers. May 3 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Center for Strategic and International Studies Second Floor Conference Center, 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW, Washington. Register here. http://bit.ly/1Vu2XGa

--“U.S. Nuclear Policy Post-2016 Conference,” with 12 speakers. May 5 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW, Washington. RSVP online. http://bit.ly/1S8a4Tz