At the
UN, Warhead Reduction Pitched by U.S. While Replacement Warhead "Sketchy"
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
October 15 -- U.S. representatives came to the UN on Monday to brag about their
reduction in nuclear warheads. At a stakeout interview afterwards, Inner City
Press asked about the U.S.'s plan to build a new type of warhead. Tom D'Agostino,
the administrator
of the National Nuclear Security
Administration, answered that steps are being taken toward a new warhead with
"no increased yield" and "no new features." Video
here,
from Minute 13:25.
When Inner City Press asked if it is a
hydrogen bomb -- as reported in a
Los Angeles Times story to
which no correction has been appended -- Mr. D'Agostino said, "I'm not familiar
with that article," and emphasized again that the "Reliable Replacement Warhead"
is simply an attempt to "do things better." But do what better? Not once in the
18-minute stakeout interview was the destruction of cities mentioned.
Repeatedly, Mr. D'Agostino and his two colleagues were asked if the U.S. had
evidence of North Korea nuclear assistance to
Syria.
Responses ranged from, that is not the purpose of this briefing, to a
characterization of available evidence as "sketchy."
Warheads per U.S. NNSA
Meanwhile, sources tell Inner City Press
that footage
Syria submitted
to the UN, with the intention of reaching the Security Council, has yet to reach
Council members. There may be some data-stamp problems with the footage, not
dissimilar to the disputes about the age of the missile that fell in Georgia
near the breakaway republic of South Ossetia. Click
here for
more on that.
A
press release distributed
at the stakeout, entitled "Design Selected for Reliable Replacement Warhead,"
listed that the "RRW will...
decrease the
likelihood that a nuclear test will be needed." Decrease?
* * *
Click
here for a
Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army.
Click
here
for an earlier
Reuters AlertNet
piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's
$200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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Copyright 2006-07 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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UN Office: S-453A,
UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile
(and weekends): 718-716-3540
