The Dominican Republic this month became the 140th nation to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty that would prohibit all nuclear explosions, the CTBT Organization announced last week. The Treaty has not been ratified by North Korea, China, Iran, Israel, India, Pakistan or the United States, among others.
The organizational structure of the United States Army may be confusing to anyone who is not routinely involved with it, and probably also to some who are. A new Army Regulation aims to clarify the missions and functions of each Army Command, as well as defining command relationships within and among the Commands. See “Army […]
The World Law Bulletin is a monthly publication of the Law Library of Congress that reports on significant or interesting legal developments in countries around the world. For its own peculiar reasons, the Law Library has declined to make this serial available to the public. (In response to insistent pleas, a derivative publication called the […]
The Air Force is reported to have loaded and flown five (some say six) nuclear-armed Advanced Cruise Missiles on a B-52H bomber – by mistake. This image shows a B-52H will a full load of 12 Advanced Cruise Missiles under the wings. By Hans M. Kristensen Michael Hoffman reports in Military Times that five (some […]
The latest FAS-NRDC estimate of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile has been published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. By Hans M. Kristensen The U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile currently contains an estimated 9,900 nuclear warheads of 15 different versions of nine basic types, according to the latest FAS-NRDC Nuclear Notebook published in the Bulletin […]
The Department of Defense last week issued a new directive (pdf) that regulates the conduct of its intelligence activities. It replaces a prior directive from 1988, and reflects the structural changes in national and military intelligence that have occurred since then. “All DoD intelligence and CI [counterintelligence] activities shall be carried out pursuant to the […]
The U.S. Army says it will fulfill its obligations to share information with foreign governments and organizations pursuant to international agreements, but it cautions against promising too much. “The policy of the United States is to avoid creating false impressions of its willingness to make classified or unclassified information/technology available,” according to an August 2 […]
By most available quantitative measures, government secrecy continues to grow in problematic ways, according to a new annual survey (pdf) from the advocacy coalition OpenTheGovernment.org. While the creation of new secrets (termed “original classification decisions”) actually declined in the past year, total classification activity grew significantly, as did the use of controls on unclassified information, […]
Noteworthy reports from the Congressional Research Service that have not been made readily available to the public include the following (all pdf). “Congress and the Internet: Highlights,” August 29, 2007. “Pakistan-U.S. Relations,” updated August 24, 2007. “United Nations Peacekeeping: Issues for Congress,” updated August 21, 2007. “Intelligence Issues for Congress,” updated August 7, 2007. “Extradition […]
Hey, we found the Iraqi WMD’s. They were being stored at the UN! I am sure it will be all over the news by tonight, but it is astonishing how fast the press was all over what really amounts to an act of stupidity, and most certainly not a large public hazard. Sure, one can’t […]
In an earlier blog (see below), I discussed how, during the Congressional debate about the US-India nuclear deal, even those members of Congress opposed to the deal bent over backwards to declare their support for closer ties between the world’s two largest democracies. And everyone agreed the deal is generous, opens long-closed doors, and sets […]
The slim Mk4A reentry body for the W76-1 warhead. The administration plans to produce 2,000 between 2007 and 2021. By Hans M. Kristensen The Bush administration has decided to more than double the number of nuclear warheads undergoing an expensive upgrade for potential future deployment on the Navy’s 14 ballistic missile submarines, according to answers […]