Nuclear Weapons

Iranian Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh signaled that Tehran will no longer cooperate with U.N. experts looking for signs of clandestine nuclear weapons work. Iran insists that its only goal is to produce fuel for nuclear reactors to generate electricity. It dismisses as fabricated evidence supplied by the U.S. and other members of the International Atomic Energy Agency's governing board that purportedly backs allegations that it continues to work on nuclear weapons. Aghazadeh said investigating such allegations "is outside the domain of the agency."

WASHINGTON - The United States and five other countries have agreed to offer a joint proposal to Iran at a high-level meeting next week in an effort to open a path for negotiations to curtail Tehran's disputed nuclear program and to ease the threat of war. When they meet in Baghdad on Wednesday, the six powers will offer to help Iran fuel a small reactor used for medical purposes, and to forgo seeking further United Nations economic sanctions....

Russia closed down another plutonium-producing reactor as part of a years-long effort by Moscow and Washington to shutter the Cold War-era facilities that produced material for nuclear weapons. Workers will begin removing the remaining uranium fuel from the ADE-5 reactor at the Siberian Chemical Plant in Seversk, said the atomic energy agency, Rosatom. The plant's first reactor was shut down April 20. Russia's last plutonium-producing reactor, in Zheleznogorsk, is expected to be shuttered by 2010.

TEL AVIV - With the acquisition this month of a sixth German-made submarine, Israel is seeking to position itself as the region's undisputed naval powerhouse. From spying on enemies to intercepting illegal arms shipments to blockading the Gaza Strip, Israel's naval capabilities are playing a more prominent role in the nation's security. The latest advanced German sub, with a price tag of more than $500 million, is Israel's most expensive piece of military equipment. The subs - which are believed to be fitted with nuclear weapons - also provide Israel with a second-strike capability designed to discourage surprise enemy offensives.

A leaked report by a U.N. agency reveals fresh details about Libya's now-abandoned attempts to obtain nuclear weapons and an underground network of scientists who peddled atomic secrets for cash. Before deciding to abandon its quest for nuclear weapons, Libya had tapped into a sophisticated black-market network that included Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, says a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, prepared for delivery Friday to members of its governing board.

Throughout his public career, George Bush has tended to get a little giddy when he's in a celebratory mood. During his presidential campaign, Bush managed to keep his lighter side in firm check, but since his inauguration, it has been showing more and more. On Tuesday, as he celebrated the successful end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's 40th anniversary summit here, the old George Bush, fractured syntax and all, was on full display. Asked about NATO's position on nuclear weapons, for example, Bush began to read aloud from the NATO communique: "Where nuclear forces are concerned, blah, blah, land, sea, air," he said.

Like its creator and star Sacha Baron Cohen, the comedy of "The Dictator" is mercurial to the extreme and as crude as the massive oil reserves of Wadiya, the fictional North African nation where his latest movie prank begins. By turns hysterical, heretical, guilty, innocent, silly, sophisticated, teasing and tedious, the film follows the power-mad leader Admiral General Haffaz Aladeen as he loses his bearings, his beard and his heart in New York City. "The Dictator" underscores both Baron Cohen's genius and his folly, and delivers the actor's signature blend of scatological outrage, sagacity and at least one full-frontal assault with a flaccid unmentionable.

A major cyber attack somewhere in the United States is becoming increasingly possible, top government intelligence officials said Thursday, warning that an assault on America's power grid system "represents the battleground for the future. " The officials, speaking at a special hearing on Capitol Hill, also said that although Al Qaeda has been diminished after nine years of the U.S. war on terror, more foreign groups have risen up, increasing concerns among U.S. authorities that one of them may eventually get their hands on a nuclear device.

Nuclear weapons, which largely faded from front pages after the Cold War, are back in the news. President Obama endorsed a new national security strategy, and earlier this year he signed an ambitious arms control treaty with Russia, further easing fears of global Armageddon. But Obama also led an unprecedented summit of world leaders to warn of an increasingly urgent threat — nuclear terrorism. Much of this perilous state of affairs can be traced to the villainous deeds of Abdul Qadeer Khan.

Budgetary necessity may have been the mother of President Obama's reinvention of military strategy, but that doesn't mean the change is reckless or even imprudent. After the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and with the winding down of the American presence in Afghanistan, it's time for new thinking. In an appearance Thursday at the Pentagon, Obama unveiled the recommendations of a Defense Department study group that he said would produce a military that is "agile, flexible and ready for the full range of contingencies and threats.

Vice President Joe Biden, seeking to reaffirm the White House's support for Israel and, in turn, its tough stance on Iran's alleged efforts to gain nuclear weapons, promised economic sanctions would have an effect on the Iranian regime and predicted the current leadership's fall within two years. "The U.S. policy under Barack Obama is not one of containment. It is straightforward. We will prevent Iran from acquiring a nuke by whatever means necessary, period," Biden said during his appearance at the 1,600 rabbi-strong international Rabbinical Assembly Convention in Atlanta.

The Obama administration faces two dangers in its nuclear negotiations with Iran, which began in a burst of optimism last weekend after the two sides managed to get through a day and a half of talks without anyone walking out. One danger, of course, is that the talks could fail. The other is that they might succeed. Failed talks would lead to calls for airstrikes by the U.S. or Israel on Iran's nuclear installations. But even if the talks succeed - or, more precisely, if they succeed only part way - any agreement that comes out of them is certain to draw fire.

Fear that North Korea might be positioning itself to market weapons technology to other developing nations may have been eased by its latest failure - the fourth in 15 years - to build a functioning rocket. But the demonstration that Pyongyang has not mastered and may not be able to afford such a sophisticated weapons program may not be enough to deter it from continuing to try, according to arms control and security analysts. North Korea's neighbors as well as the United States and other world powers are worried that its efforts to launch a rocket mask a program to build a delivery system for a nuclear warhead.

Not long ago, an astute reader noted that it has been nearly two years since I wrote in a column that "most experts now estimate that Iran needs about 18 months to complete a nuclear device and a missile to carry it. " His point - that those estimates were way off - was a good one, especially since experts are still estimating that Iran is 18 months away from being able to build a nuclear weapon. So what gives? Why does Iran always seem to be about 18 months away from a nuclear bomb, at least in the eyes of U.S. officials?

As calls mount, especially in Israel, for military action against Iran's nuclear program, the main counterargument has been seductively simple: Iran is rational. Indeed, our country's top military official, Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, recently rejected the need for airstrikes because, as he put it, "We are of the opinion that the Iranian regime is a rational actor. " By this logic, we should not risk war to prevent Iran from going nuclear because even if Iran acquired nukes, it would never use them offensively, never share them with terrorists and never utilize them as a shield for regional adventurism.

The Obama administration imposed tighter oil sanctions on Iran on Friday in hopes that the threat to its economy would force the country to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons program. That's in addition to the European Union's sanctions, which begin July 1. But is an economic threat persuasive enough? It all depends on who you ask. "The Iranian regime can live without its nuclear program," writes Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian Israeli Middle East analyst, in a piece on CNN's GPS. "But it can't live without its economy, and the recently imposed sanctions, if continued, could turn into an existential danger for the Iranian regime by precipitating an economic collapse.

TEL AVIV - With the acquisition this month of a sixth German-made submarine, Israel is seeking to position itself as the region's undisputed naval powerhouse. From spying on enemies to intercepting illegal arms shipments to blockading the Gaza Strip, Israel's naval capabilities are playing a more prominent role in the nation's security. The latest advanced German sub, with a price tag of more than $500 million, is Israel's most expensive piece of military equipment. The subs - which are believed to be fitted with nuclear weapons - also provide Israel with a second-strike capability designed to discourage surprise enemy offensives.

President Obama vowed Sunday to pursue the elimination of nuclear weapons from the planet, telling a cheering throng in Prague that the United States is ready to lead an international effort to reduce atomic arsenals and the threat they pose. Speaking only hours after North Korea launched a multistage rocket, drawing new international concern and condemnation, Obama outlined a plan to work toward a goal that he acknowledged remains decades away.

President Obama on Monday made a direct appeal to the leaders of North Korea and Iran, urging them to "have the courage" to step away from their nuclear weapons programs, rather than follow a path toward greater isolation and economic distress. "You can continue down the road you are on, but we know where that leads," Obama said in a speech that balanced notes of diplomatic persuasion with hard-edged pressure. Addressing new leaders in Pyongyang, Obama warned that their current path would lead to "more broken dreams, more isolation and ever more distance between the people of North Korea and the dignity and opportunity they deserve.

The wrong equation Re " Granada Hills is again the brainiest in state ," March 19 Wonderful story for those kids. But a tragedy for this state and country. We can raise millions of dollars for campaigning to get candidates elected, but we cannot fund education programs so important to all. As your article says: "A preliminary worst-case budget approved by the Board of Education last week would slash the decathlon's funding. " What have we become?