The 'sanitised narrative' of Hiroshima's atomic bombing

The US has always insisted that the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were necessary to end World War Two. But it is a narrative that has little emphasis on the terrible human cost.

I met a remarkable young man in Hiroshima the other day. His name is Jamal Maddox and he is a student at Princeton University in America. Jamal had just toured the peace museum and met with an elderly hibakusha, a survivor of the bombing.

Iran's N-talks: Two steps forward and another act of sabotage

As the deadline for nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 is closing in on November 24, one thing is clear. Both parties are seriously engaged in and seem determined to achieve a breakthrough.

They met in Vienna last month (October 15) and again earlier this week (November 3) and have come up with some substantial progress. US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Jawad Zarif are again expected to meet in Oman at the end of this week (Nov. 9-10).

Inspectors arrive in Iran to monitor nuclear deal

A team of international inspectors arrived in Iran on Saturday ahead of the Islamic Republic 

opening its nuclear program as part of a landmark deal struck with world powers to limit its 

uranium enrichment in exchange for sanctions being eased.

A satellite image of Iran's Fordo uranium enrichment facility (photo credit: AP/DigitalGlobe)

Iranian state television reported that inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, a 

United Nations agency, landed in Tehran. It said nuclear engineer Massimo Aparo will lead the 

team, which will visit Natanz and Fordo, Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities.

This alarming map shows dozens of nuclear materials thefts and losses every year

This week's incident in Mexico, in which highly lethal cobalt-60 was stolen in a truck theft and not recovered for two days, may have been unusually disquieting, but it was not unusual. Nuclear material is stolen or lost two to four dozen times a year every year. Sometimes small amounts, sometimes large. It happens an awful lot in Russia and other former Soviet states; it happens in poorer, nuclear-capable countries such as Mexico, India and South Africa; and you'd better believe it happens in rich countries, as well, particularly in France.

A piece of the cargo stolen from a truck hauling dangerous radioactive materials. (CNSNS via AP)

That's according to the International Atomic Energy Agency's Incident and Trafficking Database, which works with governments around the world to track such incidents. Many of the cases are never publicly reported -- the IAEA doesn't release details so that governments will be more willing to fess up when material goes missing. A group called the Nuclear Threat Initiative tracks open-source reports of these incidents. They don't catch everything, but they've recorded enough to show the alarming frequency with which dangerous nuclear materials are lost or go missing. Some of those cases from the past decade are mapped out below. If you weren't worried about loose nuclear material before, you will be after reading details of the incidents at the bottom of the map.

Next Steps for the U.S.-Iran Deal

What was unthinkable for many people over many years happened in the early hours of Nov. 24 in Geneva: The United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran struck a deal. After a decadelong struggle, the two reached an accord that seeks to ensure that Iran's nuclear program remains a civilian one. It is a preliminary deal, and both sides face months of work to batten down domestic opposition, build convincing mechanisms to assure compliance and unthread complicated global sanctions.

 

That is the easy part. More difficult will be the process to reshape bilateral relations while virtually every regional player in the Middle East seeks ways to cope with an Iran that is no longer geopolitically encumbered.

US offers to destroy Syrian chemical weapons at sea

The Obama administration is offering to destroy some of Syria’s deadliest chemical weapons in international waters aboard a nearly 700-foot (213-meter), US government-owned ship, US officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Illustrative photo of the USS Kearsarge steaming into the Gulf of Aqaba (photo credit: Official US Navy Imagery/File)

The plan, still subject to final approval, would involve destroying the weapons, likely aboard the MV Cape Ray in the Mediterranean Sea, with US Navy warships patrolling nearby.

West Faces Challenge in Moving Syrian Chemical Arms Through Battlefields

A plan announced over the weekend for getting the bulk of Syria’s chemical weapons out of the country in coming weeks has raised major concerns in Washington, because it involves transporting the weapons over roads that are battlegrounds in the country’s civil war and loading them onto a ship that has no place to go.

Khalil Ashawi/Reuters

Syrian rebels took up positions inside a damaged house last week in Deir al-Zour, in eastern Syria. There are fears of attacks on shipments of chemical arms.

Security for the shipments is being provided entirely by Syrian military units loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, who has surprised American officials with how speedily he has complied with an agreement brokered by Russia to identify and turn over his chemical weapon stockpiles. Intelligence analysts and Pentagon officials say the shipments will be vulnerable to attack as they travel past the ruins of a war that has raged for two and a half years.

Iranian FM says deal on nuclear program possible this week

deal with the six world powers (P5+1) to resolve the stalemate over Iran’s nuclear program could come later this week in Geneva, the Iranian foreign minister said Tuesday.

Iran’s new Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif speaks during a forum in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, Nov. 1, 2013. (AP Photo)

“I think it is possible to reach an accord this week, but I can only speak for my country, not for the others [the P5+1 made up of the US, Russia, the UK, China, France and Germany],” Mohammad Javad Zarif told France 24 television. “There’s a lot of work to do, we’ve made some progress… but I think we are very close to an agreement.”

Syria has destroyed chemical weapons facilities, international inspectors say

Syria has destroyed its declared chemical-weapons production facilities, international inspectors said Thursday, marking a major step in the complex task of ridding the country of the weapons of mass destruction.

Video: The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons announced that Syria has met a Nov. 1 deadline for destroying machinery used to produce chemical weapons.

The declaration came a day before a Nov. 1 deadline as the team overseen by the inspectors hewed to an ambitious schedule for destroying Syria’s entire chemical arsenal by the middle of next year — a far more rapid process than comparable efforts in other countries and one that must be implemented in the middle of a civil war.

As Iran closes in on nuclear capability, regional states pursue their own programs

Shi’ite, Sunni tensions play critical part in fears over Iran's increasing nuclear capabilities; The United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Turkey all have plans to build their own nuclear power plants.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the UN General Assembly, September 24, 2013. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

It is no secret that Shi’ite Iran’s nuclear program has increased already high sectarian tensions with Sunni states in the region, seeming to play a significant part in their decisions to pursue their own.

New report says Iran can have nuclear bomb in a month

Iran can enrich enough weapons-grade uranium for a single nuclear bomb in about a month, according to an estimate by a nuclear non-proliferation think tank released late Wednesday.

An anti-aircraft gun guarding the uranium enrichment facility at Natanz in Iran in 2007. (photo credit: AP/Hasan Sarbakhshian, File)

The report, by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, claims Iran has significantly shortened the time needed to “break out” to a nuclear bomb with the installation of new centrifuges in the Fordo and Natanz plants, and advanced IR-2 machines at Natanz.

Examining the Status of Iran’s Nuclear Program and Talks

Negotiators in Iran’s protracted nuclear dispute reported “substantive and forward looking negotiations” on Wednesday and said they would reconvene Nov. 7 to 8 for further talks. The following covers some questions about Iran’s nuclear program.

Atta Kenare/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

President Hassan Rouhani of Iran, widely seen as a pragmatist, played a key role in Iran’s voluntary suspension of uranium enrichment in 2004, which Western powers responded to by asking for more concessions from Iran.

Q. What is the current status of Iran’s nuclear program?

A. Iran’s ability to refine uranium, the fuel for peaceful nuclear energy and weapons, has grown significantly, according to the most recent inspection reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear-monitoring arm of the United Nations. Since last February, Iran has roughly quintupled, to more than 1,000, the advanced centrifuges at its main nuclear facility in the central city of Natanz. Iran also appears to have equipped a formerly secret subterranean facility known as Fordo, near the holy city of Qum, with 3,000 older-model centrifuges

Group of international experts tasked with dismantling Syria’s chemical arsenal enter country

An advance group of international inspectors arrived in Syria on Tuesday to begin the ambitious task of overseeing the destruction of President Bashar Assad’s chemical weapons program, kicking off a mission that must navigate the country’s bloody civil war as well as the international spotlight.

Bilal Hussein/Associated Press - A convoy of inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons prepares to cross into Syria at the Lebanese border crossing point of Masnaa, eastern Bekaa Valley, Lebanon on Oct. 1, 2013.

Twenty inspectors from a Netherlands-based chemical weapons watchdog crossed into Syria from neighboring Lebanon on their way to Damascus to begin their complex mission of finding, dismantling and ultimately destroying an estimated 1,000-ton chemical arsenal.

Chemical weapons officials say coordination with Syrian government has been ‘efficient’

Syria’s government has been “businesslike and efficient” ahead of meetings this week to lay the groundwork for the destruction of the country’s chemical weapons, officials charged with overseeing the effort said Sunday.

AP - A displaced Syrian woman comforts her one-month old grandchild inside a stone house near Kafer Rouma, in ancient ruins used as temporary shelter by families who have fled from the heavy fighting and shelling in the Idlib province countryside of Syria.

Inspectors from the Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said they would arrive in Damascus midday Tuesday and spend a week in the city before starting visits to chemical weapons facilities declared by the Syrian government. The OPCW officials said the details of the Syrian declaration appeared to line up with external intelligence assessments of what the government possesses, giving them optimism that the regime was being cooperative.

Chemical watchdog wants to begin Syria probe by Tuesday

The global chemical weapons watchdog will call for inspections of Syria’s chemical arsenal to begin by Tuesday.

Members of a UN investigative team take samples near the site of an alleged chemical weapon attack, in Syria, on August 28, 2013. (photo credit: AP/United Media Office of Arbeen)

The draft decision of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons obtained by The Associated Press also authorizes the body to inspect “any other site identified by a State Party as having been involved in the Syrian chemical weapons program, unless deemed unwarranted by the Director-General.”

Israel worried it may be pushed to join chemical weapons ban

The US-Russia deal to strip President Bashar Assad of his chemical weapons stockpile has some policymakers in Jerusalem concerned that Israel may be forced to sign an international chemical weapons ban treaty, something it has been unwilling to do until now.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, right, deliver statements in Geneva, Switzerland, Saturday Sept. 14, 2013. (photo credit: AP Photo/Keystone,Martial Trezzini)

The Chemical Weapons Convention, an international arms control pact which bans the production and amassing of chemical weapons materiel, is ratified by 183 states. Only Israel and Myanmar have signed the treaty but not ratified it into law.

ΕΝΤΑΞΗ ΣΤΗ ΔΙΕΘΝΗ ΣΥΜΦΩΝΙΑ «Καλωσορίζουν» Μόσχα και Πεκίνο την απόφαση της Συρίας για τα χημικά όπλα

Ρωσία και Κίνα χαιρέτισαν σήμερα την ανακοίνωση της Συρίας ότι εντάσσεται στη Σύμβαση για την Απαγόρευση των Χημικών Οπλων, κάτι για το οποίο είχε δεσμευτεί ο πρόεδρος Μπασάρ αλ Άσαντ, στα πλαίσια της διαπραγμάτευσης για να αποτραπεί πλήγμα κατά της χώρας του.

Ο Ρώσος πρόεδρος Βλαντίμιρ Πούτιν δήλωσε ότι η απόφαση αυτή της Συρίας δείχνει την πρόθεση της Δαμασκού για την επίλυση της κρίσης.

Ένα ταμπού άξιο προστασίας Τα χημικά όπλα χτυπούν αδιακρίτως – και γι’ αυτό πρέπει να είναι εκτός νόμου

Ανάμεσα στα πολλά επιχειρήματα που παρατάσσονται απέναντι σε μια αμερικανική επέμβαση στη Συρία, ένα εξέχον είναι ότι το ταμπού των χημικών όπλων δεν αξίζει να διατηρηθεί. Γράφοντας στο Foreign Affairs τον περασμένο Απρίλιο, ο πολιτικός επιστήμονας John Mueller ανέφερε ότι ο κόσμος θα πρέπει να «σβήσει την κόκκινη γραμμή», δεδομένου ότι τα χημικά όπλα γενικά προκαλούν πολύ λιγότερους θανάτους από όσους τα συμβατικά όπλα. Απηχώντας αυτό το σκεπτικό, ο υπότροφος τού Harvard, Stephen Walt, αναρωτήθηκε στους New York Times την περασμένη εβδομάδα: «Έχει πραγματικά σημασία αν ο Άσαντ σκοτώνει τους αντιπάλους του χρησιμοποιώντας βόμβες 500-λιβρών, βλήματα όλμων, πυρομαχικά διασποράς, πολυβόλα, αξίνες ή αέριο σαρίν; Ο νεκρός είναι νεκρός, ανεξάρτητα από το πώς πέθανε». Τα επιχειρήματα αυτά είναι ανησυχητικά. Όπως και το ταμπού εναντίον των πυρηνικών και βιολογικών όπλων, το ταμπού για τα χημικά όπλα αξίζει προστασίας και μάλιστα μεγάλης - και η αδράνεια για την Συρία διακινδυνεύει την διάβρωσή του.

Ένας ιρακινός Κούρδος στο κοιμητήριο των θυμάτων της χημικής επίθεσης που έγινε στην Halabja το 1998 (Thaier al-Sudani / Courtesy Reuters)

Είναι αλήθεια ότι κατά τη διάρκεια του περασμένου αιώνα, τα συμβατικά όπλα έχουν σκοτώσει πολύ περισσότερους ανθρώπους από όσους τα χημικά όπλα. Αλλά, αν κρατάμε λογαριασμό, τα συμβατικά όπλα έχουν σκοτώσει επίσης πολύ περισσότερους ανθρώπους από όσους τα πυρηνικά όπλα. Κανείς δεν αμφιβάλλει ότι τα συμβατικά όπλα μπορούν και σκοτώνουν σε μεγάλους αριθμούς – οι εξτρεμιστές Χούτου στη Ρουάντα κατέδειξαν το πόσο θανατηφόρα είναι ακόμη και τα απλά μαχαίρια και οι τσάπες. Αλλά τα πυρηνικά, τα βιολογικά και τα χημικά όπλα είναι χαρακτηρισμένα ως όπλα μαζικής καταστροφής, επειδή έχουν μεγαλύτερη δυνατότητα να σκοτώσουν ή να πληγώσουν πολύ μεγάλο αριθμό ανθρώπων σε σύγκριση με άλλα όπλα. Αν χρησιμοποιηθούν σε πλήρη δυναμικότητα και υπό τις κατάλληλες περιβαλλοντικές συνθήκες, τα χημικά όπλα είναι πιο θανατηφόρα από όσο σχεδόν όλα τα είδη των συμβατικών όπλων. Στην επίθεση κοντά στη Δαμασκό, στις 21 Αυγούστου, το αέριο σαρίν σκότωσε περίπου 1.400 ανθρώπους σε 90 λεπτά και έπληξε αναρίθμητους ακόμα - η πιο καταστροφική επίθεση στα τελευταία δυόμισι χρόνια πολέμου.

ΣΦΑΓΗ ΜΗΠΙΩΝ ΜΕ ΧΗΜΙΚΑ Εγκλημα στη Συρία

Παγκόσμιο σοκ προκάλεσαν οι ανατριχιαστικές φωτογραφίες και τα βίντεο από τη Συρία με πτώματα μικρών παιδιών που κείτονταν το ένα δίπλα στο άλλο τυλιγμένα με σεντόνια στο πάτωμα ενός αυτοσχέδιου νοσοκομείου χωρίς εμφανή τραύματα.

Οι λέξεις αδυνατούν να περιγράψουν τη φρίκη από τις εικόνες με τα αγγελούδια που βρήκαν έναν τόσο άδικο θάνατο. Γροθιά στο στομάχι από τον εμφύλιο στη Συρία, που μετρά ήδη 100.000 νεκρούς

Σε άλλα εμφανίζονταν ασθενείς που υπέφεραν από δύσπνοια και έντονους σπασμούς και αδυνατούσαν να κινηθούν.

Israelis asked to take cover as chemical warfare drill begins

Air-raid sirens were set to wail across Israel on Monday, alerting the population to scramble to shelters as part of a massive military drill focusing on coping with chemical weapons attacks. The week-long nationwide exercise, code-named “Home Front Eitan 1,” is to drill the civilian population as well as military and emergency services for a possible war in which missiles will rain down on the home front, primarily from Syria and Lebanon.

Children in a school in Tel Aviv during a home front exercise, in the school's safe bunker, May 26 2010 (photo credit: Uri Lenz/Flash90)

The exercise will include two sirens: at 12.30 p.m. and at 7.05 p.m. The sirens are to sound a continuous monotone with no “all clear” signal. The IDF Home Front Command, which is organizing the drill, said that people should wait for 10 minutes in sheltered areas before emerging and resuming their day. In the event of a real attack on Israel during the exercise, the sirens will change to a rising and falling modulation.