IRAN
Iran charm offensive fails to ease nuclear fears
Fredrik Dahl, Reuters — September 1, 2011
An Iranian effort to show increased openness about its disputed nuclear program is doing little to dispel Western suspicions about Tehran’s atomic ambitions, with one Vienna-based envoy dismissing it as a “charm offensive.”
Iran is said to be trying to shelter nuclear fuel program
David Sanger, New York Times — September 1, 2011
Iran is moving its most critical nuclear fuel production to a heavily defended underground military facility outside the holy city of Qum, where it is less vulnerable to attack from the air and, the Iranians hope, the kind of cyberattack that crippled its nuclear program, according to intelligence officials.
Afghanistan?. Check, Iraq?. Check, Iran?. Checking?
Mark Thompson, Time — August 31, 2011
Nice to know Air Force Lieut. Colonel Leif Eckholm is keeping busy in his job inside the inner sanctum of American military power: the strategic plans and policy directorate for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Perhaps that’s why he has just written
The Military Option on Iran: Be Careful What You Wish For
Peter Crail, Arms Control Now — September 1, 2011
TIME Magazine has recently highlighted an analysis entitled “Invading Iran: Lessons from Iraq” by Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Leif Eckholm, who works in the Strategic Plans and Policy Directorate for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (the analysis was published by Stanford’s Hoover Institution, where Eckholm served as a defense fellow).
NORTH KOREA
Obama moves to sell Northrop drones to South Korea
Reuters — September 1, 2011
The Obama administration has begun consulting Congress on plans to sell remotely piloted Global Hawk surveillance planes to South Korea, which came close to all-out war with North Korea last year, two people familiar with the matter said.
North Korea ghost town reflects deeper woes as it woos China
Jeremy Laurence, Reuters — September 1, 2011
Long grass grows around the idle hotels, stores are covered in cobwebs and a big padlock hangs off the front of the bank at the deserted shopping centre.
UNITED STATES
Nuclear operator told to reassess quake risk
Rebecca Smith, Wall Street Journal — September 2, 2011
uclear regulators said Thursday they want the operators of all 104 U.S. commercial reactors to conduct new assessments of their facilities’ vulnerability to earthquake damage. The decision was motivated by the increased awareness that seismic risks may have been underestimated by nuclear-power industry and regulators in the past, especially for the central and eastern U.S.
List of 27 nuclear power reactors where gov’t says earthquake damage is more likely
Associated Press — September 2, 2011
The 27 nuclear reactors identified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as possibly needing upgrades to better withstand earthquakes. Plants listed more than once have multiple reactors on the list.
LIBYA
Libyan Islamist says he won’t be enemy to U.S.
Simon Denyer, The Washington Post — September 1, 2011
He says he was tortured by the CIA and accused of links with al-Qaeda, but Tripoli’s new military commander, Abdulhakim Belhadj, insists that he is no extremist or enemy of the United States.
SYRIA
Diplomats say Syria stonewalling the IAEA
George Jahn, Associated Press — September 1, 2011
Syria has reneged on a promise to quickly cooperate with a U.N. probe of its nuclear activities, saying it won’t be able to provide more information to challenge an assessment that it tried to build a plutonium-producing reactor until October, diplomats told The Associated Press on Thursday.
