September 12, 2005

Publishers Marketplace: Deal Search Results: ” Kenneth Sewell and Clint Richmond’s RED STAR ROGUE: The Untold Story of a Soviet Submarine’s Nuclear Strike Attempt on the U.S., the tale of the Russian ballistic missile submarine K-129, to Bob Bender at Simon & Schuster, in a major deal, for publication and release September 12, by John Talbot at the Talbot Fortune Agency and Jim Hornfischer of Hornfischer Literary Management (world).”

Although my first reaction is “probably overstated,” I’ll definitely read this.

Update: excellent debunking article at ArmsControlWonk.

Publishers Marketplace: Deal Search Results: “Karen Bridson’s THE SECRETS OF SKINNY CHICKS, revealing the truths of what it takes to be fit when it doesn’t come naturally, to Michele Pezzuti at McGraw-Hill, in a nice deal, by Dawn Frederick at the Sebastian Literary Agency.”

Here’s a book that should never have been either written or published.

Publishers Marketplace: Deal Search Results: “Diplomat, Emory University professor, and former Carter Center program director, Marion V. Creekmore, Jr.’s A MOMENT OF CRISIS: The Inside Story of Jimmy Carter in North Korea, on how Carter’s intervention helped to resolve the 1994 North Korean nuclear crisis and prevent what he had determined was an almost certain war, to David Patterson at Public Affairs, for publication in fall 2006 (world).”

“An almost certain war?” Really?

Publishers Marketplace: Deal Search Results: “Rob Palmer’s NO TIME TO HIDE, in which a government psychologist with extraordinary powers of observation meets his match when he joins a beautiful con artist in a race to shut down a Caribbean arms dealer and stop a war, to Don D’Auria of Dorchester, in a two-book deal, by Richard Curtis of Richard Curtis Associates and Theresa Gabaldon of Theresa A. Gabaldon Literary Agency (NA).”

Sounds like Monk.

If Iran succeeds in building nuclear weapons, it could touch off an arms race that leads to the end of civilization, Henry Kissinger warned yesterday.
“I do not believe that living in a world with 20 or 30 nuclear states is a situation that civilized life can support,” said Kissinger, who served under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

“Kissinger’s Iran Nuke Alert,” New York Daily News, April 15, 2005.  http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/story/300033p-256878c.html

Agenzia Giornalistica Italia - News In English: “talian secret services deny there being reports referring to a plausible nuclear attack by Al Qaeda on Italian soil, thus contradicting indiscretions published by national daily La Stampa. The likelihood of nuclear of chemical attacks according to AGI sources has been assessed and scenarios submitted by US analysts this year have been reviewed by Italian intelligence. The reports submitted looked at 15 scenarios ranging from a basic suicide bomber attack, to nerve gas to a portable 10 kiloton nuclear weapon attack. According to sources ‘the scenarios were reviewed solely for the purposes of analysis and referred to case studies for North America’. Intelligence experts also confirm that delivering and transferring a nuclear device of any kind, anywhere, is extremely difficult to keep under raps since radiation can be satellite-tracked. (AGI)”

The last sentence goes far beyond what is publicly acknowledged.

Agenzia Giornalistica Italia - News In English: “Rome, Italy, Sep 12 - ‘The US opted for the deployment of tactical nuclear warheads in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks; their effective battlefield use still requires that a few taboos be broken. What better help in that sense than to spread rumours that Al Qaeda possesses former soviet nuclear weapons which are already located in Italy [...]. In short it’s all about pretending the false one is a real threat so as to legitimate the use of existing arsenals’, says The PRC party’s Gigi Malabarba, speaking as a Senate member of the Intelligence Services Watchdog.”

In other words, those who have already proliferated are considered a far greater threat than those who might do so in the future.

Geographic combatant commanders may request Presidential approval for use of nuclear weapons for a variety of conditions. Examples include:

• An adversary using or intending to use WMD against US, multinational, or alliance forces or civilian populations.
• Imminent attack from adversary biological weapons that only effects from nuclear weapons can safely destroy.
• Attacks on adversary installations including WMD, deep, hardened bunkers containing chemical or biological weapons or the C2 infrastructure required for the adversary to execute a WMD attack against the United States or its friends and allies.
• To counter potentially overwhelming adversary conventional forces, including mobile and area targets (troop concentration).
• For rapid and favorable war termination on US terms.
• To ensure success of US and multinational operations.
• To demonstrate US intent and capability to use nuclear weapons to deter adversary use of WMD.
• To respond to adversary-supplied WMD use by surrogates against US and multinational forces or civilian populations.

Source: Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations, DoD Joint Publication 3-12.

The New York Times reports:
WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 - The Pentagon is preparing new guidelines governing the use of nuclear weapons that foresee possible pre-emptive strikes against terrorist groups or nations planning to use unconventional weapons against the United States.
The draft document, the Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations, updates procedures for using nuclear weapons that were last changed in 1995. The plan is undergoing final review by the Pentagon’s joint staff and by Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, and it could be finished in the next several weeks, according to a Pentagon official. The document was first reported by The Washington Post.
Much of the document restates longstanding procedures for launching a nuclear strike, including declarations that such a decision requires explicit presidential approval.
A Pentagon official confirmed that a copy of the document posted on the national security Web site GlobalSecurity.org was authentic.