Gordon Prather

Physicist James Gordon Prather has served as a policy implementing official for national security-related technical matters in the Federal Energy Agency, the Energy Research and Development Administration, the Department of Energy, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Department of the Army. Dr. Prather also served as legislative assistant for national security affairs to U.S. Sen. Henry Bellmon, R-Okla. -- ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee and member of the Senate Energy Committee and Appropriations Committee. Dr. Prather had earlier worked as a nuclear weapons physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico.

Hiroshima or Wheat Smut?

When the parties to the Treaty on Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons meet next month for the 2005 NPT Review Conference, you can be sure that John "Bonkers" Bolton will be there. Why? Well, Bolton is the “point man” in the Bush administration’s campaign to sabotage and/or supersede the existing nuke proliferation-prevention regime. At the 2000 … Continue reading “Hiroshima or Wheat Smut?”

NPT in Trouble?

Recently, Jackie Sanders, Special Representative of the President for the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons has been asking herself this question – How should "we" deal with noncompliance with the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons? The problem is; nowhere in the NPT is "noncompliance" defined. The term "noncompliance" doesn’t even appear. It is a little … Continue reading “NPT in Trouble?”

Bonkers at the UN

Once the Senate confirms John Bolton to be our ambassador to the United Nations, he vows to “forge a stronger relationship between the United States and the United Nations, which depends critically on American leadership.” Like the leadership exhibited when Bush invaded Iraq in 2003 in defiance of the authority reserved to the UN Security … Continue reading “Bonkers at the UN”

Strengthening the NPT?

According to Ambassador Jackie Sanders, the United States proposes to "strengthen" the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons at the NPT Review Conference being held next month at United Nations headquarters in New York. If Sanders is not intentionally misleading us, either she has never read the Treaty or didn’t understand what she read. … Continue reading “Strengthening the NPT?”

Smoking Rockets

The report [.pdf] of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction begins as follows: "On the brink of war, and in front of the whole world, the United States government asserted that Saddam Hussein had reconstituted his nuclear weapons program, had biological weapons and mobile biological weapon … Continue reading “Smoking Rockets”

Bronx Cheers for the Nuke Commission?

This is the way Dafna Linzer of the Washington Post began her analysis last week of the report of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction; “Of all the claims U.S. intelligence made about Iraq’s arsenal in the fall and winter of 2002, it was a handful … Continue reading “Bronx Cheers for the Nuke Commission?”

Tenet’s Pack of Lies

Chapter One of the just-completed report [.pdf] by the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction purports to be a case study of the intelligence used to justify Operation Iraqi Freedom: "As war loomed, the U.S. Intelligence Community was charged with telling policymakers what it knew about Iraq’s … Continue reading “Tenet’s Pack of Lies”

Not Invented Here

The report of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction begins thusly; “On the brink of war, and in front of the whole world, the United States government asserted that Saddam Hussein had reconstituted his nuclear weapons program, had biological weapons and mobile biological weapon production facilities, … Continue reading “Not Invented Here”

Kyoto Goes Nuclear

Following Russia’s formal ratification of the Kyoto Protocol last November, it went into force on Feb. 16, 2005. The Protocol obligates "industrialized" signatories to reduce by 2012 their emissions of six "greenhouse gases" – primarily carbon dioxide – to 5.2 percent below 1990 levels. The United States is not a signatory. Of course, it’s obvious … Continue reading “Kyoto Goes Nuclear”

Bye-Bye NPT?

The 2005 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) will occur 2-27 May 2005 at the United Nations in New York and it may be the last. Under the NPT, the International Atomic Energy Agency is the designated "inspectorate" for verifying compliance by nation-states with their safeguards … Continue reading “Bye-Bye NPT?”