On the radar: CBI sanctions debate continues between WH and the Hill; Diplomatic options on Iran; Counting China’s nukes; Downed drone part of larger mission; North Korea going road-mobile?; US bureaucracy and Russian scientists; Remembering Paul Doty; and Nuclear smuggling prevention in Shanghai.

December 7, 2011 | Edited by Benjamin Loehrke and Mary Kaszynski

CBI sanctions - “President Barack Obama's administration is working behind the scenes to water down congressional language that would impose crippling sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran,” Josh Rogin reports.

--In a letter to Congress the administration requested several changes to the sanctions amendment, including delaying the implementation of sanctions not related to oil purchases and lowering the penalties of sanctions measures. Sens. Kirk and Menendez, the authors of the sanctions amendment, urged no alterations to their amendment in a letter to HASC leaders. http://owl.li/7REEM

Rational policy options on Iran - “There’s been a dearth of discussion about rational policy options to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran,” write Brig. Gen. John Adams and Lt. Col. Chris Courtney (both USA, ret.) in Politico. “We must choose policy options likely to prevent both a nuclear-armed Iran and the outbreak of regional war.”

--Among their recommendations: “open new lines of communication” and “refrain from military threats against Iran.” http://owl.li/7REQ5

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Questions about Chinese nuclear warheads - The author behind the contested estimate that China could have 3,500 nuclear warheads, Dr. Philip Karber of Georgetown, is set to adjust that estimate. The new figure is an annual production capacity of 200 warheads, not total quantity of warheads themselves. All Things Nuclear has Karber’s new graph and some followup questions. http://owl.li/7REHW

Downed drone - The stealth surveillance drone that recently went down in Iran had apparently “spied on Iran for years,” reports The Washington Post. “The U.S. built up the air base in Shindad, Afghanistan, with an eye to keeping a long-term presence there to launch surveillance missions and even special operations missions into Iran if deemed necessary.” http://owl.li/7REKa

--David Axe at Danger Room has more on the RQ-170 drone, how it might have gone down, and how USAF and CIA tend to use them. http://owl.li/7REMm

DPRK ICBM work - North Korea’s efforts to build an ICBM are advancing, reports the Washington Times based on an Obama administration quote. “Informed sources said government experts think the new road-mobile missile could be derived from the North's intermediate-range Musudan missile, which was first unveiled last October,” reports Global Security Newswire. Also in the article is some pro-national missile defense boilerplate. http://owl.li/7REzF

Politics, bureaucracy, and the nuclear knowledge - “In the US fight to stem the proliferation of WMD knowledge from the former Soviet Union, the power of institutional interests meant that the United States government was its own worst enemy,” writes Sharon Weiner in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. “Bureaucracies that were given this task defined it, implemented solutions, and measured success in ways that satisfied their own needs, rather than the requirements for creating jobs for former Soviet WMD experts.” http://owl.li/7RESy

Paul Doty - “Paul M. Doty, 91, a Harvard University chemist whose early work helping to assemble the first nuclear bombs led him to become a leading advocate against their destructive use, died Dec. 5 at his home in Cambridge, Mass.” From The Washington Post. http://owl.li/7REYs

Nuclear security at Shanghai port - “The United States and China launched a radiation detection system at a Shanghai port on Wednesday, part of a global effort to halt smuggling of nuclear materials,” Reuters reports. http://owl.li/7RHxT