Pakistan Restores AQ Khan's Security Protocol

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September 2, 2009

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Stories we're following today:

Pakistan Court Again Puts Curbs on Nuke Scientist – Associated Press 

  • A Pakistani court on Wednesday suspended an earlier order lifting restrictions on the movement of nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who is alleged to have spread nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya.

White House Says It Has No Word of New Iran Offer – AFP [link]

  • The White House said Tuesday it had received no official notification from Iran on a package of new proposals regarding its nuclear program, said to include an offer to hold fresh talks with world powers.
  • State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said, "We would review any proposal that they give us seriously."

Seoul Sees North Korea’s Overtures as Tactical Changes – Associated Press

  • [South Korean] Unification Minister Hyun In-taek told ruling party lawmakers Wednesday that the North's recent overtures are "just tactical changes because the North has neither declared its return to the six-nation talks nor changed its position" on its nuclear program.
  • However, [South Korean President Lee Myung-bak] has recently stressed Seoul's commitment to helping North Korea if the North shows willingness to change.

Special Topics: The Evolution of ElBaradei – Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists [link]

  • Expected to be a conventional bureaucrat when he took office, Mohamed ElBaradei led the International Atomic Energy Agency through 12 years of tumult and set an ambitious course for the agency that some worry can never be realized. In a one-on-one interview and in interviews with those close to him, the Bulletin takes a look at the ElBaradei era and beyond.
  • Note: The Bulletin’s coverage includes an interview with ElBaradei and an examination of his legacy.

A View from the Dark Side

Putin’s Arms ‘Do-Over’ – Frank Gaffney Jr. in The Washington Times [link]

  • Mr. Andropov's successor as the de facto master of the Kremlin, former KGB thug-turned president/prime minister Mr. Putin, thinks he will be able to prevail over the Atlantic Alliance where his former boss did not.
  • Toward that end, [the Obama administration has] (among numerous other concessions) signaled a willingness to cashier the deployment in Eastern Europe of missile defenses that the Russians claim, preposterously, to find threatening.
  • If the United States indeed goes that route, it will amount to much more than a strategically costly "do-over" of the INF fight. It will make plain to all the emerging "Obama Doctrine" with its three ominous characteristics: abandoning our allies, emboldening our enemies and diminishing our country.