TheRepublic.com - Weapons of mass destruction News

FBI: No arrests in Spokane, Wash., ricin case

Mon, 20 May 2013 17:01:43 -0400

SPOKANE, Washington - The FBI said Monday that no one has been arrested after last week's discovery of a pair of letters containing the deadly poison ricin in Spokane, but the agency remained tight-lipped about the investigation and a weekend raid at a downtown apartment building.

Seoul: Day 3 of NKorea tests of short-range weapon

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:32:45 -0400

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea continued firing short-range weapons over its own eastern waters Monday after a weekend of what it called "rocket launching tests" intended to bolster deterrence against enemy attack. South Korean officials were investigating exactly what it was that the North was testing.

Idaho man charged in Uzbekistan terrorism plot

Fri, 17 May 2013 18:17:48 -0400

BOISE, Idaho - He was a Russian-speaking truck driver who came to Idaho nearly four years ago to join hundreds of other Uzbekistan refugees for whom the state has become a sanctuary from violence in their home country.

SC, Ga. senators voice MOX support to White House

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:01:39 -0400

COLUMBIA, South Carolina - Republican senators from South Carolina and Georgia have called on the Obama administration to continue funding a program to turn weapons-grade plutonium into commercial nuclear reactor fuel, saying that slowing or ending the project would harm international and domestic relationships.

US envoy won't attend arms talks led by Iran

Mon, 13 May 2013 21:17:00 -0400

UNITED NATIONS - The United States said Monday it will refuse to send its ambassador to any meeting of the U.N. forum where nuclear disarmament is negotiated when it's chaired by Iran because countries under U.N. sanctions shouldn't be allowed to hold such positions.

Is there a morale crisis in the US nuclear force?

Sat, 11 May 2013 09:18:45 -0400

WASHINGTON - Beyond the Air Force's embarrassing suspension of 17 nuclear missile launch officers lie two broader questions.

NKorea nuke arsenal seen as matter of when, not if

Fri, 10 May 2013 11:06:27 -0400

SEOUL, South Korea - For 20 years, fears about North Korea's headlong pursuit of nuclear bombs have been deflected by admonishments not to overestimate an impoverished dictatorship prone to bragging and tantrums.

Turkey testing Syrians for chemical weapon wounds

Thu, 09 May 2013 12:11:40 -0400

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey is testing injured Syrians seeking treatment across the border for chemical weapon wounds, the foreign minister said Thursday.

US discussing giving Russia missile defense data

Wed, 08 May 2013 20:51:06 -0400

WASHINGTON - The head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency says that the Obama administration has discussed declassifying key data on U.S. missile defense in order to provide it to Russia.

AP Exclusive: Commander cites 'rot' in nuke force

Wed, 08 May 2013 19:39:19 -0400

WASHINGTON - It was an attitude problem, Air Force commanders insisted, not a matter of competence. And besides, they contended, security was never at risk in spite of what one commander called "rot" in the crew force.

DOE: Breach at Tenn. nuclear plant 'unacceptable'

Wed, 08 May 2013 18:54:15 -0400

WASHINGTON - A breach in which an 82-year-old nun and two other protesters sneaked into a Tennessee nuclear weapons plant last year is "completely unacceptable" and an "important wake-up call" for the government, the head of an agency charged with safeguarding the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile said Wednesday.

NBC's Richard Engel back to Syria after kidnapping

Wed, 08 May 2013 18:17:01 -0400

NEW YORK - NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel is back quickly and safely from his first trip to Syria since he and his team were kidnapped and held captive there last December.

SKorean leader: Nuclear-armed North unacceptable

Wed, 08 May 2013 12:03:21 -0400

WASHINGTON - South Korea's President Park Geun-hye told Congress on Wednesday that she will never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea and that provocative actions by the reclusive communist country "will be met decisively."

Chicago case alleges ties to North Korea

Mon, 06 May 2013 20:14:20 -0400

CHICAGO - A Taiwanese businessman long suspected of ties to North Korea and his Illinois-based son have been charged in Chicago with seeking to bypass a U.S. ban on the export of weapons machinery to the hard-line communist nation, federal prosecutors announced Monday.

Officials: Israel launches airstrike into Syria

Fri, 03 May 2013 23:31:23 -0400

WASHINGTON - Israel launched an airstrike into Syria, apparently targeting a suspected weapons site, U.S. officials said Friday night.

Obama doesn't foresee US ground troops in Syria

Fri, 03 May 2013 20:52:29 -0400

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - President Barack Obama said Friday he doesn't foresee any circumstance requiring the U.S. to send ground troops into Syria, even as Washington pursues more evidence about the regime's purported use of chemical weapons.

Obama: Will 'stay on' Syria chemical weapons issue

Fri, 03 May 2013 19:55:33 -0400

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - President Barack Obama says the United States will keep pressure on Syria while investigating whether the government has used chemical weapons against its people, but that it must proceed carefully.

Nations at nuclear meeting say too many on alert

Fri, 03 May 2013 13:19:32 -0400

GENEVA - More than 100 nations concluding a round of global nuclear talks Friday expressed alarm that many nuclear weapons are kept at a high-alert level and are still being modernized, despite a promise to get rid of them.

Pentagon report: NKorea moving toward nuke missile

Thu, 02 May 2013 17:33:18 -0400

WASHINGTON - North Korea "will move closer" to its announced goal of being able to strike the U.S. with a nuclear-armed missile if it keeps investing in tests of nuclear and missile technology, the Pentagon said Thursday in a report to Congress.

Syrian air defenses pose formidable challenge

Thu, 02 May 2013 15:10:44 -0400

BEIRUT - International military action against Syria's government over its alleged use of chemical weapons would run up against one of the Middle East's most formidable air defenses, a system bolstered in recent years by top-of-the-line Russian hardware.

Syrian envoy: Chemical weapons can't be tolerated

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:00:35 -0400

UNITED NATIONS - Syria's U.N. ambassador said Tuesday that the use of chemical weapons is not only "a red line" but "a blood line" that cannot be tolerated and again demanded a U.N. investigation of an alleged chemical weapons attack in Aleppo that it blames on rebels.

Iran: chemicals 'red line' but seeks rebel probe

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:21:34 -0400

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's foreign minister is insisting that use of chemical weapons in Syria would also be a "red line" for Tehran, but suggests rebel forces should be investigated rather than the Islamic Republic's allies in Damascus.

Turkey vigilant for chemicals with wounded Syrians

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 07:28:32 -0400

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkish border authorities decontaminated a group of wounded Syrians as they entered Turkey and hospital staff wore protective equipment to treat them because some claimed they may have come under a chemical attack in Syria, an official said Tuesday.

Egypt walks out of nuclear talks in Geneva

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 23:08:37 -0400

GENEVA - Egypt walked out of a round of global nuclear talks in protest Monday, saying other nations are not acting quickly enough to establish the Middle East as a zone free of nuclear weapons.

Syrian prime minister escapes bombing in Damascus

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:10:45 -0400

DAMASCUS, Syria - Syria's prime minister narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in the heart of the heavily defended capital Monday, state media said, laying bare the vulnerability of President Bashar Assad's regime.