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Monster Media No. 14 (April 1996) (Monster Media, Inc.).ISO
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1996-01-22
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Foreign Correspondent
Inside Track On World News
By International Syndicated Columnist & Broadcaster
Eric Margolis <emargolis@lglobal.com>
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INDIA'S NUCLEAR GENIE - By Eric Margolis
January 21, 1996
In December, US spy satellites detected intense activity at
Pokaran, India's top secret nuclear test site deep in the
Thar Desert of Rajastan. To head off what Washington
believed was an impending nuclear explosion, US
intelligence leaked the story to the media.
The ploy worked. India denied any intention to stage a
nuclear test. Activity at Pokaran slowed. Nevertheless, US
intelligence remains convinced that India is still racing to
become a world-class nuclear power.
In 1974, India detonated a nuclear device at Pokaran, made
from weapon-grade plutonium reprocessed from a Cirus reactor
supplied, without safeguards, by Canada.
Since then, India's nuclear weapons program has gone into
high gear, based on two technology tracks: plutonium
reprocessing; and uranium enrichment by gas centrifuge.
India has three reprocessing plants operational, with two
more planned.
With secret help from France, the Soviet Union, Germany, and
Israel, India built an elaborate nuclear infrastructure
that includes ten major reactors, the reprocessing plants,
production of heavy water and thorium, and a fast-breeder
reactor. The cost is enormous for a nation in which two
thirds of its 934 million people live in abject poverty -
and that still receives large amounts of aid from the west
and Japan.
US and Pakistani intelligence estimate India to have
stockpiled 800 kgs of weapons-grade plutonium, enough for
65-80 mid-yield nuclear weapons. India is believed to also
have six uranium-based weapons. India's production of
unsafeguarded, weapons-grade plutonium should rise to 650
kgs annually by 1998.
Intelligence sources say India has forward-deployed 20
nuclear bombs, which can be delivered by its Mirage 2000,
Jaguar, and late MiG-series fighter-bombers. An additional
20 nuclear weapons are ready in storage. More weapons can
be quickly assembled from components.
India is also developing longer-ranged delivery systems.
Its `Prithvi' missile, now being deployed, can deliver a
nuclear warhead to most of Pakistan,Tibet and southwest
China. Delhi is working on an intermediate range ballistic
missile, and developing an intercontinental version, capable
of putting a heavy satellite into high orbit or, possibly,
reaching North America. Pakistan and China are watching
India's missile programs with mounting alarm.
The US has long tried to pressure Delhi into halting its
covert weapons programs and signing the Nuclear Non-
Proliferation Treaty. The NPT limits the spread of nuclear
technology and weapons under a strict inspection regime.
India, however, refuses.
Delhi insists it will not sign the NPT until all existing
nuclear powers agree to a timetable for total disarmament.
Who, says India, gave the US, Britain, France, Russia,
China, Ukraine and Israel a monopoly on nuclear weapons?
Does not India, the world's second most populous nation,
have the same right as Britain or Israel to nuclear self-
defense? Is it not as great - or greater - a power than
France? India calls this `nuclear apartheid' a hypocritical
and self-serving campaign by nuclear club members to deny
other nations the very weapons they possess.
India is correct. The Japanese nationalist, Konoe
Fumimaro, put it well when he wrote, in 1918: `England and
America, having won the war, will unify the world under
their economic dominance and will rule the world, using the
League of Nations (read UN today) and arms limitations to
fix the status quo that serves their purposes.' Any attempt
by late-developing nations to challenge the status quo, he
predicted, would be damned as `aggression' and disturbance
of the world order. Or, as George Bernard Shaw said of the
victorious Allies after World War I, `they transform their
ambition into a sacred cause.' This is how Delhi sees US-
imposed nuclear arms control.
There is broad popular support in India for an expanded
nuclear arsenal. The neo-fascist Hindu opposition party,
BJP, demands more nuclear weapons and a new world role for a
muscular India as an equal of the US, Russia and China.
Many Indians believe nuclear weapons will earn for them the
respect they often fail to encounter abroad.
They are more likely to meet with fear and mistrust.
Pakistan was forced to develop its own modest nuclear
program after enemy India detonated its first device.
Already outnumbered 3:1 by India, Pakistan could not allow
Delhi an unchallenged nuclear monopoly. After years of
sacrifice, and crushing punishment by the US, Pakistan
managed to develop a handful of nuclear weapons. Today,
nuclear-armed India and Pakistan face down one another in
strife-torn Kashmir. .
China is beefing up its nuclear forces targeted on India,
and warns of the terrible cost of a new arms race between
Beijing and Delhi. Iran frets about India's bombs and has
its own secret nuclear program under way. Israel has also
gotten deeply involved in Asia's nuclear arms race, secretly
aiding India, while trying to push the US to force Pakistan
and Iran out of the nuclear arms business.
India may need a few nuclear weapons to counter China's
medium-sized nuclear force. It does not, however, need the
tactical or strategic missiles, nuclear submarines, or
bombers it is now procuring. These are merely props of
great-power pretensions.
A nation in which hundreds of millions sleep in the streets
has far more urgent priorities than developing a massive
nuclear arsenal.
Copyright, Eric Margolis, January 1996
*************************************************
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