WASHINGTON Ñ The Defense Department has refused to confirm or deny the content of a
classified report to Congress on contingency plans for nuclear attacks against rogues states in the Middle East and their allies including Russia, China and North Korea. A Pentagon statement on late Saturday said the Nuclear Posture
Review is a wide-ranging analysis of the requirements for deterrence in the
21st century and does not provide operational guidance on nuclear targeting
or planning.
"This administration is fashioning a more diverse set of options for
deterring the threat of WMD. That is why the administration is pursuing
missile defense, advanced conventional forces, and improved intelligence
capabilities," the Pentagon statement said. "A combination of offensive and
defensive, and nuclear and non-nuclear capabilities, is essential to meet
the deterrence requirements of the 21st century."
According to the report, obtained by the Los Angeles Times, the Bush administration has ordered contingency plans
for a U.S. nuclear attack on Middle East states that are developing
nonconventional weapons. The report also calls for the development of
so-called mini-nuclear weapons meant to destroy underground bunkers in such
countries as Iran, Iraq, Libya and Syria.
The states that could come under attack from U.S. tactical nuclear
weapons include Iraq, Iran, Libya and Syria, a classified Defense Department
report said. None of these states are believed to yet have nuclear weapons.
"All have long-standing hostility towards the United States and its
security partners," the report said. "All sponsor or harbor terrorists, and
have active WMD [weapons of mass destruction] and missile programs."
The Pentagon report relayed to Congress envisioned a U.S. nuclear attack
on a range of Middle East rogue states. The scenarios include retaliation
for a nonconventional attack on Israel, a chemical or biological weapons
strike on U.S. troops or interests and the U.S. destruction of underground
nonconventional facilities in the Middle East.
The Pentagon report was disclosed by William Arkin, a senior fellow at
the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in
Washington and an adjunct professor at the U.S. Air Force School of Advanced
Airpower Studies. Arkin, a consultant, is also a regular contributor
to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
In an article published by the Los Angeles Times on Saturday, Arkin said
the Pentagon report, entitled the the Nuclear Posture Review, was released
to Congress on Jan. 8.
"The U.S. Defense Department has been told to prepare for the
possibility that nuclear weapons may be required in some future Arab-Israeli
crisis," Arkin writes. "And, it is to develop plans for using nuclear
weapons to retaliate against chemical or biological attacks, as well as
'surprising
military developments' of an unspecified nature."
The report said the United States must also be prepared to strike
countries believed to be supplying biological, chemical and nuclear
weapons components and technology to Iran and Arab states. The suppliers
named in the report are China, North Korea and Russia.
The review of the U.S. nuclear posture was requested by Congress in
September 2000 but was believed to have been updated after the Islamic
suicide attacks on New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001. The Clinton
administration ordered the last such revew in 1994.
