Nbadan
12-08-2006, 01:31 AM
Talk about worst kept secret---------------EVER!
Dec 7 (Reuters) - Robert Gates, the incoming U.S. secretary of defense, won plaudits in Washington this week for his candour on the Iraq war. Some Israelis were less pleased, however, to hear Gates mention with equal frankness what U.S. administrations have long avoided uttering in public -- that the Jewish state has the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal.
To be fair, it was pretty oblique.
During his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, Gates speculated on why Iran might be seeking the means to build an atomic bomb. "They are surrounded by powers with nuclear weapons: Pakistan to their east, the Russians to the north, the Israelis to the west and us in the Persian Gulf," he said.
The statement led Israeli news bulletins, with some pundits suggesting that former CIA chief Gates may have breached a U.S. "don't ask, don't tell" policy dating back to the late 1960s.
"I haven't a clue why Gates made those remarks," Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a member of Israel's security cabinet, said in a radio interview.
A retired Israeli diplomat, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, called the testimony "quite unprecedented" and added: "I can only assume he (Gates) has yet to get to grips with the understandings that exist between us and the Americans."
Alertnet (http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L07258813.htm)
What? Us? nuclear weapons? Says, who?
Some good background on Israel's nuke program. (http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/israel/nuke/) Did I say that? Nah!
Dec 7 (Reuters) - Robert Gates, the incoming U.S. secretary of defense, won plaudits in Washington this week for his candour on the Iraq war. Some Israelis were less pleased, however, to hear Gates mention with equal frankness what U.S. administrations have long avoided uttering in public -- that the Jewish state has the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal.
To be fair, it was pretty oblique.
During his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, Gates speculated on why Iran might be seeking the means to build an atomic bomb. "They are surrounded by powers with nuclear weapons: Pakistan to their east, the Russians to the north, the Israelis to the west and us in the Persian Gulf," he said.
The statement led Israeli news bulletins, with some pundits suggesting that former CIA chief Gates may have breached a U.S. "don't ask, don't tell" policy dating back to the late 1960s.
"I haven't a clue why Gates made those remarks," Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a member of Israel's security cabinet, said in a radio interview.
A retired Israeli diplomat, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, called the testimony "quite unprecedented" and added: "I can only assume he (Gates) has yet to get to grips with the understandings that exist between us and the Americans."
Alertnet (http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L07258813.htm)
What? Us? nuclear weapons? Says, who?
Some good background on Israel's nuke program. (http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/israel/nuke/) Did I say that? Nah!