Private Study Says U.S. Keeps Up to 480 Atom Arms in Europe

[Rose Siding]

The United States still keeps as many as 480 nuclear weapons at air bases across Europe, more than twice what independent military analysts previously estimated, according to a new study that says the weapons' presence is hurting efforts to curb nuclear proliferation worldwide.

Military officials insisted that the size of the nuclear stockpile in Europe, while classified, was smaller than that. But they acknowledged that it still existed to deter terrorists or nations that could threaten America or its allies with unconventional weapons. The officials also say the stockpile's presence and its long-term fate have caused simmering tensions among senior NATO political and military officials.

The report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, a private group here that advocates arms control and monitors nuclear trends, says short-range nuclear bombs are stored under American control under secret military agreements at eight bases in Germany, Britain, Italy, Belgium, Turkey and the Netherlands. The bombs are kept under tight security at sites reinforced against attack.

American and allied air forces regularly rehearse nuclear bombing missions at training ranges in Europe in the case a war calls for striking nuclear, chemical or biological weapons sites or command posts in countries that threaten to use unconventional arms, the report states. Military officials confirmed that this training continued as part of prudent military contingency planning.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/09/politics/09nukes.html?

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Slightly worrying that the US thinks that nuclear weapons deter terrorists

because, let's face it, a terrorist group is not going to have any significant targets that a nuclear bomb could hit, without causing far, far more 'collateral damage' to people who have no way of controlling the terrorists.

[Rush1184]

2. They just use terrorists to justify everything now...

Its kinda an automatic response at this point.

On another note: It is kinda ironic, as would not the terrorists want to incite the US to use Nukes?

[Moderator]

3. kick

[NNN0LHI]

4. Hundreds of US Nukes Still in Europe

http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_17914.shtml

More than a decade after the end of the cold war, the United States continues to deploy hundreds of nuclear warheads across Europe, according to a report from a respected US research agency.

With the United States applying pressure on Iran over its nuclear ambitions, the revelation on Thursday that North Korea possesses the bomb and intends to increase its arsenal, and action taken and planned to prevent rogue states obtaining weapons technology, the report by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) comes at an embarrassing time for the US and a worrying one for Europe.

The NRDC, a private arms control and environmental group based in Washington, revealed that the estimated figure of around 200 nuclear weapons thought to still be kept on European soil by the United States is in fact more than double that, with the majority of the 480 bombs bunkered at three bases in Germany.

Germany was in the front line of the cold war until the fall of the Berlin Wall precipitated the collapse of the USSR. It was widely believed that in the event of the cold war escalating to "hot," the United States would have sacrificed Germany in a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union in a bid to protect the rest of Europe.

Currently, 150 bombs which would have been used in that scenario are still on German soil. During the height of the cold war, the United States had as many as 7,000 nuclear warheads in Europe.

Bombs scattered across Europe

more

[Freedom_from_Chains]

5. I don't think so

“the report by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) comes at an embarrassing time for the US and a worrying one for Europe”.

The idea that this report comes at a bad time, particularly after this morning’s news cycle, is a bit hard to swallow. I would say the odds are quite good that this is an intended release of information.