Obama agrees to give Russia Britain's nuclear secrets

[vector7]

I would have posted this under Obama isolating America from its Allies but it was startling!

Similar thread of interest: Russian Subs hunting down Tridents returning to Cold War tactics not seen in 25 years

Companion Thread: Britain's Massive HMS Astute Submarine Launched

Obama agrees to tell Russia Britain's nuclear secrets

The US secretly agreed to give the Russians sensitive information on Britain’s nuclear deterrent to persuade them to sign a key treaty, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.


HMS Vanguard is Britain's lead Trident-armed submarine. The US, under a nuclear deal, has agreed to give the Kremlin the serial numbers of the missiles it gives Britain Photo: TAM MACDONALD

By Matthew Moore, Gordon Rayner and Christopher Hope 9:25PM GMT 04 Feb 2011 2072 Comments

Information about every Trident missile the US supplies to Britain will be given to Russia as part of an arms control deal signed by President Barack Obama next week.

Defence analysts claim the agreement risks undermining Britain’s policy of refusing to confirm the exact size of its nuclear arsenal.

The fact that the Americans used British nuclear secrets as a bargaining chip also sheds new light on the so-called “special relationship”, which is shown often to be a one-sided affair by US diplomatic communications obtained by the WikiLeaks website.

Details of the behind-the-scenes talks are contained in more than 1,400 US embassy cables published to date by the Telegraph, including almost 800 sent from the London Embassy, which are published online today. The documents also show that:

• America spied on Foreign Office ministers by gathering gossip on their private lives and professional relationships.

• Intelligence-sharing arrangements with the US became strained after the controversy over Binyam Mohamed, the former Guantánamo Bay detainee who sued the Government over his alleged torture.

• David Miliband disowned the Duchess of York by saying she could not “be controlled” after she made an undercover TV documentary.

• Tens of millions of pounds of overseas aid was stolen and spent on plasma televisions and luxury goods by corrupt regimes.

A series of classified messages sent to Washington by US negotiators show how information on Britain’s nuclear capability was crucial to securing Russia’s support for the “New START” deal.

Although the treaty was not supposed to have any impact on Britain, the leaked cables show that Russia used the talks to demand more information about the UK’s Trident missiles, which are manufactured and maintained in the US.

Washington lobbied London in 2009 for permission to supply Moscow with detailed data about the performance of UK missiles. The UK refused, but the US agreed to hand over the serial numbers of Trident missiles it transfers to Britain.

Professor Malcolm Chalmers said: “This appears to be significant because while the UK has announced how many missiles it possesses, there has been no way for the Russians to verify this. Over time, the unique identifiers will provide them with another data point to gauge the size of the British arsenal.”

Duncan Lennox, editor of Jane’s Strategic Weapons Systems, said: “They want to find out whether Britain has more missiles than we say we have, and having the unique identifiers might help them.”

While the US and Russia have long permitted inspections of each other’s nuclear weapons, Britain has sought to maintain some secrecy to compensate for the relatively small size of its arsenal.

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, last year disclosed that “up to 160” warheads are operational at any one time, but did not confirm the number of missiles.

[American Patriot]

Omg.

[vector7]

Undermining Americas Allies

Tuesday, 08 February 2011 00:00



While everyone's attention seems to be focused on the crisis in Egypt, a bombshell revelation about the administration's foreign policy in Europe has largely gone unnoticed.

The British newspaper The Telegraph has reported that part of the price which President Obama paid to get Russia to sign the START treaty, limiting nuclear arms, was revealing to the Russians the hitherto secret size of the British nuclear arsenal. This information came from the latest WikiLeaks documents.

To betray vital military secrets of this country's oldest, most steadfast and most powerful ally, behind the back of the British government, is something that should set off alarm bells. Following in the wake of earlier betrayals of prior American commitments to put a nuclear shield in Eastern Europe, and the undermining of Israel and calculated insults to its prime minister, this pattern raises serious, and perhaps almost unthinkable, questions about the Obama administration's foreign policy.

One of Barack Obama's first acts as President of the United States was to fly to Russia and try to get a deal with the Russian government by welshing on an existing American commitment to put a nuclear shield in Eastern Europe.

Obama's glib rhetoric about how he was pressing "the reset button" on American foreign policy treated the ongoing international commitments of the American government as something that each new administration is free to disregard.

Nations that ally themselves with the United States, and who cooperate in many ways to oppose the threat of international terrorism, do so at the risk of their own national safety and even survival. To make America's reciprocal commitments to them contingent on the whims of each new administration is to make other nations have to think twice about allying themselves with the U.S.

Since the fight against international terrorism requires not only information about terrorist activities and networks from other countries' intelligence services, but also cooperation from other countries' financial institutions, in order to block terrorists' transfers of money to finance their deadly activities.

This is in addition to other nations' direct military involvement in the fight against terrorists in Afghanistan, Iraq and other places, current and prospective — not to mention providing military access through their lands when needed.

But doing such things invites retaliation from the terrorists and from the leading international sponsor of terrorism, Iran, which may in a very few years have nuclear weapons.

Glib talk about setting the reset button on American foreign policy raises the question whether any alliance with the United States can be relied on beyond the term of a particular administration. To nations that have to think in terms of their own national survival, four years is a very short time.

It is also a very short time in the life of the United States of America. To alienate our allies and embolden our enemies because of one administration is a dangerous gamble in an international jungle where nuclear bombs may soon be in the hands of some of the most reckless nations on the planet.

The Obama administration's response to the current crisis in Egypt likewise threatens to make being an ally of the United States less attractive.

Whatever the merits or demerits of the advice that Barack Obama has been giving Hosni Mubarak, for the President of the United States to be publicly lecturing the president of another sovereign nation on almost a daily basis insults that nation, not just its leader.

Even in the worst days of the dictatorship in the Soviet Union, neither Stalin nor his successors publicly told the leaders of the satellite nations in Eastern Europe what to do. There is no question that Eastern European leaders were puppets of the Soviet Union, but Soviet leaders had the good sense not to say so to the whole world. Yet Obama makes allies look like they are puppets.

Countries like Egypt, that have once lived under colonial rule, are especially resentful of being publicly lectured by Western nations. Nor will the Obama administration's lecturing of Egypt endear us to other nations contemplating the down side of being an ally of the United States.

[vector7]

The Betrayal Of Great Britain

Posted 02/07/2011 05:43 PM ET


HMS Vanguard is Britain's lead Trident-armed submarine. The U.S., under a nuclear deal, has agreed to give the Kremlin the serial numbers of the... View Enlarged Image

Alliances: When spies give military secrets to a foreign power, it's espionage. When an American president does it, betraying an ally to befriend a longtime foe, what do we call it?

According to diplomatic cables obtained by Britain's Daily Telegraph, mined from the thousands of classified documents released by WikiLeaks, the U.S. government agreed to provide Russia with information on the British nuclear deterrent as part of the deal behind the ratification and signing of the New START treaty.

Specifically, the Telegraph reports, the U.S. provided Moscow with the serial numbers of each Trident missile in the British ballistic missile submarine inventory. The Russians presumably already know how many Tridents the British have but can't be sure. British policy has been to refuse to confirm the exact size of its relatively tiny arsenal.

Last year, British Foreign Secretary William Hague disclosed that Britain had "up to 160" warheads operational at any one time, but he did not disclose the total number of missiles and warheads in its nuclear inventory. Duncan Lennox, editor of Jane's Strategic Weapons Systems, says: "They want to find out whether Britain has more missiles than we say we have, and having the unique identifiers might help them."

The State Department denies this, and spokesman P.J. Crowley said via Twitter that the U.S. simply "carried forward requirement to notify Russia about U.S.-UK nuclear cooperation from the 1991 treaty." So why did we, according to the Telegraph, have to ask Britain in 2009 for permission with detailed and classified information on the British Tridents, permission that was reportedly denied?

Indeed, according to one leaked memo, "the Russian Federation will receive unique identifiers for each of the missiles transferred to the UK, which was more information than was disclosed under START." So the State Department seems to have gone above and beyond the call of duty.

The British have quietly gone along with the State Department explanation, but then why wouldn't they? It wouldn't serve the new government of Prime Minister David Cameron well to acknowledge, after a series of snubs and insults from this side of the pond, that the U.S. had just thrown it under the strategic bus.

That we would betray Britain's nuclear secrets would not be surprising, since we are quite willing to betray our own. Before a recent U.N. conference on nuclear nonproliferation, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced: "Beginning today, the United States will make public the number of nuclear weapons in our stockpile and the number of weapons we have dismantled since 1991."

START, both old and new, has disclosure and verification requirements. Yet some secrets are and should be maintained, especially in regard to a historical ally that was not a party to the treaty and wishes to maintain a certain degree of confidentiality.

Our special relationship with Britain seems to have deteriorated into a special animus. Perhaps to this administration it was an inconvenient reminder of the days of Reagan and Thatcher, when the U.S. led the world instead of apologizing to it. It was a day when we and our presidents believed in American exceptionalism, not that at a meeting such as the G-20 we were just one of the gang.

It was President Obama who returned a bust of Winston Churchill loaned to President George W. Bush from the British Government's art collection after the Sept. 11 attacks. During a visit by the president of France, it was President Obama who proclaimed to British chagrin: "We don't have a stronger friend and stronger ally than Nicolas Sarkozy and the French people."

Well, we did. Certainly the British people must be wondering, with friends like these ...

[vector7]

13:49, 05.02.2011 / telegraph.co.uk
U.S. Atomic Secrets Communicate Russia Ally Kremlin know about EVERY BRITISH CANCER BALLISTIC


The Russians will know exactly what move Vanguardy

- U.S. Under the new Russia of the START communicate secret information on all British Trident ballistic missiles - gives the Daily Telegraph, citing the U.S. diplomatic messages revealed by Wikileaks. The UK authorities have never officially reported number of ballistic missiles possessed. U.S. will do it for them.

So far, secret information, will go into the hands of the Russians as part of the confidential part of the START treaty, which will be finally ratified by Barack Obama next week. From Wikileaks messages that the secrets of the British nuclear arsenal was "crucial" to secure Russian support for a new treaty.

The truth about friendship

The information triggered a storm in Britain. Voices were raised that at last you can see clearly how things really look like "special relationship" of the monarchy and its former colonies. Commentators point out that, despite official assurances of the politicians is clearly one-sided relationship in favor of Washington.

The messages show that in 2009 Washington attempted to gain consent to the transfer of London Moscow detailed data on the performance of the armed Tridentów Royal Navy. The British, however, firmly refused. Now it turns out that despite the opposition ally, the United States shall communicate to the serial numbers of all the Russian missiles.

- This is serious business. Britain has never said publicly how many missiles and Russia has had no opportunities to tell. The serial numbers will allow them to accurately estimate the size of Britain's nuclear deterrent - said prof. Malcolm Calmers with the Institute for Defence and Security Studies.

- The Russians have always wanted to know if by chance we have more missiles than previously administered informally. Now they can check it out

- said Duncan Lennox, Jane's chief of Strategic Weapons Systems.

Valuable secret

United Kingdom, in contrast to the U.S. and Russia never agreed to inspections of its nuclear arsenal by the representatives of foreign countries (outside U.S.). Brits want to keep in this way potential adversaries guessing. This is to be a way to increase its nuclear capability rather slim.

Four billion pounds will go "on a razor blade"

Last year, Foreign Minister William Hague for the first time in history has said that Britain maintains the combat readiness of 160 heads with bombs termojądrowymi. Did not indicate how many missiles it carries.

Britain does not produce its own intercontinental ballistic missiles. Benefited from the support for it, and gained an ally of the U.S. Polaris missiles in succession and then along the Trident launcher. Missiles were mounted in built in the UK nuclear submarines. On the tops of the British rocket placed the bomb. With this arrangement the Americans have limited control and insight into British strategic deterrent forces.

mk / / GAK

[vector7]

US agrees to tell Russia UK’s nuke secrets?

Trident missiles. © www.defenseimagery.mil
The US secretly gave Russia sensitive information on Britain’s nuclear deterrent to persuade Moscow to sign a key treaty, The Daily Telegraph reported last week. The newspaper cited classified US diplomatic cables previously obtained by the WikiLeaks website. According to them, information about every Trident missile that the US supplies to Britain was given to Russia as part of the New START Treaty signed by President Barack Obama earlier this month.

The leaked cables show that Russia used the talks on the New START to demand more information about the UK’s Trident missiles, which are manufactured and maintained in the US.

In 2009, Washington allegedly lobbied London for permission to supply Moscow with detailed data about the performance of the US-made Trident missiles. Britain refused, but the US agreed to hand over the serial numbers of the missiles to Russia, which experts say helped to avoid killing the New START pact.

Many in the UK fumed at the fact that Washington used British nuclear secrets as a bargaining chip in their talks with Moscow. Some hotheads went as far as arguing that the handover may have further effects on what is already a tarnished ‘special relationship’ between the US and the UK. They were echoed by high-level British politicians who have already expressed their frustration about the incident while trying to stick to diplomatic graces.

In a clear reference to Trident II missiles, Foreign Secretary William Hague disclosed last year that up to 160 warheads are operational at any time in Britain. He did not elaborate.

Pundits point to permanent scandals surrounding Trident supplies to Britain, whose government, for example, earlier said that as much as 20 billion pounds will be allocated to equip the Royal Navy with Trident missiles.

Independent experts went even further, citing a whopping 100 billion pounds that they claim will be earmarked for the purpose. Needless to say, the news provoked a public uproar in Britain at the time.

Meanwhile, more and more British experts warn Prime Minister David Cameron against misspending hefty sums, which they insist instead should be injected into their country’s health care reform and the strengthening of its defense capability. As if to underscore the supposition , Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper has reported an incident with the Astute nuclear-powered submarine that recently ran aground off the coast of Scotland due to a support system breakdown. The crewmembers were left red faced when compelled to repair the sub’s sewage system, among other things…