The INF, New START, and CTBT Treaties

I. The INF Treaty
At the beginning of February 2019, the Trump administration announced that, in August the U.S. government will withdraw from the Reagan-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty -- the historic agreement that had banned U.S.  Russian ground-launched cruise missiles -- and would proceed to develop such weapons. On the following day, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that, in response, his government was suspending its observance of the treaty and would build the kinds of nuclear missiles that the INF treaty had outlawed.

II. The New START Treaty
The next nuclear disarmament agreement on the chopping block appears to be the 2010 New START Treaty, which reduces the U.S. and Russian nuclear deployed strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550 each, limits U.S. and Russian delivery vehicles,  and provides for extensive inspection. If the treaty   is allowed to expire, it would be the first time since 1972 that there would be no nuclear arms control agreement between Russia and the United States.

One other key international agreement, which President Clinton signed -- but the U.S. Senate has never ratified -- is the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Adopted with great fanfare in 1996 and backed by nearly all the world's nations, the CTBT bans nuclear weapons testing, a practice which has long served as a prerequisite for developing or upgrading nuclear arsenals.

Coincidentally, the U.S. and Russian governments, which possess approximately 93 percent of the world's nearly 14,000 nuclear warheads, have abandoned negotiations over controlling or eliminating them for the first time since the 1950s.

Instead of honoring the commitment under Article VI of the 1968 nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, to pursue negotiations for "cessation of the nuclear arms race" and for "nuclear disarmament," all nine nuclear powers are today modernizing their nuclear weapons production facilities and adding new, improved types of nuclear weapons to their arsenals. Over the next 30 years, its nuclear buildup will cost the United States alone an estimated $1,700,000,000,000.

Confirming the new interest in nuclear warfare, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, in June 2019, posted a planning document on the Pentagon's website with a more upbeat appraisal of nuclear war-fighting than seen for many years by declaring that "using nuclear weapons could create conditions for decisive results and the restoration of strategic stability."

Of course, most Americans are not pining for this kind of approach to nuclear weapons. Indeed, a May 2019 opinion poll by the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland found that two-thirds of U.S. respondents favored remaining within the INF Treaty; 80% wanted to extend the New START Treaty;  about 60% supported "phasing out" U.S. ICBMs, and 75% backed legislation requiring congressional approval before the president could order a nuclear strike.

(The material above was excerpted from an article published by Larry Wittner in the July 28, 2019 "History News Network." Larry and I serve on the Peace Action board.)

III. Capitalizing on Selling Nukes to the Saudis
The following is an analysis by Don Leich of the New Jersey Peace Action board of the Team Trump's efforts to capitalize from selling nuke technology to the Saudis. It is an analysis of the 50-page report released by Rep. Elijah Cummings of his committee's oversight work.

1.) This was the brainchild of ex-convict/former Reagan National Security Adviser Bud McFarland, who partnered with former generals to create an "underground" consortium of backers for a new Mideast Marshall Plan. The goal is to launch Saudi Arabia ahead of Iran in nuclear energy capacity and yes, weapons, of course, and ultimately to be paid billions for it.

2.) Tom Barrack was the self appointed middleman for negotiations between the Trump administration and the key players in the Middle East: Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar. During the campaign, Manafort and Gates played important roles getting Barrack's message through.

3.) Tom Barrack (Colony Capital), Leon Black (Apollo),  Steve Schwarzman (Blackstone) attempt to buy Westinghouse (the nuke reactor builder) with funding promised from Saudi Arabia, UAE. Note that each one of these hedge funds currently fiance or have financed both Trump and Kushner. The case can easily be made that Trump and Kushner are their designated partners who use their government positions and access to negotiate transnational financial deals that increase their hedge fund lenders' holdings and profits.

4.) Brookfield Asset Management won the bid to buy Westinghouse, and then it took over the Kushners' lease on 666 Fifth Avenue. Qatar put up this money through Brookfield.

5.) Everyone involved in this Saudi Nuke deal bypassed Congress and withheld information about the deal. The shared secret goal is to proliferate nuclear technology in the Middle East when all U.S. efforts to date have been to limit proliferation through treaties and agreements. There are very strict standards for transferring nuke technology, safeguarding, cooperating, etc. Saudi Arabia wants exemptions and Team Trump was (is) fine with that, and is still keeping negotiations secret from any congressional oversight.