By Jay Sekulow
The left's outrage over the IRS turns to a plea to 'move on'
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott wrote a letter to President Obama on Tuesday saying that the state will head to court over the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty should Mr. Obama sign it and the U.S. Senate ratify it. "The UN has concluded its negotiations on the Arms Trade Treaty," Mr. Abbott writes. "It is now up to you to sign it — or reject it. Do not sign this treaty."
A nuclear test by North Korea will generate sound waves, seismic shock waves similar to an earthquake and, if the test site is not properly sealed, a spike in levels of radiation that will all be quickly detected by a global network of sensors, analysts say.
By successfully firing a rocket that put a satellite in space, North Korea let the far-flung buyers of its missiles know that it is still open for business. But Pyongyang will find that customers are hard to come by as old friends drift away and international sanctions lock down its sales.
"Unnecessary, unwarranted and unwise." That's how Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, described it when President Bush announced that the United States would withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The arms-control crowd seemed certain that our "go-it-alone" attitude would only antagonize Russia, China and all of Europe, leaving us without a friend in the world.
The Senate ratified Wednesday an arms-control treaty with Russia that President Obama has made the centerpiece of his disarmament agenda and diplomatic "reset" with Russia.
President Obama is pressing for the ratification of an arms control treaty with Russia when the Senate returns for a lame-duck session on Nov. 15.
Senate Republicans are challenging the Obama administration on the new strategic arms accord with Russia, proposing new language to the treaty's ratification resolution that would bar limits on U.S. missile defenses.
A bill approved last week by the Indian Parliament that holds suppliers of nuclear reactors and raw materials liable in the event of an accident is raising concerns that it will scare away foreign businesses from India's lucrative energy market.
The Bush administration, in a major concession aimed at saving a civilian nuclear-energy deal with India, has agreed to help New Delhi secure fuel for its reactors, even if it conducts another atomic test, diplomats and knowledgeable nonproliferation specialists said yesterday.
The United States and North Korea's neighbors in Asia have "extensive seismic, infrasound, and radionuclide monitoring technologies that will detect any North Korean nuclear detonation," said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association.
"Underground nuclear-test explosions also emit small quantities of certain types of radioactive gases that can be detected by mobile air-monitoring equipment deployed by the U.S. Air Force, and, depending on weather patterns, by certain ground stations controlled by Russia, Japan and South Korea, as well as the international radionuclide monitoring stations operated by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization," he added.
