U.S. has 5,113 nuclear warheads.

Reuters) - The United States disclosed for the first time on Monday the current size of its nuclear arsenal, lifting the veil on once top-secret numbers in an effort to bolster non-proliferation efforts.

The Pentagon said it had a total of 5,113 warheads in its nuclear stockpile at the end of September, down 84 percent from a peak of 31,225 in 1967. The arsenal stood at 22,217 warheads when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.

The figure includes warheads that are operationally deployed, kept in active reserve and held in inactive storage. But it does not include "several thousand" warheads that are now retired and awaiting dismantlement, the Pentagon said.

"The United States is showing that it is being increasingly transparent," a senior U.S. defense official told reporters at the Pentagon.

"It's part of our commitment ... to set the stage for strength in non-proliferation and for further arms control."

The official declined to offer the Pentagon's estimate for Russia's arsenal and renewed calls for greater transparency by China, saying there was "little visibility" when it came to Beijing's nuclear program.

The United States is also pushing for a new round of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

By releasing the data during the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference, analysts said the United States was trying to show it is cutting its arsenal so as to help persuade other states to tighten the global non-proliferation regime.

"It is hugely important for the United States to be able to say, 'Look we are living up to our obligations under the NPT," said Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists.

The disclosure comes less than a month after President Barack Obama unveiled a new policy restricting the U.S. use of nuclear weapons and signed a landmark arms reduction accord with Russia.

Obama, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in part for his vision of a nuclear free world, has also renounced the development of new atomic weapons.

Historically, the overall size of the arsenal has been kept secret to help prevent potential adversaries from using the information to more precisely neutralize U.S. nuclear forces.

Still, analysts warned the disclosure could also negatively impact perceptions of the United States -- possibly dismaying other nations by demonstrating how many nuclear weapons it retains two decades after the Cold War ended.

"I think the states that are most concerned about nuclear disarmament will be more focused on the number that remain rather than the number (reduced)," said George Perkovich, director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The Pentagon said from fiscal years 1994 through 2009, the United States dismantled 8,748 nuclear warheads.

The Pentagon also declined to disclose the exact number of warheads awaiting dismantlement. It said more analysis needed to be done to make sure it did not impact U.S. national security.

The United States aims to dismantle those warheads by the early part of the next decade, another U.S. official said, also briefing reporters on condition of anonymity.

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

People of the world - join hands for the Jong Train!

By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai
Published: 7:00AM BST 03 May 2010
"We have confirmed the arrival of a special train at Dandong, and we believe it is highly likely that Chairman Kim was on board," an unnamed government official in Seoul told Yonhap, the South Korean news agency.

A 17-carriage train arrived in the northern Chinese city of Dandong, the nearest point across the Tumen river from North Korea, just after five o'clock in the morning.

Yonhap said that diplomatic sources in Beijing had confirmed that the North Korean leader was on board the train. "It is extremely rare to see a 17-carriage North Korean train arrive in China," the unnamed source said, adding that most trains that come across the border are four or five carriages long, and usually arrive in the afternoon.

Around 200 Chinese police officers tightly surrounded the train station and blocked off the road to traffic ahead of its arrival.
Wenweipo, a government-controlled Hong Kong newspaper, also said that the Public Security Bureau in Dandong had put the Zhonglian hotel on full alert and ordered all guests to vacate over the weekend.

A visit by Kim Jong-il to China was widely expected in April, but failed to materialise.
However, Kim Yong-nam, the chairman of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly and therefore de facto head of state, attending the opening of the Shanghai World Expo last Friday and spoke with Hu Jintao, the Chinese president.

Kim Jong-il has visited China four times since 2000, each time by train. He is rumoured to be afraid of flying. His destination for the current trip is said to be the northern port city of Dalian.
North Korea is in the process of developing its own major sea-port, Rajin, which it has leased to China for ten years, giving China important access to the Sea of Japan.

Kim's visit may also herald a return by Pyongyang to the six-party talks on denuclearisation. However, tensions between North and South Korea have risen considerably following the sinking of a South Korean warship at the end of March, with some officials in Seoul now pointing the finger of blame at North Korea for the incident.

Ahmadinejad : blah-blah-US bad-blah-blah-blah

(CNN) -- Just days before his planned trip to New York, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he has proof the United States and Israel are linked to the world's leading terrorist organizations, according to state-run media.

"We have documents that prove (Washington) is the root of world terrorism," Ahmadinejad said in a speech in Tehran, Press TV reported. "It has been aiding and abetting extremist groups over the past years."

Ahmadinejad said his nation "cuts any hand that signs a document against Iran," according to the semi-official FARS news agency.

His remarks came as the United States pushes for new international sanctions against Iran over its refusal to halt its nuclear program.
Ahmadinejad plans to attend a United Nations summit on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which opens Monday,

The United States "is the only country to have used the atomic bomb in military conflict," Ahmadinejad said Saturday, according to Press TV. "They even admit themselves that they resorted to using (similar weapons) during the war they waged on Iraq."
The United States has not admitted using such weapons in the Iraq war.

Ahmadinejad planned to offer at the U.N. conference major proposals that would allow Iran to maintain its nuclear program, his top adviser, Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi, said, according to IRNA official news agency.

Iran insists that its program is aimed at producing nuclear energy, while Washington accuses it of seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

Ahmadinejad urged the United States to engage his government, saying that "companionship is better than confrontation," FARS reported.
His remarks came at a ceremony celebrating May Day, or International Workers' Day.

On Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned Ahmadinejad in some of the Obama administration's strongest language to date.

"Iran, with its anti-Semitic president and hostile nuclear ambitions, also continues to threaten Israel, destabilize the region, and sponsor terror," Clinton said, addressing the annual meeting of the American Jewish Committee.

"The United States is committed to pursuing [a] diplomatic path," she said. "But we will not compromise our commitment to preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons."

"We were lucky" car bomb in NYC a dud.

CNN) -- A T-shirt vendor who noticed smoke coming out of a tinted, dark green sport utility vehicle alerted police to what turned out to be a potential bomb placed in Times Square.
"We avoided what could have been a very deadly event," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg early Sunday morning. "It certainly could have exploded and had a pretty big fire and a decent amount of explosive impact."

President Obama, who was updated on the situation late Saturday night, said the federal government was prepared to provide support. The Department of Homeland Security also said it was monitoring developments.

Two federal officials said Sunday it was too early to tell whether the incident involved al Qaeda or another international terror group. The national threat level remained at "yellow," or elevated.

Federal official: 'Too early' to call it terror incident
Officials said authorities are going through video from dozens of surveillance cameras in Times Square to determine who left the Nissan Pathfinder with its engine running and hazard lights flashing on a street shortly after 6 p.m. Saturday.

Inside the vehicle, police found three propane tanks, two filled five-gallon gas containers, two clocks with batteries, consumer-grade fireworks and a locked metal box that resembled a gun locker.

The wiring around the device "looked amateurish," Bloomberg said.

A robot from the city police department's bomb squad smashed through the back window of the SUV and retrieved the box after several hours. It was taken to a bomb squad facility in the Bronx.
Shortly before 6 a.m. Sunday, the Pathfinder was loaded on to the back of a flatbed truck, covered

with a yellow tarp and towed away
The forensics on the bomb component will take time and are complex, a federal law enforcement official said. But, the official said, "the scientists can do wonders."

Officials did not immediately know how the bomb would have been detonated, nor did anyone claim responsibility.

Incident similiar to Glasgow bombing, official says

"So far, we have no reports of anybody running away (from the car)," Bloomberg said. "That doesn't mean there won't be when we look at all the cameras."

Authorities may also appeal to the public to provide personal photos taken at the time, a federal law enforcement official said.

Following the incident, security in other burroughs was heightened, but nothing suspicious was reported anywhere else, the mayor said.
The vehicle's VIN number had been removed, but investigators said they remained hopeful that they will be able to locate a VIN somewhere in the vehicle; they are stamped in various places, the official said.

With that information, they can trace the history of the SUV to some degree.
The Pathfinder's license plate was taken from another truck, Bloomberg said. Authorities interviewed the truck owner who told them he took it to a junkyard. The mayor said authorities did not have reason to believe the truck owner "had anything to do with it or his story is false."

A law enforcement official told CNN on Sunday that the Connecticut plate came from an automobile junkyard near Bridgeport, Connecticut. Under Connecticut law, plates must be returned to a local Department of Motor Vehicle branch or to a Connecticut state trooper if a car is to be junked for scrap metal.

The shutdown began Saturday when the T-shirt vendor, a veteran of the Vietnam War, saw smoke coming from a box inside a vehicle with Connecticut plates on 45th Street near 7th Avenue. The vendor notified a New York police officer on horseback, who smelled gunpowder from the vehicle.
Another street vendor Hamid Boubain said he saw smoke coming from the vehicle.

"I told my friend, 'Yo yo look at this!' I mean it looks like a fireworks inside," he said. "I don't know; it's hard to explain. After that, like 15 minutes later, the smoke came out. One of the officers came, and he started kicking everybody from the corner for safety."

The Marriott Marquis hotel did not allow anyone to enter or leave. A nearby TGIFriday's restaurant shut its doors and evacuated staff. Theater-goers found themselves unable to leave shows.
Pamela Hall was at a McDonald's when a police officer told her to pick up her food and leave.

"They told us to go straight to 47th street," Hall said. "Nobody was frightened. The cops weren't upset and the people were not noticeably upset. We were all just perplexed. We just went to 47th street and ended up taking pictures and watching."
Speaking to reporters, Bloomberg said: "You know we often say that when a terrorist is caught, he has a map of New York City in his pocket. ... And tonight is a further reminder of the dangers that we face."

Early Sunday morning, Gov. David Paterson issued a statement commending the police department.
"Tonight, we owe an incredible debt of gratitude to the heroic actions of the New York City Police Department and to a single vigilant New Yorker who identified a suspicious vehicle near Times Square in New York City," he said.

"Luckily, no one is hurt, and now the full attention of city, state and federal law enforcement will be turned to bringing the guilty party to justice in this act of terrorism."

Weird Or What?

As many of you know (and from the many e-mails I have received over the past couple of days) I recently appeared on a new Discovery Channel series called "Weird or What?" that began airing this week.

I was one of the so-called "experts" they called on to help solve the mystery of the "Stephenville Lights" unidentified flying objects that have been sighted in Erath County (south-central Texas) with the most notable sighting happening in January of 2008.

I won't rehash the history of Stephenville here, but you can read all bout it at this LINK. This is the second time I have been contacted for video commentary due to an article by Phil Patton. I helped research the article and I'm quoted in it.



My involvement in "Weird or What" began when a producer who read the article called me last November. The series was described as a sort of Unsolved Mysteries - but where they actually solved the mysteries.

After talking to several producers (as the show was passed down from producers-to assistant producers-to field producers and finally directors) I decided to do the project under the caveat that it would not become another "UFOs are aliens -blah-blah-Area 51-blah-blah- Roswell-Alien Abductions - blah-blah "It was as big as a Wal-Mart" TV show that cable channels seem to crank out with amazing frequency.

Mine would be (as one producer eloquently put it) "The credible voice of reason and sanity among a growing cadre of UFO-crazies.

In other words-my job was to analyze the reports-talk to my sources-do a little digging and come up with an logical answer to what the good people of Erath County really witnessed.

Intrigued,I signed on to do the show even though (from experience) I know that skeptics and debunkers usually got scant camera time because no-one wants to be told what they saw wasn't the mother-ship from Zeta-Two Reticuli!"

Think about it. Would you want to watch a show about people who thought they saw a UFO but it turned out to be military aircraft? Booooooring!

Be that what it may, we shot the program on a cold wet-drizziling day in February in Dublin Texas while I was suffering with a massive dental infection.

Despite that, my interview took six hours to film. We spent two days in the area (Michael Wilhelm and myself) scanning the
local military airwaves and exploring the Brownwood MOA.




I took with me a new computer-controlled Uniden BCD996XT scanning radio and in no-time we had mapped all the military communications in the area.

BTW: the Uniden 996Xt is an excellent scanning radio-best I've ever owned and if you are thinking of getting into military monitoring this is the scanner to buy. I'll be posting a full review of the BCD996XT soon.


It was clear, after searching out all the known and discrete UHF military aero-band frequencies in the area that (despite the bad weather) the Brownwood MOA was a very active area indeed. I logged and recorded over 350 military communications.







It would have taken less time, but I was adamant about getting my point across that what the witnesses saw that night in 2008 was what amounted to a "Dog & Pony show" put on by the military to cover for a black (covert) aircraft that either was being tested in the area or inadvertently (because of a malfunction) was forced down to where the Erathlings could see it.




It was more than evident (from the military's first denial that anything was flying that night -to their sudden reversal (it was only F-16s in the Brownwood MOA) that something Skunky was going on.



I had observed this type of standard operating procedure before. It happened in Phoenix.
It happened in the Hudson Valley - and now over Stephenville.

It was a variation of any old magician's trick. When you don't want the audience to notice the ace you have hidden in your left hand, put a gold coin in the right.

As I researched the sighting and the standard procedure of disinformation began to appear, I couldn't help but be reminded of a line from The Wizard of Oz, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"

Anyway- as I watched the show the other night I was pleasantly surprised. Despite my earlier misgivings, as promised, it hadn't descended in a UFO show and wasn't actually half bad.

Most of my better points did not make the final-cut-but I expected that. The show was fairly-balanced and except for a few moments where they substituted computer-animation and photos of the XB-46 for the "Beast of Kandahar - Sentinel. but on the whole- it was fairly accurate.



The show wasn't perfect - but it wasn't pablum either. Good job Cineflix Productions! I hope the series gets picked up.

With that in mind - I just turned down doing another Discovery Channel program (Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura) after a viewing their HAARP episode.

Despite the offer to fly out to Nevada (Area 51) I could see that their production company (A. Smith & Co.) really had no clue or real impetus to produce a show based on getting at the truth but it was more about a personality - Jesse Ventura as "The body and the brain" and also netting high ratings.


The truth ain't sexy - but UFOs are and UFO crazies are.

But enough about a bad show. Weird or What is much better.

If you didn't see the show, you can download a bit-torrent of the video here: LINK

You'll need a bit-torrent client such as Vuze to assemble it.


-Steve Douglass