'Pak army no match for India's so we want more nukes'

WASHINGTON: Despite "pending economic catastrophe," Pakistan is producing nuclear weapons at a "faster rate" than any other country in the world, according to a stunning American appraisal that forms part of the cables relating to US-Pakistan relations leaked by the whistleblower organization wikileaks.
The assessment was conveyed by US National Intelligence Officer for South Asia Dr Peter Lavoy to NATO representatives in November 2008 amid widespread, and continuing, apprehensions among major powers, recorded in separate cables, about the security of the weapons and its possible heist by terrorists, extremists and fundamentalists, including those in the government.
Among those expressing concern about the safety of Pakistani nukes are British and Russian officials, even as American and Chinese interlocutors mull over how to address Pakistan's fear of India that is ostensibly leading it to crank out nuclear weapons rapidly even it stalls a treaty to end production of fissile material (FMCT).
In one particularly startling cable, a high ranking Chinese official, vice foreign minister He Yafei, is quoted as hearing from a Pakistan general that Pakistan needs nuclear weapons because of its inferior army. "Indeed, a Pakistani military leader said his army was no match for the Indian army," the cable records Yafei as saying.
But the most elaborate scenario of a nuclear heist in Pakistan comes in a heavily redacted cable which cites an unnamed Russian official questioning the security measures Islamabad claims to have established, and which is frequently accepted as secure by Washington, and suggesting that the Pakistan's growing Islamization constitutes an imminent nuclear danger.
"Russia is aware that Pakistani authorities, with help from the US, have created a well-structured system of security for protecting nuclear facilities, which includes physical protection. However, there are 120,000-130,000 people directly involved in Pakistan's nuclear and missile programs... there is no way to guarantee that all are 100% loyal and reliable," the cable. conveying the Russian view, reads
"In addition to the Islamist interest in these facilities," the cable continues, "Russia also is aware that Pakistan has had to hire people to protect nuclear facilities that have especially strict religious beliefs, and recently the general educational and cultural levels in Pakistan has been falling. Due to these facts, extremist organizations have more opportunities to recruit people working in the nuclear and missile programs... Russia thinks Pakistan should also be a particular focus of discussion."
Showing little trust in their much-touted ally, US officials offer a slightly different take in another cable, saying, "Our major concern is not having an Islamic militant steal an entire weapon but rather the chance someone working in Government of Pakistan facilities could gradually smuggle enough material out to eventually make a weapon.
A lengthy cable discussing Pakistan's opposition to the fissile material cut off treaty also notes the trauma inflicted on Islamabad by the US-India nuclear deal, which Pakistan believes has "unshackled" India's nuclear weapons program by freeing up domestic uranium to make more bombs, hence necessitating Pakistan stalling FMCT as it ramps up its arsenal.
"Islamabad has chafed over the US-India 123 Agreement, arguing it also needs civilian nuclear power to meet energy demand; we have repeatedly advised the GOP that it should not expect a similar agreement because of AQ Khan's proliferation activities," notes another cable.
This article is taken from- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Pak-army-no-match-for-Indias-so-we-want-more-nukes/articleshow/7022922.cms

Md. facility is nerve center of nation's weather satellite system

By Carol Vaughn, The (Salisbury, Md.) Daily Times

WALLOPS, Md. — It's an anonymous and secluded place from which to distribute satellite weather images watched by practically the whole world.
The Wallops Command and Data Acquisition Station, located near Chincoteague Island, is a vital link in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's mission to provide accurate weather data to the nation.
Passed by countless motorists every day, virtually everyone sees the results of the work that goes on there, in the form of the satellite images used in television weather broadcasts.
"Anything you see on The Weather Channel or the 11 o'clock news satellite imagery, it comes from here," operations branch chief Al McMath Jr. said. He has worked at the station since 1977 and is in his sixth year as its operations chief.
"I always say we're the best kept secret," McMath said.
The station is one of only two NOAA facilities — along with its sister station in Alaska— that track the satellites that collect vital weather data for the United States. It is from Wallops as well that commands are sent to the satellites.
Operations there began in 1966 with one antenna, which is still in use — an 85-foot diameter behemoth constructed of 350 tons of steel, located in front of the low-profile main building. The antenna tracks a NASA satellite that collects solar data.
Today at the facility there are 16 antennas monitoring various satellites — a virtual farm, spreading across a large grassy field behind the building. Two antennas are built to withstand 150 mph winds, ensuring that information will continue to be collected even during a severe hurricane.
The station also has a global reach, supporting, among other projects, Taiwanese spacecraft and French oceanographic studies. It is connected via a high-speed Internet line to Germany, where European data is sent from for retransmission.
Since its beginnings nearly a half century ago, the station could be called the office that never sleeps.
It is a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week operation, with almost 80 employees working in shifts around the clock. Most are electronic technicians and many have a military background.
"It never stops. ... We have to have somebody here all the time," McMath said, adding, "You call these guys at four in the morning and they answer the phone."
The Wallops station is the only one that tracks the nation's fleet of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites, which provide continuous weather imagery and data over the Western Hemisphere from an orbit nearly 23,000 miles above Earth.
These satellite images, like the dramatic pictures of Hurricane Katrina approaching the Gulf Coast in August 2005, are the ones viewers of television weather broadcasts see.
In addition, the Wallops station tracks NOAA's Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites, which circle the Earth every 102 minutes, passing near the North and South poles on each orbit and together providing environmental observations for every location on Earth four times a day.
The polar-orbiting satellites, which are about 575 miles above Earth, get a closer view than the geosynchronous satellites and are able to look for things like icebergs in shipping lanes or tropical waves off the African coast that could indicate a potential hurricane forming.
In addition to this weather-related work, instruments on satellites monitored at Wallops also support search and rescue and other missions.
Since its beginnings in 1982, NOAA's Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking system — in which emergency signals transmitted from airplanes, boats or individual emergency locator transmitters are relayed to a control center from which rescue efforts can be dispatched — has been used to initiate the rescues of nearly 27,000 people around the world.
Data collected by the Wallops station also are used to monitor such disparate phenomena as sea surface temperatures, forest fires, hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes, among others.
The Data Collection System, used primarily by governmental agencies such as the U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Land Management, is among the most significant auxiliary activities at the Wallops station. It collects data from roughly the coast of Africa to the island of Guam in the Pacific Ocean.
NOAA collects, stores and sends to the agencies data from some 25,000 instruments located throughout the Western Hemisphere — everywhere from a buoy off Hawaii to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
The instruments collect information about natural phenomena such as the cresting of flooding rivers, tides, earthquakes, tornado activity and wind data from places such as Boston Harbor or the site of a raging forest fire in Colorado.
Collecting and relaying the information is crucial because it can be used to make critical decisions in times of crisis — real-life examples include decisions made about where and when to warn people of an impending tsunami and whether to send smokejumpers into a forest fire.
An astounding 500,000 transmissions a day from these instruments are received and processed at the Wallops Command and Data Acquisition Station.
"If they don't get their data, this is where they call," McMath said.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
This article is taken from- http://www.usatoday.com/weather/resources/2010-11-14-satellite-data-images_N.htm

Storm causes 400 crashes in Minn; 2 die in Wis.

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (AP) — Parts of the Upper Midwest dug out from a heavy snowfall Saturday that caused more than 400 traffic accidents in Minnesota, and wintry conditions also were being blamed for a collision in northern Wisconsin that killed two people.
Nearly a foot of snow had fallen in parts of the Twin Cities area by Saturday evening, downing trees and causing sporadic power outages.
The storm that began late Friday night was blamed for a collision Saturday morning that killed both drivers and left a passenger hospitalized. The sheriff's department in Wisconsin's Bayfield County said the storm produced "rapidly deteriorating road conditions" that likely contributed to the crash.
Kevin Kraujalis of the National Weather Service's Duluth office estimated that Bayfield County had a couple of inches of snow on the ground when the collision occurred. The meteorologist said the county had about 5 inches as of 6 p.m. Saturday.
The Minnesota State Patrol responded to 401 crashes as of 4 p.m, with 45 of them involving minor injuries, Patrol Capt. Matt Langer said. There were no other immediate reports of fatalities or major injuries.
The storm dumped 11 inches of snow in parts of Eden Prairie, Minn., and 10 inches in the Forest Lake and Mankato areas, said Todd Krause, a federal meteorologist in Minneapolis. The major snowfall activity ended by early afternoon, and Sunday's forecast looked milder, he said.
"People will still see snowflakes across much of Minnesota (on Sunday) but it won't be adding up to anything," he said.
Jack Serier, a commander with the St. Paul Police Department, said officers dealt with 20 to 30 car accidents by about noon, with many of the collisions involving four or five vehicles. Drivers were being careful, he said, but they were skidding on a glaze of ice that developed under much of the snow pack.
"There was nothing reckless," he said. "But when they hit that ice, no matter what they tried to do they spun out of control."
The snow left the football field unusable at Minnesota State-Mankato, prompting the postponement of the school's game against Minnesota Duluth. School officials and conference administrators were considering their options for rescheduling the game.
The football game between Gustavus Adolphus College and Carleton College was pushed back to 1 p.m. Sunday.
Meteorologists said Ashland and Bayfield counties could get 4 to 6 inches of snow on Sunday, while parts of western and north-central Wisconsin could see about an inch.
The snow in both states wasn't expected to stick around for long. Recent warm weather meant the ground is still relatively warm, meteorologists said, and temperatures are expected to be in the mid- to high 30s for the next few days.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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This article is taken from- http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/2010-11-13-midwest-snow_N.htm