The Nuclear Sphinx
Charles Johnson
Wed Mar 16, 2005 at 5:46 pm PST • Views: 179
Well, now we know how Egypt has been spending that $2 billion a year in US foreign aid: Is Egypt ready to go nuclear? (Hat tip: NC.)
NEW YORK - Does Egypt have clandestine nuclear and chemical weapons programs that could be turned on if the Arab world’s most populous country feels threatened by neighbors?
In the last several weeks, both the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have disclosed secret Egyptian operations in both areas — experiments in the development of plutonium and uranium fuel cycles as well as evidence of sophisticated chemical weapons help that was given to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.Neither report suggests that Egypt is going to deploy nuclear or chemical weapons, but the revelations once again raise concerns that the U.S. ally has its own superweapons programs.
“Egypt has wanted to have it very different ways,” said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science in International Security and a former IAEA inspector himself. “It wants to be seen as a responsible member of the world community, but it also is afraid of what Israel has,” meaning a nuclear arsenal.
Frank says: