WikiLeaks cables: US agrees to tell Russia Britain’s nuclear secrets
Telegraph.co.uk
By Matthew Moore, Gordon Rayner and Christopher Hope
The US secretly agreed to give the Russians sensitive information on Britain’s nuclear deterrent to persuade them to sign a key treaty, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. Information about every Trident missile the US supplies to Britain will be given to Russia as part of an arms control deal signed by President Barack Obama next week
HMS Vanguard is Britain’s lead Trident-armed submarine. The US, under a nuclear deal, has agreed to give the Kremlin the serial numbers of the missiles it gives Britain.
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Defence analysts claim the agreement risks undermining Britain’s policy of refusing to confirm the exact size of its nuclear arsenal.
The fact that the Americans used British nuclear secrets as a bargaining chip also sheds new light on the so-called “special relationship”, which is shown often to be a one-sided affair by US diplomatic communications obtained by the WikiLeaks website.
Details of the behind-the-scenes talks are contained in more than 1,400 US embassy cables published to date by the Telegraph, including almost 800 sent from the London Embassy, which are published online today. The documents also show that:
• America spied on Foreign Office ministers by gathering gossip on their private lives and professional relationships.
• Intelligence-sharing arrangements with the US became strained after the controversy over Binyam Mohamed, the former Guantánamo Bay detainee who sued the Government over his alleged torture.
• David Miliband disowned the Duchess of York by saying she could not “be controlled” after she made an undercover TV documentary.
• Tens of millions of pounds of overseas aid was stolen and spent on plasma televisions and luxury goods by corrupt regimes.
A series of classified messages sent to Washington by US negotiators show how information on Britain’s nuclear capability was crucial to securing Russia’s support for the “New START” deal.
Although the treaty was not supposed to have any impact on Britain, the leaked cables show that Russia used the talks to demand more information about the UK’s Trident missiles, which are manufactured and maintained in the US.
Washington lobbied London in 2009 for permission to supply Moscow with detailed data about the performance of UK missiles. The UK refused, but the US agreed to hand over the serial numbers of Trident missiles it transfers to Britain.
Professor Malcolm Chalmers said: “This appears to be significant because while the UK has announced how many missiles it possesses, there has been no way for the Russians to verify this. Over time, the unique identifiers will provide them with another data point to gauge the size of the British arsenal.”
Duncan Lennox, editor of Jane’s Strategic Weapons Systems, said: “They want to find out whether Britain has more missiles than we say we have, and having the unique identifiers might help them.”
While the US and Russia have long permitted inspections of each other’s nuclear weapons, Britain has sought to maintain some secrecy to compensate for the relatively small size of its arsenal.
William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, last year disclosed that “up to 160” warheads are operational at any one time, but did not confirm the number of missiles.
Via Drudge Report
UPDATE, 8:42 PM Friday 2/4/2011– Nile Gardiner is calling for Congressional Hearings in Washington, and Parliamentary Hearings in London.
The Obama Administration betrays Britain to appease the Russians over New START
Telegraph.co.uk
By Nile Gardiner
The latest revelation from Wikileaks is the most damaging so far to the Anglo-American Special Relationship. The disclosure in The Telegraph today that the Obama Administration “secretly agreed to give the Russians sensitive information on Britain’s nuclear deterrent to persuade them to sign a key treaty” points to an astonishing betrayal of America’s closest friend and ally, that may have significant implications for the relationship between David Cameron and Barack Obama.
The Telegraph report confirms the extraordinary lengths to which Washington stooped to meet Russian demands, which stunningly included passing on British nuclear secrets to a major strategic adversary.
As the Prime Minister and senior British ministers head to Germany this weekend to take part in the Munich Security Conference, key questions must be asked of their US counterparts, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as to the exact nature of the deal struck with Russia, and what more has been compromised in relation to British national security.
The matter is serious enough to merit Congressional hearings in Washington as well as parliamentary hearings in London. It is easy to see why the Obama team refused to allow the US Senate access to the negotiating documents for New START, as they would have sparked outrage on both sides of the Atlantic that would almost certainly have killed the Treaty. The Telegraph report clearly contradicts repeated claims by the Obama negotiating team that no side deals were struck with their Russian counterparts.
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Wild Thing’s comment……..
Selling out our best ally for the sake of mollifying his leftist base. Disgusting in the extreme and it compromises our national defense.
It is going to take decades to undo the harm this manchurian candidate has done to our country.
Obama undermined Britain against their wishes just to get a treaty with Russia. He is destabilizing our nation and the entire planet at lightning speed.
David Cameron could become a popular politician by cutting off diplomatic relations with the US right now. And how could we blame him.
I’m not sure my brain is registering this… What?
What did he do???! O M G! I’m speechless.
Just when I thought that this administration could sink no lower they make a fool out of me and sink lower than before.
The Jug-Eared Jackass is doing all he can to undermine our relations with England. He’s already given the Russians our nuclear capabilities and now he’s going after our allies.
This man, controlled by the likes of George Soros, Ayres and other Radicals, is step by step destroying the very essence of what this Country has stood for, for over 200 years.
The actions that he takes and the things that he is doing, through the power of his Office, without the need for Congressional approval,are more destructive, than any President in our history.
It is going to take a very long time to undo what he has been able to do and will continue to do during his term in office. Some things will never be undone.
This SOB should not only be impeached, he should be tried and convicted of Treason.
This has to be one of the greatest breeches of trust in history. I am sorry Great Britain. I am ashamed of the 52% of Americans who bought the snake oil.
Obama and his tribe are the greatest threat to our Republic. The Greeks could not have built a better Trojan Horse.
1. “WikiLeaks cables: US agrees to tell Russia Britain´s nuclear secrets,” US Nuke Treason By Mr. Obama, Part 3!!!
I believe it´s only a SUCCESSFUL 2nd American Revolution that can DEFEAT Mr. Barack Obama, and later have him arrested, and tried for TREASON, as well as, for being INELIGIBLE TO SERVE. (http://www.commieblaster.com/ineligible/index.html )
2. US Nuke Treason By Mr. Obama, Part 2!!!
http://www.theodoresworld.net/archives/2010/05/obama_gives_up_americas_securi.html
3. US Nuke Treason By Mr. Obama, Part 1!!!
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2009/06/nuclear_sites.html
http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/tech-mainmenu-30/energy/1193
It is not only his hate for America, his hate for Britain and Israel. His anti-colonialsim and his screw ball father who is the root of all this hate. What kind of an asshole wears his heart on his sleeve for a father who ditched him when he was 4, because certainly what happened in Kenya had absolutely nothing to do with him. Yet he still hates all the people of Britain, this man is a walking talking piece of crap. And a biggot to boot.
I would think impeachment would be called for if this is true. This regime needs to go!
Hosni Mubarak was seated next to Egypt’s great Anwar Sadat when he was assassinated in a military parade. For more than 30 years, Mubarak has kept the peace with Israel for which Sadat gave his life for.
We’ve abandoned Mubarak now in 2011 with little regard to history or any sense of loyalty or reward for long established loyalty, but rather find ourselves allied with the rule of the mob within Cairo, guided by some pictures from television from an ancient country whose true picture is so much greater and certainly larger, 80 million people, the largest in this volatile area of the world.
Some of us remember how in the 1970’s Anwar Sadat abruptly expelled Russian Soviet military advisers from Egypt saying to the world, “Russians can give you arms, but only the United States can give you a solution.”
And so now in 2011 we find ourselves with a president in the White House who on his very first day in office, had removed from the Oval Office and sent back to London a bronze bust of Winston Churchill brought there to Washington by his predecessor, George W. Bush.
America has had no greater military ally since World War I to the present day wars in Iraq and Afghanistan where British and American soldiers have died side by side.
Further, who can forget the alliance between Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in winning the Cold War against the Russian Soviets and the resulting liberation of millions in Eastern Europe from the tyranny of these Russian Soviets ?
The historic, strong and well established alliance between Washington and London reached their apex when for the first time in history an American President, George W. Bush, was invited not just to state dinner at Buckingham Palace, but invited to sleep there.
Comes now in 2011 this appeasing abomination in the White House that strikes an arms reduction treaty with the Russians while revealing sensitive nuclear deterrent information of this same and once greatest ally.
How is it that in a short two years, this White House does not know who our friends or enemies are ? We Americans certainly do.
These are perilous times we are living.
David Cameron will not cut diplomatic relations with Washington, Wild Thing, he, along with the rest of the free world, is just letting the clock run out on this abomination.
Come January 2013, after a very good scrubbing, the White House will be made once again habitable, ready for the return of American decency and freedom loving world leadership, as well as that bronze from London.
You all are truly so awesome. Your input, your hearts that love our country. Thank you all so much.
Eddy Burke, I felt the same way. I had to read it twice before I posted it. Obama is bad, horrible, the worst, but this crosses the line with other countries and I was jaw dropping as I read it.
Anon, thanks for the information and links.