Where's the State Dept Nuclear Report on Burma

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DICTATOR WATCH

(www.dictatorwatch.org)Contact: Roland Watson, roland@dictatorwatch.org

WHERE'S THE STATE DEPARTMENT NUCLEAR REPORT ONBURMA?

February 11, 2009Unbeknownst to the Burma pro-democracy movement, and the journalist and diplomatic communities,there are events unfolding now in Washington, D.C., that will shape the Obama Administration's Burma policy for years to come. These events specifically relate to the position the Administration will take on themilitary junta of Burma - the SPDC's - nuclear andmissile proliferation programs: whether to acknowledge them or not.Under Section 10 of the Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE (Junta's Anti-Democratic Efforts) Act of 2008,the Secretary of State is required to prepare a report, not later than 180 days after the enactment of the Act,and annually thereafter, on Military and Intelligence Aid to Burma from foreign countries, companies andother entities. Subsection 3 specifies that the report must include information on "

the provision of weaponsof mass destruction and related materials, capabilities, and technology, including nuclear, chemical, and dual use capabilities

."The report is to be submitted to the Foreign Affairs and Foreign Relations Committees of the House andSenate, respectively. An unclassified version "

shall be placed on the Department of State's website

."President Bush signed the JADE Act into law last July 29th. This means the 180 day preparation period hasexpired. We assume that the report has been completed and submitted to the committees. Indirect evidenceof this is that on January 15th, Senator Richard Lugar, as part of Susan Rice's confirmation hearing asAmbassador to the United Nations, asked Ms. Rice her position on Burma, including "

its growing relationship with North Korea

." She declined to answer this element of the question.We believe Senator Lugar and now Ambassador Rice had read the report, and that it confirms that theSPDC has active nuclear and missile proliferation programs, with the involvement of Russia, North Koreaand Iran. This would be consistent with information from our own sources, and which intelligence we have published for the last two years.The report has not yet been posted on the State Department website. If, when it is made public, its contentssupport our intelligence, this will trigger a political and media firestorm. The State Department, and bydefault, the U.S. intelligence community, will have confirmed that the SPDC is a nuclear weapons aspirant.(We have previously reported radio intercepts, in the summer of last year, by the pro-democracy resistancein Eastern Burma of Burma Army communications discussing unsuccessful attempts to shoot downunmanned drones. The U.S. is the logical source for such drones, and if so they likely originated from the base on Diego Garcia.)The State Department report will elevate Burma in the international discourse to shared status with NorthKorea and Iran as a threat of the most severe magnitude. It will instantly change the Security Councildebate on Burma and the ability of Russia and China to sustain their vetoes on Council action.We were heartened by President Obama's election campaign statements promising real change, and want togive him the benefit of the doubt. We also understand that Secretary Clinton has just assumed her position,and that there are many grave issues confronting both the United States and the world. Still, the Burmaquestion cannot be put off indefinitely. The SPDC ruthlessly attacked peaceful monks and other pro-democracy demonstrators during the 2007 Saffron Revolution. It denied humanitarian relief to the

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