UNITED STATES: 'We look the other way when it suits us'

BY NORM DIXON

"The allegation ... of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) is an excuse [the US uses] when we have it out for other countries", Jon Wolfsthal, deputy director of the Non-Proliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Associated Press on April 14. "We tend to look the other way when it suits our interest."

Washington is deafeningly silent about the WMD programs of its allies, including Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, India and Taiwan. Israel stores some of its more than 200 nuclear missiles on mobile launchers hidden in caves, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Israel aided apartheid South Africa's quest for nuclear weapons. Israel is also believed to stock chemical and biological weapons, according to the Carnegie Endowment and the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

Egypt is believed to have chemical weapons, including deadly sarin and VX agents, according to the Monterey Institute. India and Pakistan have publicly tested nuclear weapons. They are also suspected to be engaged in chemical and biological weapons research, according to Carnegie and Monterey. Taiwan also maintains a chemical weapons program.

From Green Left Weekly, April 23, 2003.

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From GLW issue 535