A Saudi nuclear program may be a danger as far as making it easier for terrorist to gain material for a dirty bomb. However, I still think such a development is quite unlikely. The world has changed a lot since the events of the Britain-Israel exchange you speak of, and dangers that were not even considered are foremost in people’s minds now.

Not a nuclear weapon, just the dirt…

The only way a terrorist group could make a nuclear bomb is if they acquired already enriched materials and assembled one. The other way that they could gain a nuclear weapon, of course, is to be given one fully assembled.

I am absolutely confident that Saudi Arabia would not lose either a nuclear weapon or enriched nuclear material. No nation has ever lost a nuclear weapon, and the total known amount of enriched material known to be missing from all nuclear programs, yes, even from the post-Soviet collapse, is a small fraction of what is needed to make a nuclear weapon.

So, the sort of proliferation to Al-Qaida that you are talking about simply is not a realistic scenario.

Saudi Arabia is FAR more motivated to preventing Al-Qaida getting nuclear weapons than Britain was toward Israel getting nuclear weapons, even if we pretend that the sort of technology transfers that happened to Israel are applicable to Al-Qaida.

Now, if you want to argue that Saudi technology could proliferate to other Arab regimes, certainly that is quite possible. The Saudi bomb could end up helping the advancement of the Egyptian Bomb and the Jordanian Bomb. That is one of the problems if this proliferation continues.

As I said above, we need to be realistic about what the dangers are, not indulge in fantasy scenarios that are obviously facile.

Did it pass you by that in 1950 British political intent was to prevent Israel from getting nuclear technology, but that British institutions were instrumental in the initial establishment of that technology?

Did you note that it was not until after the HW reactor was operational that British scientists realised what had happened?

There is a direct parallel in that respect between Britain and Pakistan - where one “rogue” scientist took it in his head to share his knowledge of the technology around.

Do I equate Israel with AlQaeda? No. That is your canard, not mine.

I am looking at the political intent which you believe would stop Saudi Arabia agencies from leaking nuclear technology to terrorist organisations.

I have pointed out that even in Britain, that intent was worth nothing when it came to having effect.

As for the US selling material and technology to Iraq, that is so vastly over-exagerated it isn’t even funny.

Yeah, like the Brits thought that they control of theirs during the 1950’s when they “ïnadvertently” sold heavy water to the Israelis. This is an interesting, nay gripping, summary of the events of the time.

If you want a parallel, it reads like the US selling material and technology to Iraq… under the bed-clothes.

All that being said, let me be clear that I am not in favor of Saudi nukes. I do think though that we should be realistic of what the dangers of Saudi nukes would be and why they are desirable from the Saudi point of view.

Of course Iran isn’t the only Arab state (Iran is actually Persian, not Arab anyway) that the U.S. is concerned about. We are pretty much concerned with all of them. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and all the rest have deep problems, all of which require complex solutions that are difficult to handle.

Iraq on the other hand is making signifigant progess, and we are gaining new and powerful allies there.

However, when one gets to “the control of the product on the ground” (i.e. the production facilities, the testing facilities, the weapons themselves) that control can be diminished to the extent that the worst could happen… and to make matters worse it could happen under the patronage of opponents of the House of Saud within Saudi Arabia.

I do not believe that Iran is the ONLY Arab state that the US should be paranoid about… with the way that the WOI (not WOT!) is going, new and powerful enemies are being made every day.