U.S. counters nuclear criticism

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- The United States defended its nuclear posture on the eve of a U.N. General Assembly vote calling for nuclear powers to take their weapons off “high alert.”

The non-binding resolution before the General Assembly called on nuclear states to “decrease the operational readiness” of their weapons, The Washington Post said Thursday.

The United States responded earlier to criticism that its nuclear arsenal was on a “hair-trigger alert” in violation of the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Post said.

“U.S. nuclear forces are not and have never been on high-trigger alert,” the U.S. representative to the U.N. Conference on Disarmament Christina Rocca told the United Nations Oct. 9.

Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists, a group focused on proliferation issues, said Rocca’s comments were “plain wrong,” saying “There are forces on alert and whether they are on ‘hair-trigger alert’ or ‘launch on warning,’ they are capable of launching in minutes.”

An unnamed U.S. official familiar with the proliferation issue told the Post, “The idea we are on Cuban-missile-crisis posture, sitting on a silo ready to push the button, is false,” adding “the essence of deterrence strategy is having some element of ambiguity.”