Are Turkey, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands and Italy Nuclear Powers?
Author’s Note
This article was originally published by Global Research in February 2010 under the title:Europe’s Five “Undeclared Nuclear Weapons States”
The media, politicians and scientists have remained silent. The focus was persistently on Iran’s non-existant nuclear weapons. And now the focus is on North Korea.
Double Standards? All eyes on North Korea
Amply documented, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Turkey are in possession of nuclear weapons which are deployed under national command against Russia, Iran and the Middle East.
Following the failed July 2016 military coup in Turkey, the media reported on Turkey’s nuclear weapons stored and deployed at the Incirlik airbase.
The US National Resources Defense Council in a February 2005 report confirmed Turkey’s deployment of 90 so-called tactical B61 nuclear weapons, some of which were subsequently decommissioned
The stockpiling and deployment of tactical B61 in these five “non-nuclear states” are intended for targets in the Middle East. Moreover, in accordance with “NATO strike plans”, these thermonuclear B61 bunker buster bombs (stockpiled by the “non-nuclear States”) could be launched “against targets in Russia or countries in the Middle East such as Syria and Iran” ( quoted in National Resources Defense Council, Nuclear Weapons in Europe , February 2005, emphasis added)
In 2016, press reports including Deutsche Welle confirmed the deployment of Turkey’s 50 B61 nuclear weapons out it Incirlik air force base. But this has been known for years. It took the media ten years to acknowledge that Turkey (a non-nuclear State) possesses a sizeable nuclear arsenal.
There was however some confusion in the media reports as to the nature of the nuclear bombs stored and deployed at Incirlik. They are B61 gravity bombs [of the bunker buster type] with nuclear warheads, with an explosive capacity of up to 170 kilotons (up to 12 times a Hiroshima bomb). The accuracy of the numbers of bombs quoted in the media reports remains to be acertained. Some of the bombs were decommissioned. Some of them may have been replaced with a more recent version including the B61-11.
originalIt should be emphasized that in the last few years, the Pentagon has developed a more advanced version of the B61, namely the B61-12, which is slated to replace the older versions currently stored and deployed in Western Europe including Turkey.
Nuclear weapons are on the table: A trillion dollar nuclear weapons is now being contemplated by the Pentagon.
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The notion of deterrence has been scrapped These so-called mini-nukes are intended to be used.
Under The Pentagon’s so-called Life Extension Program, the the B61 nuclear weapons are intended to “remain operational until at least 2025.”
Are these five countries undeclared nuclear powers?
Should we be concerned?
The number of nuclear bombs deployed is far greater than those of the DPRK, which is object of economic sanctions and war threats.
Turkey, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany and Italy possess B61 nuclear bombs, deployed under national command and targeted at Russia, Iran and the Middle East.
Michel Chossudovsky, July 30, 2016, minor revisions, September 17, 2017
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Europe’s Five “Undeclared Nuclear Weapons States”
by Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research
February 12, 2010
“Far from making Europe safer, and far from producing a less nuclear dependent Europe, [the policy] may well end up bringing more nuclear weapons into the European continent, and frustrating some of the attempts that are being made to get multilateral nuclear disarmament,” (Former NATO Secretary- General George Robertson quoted in Global Security, February 10, 2010)
“‘Is Italy capable of delivering a thermonuclear strike?… Could the Belgians and the Dutch drop hydrogen bombs on enemy targets?… Germany’s air force couldn’t possibly be training to deliver bombs 13 times more powerful than the one that destroyed Hiroshima, could it?… Nuclear bombs are stored on air-force bases in Italy, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands — and planes from each of those countries are capable of delivering them.” (“What to Do About Europe’s Secret Nukes.”Time Magazine, December 2, 2009)
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