Feed: Obama betrayed British allies, Wikileaks reveals - AggScore: 12.8

Obama betrayed British allies, Wikileaks reveals

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caption id alignalignleft width210 captionWikileaks released documents that indicate Obama threw the British government under the bus in order to get a treaty with Russia. Photo USA Sentinel img srchttpislandadv.comwpcontentuploads201102obamastateofunion20090.jpg alt width210 height133 captiondivIn a stunning story of allegedselfishness and betrayal, the Obama administration is accused of turning over an allys nuclear secrets in order to get the Russians to go along with the Startegic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START.In cables released by Wikileaks and reported in the British news media, information about every Trident missile the U.S. supplies to Britain will be given to Russia as part of an arms control deal signed by President Barack Obama.WikiLeaks founded and run by Australian activistJulian Assange in November 2010released 250,000 classified diplomatic cables and is now the focus of a probe byU.S. governmentprosecutors.With President Barack Obamasigning the new strategic arms reduction treaty with Russialast Wednesday, the stageis set for the formal exchange of papers this weekend that will put the agreement into effect, according to Cheryl Pellerin of the American Forces Press Service.Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arescheduled to exchange ratification documentsthis Saturday,February 5, at the Munich Security Conference, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates representative to the treaty negotiations said.Edward L. Ted Warner told the Pentagon Channel and American Forces Press Service that within 60 days of the treatys entry into force, both nations will have the right to conduct shortnotice inspections of each others nuclear facilities.One of the crucial pieces of the more recent armsreduction treaties, beginning with the START I treaty in the early 1990s, has been the provision for verification of each others nuclear claims at operating bases, test ranges and storage sites, he said.No inspections have taken place in either nation since START I expired in December 2009, he said, noting that the first START treaty represented an enormous step forward in verification.The United States and Russia or its predecessor, the Soviet Union have signed a variety of strategic arms treaties going back to the early 1970s, Warner said. START I was signed in 1991 and ratified and entered into force in 1994. The Moscow Treaty in 2002 built on START I and lowered critical limits, particularly on deployed warheads, Warner said, noting that it expires in 2012.In the original START treaty, the limit was 6,000 warheads. In the Moscow Treaty, the limit was between 1,700 and 2,200 2,200 being the legal limit, he said. In the new START treaty, which was concluded last April, the limit is now 1,550 strategic warheads.The U.S. Senate ratified the new START treaty onDecember 22 in spite of the warnings of military and geopolitical experts.British defense analysts claim thetreaty risks undermining Britains policy of refusing to confirm the size ofthe United Kingdomsnuclear arsenal.divdivThe allegations supported by Wikileaks documents that the Americans used British nuclear secrets as bargaining chips also sheds new light on the socalled special relationship, which was strong under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, buthas now been kicked tothe curb by the Obama national securityteam.The details of American duplicity are contained in more than 1,400 US embassy cables published to date by Wikileaks and The Telegraph, including almost 800 sent from the London Embassy, which are published online today. The documents also show that America spied on Foreign Office ministers by gathering gossip on their private lives and professional relationships and that tens of millions of Britishpoundsfor overseas aid was stolen and spent on plasma televisions and luxury goods by corrupt regimes.divdivA series of classified messages sent to Washington by US negotiators show how information on Britains nuclear capability was crucial to securing Russias support for the New START deal, according to the Wikileaks documents.AlthoughSTART a U.S. and Russia agreement was not intended to effect Britain, theWikileaks diplomatic document dumpshows that Russia used the talks to demand more information aboutBritish Trident missiles, which are manufactured and maintained in the US.Althoughthe U.S. and Russia haveallowed inspections of each others nuclear weapons, the British governments arsenal size is classified, but understood to be significantly smaller than those of the U.S. and Russia.div