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Bush Administration Empowered India’s Nuclear Weapons Program

The Bush administration empowered the Indian government in 2008 in a deal that allowed it to increase and modernize its nuclear arsenal as a deterrent against Pakistan and China. Foreign Policy In Focus reports: Bush Administration Nuclear Policy Enabled India’s H-bomb Program In December, the Center for Public Integrity published an investigative report by Adrian Levy titled Experts worry that India is creating new fuel for an arsenal of H-bombs. It was also published in Foreign Policy with the more alarming title India Is Building a Top-Secret Nuclear City to Produce Thermonuclear Weapons, Experts Say. The Indian government has appropriated a large chunk of land in the southern Karnataka state to build a military complex of nuclear research laboratories and testing facilities. Also ostensibly intended to produce fuel for India’s nuclear reactors and submarines, it seems that, writes Levy … another, more controversial ambition, according to retired Indian government officials and independent experts in London and Washington, is to give India an extra stockpile of enriched uranium fuel that could — if India so decides — be used in new hydrogen bombs (also known as thermonuclear weapons), substantially increasing the explosive force of those in its existing nuclear arsenal. Bear in mind that [...]