THIS JUST IN..!
WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION FOUND!
With Bush & Blair continuing to insist (while Rome burns, the incoming tide laps at the edges of the their respective thrones, & pigs take to the air) that WMD had been deployed by Saddam &, within 45 minutes, could have been massively destroying, we would do well to remember the following.
There are five "declared" nuclear weapon states: the United States, Russia, Britain, France, and China. In addition to the declared states, there are three "de facto" states: India, Pakistan, and Israel. Both India and Pakistan tested nuclear devices in May 1998; Israel is widely assumed to have nuclear weapons. None of the de facto states has joined the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT).
In 1993, South Africa announced that it had secretly built six nuclear bombs, but had dismantled both the bombs and the weapons program. In the 1980s, Iraq mounted an ambitious nuclear weapons program, but it was dismantled at U.N. direction after the Persian Gulf War. North Korea was suspected of having a program, and it could possibly have several kilograms of weapon-grade plutonium stashed away. But the United States brokered a deal in 1994, in which North Korea would eventually shut down its inefficient and unsafeguarded nuclear reactors, to be replaced by safeguarded Western-style reactors.
Many experts believe that Iran wants nuclear weapons to counter Iraq's future ambitions, but most believe that Iran will not become a nuclear-weapon state for many years, if at all.
Here are the most recent estimates of how many warheads each nuclear power has for its armed forces. (These figures include warheads in active operational forces, retired non-deployed warheads awaiting dismantlement and weapons in reserve).
Russia
23,000 *
United States
12,000
France
450
China
400
Britain
260
*50 percent of the Russian total is estimated to be active.
The other half is either retired or in reserve.
12:41:06 AM 
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