MERKEL: NO PLANS EXIST FOR GERMAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS

This particular article was right at the top of the list this past week of articles that people sent in. And it's worth having a few "record corrections" here. Frau Merkel, it seems, has been rather busy. In short, spokesmen for the Chancellorin have been forced to deny that there are no plans for Germany to acquire nuclear weapons as a component of the "all European army" it has been pushing for. Here's two versions of the story, one from our friends at Zero Hedge, and the other from the London Times:

Merkel Forced To Deny Plans For European Nuclear Superpower

Merkel forced to deny Germany planning to lead a European nuclear superpower

I scarcely know where to begin on this one, for the disingenuousness of the story - not from the media reporting it, but rather from the track record of Germany since the end of the Second World War - is there for all to see if one knows where to look. William Manchester, in his well-known book, The Arms of Krupp, records that the famous German armaments firm and cannon-maker had completed a functioning reactor in a secret installation in Julich, near the Dutch border, by the end of the 1950s. In that book he records an interview with one of the scientists working at the installation, who rather sheepishly admitted that Germany was closing the entire nuclear fuel cycle. By the 1960s, it had. Then, in 1978, The New York Times Books published an important but regrettably overlooked book by Barbara Rogers and Zdenek Cervenka, titled The Nuclear Axis: The Secret Collaboration Between West Germany and South Africa, a book which I reviewed in my book The Third Way: The Nazi International, European Union, and Corporate Fascism. Rogers and Cervenka make a convincing case that the secret power behind South Africa's and even Israel's bomb was West Germany.

As I also noted in my book, Germany played a crucial role during the 1970s and 80s, in Iran's acquisition of nuclear technologies, including those of isotope enrichment, forming the foundations for Iran's present nuclear capabilities. It need not be mentioned, of course, that Frau Merkel's government was instrumental in brokering the controversial deal between Iran and the Obama Administration. Well, of course they were! Iran is a major German trading partner, and some of that trade historically includes... well, you know.

I noted something else in The Third Way, namely, that the pro-Russian website, Global Research, ran an article by Canadian professor Michael Chossudovsky titled "Belgium of Iran, where's the Nuclear Threat? Europe's Five Undeclared Nuclear Weapons states" (see www.globalresearch.ca/europe-s-five-undeclared-nuclear-weapons-states/17550. See also my The Third Way, pp. 109-111) In that article, Professor Chossudovsky points out an uncomfortable truth:

While Germany is not categorized officially as a nuclear power, it produces nuclear warheads for the French Navy. It stockpiles nuclear warheads (made in America) and it has the capabilities of delivering nuclear weapons. Moreover, The European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company - EADS, a Franco-German-Spanish joint venture, controlled by Deutsche Aerospace and the powerful Daimler Group is Europe's second largest military producer, supplying France's M51 nuclear missile.

Germany imports and deploys nuclear warheads from the U.S. It also produced nuclear warheads which are exported to France. Yet it is classified as a non-nuclear state. (The Third Way, p. 110, citing the Global Research website article.)

Now, in case all this technicality is a little too obscure, I also pointed out in the Third Way that France's M51 missile, which is produced by a Franco-German-Spanish company, which in turn is controlled by Deutsche Aerospace and the Daimler Group, is a submarine launched intercontinental ballistic missile with mirved warheads (which are also produced by Germany) in the 200-300 kiloton range(so we're told), which means those warheads are strategic warheads, and probably either boosted fission devices or full-up (but small) hydrogen bombs. In short, not only has the infrastructure of a trans-European nuclear deterrent long been in place, organized around the French force de frappe, that organization conveniently allows Germany to dodge the classification as a thermonuclear power ("See? We're selling all this to the French... we're not buying it ourselves"), it also conveniently makes France the target of opportunity should things ever actually go "hot." But any way one slices it, if Mr. Chossudovsky's revelations are anywhere close to the truth, then the reality is, like it or not, Germany already is a de facto thermonuclear power. This explains a lot, geopolitically, and in point of fact, when one considers Professor Chossudovsky's article in the context of the Rogers-Cervenka research from the late 1970s, it's clear that infrastructure has been in place for a very long time. In short, their research corroborates Chossodovsy's allegations.

What does all this mean? Well, in terms of Frau Merkel's "denials" and "reassurances", it means simply that she's lying. But I suspect most people already suspected that. More importantly, it means that should the EU break apart, then that whole infrastructure will have to come out into the open, and that the pressures on Germany to openly rearm to ensure the security of Eastern Europe - as the Times article suggests - will be enormous. Germany and France will continue to collaborate militarily, and announce "changes" to that collaboration to reflect "new European realities." One might even go so far as to say that the French will allow the Germans to test their own thermonuclear warheads in the French test sites in the Pacific just to make it all "official".

Then again, why bother with any tests? After all, the French have already tested those German SLBMs and warheads... OTRAG, anyone?

...and then there's Japan...

See you on the flip side...