Us Air force base in Ramstein, Germany earlier this year was missing from list of NATO nuclear bases scheduled to receive a Nuclear Surety Staff Assistance Visit
According to Arms Control website such absence could mean that the United States may have silently removed all 130 nuclear weapons from Ramstein, leaving only one other base in Germany, as wells as the other 20 others in Europe.
According to security experts "the timing of a possible withdrawal and the reasons for it remain unclear" , although German magazine Der Spiegel reported i that the weapons deployed in Ramstein may have been withdrawn for safety reasons during construction at the site, Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists says that the bombs were never returned, and that their whereabouts are unknown.
NATO may well be going through an extremely slow process of agreeing on a new Strategic Concept possibly by 2009 or 2010, according to sources, but that could that be too late to prevent a nuclear escalation.
According to research (PDF) published by Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, in 2005 the Us was 'parking' 480 nuclear bombs in Europe of which 90 in Italy and Turkey respectively
The B61 weapons are currently kept 'illegally' in the Us Airbases of Aviano and Gheddi, Italy, and with a destructive capacity up to 107 kilotons, and are the closest to the Middle East save for Turkey, a new EU member state with restricted role with respect to NATO defense policy.
"Italy has officially signed international treaties against nuclear weapons, which are not allowed in the territory by legislation approved in 1990" writes today Italian daily La Repubblica, but according to the newspaper the public is seriously worried and laments the lack of public information and control over the matter.
UN Security Council is noted for he absence of is authority in matters of intenational security, inability to control the US aggressive 'defense' policy, and for its failure to prevent international unilateral invasions, such as the occupation of Iraq.
With nuclear weapons tensions mounting, lack of transparency in policy and operations, Russia's new bomb, and loss of control over the illegal invasion of Iraq, unease and tension in international relations are increasing.

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