Obama betrayed British allies, Wikileaks reveals- UK Telegraph says "The matter is serious enough to merit Congressional hearings in Washington as well as parliamentary hearings in London"

Obama betrayed British allies, Wikileaks reveals



In a stunning story of alleged selfishness and betrayal, the Obama administration is accused of turning over an ally's 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 activist Julian Assange -- in November 2010 released 250,000 classified diplomatic cables and is now the focus of a probe by U.S. government prosecutors.

With President Barack Obama signing the new strategic arms reduction treaty with Russia last Wednesday, the stage is 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 are scheduled to exchange ratification documents this 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 treaty's entry into force, both nations will have the right to conduct short-notice inspections of each other's nuclear facilities.

"One of the crucial pieces of the more recent arms-reduction treaties, beginning with the START I treaty in the early 1990s, has been the provision for verification" of each other's 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 on December 22 in spite of the warnings of military and geopolitical experts.

British defense analysts claim the treaty risks undermining Britain’s policy of refusing to confirm the size of the United Kingdom's nuclear arsenal.

The allegations -- supported by Wikileaks documents -- that the Americans used British nuclear secrets as bargaining chips also sheds new light on the so-called “special relationshipâ€