of the allegedly classified version of the administration's "Nuclear Posture Review" (NPR). Notably, what was leaked, was the claim that the United States had targetted five non-nuclear powers for possible nuclear strikes in case of conflict. These include not only Bush's "axis of evil" countries: Iraq, Iran and North Korea,-- but also Libya and Syria. The leak emphasize that U.S. policy was to greatly reduce the threshold for use of nuclear weapons in war, in favor of the administration's intention to develop new generations, or simply retooled varieties of battlefield nuclear weapons.

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CHENEY VISITS THE FRONT

Several important, but inconclusive developments on the Middle East war-front have emerged during the past week, as Vice-President Dick Cheney tours the Middle East. To begin with, someone, probably from inside the White House, had raised the world's military temperature a notch or two with a nasty press-leak in the Los Angeles Times.

Vice-President Cheney, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, and President Bush himself have been suspiciously evasive, in the efforts they have made not to deny the gist of what the Los Angeles Times and other media have reported as the contents