On Jan. 11, the Nuclear Threat Initiative and the Economist Intelligence Unit released the results of a study of the security precautions taken by the 32 countries that possess nuclear materials able to fuel atomic bombs.
Later that morning, the New York Times Web site featured—briefly—a story on the study’s findings. The story appeared on page A6 of the next day’s print edition.
Noted reporter William J. Broad: “The study is full of surprises and potential embarrassments: for instance, Australia takes first place in nuclear security and Japan comes in at No. 23, behind nations like Kazakhstan and South Africa.
“The United States? It ties for 13th place with Belgium. Last place goes to North Korea,” Broad continued. Britain, with a security score of 79 out of a possible 100, came in top among “the nine countries known to possess nuclear arms.” The U.S. scored 78, Japan 68, Iran 46, Pakistan 41, and North Korea 37. (The lower the security score, the fewer precautions each country has in place.)
A New York Times reader wanting to know where Israel ranks, however, was out of luck. Not a word about the only nuclear-armed country in the volatile Middle East. For that one must go to the report itself—which, of course, we proceeded to do:
www.ntiindex.org/countries/israel/.
Turns out Israel earned a security score of 56, and ranked No. 25—like Japan, “behind nations like Kazakhstan and South Africa.” Moreover, it scored 0 (of 100) in the categories of “control and accounting procedures” and “nuclear security and materials transparency.”
So much for “All the News That’s Fit to Print.”
The Washington Report deems it fit to print the ranking and scores of all 32 countries surveyed:
| RANK 1 |
COUNTRY Australia |
SECURITY SCORE 94 |
| 2 | Hungary | 89 |
| 3 | Czech Republic | 87 |
| 4 | Switzerland | 86 |
| 5 | Austria | 85 |
| 6 | Netherlands | 84 |
| 7 | Sweden | 83 |
| 8 | Poland | 82 |
| 9 | Norway | 81 |
| =10 | Canada | 79 |
| =10 | Germany | 79 |
| =10 | United Kingdom | 79 |
| =13 | Belgium | 78 |
| =13 | United States | 78 |
| 15 | Ukraine | 76 |
| =16 | Argentina | 74 |
| =16 | Belarus | 74 |
| =16 | Italy | 74 |
| =19 | France | 73 |
| =19 | Mexico | 73 |
| =19 | South Africa | 73 |
| 22 | Kazakhstan | 71 |
| 23 | Japan | 68 |
| 24 | Russia | 65 |
| 25 | Israel | 56 |
| 26 | Uzbekistan | 55 |
| 27 | China | 52 |
| 28 | India | 49 |
| 29 | Vietnam | 48 |
| 30 | Iran | 46 |
| 31 | Pakistan | 41 |
| 32 | North Korea | 37 |
“=” denotes
a tie among countries.