Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced they they are going to build several nuclear power plants. He said the program will be "transparent" and open to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). (LA Times) If you recall, this is exactly what Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said, but Bush wouldn't buy it. (CNN) Well, he's buying Egypt's explanation and has no objection to Egypt's plans, "provided Cairo followed the rules of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and procedures of the IAEA that are designed to limit countries to peaceful uses of atomic power." Let me remind you that India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea all have nuclear weapons (not power plants) and are not signatories to NPT. Iran is a signatory. And there are many countries who assert that the U.S.'s "nuclear-sharing agreement" with other NATO countries violates NPT. (Wikipedia) Also, last September Yemen signed an agreement with Powered Corporation to build nuclear power plants over the next 10 years and Bush didn't complain about that either. (MSNBC) As a side note: Powered Corporation is a Texas Corporation headquartered in Houston with offices in Houston, San Diego, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, and Sana’a in the Republic of Yemen. I wouldn't be surprised if Powered is going to get the Egyptian contract to build the power plants, if Halliburton doesn't get it.

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