Free Republic

As the Cold War ended in the late 1980s and early ’90s, a new fear arose amid the rejoicing and relief: that atomic security might fail in the disintegrating Soviet Union, allowing its huge stockpile of nuclear warheads to fall into unfriendly hands. The jitters intensified in late 1991, as Moscow announced plans to store thousands of weapons from missiles and bombers in what experts viewed as decrepit bunkers, policed by impoverished guards of dubious reliability. Many officials and scientists worried. Few knew what to do. That is when Thomas L. Neff, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,...

A Friendlier Iran? Or Have They Just Moved Their Nukes to North Korea? Posted on January 31, 2014 by By Ilana Freedman, Editor After years of intransigence and unwillingness to even consider abandoning its nuclear program, Iran has suddenly become amenable to what appears to be real negotiations and an apparent readiness to compromise. The change was dramatic. Although still firing off occasional tirades against the West in general and Israel in particular, Iran is now allowing daily inspections of some of its nuclear facilities in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions. The sudden shift in Iranian policy has...

Through his "charm offensive," Iranian President Rouhani got a "deal" with the P5+1 negotiators to diminish and then eliminate sanctions without significantly reducing Iran's ability to develop nukes. Today, Press TV posted an article titled Zionists seek wars of aggression. Charmin Works!Press TV is a 24-hour English language news organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). Its headquarters are located in Tehran, Iran. . . . Press TV is state-funded[11] and is a division of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). The Press TV article purports to be an "approximate transcript" of an interview with "Kevin Barrett, editor with Veterans Today, Madison," Wisconsin, about Western threats...

American intelligence and security agencies are not currently capable of detecting when foreign nations are building nuclear weapons or ramping up their existing programs, according to a newly released Pentagon report that faults a range of U.S. agencies. “The nation is not yet organized or fully equipped” to detect clandestine nuclear activities across the globe, and in most cases “current solutions are either inadequate, or more often, do not exist,” according to the report, which was compiled over three years by the Pentagon’s Defense Science Board.

Neither the November 24th P5+1 "deal" nor the White House summary of the subsequent agreement to continue the process deals effectively with Iran's efforts to have nuclear weapons. NOTE: I tried to address much of what follows when writing earlier about the Iran Scam and have difficulty understanding why there is very little public or even official interest in the problems the deal raises. Please let me to elaborate here a bit more on why the P5+1 "deal" is a scam, why it matters and to offer some hypotheses about the lack of interest.The text of the English language version of...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry defended on Thursday the nuclear deal that was reached between Iran and six world powers, but said that the military option was still on the table if Iran fails to live up to its part of the agreement. “I am absolutely certain without a reasonable doubt that Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Jordan, all countries in the region are safer today from the threat of the Iranian nuclear weapon than they were before the agreement that we made,” Kerry told Al Arabiya in an exclusive interview from Geneva. If Iran does not execute the commitments it...

Released on January 16th, the White House Summary fails -- again -- to deal with Iran's continuing development of nuclear weaponry.  Iran has blasted the summary as "one sided;" what does that mean? According to the White House Summary, What Iran Has Committed To DoOn January 20th, the IAEA will report on the current status of Iran's nuclear program, and particularly on its uranium enrichment program and the Arak reactor.  The IAEA will also report on several specific steps that Iran has committed to take by or on the first day of implementation, including: Halting production of near-20% enriched uranium and disabling the...

[VIDEO AT LINK] After his remark, the President suggested we imagine all the people living for today. It’s funny, people joke about hippie Democrats, and then they go and give you something like this on a silver platter. With a platitude like give peace a chance, one cannot help but think of the recent revelations from Robert Gates’ explosive new memoir. Now that we know how unseriously Obama dealt with Iraq and Afghanistan, hearing him state his philosophy on Iran’s nukes as something so trite and so contrary to everything we know about the Iranian regime takes on a meaning...

What does it mean? Who knows? When might we learn? Who knows? Acording to a Fox "breaking news" report, Under the deal, Iran agreed to limit its uranium enrichment to 5 percent -- the grade commonly used to power reactors. The deal also commits Iran to stop producing 20 percent enriched uranium -- which is only a technical step away from weapons-grade material -- and to neutralize its 20 percent stockpile. In exchange, economic sanctions Iran faces would be eased for a period of six months. During that time, the world powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the...

WASHINGTON — In the latest headache for the Air Force’s nuclear mission, two missile combat crew members in the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, have been implicated in a narcotics investigation, a defense official speaking on the condition of anonymity said Thursday. The two officers, who operate Minutemen 3 missiles, have lost access to classified information while the Air Force investigates, the official said. Just two months ago, the unit was awarded an overall “excellent” rating after a weeklong inspection conducted by Air Force Global Strike Command, the Air Force reported. However, In August, officials relieved...

In response to planned legislation by United States Senators to increase sanctions on Iran, lawmakers in the Islamic Republic have drafted a bill of their own to increase the country’s level of uranium enrichment. Press TV reported on Wednesday that the bill would oblige the government to produce 60-percent enriched uranium. …

(CNN) -- A U.S. general who oversaw nuclear weapons boozed, fraternized with "hot women" and disrespected his hosts during an official visit to Russia this year, an investigative report shows. Maj. Gen. Michael Carey led the 20th Air Force responsible for three nuclear wings. He was relieved of duty in October because of loss of confidence in his leadership, the Air Force said at the time without providing specific details. But an Air Force Inspector General report released Thursday sheds more light into the case. It details the events of a July trip to Moscow in which witnesses recalled Carey...

Was trying to find out if there any USAF units solely dedicated to dropping nuclear test bombs in the Pacific and Nevada.

Iranian negotiators abruptly ended nuclear talks with Western powers in Vienna on Friday just a day after the Obama administration announced tighter sanctions on Tehran. Iran had threatened that new or tighter sanctions would nullify the recently reached Geneva interim deal, which is not yet in effect. The Iranians abruptly “halted” the talks and left Vienna so that they could consult with higher-level officials about how to proceed with talks following the tighter sanctions, which were announced Thursday morning by the U.S. Treasury Department.

In addition to her own nuclear weapons development and assistance to Iran, North Korea is trying to establish new Special Economic Zones to accommodate foreign investors and businesses. Iran could benefit. Nukes bring us peace, prosperity and happiness. Let's have co-prosperity spheres with Iran. North Korea's Special Economic Zones According to an article at 38 North, an organization that focuses on North Korea, In recent weeks North Korea has actively publicized in domestic and foreign news media its determination to pursue an aggressive strategy to develop special enterprise zones (SEZs) throughout the country. This follows and complements the agreement reached...

A European Parliament delegation has arrived in Iran, the first visit to Tehran by the EU’s legislative institution in more than six years. […] The visit is a sign of warming ties in the wake of an interim deal reached in November in Geneva between the Islamic Republic and six world powers to ease some sanctions on Iran for a series of nuclear concessions. …

Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto has created a beautiful, undeniably scary time-lapse map of the 2053 nuclear explosions which have taken place between 1945 and 1998. http://youtu.be/9U8CZAKSsNA Beginning with the Manhattan Project’s “Trinity” test near Los Alamos and concluding with Pakistan’s nuclear tests in May of 1998. This leaves out North Korea’s two alleged nuclear tests in this past decade (the legitimacy of both of which is not 100% clear). Each nation gets a blip and a flashing dot on the map whenever they detonate a nuclear weapon, with a running tally kept on the top and bottom bars of the...

Fresh from His historic success in banishing fear of Iranian nuclear weapons, President Obama today announced a similar approach to banishing our concerns about crime in the United States.The Obama-Kerry plan to banish the threat of Iran's development of nuclear weaponry by not mentioning it -- thereby shielding her devoutly sensitive leaders from any embarassment that might result from learning that even they suspect it -- is working as intended. It harmonises beautifully with His new plan to banish our concerns about crime. Although multifaceted and multicultural, the plan can be summarized as follows: Those who commit crimes are sadly undermedicated and otherwise...

Why is Iran working on Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles? There is no possible peaceful purpose for ballistic missiles. Iran may claim that their nuclear program is peaceful, but they cannot possibly make that claim when it comes to ballistic missiles. The only reason to have ballistic missiles is to target enemies with high explosives and WMD. Iran’s Shehab-3 Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles have sufficient range to hit Israel, Saudi Arabia and US bases in Afghanistan, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait and Turkey. Why are the Iranians working with the North Koreans on multi-stage Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs)? Who might the Iranians be...

Israel faces no existential threats, save one: the possibility that Iran will develop a nuclear weapon and a delivery system and use it to destroy Israel before it or the United States can prevent it from doing so. Clearly, a nuclear strike on Tel Aviv would be catastrophic for Israel. Its ability to tolerate that threat, regardless of how improbable it may be, is a pressing concern for Israel. In this context, Iran's nuclear program supersedes all of Israel's other security priorities. Israeli officials believe their allies, particularly those in the United States, should share this view. As a strategic...