Does Iran Already Have Nuclear Weapons? (From Various Sources)

various ^ | various

[maquiladora]

With all the talk of Iran being anything from a few months to a decade away from producing their own nuclear weapons, you may be surprised to find that there is a great deal of material dating back several years which may prove or at least point to the fact that Iran already has nuclear weapons and has had them for some time.

I will present below the evidence from various sources, with links to the full articles.

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"Iran does have nuclear weapons", General Yuri Baluyevsky, the Russian Deputy Chief of Staff told journalists, adding: "Of course, these are non-strategic nuclear weapons. I mean these are not ICBMs with a range of more than 5,500 kilometers and more. But as a military man, I see no danger of aggression against Russia by Iran."
http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2002/Jun_2002/iran_has_nuke_6602.htm

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Goss, who came to Ankara just after FBI Director Robert Mueller’s visit, brought up Iran’s alleged attempts to develop nuclear weapons. It was said that Goss first told Ankara that Iran has nuclear weapons and this situation was creating a huge threat for both Turkey and other states in the region.
http://regimechangeiran.blogspot.com/2005/12/turkey-goss-reportedly-told-ankara.html

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According to Iranian government documents in Israel's possession, Iran received several nuclear warheads from a former Soviet republic during the early 1990s, THE JERUSALEM POST reported.
The documents have been deemed authentic by United States congressional experts and are still being studied in Israel. They contain correspondence between Iranian government officials and leaders of Iran's Revolutionary Guards that discusses Iran's successful efforts to obtain nuclear warheads from former Soviet republics. The documents appear to bolster reports from 1992 that Iran received enriched uranium and up to four nuclear warheads from Kazakhstan, with help from the Russian underworld.
http://www.fas.org/news/iran/1998/980409-iran2.htm

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Despite the fact that the CIA recently reported that Iran was only 10 years away from acquiring a nuclear bomb, Timmerman said Iran has had the capability to produce the necessary fissile material since 1995. That’s when China gave Iran the blueprints to build a uranium conversion facility.
Timmerman postulated that in the last 10 years, Iran has been able to make enough fissile material for 20 to 25 nuclear bombs.
http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/articles/2005/11/10/news/local/iran1111.txt

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Guiora, who holds dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship, served for 19 years in the Israel Defense Forces Judge Advocate General Corps. He has negotiated repeatedly with the Palestinians, including the safe passage agreement between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Both he and Brauner maintain that Iran, not the Palestinians, present the gravest threat to Israel. Iran has nuclear warheads, scattered in some 20 sites, Guiora said. This makes it difficult to remove them in a single strike, as Israel did by bombing Iraq’s nuclear reactor near Baghdad in 1981.
http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/articles/2006/02/01/news/local/bcover0127.txt

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1992 Iran acquires nuclear weapons "ready for immediate use" from CIS countries, according to the German weekly Focus. The weapons are reportedly "an atom bomb which can be dropped from an airplane and a launcher for missiles with nuclear warheads."
http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/Iran/1825_1869.html

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February 1992. The Washington, DC-based Defense and Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy newsletter reports Iran is within two months of reassembling nuclear warheads acquired from the former Soviet Union. Iran has hired nuclear scientists from Kazakhstan.
http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/Iran/1825_1869.html

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March 1992. A US Republican task force reports that Iran has possessed all of the necessary components to build a nuclear bomb since December 1991.
http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/Iran/1825_1869.html

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March 1992. Paul Muenstermann, vice president of the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND), says that Iran received two of three nuclear warheads and medium-range nuclear delivery systems that are missing from Kazakhstan. Iranian officials and the commander of the CIS Joint Armed Forces reject these claims. Russian General Victor Samoilov, however, who handles disarmament issues for the CIS general staff, admits that three nuclear warheads were missing from Kazakhstan. Also, Iran allegedly purchased four 152mm nuclear shells from the former Soviet Union, which were allegedly stolen and sold by former Soviet Army officers. The Iranian Foreign Ministry denies these allegations. Lt. General Sergey Zalentsov, senior commander of the United Armed Forces of the CIS and deputy-in-charge of all CIS nuclear arms, also rejects the reports. Iran reportedly received the warheads from Kazakhstan through Bulgaria. However, Iran did not receive the necessary launch codes or missiles capable of carrying the warheads.
http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/Iran/1825_1869.html

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US magazine US News and World Report quotes an unidentified high-ranking Russian officer as substantiating a US intelligence report that three short-range nuclear weapons have disappeared from an arsenal in Kazakhstan. The US magazine reports the weapons have been sold to Iran.
http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/Iran/1825_1869.html

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April 1992. The European of London reports that the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service has said that Iran definitely received two warheads stolen from Semipalatinsk. The report says that the organization selling the weapons had ties to Kazakhstan President Nursaltan Nazarbayev.
http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/Iran/1825_1869.html

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May 1992 Russian television reports that Russian intelligence has told the CIA that two nuclear warheads from Semipalatisk, Khazakhstan, were sold to Iran and another unknown Middle East country with the permission of Kazakhstani President Nazarbayev. The warheads are of a capacity ranging from 2 to 5 kilotons.
http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/Iran/1825_1869.html

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December 1992, Two Iranian diplomats discuss via telephone the acquisition of four nuclear warheads by Iran from one of the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union. The two diplomats are identified as an Iranian Foreign Ministry official Abdolrahmani, who is in charge of relations with the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union, and Iranian Deputy Sirus Nasiri Tabatabai-Kia, who is second in command in the Iranian delegation to United Nations institutions and international organizations in Geneva. In the tapped phone conversation between Abdolrahmani and Tabatabai-Kia, which is obtained from an European intelligence service, Abdolrahmani confirms that one of the Muslim republics of the former Soviet Union sold four warheads to Iran. Tabatabai-Kia notes that the purchases "completed their mission in the best possible way." Abdolrahmani says that the warheads had not arrived because of a problem with transportation, and that he does not know how much the warheads cost because "some other guy arranged the issue of the payment." In the course of the conversation, the names of Iranian President Rafsanjani's brother-in-law Hajj Mohsen Rafij, and the Iranian defense minister Akbar Torkan are mentioned in connection with the sale.
http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/Iran/1825_1869.html

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March 1993, The Arms Control Reporter reports that by December 1991, Iran had imported four nuclear weapons from the former Soviet Union, including a nuclear artillery shell, two nuclear warheads that could be launched on Scud missiles, and one nuclear weapon that could be delivered by a MiG-27 aircraft. The report says that fissile material was exported from Kazakhstan to Iran and the rest of the components were exported from other republics of the former Soviet Union through Turkmenistan. Although the codes to arm the warheads were not provided with the missiles, the report says two experts from Russia arrived to bypass arming codes.
http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/Iran/1825_1870.html

---------- 11 April 1998, Labor MK Rafi Elul says that Israel and the United States have suspected for years that Iran acquired nuclear weapons smuggled from the former Soviet Union. Elul reportedly met with an unknown US source, reportedly with longtime connections to the Israeli government, in March 1998 who said that in 1995 she gave both the CIA and Israel Iranian government documents on Iran's successful efforts to obtain nuclear weapons.
http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/Iran/1825_1875.html

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Following a series of Jerusalem Post articles saying that Iran acquired nuclear weapons from the former Soviet Union, two US Congressmen, Jim Saxton and Bill McCollum, say that they have closely followed Iran's military programs and that Iran "has obtained nuclear weapons as well as established a ballistic missile command-and-control system to launch them."
http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/Iran/1825_1875.html

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Given all these and probably a lot more documented reports out there, not to mention unknown amounts of classified reports, there can be little doubt that Iran already has nuclear weapons, and when you consider this in the context of a potential and likely future military attack on Iran by the US or Israel, then the importance of this is clear.

[romanesq]

There's way to much rumor mongering going on about the Central Asian republics. If this were true and clear to US intelligence, why would the President be making a showdown over the enrichment process in Iraq now?

That really doesn't make any sense. Any military action would invite nuclear retaliation from the mullahs. They don't seem to dissuaded from MAD or any nuclear deterrent for that matter.

Although I feel they may in fact have a weapon, I thought it might have been through a combination of Chinese, Pakistani and illegally obtained material via the black market.

That's not comforting either. But the case if you can call it that here, is presented in a much worse light.

So why has Tehran not nuked Israel yet in the last five or so years? They seem like they can't wait to "wipe" them "off the map" which is about as close to a nuclear description of engagement as you can get.

[maquiladora]

So why has Tehran not nuked Israel yet in the last five or so years? They seem like they can't wait to "wipe" them "off the map" which is about as close to a nuclear description of engagement as you can get.

The same reason why North Korea hasn't done the same to the South.

[romanesq]

Of course but North Korea doesn't have a messianic religious driven death wish.

[maquiladora]

It made not be religious, but its no less fanatical, in fact, I would say even more so.
Iran would have attacked Israel with its is known stockpiles of chemical weapons long ago if it truely had a hair trigger deathwish for a speed-date with the apocalypse.
Oh, they want to destroy Israel alright, but I think they are more patient about it than what their rhetoric indicates.

[Paul_Denton]

I hope something is done. Iran's president has a suicidal death wish. We will have no choice. The alternative is either a uclear exchange between Israel and Iran or NYC wiped off the map through al queda. Even without nukes it would be worth it to go in there and remove the mullahs because they are the world's biggest terrorist supporters.

[tomahawk]

I do not believe Iran has nuclear weapons.

I don't believe the Mossad believes they do, either.

Or the CIA.

[FARS]

"Of course but North Korea doesn't have a messianic religious driven death wish".

Iran's messianic death wish came to power on August 15th 2005 and it took time for Ahmadi-Nejad to place his IRGC Commanders into key posts and get himself and lunatic Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi positioned to remove Supreme Ruler Khamenei or former president Rafsanjani should they oppose the neo-Iran regime.

Rafsanjani's son was arrested in a show of power (later released when Rafsanjani backed down) and Khamenei believes his liver cancer comes from being poisoned.

As their readiness increased so did the threats. The old nuclear weapons Iran had acquired (around a dozen units) were not missile capable and nore of the dirty bomb use kind. What they are trying to develop is small powerful weapons they can put into their almost ready long range missile.

There are several simultaneous matters in play so simply eradicating Israel is only a showpiece not a true end all and be all for now. Not until other aims have been achieved by the neo-regime.

Destruction of Israel priority will change if Iran is attacked militarily.

[FARS]

Wrong on all counts

[Dark Wing]

You are going to want to read this.

[edvards]

You Idiot, then just wait till our fast, strong bombs and mesiles get the cursed nation of barbarians grazing in israel burnt like pigs and then you`ll feel the power of the land of great Persians. So long till then.

[dforest]

WTF? was that?

[FARS]

An anti-Israel, Mullah troll attack. Poster joined today and did not like info posted by FARS (#8)

[dforest]

H-e-l-l-o Yep, SOB was a Muslim traitor or a democrat, hard to tell the freakin’ difference. I am shocked that many FReepers missed this one!

[dforest]

FReepers need to know what that piece of trash said. His post should have not been removed.

This is what we are up against!

[dforest]

Post # 11 needs to be put back so FReepers can know what is happening and what they are up against.

Post #11 was an eye opener

[Eye of Unk]

Iran won’t do any testing like everyone else does.

The Iranian Nuclear Test site will be Israel.

[Admin Moderator]

The troll was nuked, so all his posts were automatically removed. Your suggestion of restoring the post is a good one, though. Post restored.

[dforest]

Thanks. I was appalled and also shocked into reality. This should make people aware and ready to defend. They are amongst us.

Thanks mod.

[Admin Moderator]

Welcome.