Iranian Alert - February 17, 2005 - Iran is 6 months away from bulding an atomic bomb

Regime Change Iran ^ | 2.17.2005 | DoctorZin

[DoctorZIn]

A Daily Briefing of Major News Stories on Iran:

Iran is six months from being able to build the bomb? The Israeli’s think so.

What's up with the unmanned aircraft attack rumors?

• Iranian military denies there was an attack on Dialam.
• Adventures of Chester provides some clues to what may be going on here.
  

Here are a few of items you may have missed.

• Iran and Syria announced they are building a “common front” to deal with the US. This is actually a PR stunt as this is nothing new. They simply reaffirmed previous agreements. The NY Sun wrote an excellent piece on this as well.
• Amir Taheri makes the case that Syria was responsible for the murder of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister.
• The Germans and the Iranians met again and said nothing new… big surprise.
• Iran has begun mining uranium ore for a new facility.
• Porter Goss weighed in yesterday on the present threat posed by Iran and Al Qaeda. My friends tell me to expect a major story on the Iran/Al Qaeda connection soon.
• What’s up with Halliburton? New deals with Iran?
• Congress appears to be getting serious regarding its Iran legislation. They are moving in the right direction. We need to write them and encourage this.
• Maureen Dowd, of the NY Times doesn’t get that Iran is a totalitarian state and this is driving Iranian expatriates crazy. Good piece.
• IAEA is still checkinginto how Iran obtain equipment for its nuclear program, but appears to be preparing to give them a clean bill of health on allegations that Iran has a nuclear weapons program.
• Mullahs punish an entire town for protests, no gas to warm their homes.
• Iranian readers, you may want to check out Bloggers Without Borders. They claim to have a program to help you get past the filters blocking your content.

[DoctorZIn]

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[DoctorZIn]

Join Us At Today's Iranian Alert Thread – The Most Underreported Story Of The Year!

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[Brian Allen]

<< Iran is six months from being able to build the bomb? >>

Fat hope.

Iran will NEVER be permitted to nuclear-arm itself.

I pray for its sake it comes to understand that.

[edcoil]

I don't understand these comments. Iran has purchased nucs from Russia so what exactly are they six months away from?

What "new" or "other" info will be gleened in the next 180 days that they don't now have?

Maybe I am missing something but is someone graduating from "nuc school" in August that will give them some information that is not already known by someone else?

[RockinRight]

Then let's take care of them first:

[DoctorZIn]

The Israeli is referring to Iran having the ability to manufacture their own nuclear weapons.

[DoctorZIn]

If Iran's purchased nuclear weapons from the Russians there is still the question of whether these weapons still work. Nuclear weapons must be maintained for them to work.

[nuconvert]

Iran and syria formed a common front....." This is actually a PR stunt as this is nothing new"

Exactly. And the stupid media swarmed all over it. Who do they think supports/controls hezbollah?
Didn't we post an article about a year ago about Iran and Syria signing a protection agreement?
Well this 'announcement' was thrown out there by the regime, and the MSM took the bait and ran with it. Just as they expected to happen.

[cvq3842]

Sad but true.

[struggle]

That's funny. I am only 5 months away from building an atomic bomb!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

We'll meet again,
don't know where, don't know when...

[edcoil]

I doubt someone would pay millions of dollars to get weapons that don't work. I also know it does not take 6 months to "maintain" a weapon or recharge the triggers.

I still do not know what they are 6 months away from since we know they currently stockpile weapons.

[sheik yerbouty]

This alliance has been in effect since the Iran-Iraq War.

[nuconvert]

Sshhhhhh - The media think it started yesterday. Don't tell anyone.

[F14 Pilot]

American wrestler Tolly Thompson, 26; from Cedarfalls-Iowa in final 130kg Free Style win against Dawood Rakhsh Khorshid, from Iran in the 19th International grand prix FS-GR wrestling tournament of Takhti cup in Alvand city in province of Qazvin 200km west of Tehran. Iranian people are happy and take a snap shot memorial with Thompson. He won the match. Friday Jan 21,2000

[blackie]

Freedom now!

[AdmSmith]

INTELLIGENCE MINISTRY REFORM MAY NOT BE PERMANENT.

Iran's Intelligence and Security Ministry earned a reputation for persecuting and killing dissidents in Iran and abroad and for economic corruption in the first 15 years of its existence (1984-99).

An apparent purge of the ministry in 1999, after some officials were linked with the serial killings of dissidents, apparently helped to rehabilitate its reputation. As the reformists' eight years in the executive branch wind down, some observers wonder if the reform of the ministry will be reversed.

President Hojatoleslam Mohammad Khatami met with senior Intelligence and Security Ministry officials on 1 February and expressed his pride and happiness with their performance, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported. He noted that the ministry contributes to the public's sense of security, and only spies and traitors need to fear it.

Former Iranian parliamentarian Ahmad Salamatian, who now lives in Paris, told Radio Farda that Khatami is contrasting the ministry's lawful behavior now with its excesses in the past, such the serial killings of dissidents and economic corruption. This also contrasts the current leadership of Hojatoleslam Ali Yunesi with that of Ali-Akbar Fallahian-Khuzestani (1989-97), Salamatian told Radio Farda. The big question, Salamatian said, is will the ministry resume its old ways when the Khatami presidency ends? Will the reforms that Khatami and Yunesi brought about in the ministry remain?

The big change in perceptions of the Intelligence and Security Ministry occurred in 1999, when alleged rogue elements in the ministry were arrested for murdering dissidents and intellectuals. The minister at the time, Hojatoleslam Qorban Ali Dori-Najafabadi, resigned, and many other officials were purged from the organization. The former ministry officials allegedly went on to create parallel intelligence and security bodies that are affiliated with other state institutions, such as the judiciary, or the police's Public Establishments Office (Edareh-yi Amaken Omumi). The Intelligence and Security Ministry, meanwhile, came to be seen as an institution that was apolitical and less corrupt than it had been in the past.

Fighting corruption is a good way to make enemies. Intelligence and Security Minister Yunesi said in December that the prevalence of competing institutions hindered the fight against corruption, "Sharq" reported on 11 December. "The majority of these struggles were carried out as a result of political or factional considerations or even by personal will. They were surrounded by a ballyhoo, and sometimes they got to the point of execution but then the struggle would be stopped abruptly." Yunesi described corruption as a threat to all institutions, including the Intelligence and Security Ministry. He said many of the businesses associated with the ministry had been closed down, although this met with a lot of resistance and resulted in a loss of revenues. Yunesi said the government has compensated for these shortfalls, adding that the ministry is now fighting land speculation, a prevalent form of corruption in which people trade land that actually belongs to the government but which is not accounted for properly.

More recently, Yunesi dismissed the justifications used to close the Imam Khomeini International Airport in spring 2004 (see "RFE/RL Iran Report," 19 April and 17 May 2004). Islamic Revolution Guards Corps personnel closed the airport on its first day of operation, on the grounds that a Turkish firm's role in operating the facility posed a security risk. The legislature interpellated Roads and Transport Minister Ahmad Khoram after the airport's closure for giving the contract to the Turks, and the legislature is considering scrapping the contract altogether. The airport still is not in use. Yunesi said on 23 January that there are no security concerns, IRNA reported, and he referred to the closure as "a mistake that will be made up for."

There was little Iranian hard-liners could do about these seemingly contrarian views and actions. But after the 2004 parliamentary elections conservative domination of the legislature resumed, and with it came efforts to regain control of the Intelligence and Security Ministry. In November 2004, Ardabil Province parliamentarian Hassan Nowi-Aqdam said the legislature is considering a bill to separate the Intelligence and Security Ministry from the executive branch, the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported. He said, "The [ministry] has lost its awe and power; the ministry is no longer in control of the security units in various state departments and other ministries; the intelligence material passed to the [ministry] by these units are unreliable; moreover, the security units are more loyal to the departments where they work, instead of being loyal to the [ministry]."

This proposal met with a great deal of resistance. Former Vice President for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Hojatoleslam Mohammad Ali Abtahi warned on 26 November that approval of the bill would eliminate supervision of the Intelligence and Security Ministry, ISNA reported. Retaining its status as a ministry under the executive branch means that it is supervised by the legislature, Abtahi said. He added, "While such decisions are being made parallel intelligence bodies are undermining the activities of the [Intelligence and Security Ministry]." Tabriz parliamentarian Akbar Alami said on 26 November that such a development would turn the Intelligence and Security Ministry into a frightening institution, ISNA reported. He explained that the ministry cannot turn against the people if it is supervised by the elected president and parliament.

After that initial furor, little came of the plan to make the ministry some sort of stand-alone institution. Yet some of the initially informal parallel entities have now become more institutionalized. "Aftab-i Yazd" reported on 19 December that the Department for Social Protection now has a formal charter. Its responsibilities are almost identical to those of the Organization for the Propagation of Virtue and Prohibition of Vice (Amr be Maruf va Nahi az Monker). Its personnel will gather intelligence, an Intelligence and Security Ministry responsibility, and also engage in activities that are normally the responsibility of the police and the Basij.

President Khatami told a boisterous student audience in a 6 December speech that the ministry is "the most trustworthy source of security in your system," state television reported. From a comparative perspective, this may be true. But there is no guarantee that this will continue to be the case if a hard-liner wins the June 2005 presidential election. And even if the ministry continues on its current path, the so-called parallel organizations might well continue on theirs. (Bill Samii)

source: RFE/RL Iran Report Vol. 8, No. 7, 14 February 2005

[Khashayar]

As you requested!

[peacebaby]

thanks. I must have been confused. i had found the thread.

[Khashayar]

Peacebaby
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