Posted on 04/01/2005 5:24:53 AM PST by Interesting Times
Iran has been pursuing a determined clandestine path to obtain nuclear weapons. The National Council of Resistance of Iran just announced that Iran allocated $2.5 billion last year to obtain three nuclear warheads.
The NCRI, functions as the political arm of the People's Mujahedeen, itself a questionable group designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization. Still, the NCRI has had a history over the past few years of disclosing important elements of Iran's clandestine nuclear program.
Then, too, we have reports that A.Q. Kahn, the discredited father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, sold the mullahs the key final secrets to produce the weapons-ready metallized form of highly enriched uranium needed in a simple gun-type device, as well as the details for the mirrors and internal mechanisms needed to create the weapon's initial detonation.
Last week, the Islamic Republic of Iran announced the results of a successful test of a new, advanced missile, the Shahab-3, which flew 1,700 kilometers, fast and accurately.
The mullahs are buying time, negotiating with the Europeans. Is history repeating itself? The Japanese ambassadors in Washington, D.C., were negotiating with Secretary of State Cordell Hull on Dec. 6, 1941, even as the Japanese fleet was reading to launch planes against Pearl Harbor.
Now we hear the Europeans are considering conceding to the Iranian argument that under the terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty the mullahs have the right to enrich uranium, as long as they don't make bombs.
Recent history provides the relevant example here. In 1994, President Clinton and Secretary of State Madeline Albright entered into an "Agreed Framework" deal with North Korea under which the Clinton administration agreed to provide enough nuclear fuel to North Korea to build two power plants, with the stipulation that North Korea would halt its plutonium weapons program. Clinton even threw in a large quantity of economic aid as an incentive to keep North Korea on the straight and narrow.
What happened? Kim Jong Il built nuclear weapons and defied the world to do anything about it.
Now it's the mullahs chance to play the world for fools. President Bush has decided to allow the Europeans time to see if they can bring the mullahs into a negotiated settlement. Iran remains defiant, refusing to destroy the centrifuge farms they have built to enrich uranium to weapons grade, or the heavy-water plant they have constructed to produce weapons-grade plutonium. Sure, the Europeans have agreed to bring the case to the U.N. Security Council if they cannot produce an agreement. But how long will that take?
The administration – before President Bush and Secretary of State Rice went to Europe – had been prepared to take strong action against the mullahs right now, in March 2005. The decision to work with the Europeans, and void another pre-emptive war, has pushed back the timetable for decisive action.
But if the process stalls much beyond June 17, the mullahs may have won the gambit. If the mullahs can pull off the scheduled presidential election on June 17 without civil disobedience in the streets, the only other shoe that would have to drop is for them to announce that they do have the bomb. Then what is the world to do?
We cannot afford to discover that the mullahs have the bomb by waking up one morning to see a mushroom cloud over New York City or Tel Aviv. An atomic 9-11 is not the type of nightmare awakening the world can bear to experience. Finding out there were terrorists in our midst by seeing the second plane fly into the World Trade Center towers was bad enough.
The time when Iran will have a bomb is imminent ... no matter how many times they swear their intentions are entirely peaceful.
Nuclear terrorism ping.
bttttt
Unfortunately they're going to have to use one before the world pulls their collective heads out of their collective butts.
Perhaps.
On the other hand, the citizens of that part of the world seem to have a striking new interest in freedom... maybe we can give them a hand.
Good point and yes they are interesting times.
BTT!!!!!!
Yes. And the governments of Germany, France, and Russia were negotiating with Saddam Hussein and the corrupt "leaders" of the United Nations as Saddam was providing safe haven and resources for anti-American terrorist organizations, including Al-Qaida--facts that the morons of the Left do not comprehend and that the sociopaths who lead them are careful to obfuscate.
BTTT!
My prediction: If Iran were to use a nuke, Europe and US academics would explicitly say "It's Bush's fault. Had the US not taken such a belligerent stance on the ME, Iran would never have developed such weapons. If only we had negotiated and appeased them ... Our only hope now is to ignore the smoking crater that was Jerusalem and pull our troops out of the ME entirely."
Ticking indeed...the horror of a nuclear detonation is something that only the Japanese have any experience with. The middle eastern people by and large are ignorant of this unthinkable catastrophe. One exchange between Iran and Israel will destroy both countries for hundreds of years and kill millions. For what? The nuclear option is to commit suicide taking as many of the innocent with you as possible.
I expect Israel to attack Iran's nuke facilities any day now. They have an extremely fine intelligence service embarassingly better than our own agencies. Most likely because they know how and when to use torture to get the answers they need with no publicity backlashes. They will never allow thm to achieve thier goals of aquiring nukes plain and simple. The Israelis entire existence demands it.
Nope. As posted on another thread (I'll try to find it later) Israel is a one bomb state. Take out Tel Aviv and the country is virtually destroyed. Ergo, Israel cannot allow that to happen. They do not have a missle shield. The only solution is to make sure Iran does not perfect the bomb. They will strike before that happens. Their very survival depends on it.
Iran has purchased cruise missles from the Ukraine, and our guys at the CIA--Larry, Moe, Curley & Co.--don't even know where all of Iran's nuclear facilities are located.
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