Posted on 08/27/2005 9:35:17 PM PDT by DoctorZIn
Top News Story
'Iran had designed N-capable cruise missiles'
LONDON, August 27 (IranMania) - A prominent Iranian dissident on Friday claimed Tehran had mastered the design of nuclear capable cruise missiles secretly sold to the Islamic Republic by Ukraine and was on the verge of producing copies.Alireza Jafarzadeh said the 12 weapons were now in the hands of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, and also fired off new claims about the corps' past links with disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist AQ Khan, according to AFP.
His charges, made at a press conference in Washington, coincided with a spike in tensions in the showdown between Europe, the United States and Tehran over the Islamic Republic's alleged quest for nuclear weapons.
Jafarzadeh neither identified his sources, on the grounds that to do so could expose them to reprisals by the Iranian government, nor provided documentary evidence.
The allegations could also not be independently confirmed.
Two of the Ukranian Kh-55 missiles were used by Iranian scientists in reverse engineering process that had allowed them to copy the design, Jafarzadeh said.
Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani told the country's Supreme National Security Council that "Iran has been successful in acquiring the technology for Kh-55 cruise missiles and Tehran is in the last stages of producing the missile," Jafarzadeh said.
Jafarzadeh did not provide dates for the meeting, but said the copied missile's 3,000 kilometres (1,800 miles) range would threaten European countries.
Ukranian President Viktor Yushchenko has admitted that missiles were shipped by the previous government in Kiev illegally to China and Iran.
Jafarzadeh also issued a new claim over alleged Pakistani complicity in Iran's nuclear program, identifying a senior member of the Revolutionary Guard whom he said met Khan as far back as 1986 and 1987.
Meetings between Khan and a Brigadier General identified as Mohammad Eslami, chief of the guard's research centre, disproved claims by Iran that Khan's reported links to its nuclear program were in a purely civilian context, he said.
"I ask the International Atomic Energy Agency to interview him (Eslami) as soon as possible," said Jafarzadeh.
Iran has defied the international community by resuming work on making reactor fuel that could also be used to make nuclear weapons but insists that it wants to continue talks on guaranteeing its atomic program is peaceful.
Jafarzadeh is president of Strategic Policy Consulting Inc. a US research firm, an analyst for the Fox News network. He was born in Iran before moving to the United States before the revolutioin in 1979.
He was formerly a spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the political wing of the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), which is designated as a terrorist organisation by the US government and Europe.
The NCRI vehemently contests the label, which it says was imposed by governments seeking to curry favor with Tehran.
Jafarzadeh he says previous revelations like the regarded alleged uranium enriching plants at Natanz and a heavy water facility at Arak prove his information and intentions are legitimate.
- Iran Focus reported that two former United States hostages held captive in Iran for 444 days in Tehran in 1979 told a Persian-language satellite channel that they have no doubts that Irans new hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was one of the supervisors of their interrogators. Another former hostage, Kevin Hermening, recounted how Ahmadinejad tried to force him to open the embassys safe after the takeover.
- Eli Lake, The NY Sun reported that Iraqi Security may be compromised and Iran is of particular concern.
- Reuters reported that within a month Iran hopes to present a new plan to resolve its nuclear stand-off with the West to European Union powers.
- Iran Focus reported the cryptic maneuvering of reformist leaders attending en masse the wedding of the grandson of the elderly ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri.
- Expatica reported that Iran's newly-appointed chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said an agreement was possible with the European Union over the country's controversial nuclear program.
- The Billings Gazette reported that Tehran's top nuclear envoy said Iran will not negotiate away its right to enrich uranium and shrugged off threats of possible U.N. action.
- Andrew Ellson, Times UK reported that this week the price of a barrel of oil surged towards $70 a barrel, near the inflation-adjusted price last seen in 1980, shortly after the Iranian revolution. One country is causing particular concern: Iran.
- Gregory Scoblete, Tech Central Station argues that neither carrots nor sticks are going to end Iran's quest for nuclear weapons.
- And finally, Sean Penn, The San Francisco Chronicle, the final installment. The trip home.
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Sure looks as if someone is trying to sucker us in here....
... or the Dims are trying to set up something to cry about if ( when ) we do go in ...
Hate to tell them that such wepaons would be militarily useless. Our forces are too widely dispersed for them to have decisive effect. They would kill a lot of Shiites, of course. The return fire--probably from subs-- would turn Iran into a wasteland.
Not only are there large numbers of ardent Muslim Iranians brainwashed after the last 25 repressive years of state mandated Islamic indoctrination, but this nuclear capable, radical régime linked with communist North Korea is the greatest threat to global stability today and must be stopped.
Aboslutely frightening.
If we don't do something soon, those will be nuclear tipped cruise missiles.
Whoever in Ukraine sold these missiles to Iran should be put up against a wall and shot.
They could take out an aircraft carrier battle group or two, if tipped with nuke warheads.
Exactly. That is the greatest danger from nuclear cruise missiles. This is why the Russians were so adamant about their supersonic cruise missile program (and nuclear torpedoes).
A single aircraft carrier can achieve air superiority over almost any country in the world. It is a high value target to say the least. If we lost our carriers, our military strategies would change dramatically.
Their Navy is also equipped with Chinese Hou-Dong fast attack vessels which can be a serious threat to Carriers.
If they could hit them. In any case, the return fire would be disconcerting. There are good reasons why these fire crackers have not been used since 1945.
Yup. From conventional to nukes. In one phone call.
No cheers, unfortunately.
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Jafarzadeh did not provide dates for the meeting, but said the copied missile's 3,000 kilometres (1,800 miles) range would threaten European countries.
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