Posted on 01/02/2007 6:22:10 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
January 2, 2007
West Tries a New Tack to Block Iran’s Nuclear Agenda
By HELENE COOPER and STEVEN R. WEISMAN
WASHINGTON, Jan. 1 — The United States and its allies in Europe, in a tacit acknowledgment that sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council in late December are too weak to force Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions, have embarked on a new strategy to increase the financial and psychological pressure.
The plan is to use the language of the resolution to help persuade foreign governments and financial institutions to cut ties with Iranian businesses, individuals in its nuclear and missile programs and, by extension, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Stuart Levey, under secretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.
The Guard and its military wing are identified as a power base for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Under his administration, American officials said, the Guard has moved increasingly into commercial operations, earning profits and extending its influence in Iran in areas involving big government contracts — including building airports and other infrastructure, oil production and the providing of cellphones.
Bush administration officials, who asked not to be identified because they were discussing diplomatic plans, said envoys would soon head abroad to press officials of foreign governments and banks to interpret the Security Council resolution equally aggressively.
The new strategy builds on the Treasury Department’s efforts over the past few months to get Western banks to scale back business with Iran or risk running afoul of American laws. In 2006, the European banks Credit Suisse First Boston and UBS said they would not do any new business with Iran.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Ping!
Freedom loving Iranian students?
Yes, freedom to blow herself up.
Israel could perform a very effective attack to neutralize the entire Iranian nuclear infrastructure.
This could be done by smuggling in quart sized silent vaporizers of highly toxic chemicals. Otherwise odorless, colorless and tasteless, there are several industrial chemical that only a few parts per million in air can, for example, destroy a human liver.
Such a chemical would completely flood even and enormous underground facility in a matter of days, and about two weeks later everyone who works there, and visitors, would all become sick. Death rate would approach 100%
It would also leave such facilities so horribly contaminated that they would have to be abandoned.
Set with timers, dozens of such units could not only negate their nuclear program, but kill the vast majority of their nuclear scientists.
Photos from Getty Images are not allowed to be posted on Free Republic.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1111944/posts
Photos from Getty Images are not allowed to be posted on Free Republic.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1111944/posts
Uh oh, my bad. Sorry! Will post a link instead.
Kids, here's a NYT photo I've photoshopped for you:
http://web.mac.com/citywifi/iWeb/over%20the%20top%20humor/ticket%20to%20tampa_files/tickettotampa.jpg
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