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A Tantalizing Look at Iran’s Nuclear Program
NY Times ^ | April 29, 2008 | WILLIAM J. BROAD

Posted on 04/29/2008 11:07:20 PM PDT by neverdem

Barbed wire and antiaircraft guns ring a maze of buildings in the Iranian desert that lie at the heart of the West’s five-year standoff with Tehran over its program to enrich uranium.

It is a place of secrets that Iran loves to boast about, clouding the effort’s real status and making Western analysts all the more eager for solid details and clues. Tehran insists that its plans are peaceful. But Washington and its allies see a looming threat.

The sprawling site, known as Natanz, made headlines recently because Iran is testing a new generation of centrifuges there that spin faster and, in theory, can more rapidly turn natural uranium into fuel for reactors or nuclear arms. The new machines are also meant to be more reliable than their forerunners, which often failed catastrophically.

On April 8, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited the desert site, and Iran released 48 photographs of the tour, providing the first significant look inside the atomic riddle.

“They’re remarkable,” Jeffrey G. Lewis, an arms control specialist at the New America Foundation, a nonprofit research group in Washington, said of the photographs. “We’re learning things.”

Most important, the pictures give the first public glimpse of the new centrifuge, known as the IR-2, for Iranian second generation. There were no captions with the photographs, so nuclear analysts around the globe are scrutinizing the visual evidence to size up the new machine, its probable efficiency and its readiness for the tough job of uranium enrichment. They see the photos as an intelligence boon.

“This is intel to die for,” Andreas Persbo, an analyst in London at the Verification Research, Training and Information Center, a private group that promotes arms control, said in a comment on the blog site Arms Control Wonk...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Technical; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: ir2; iran; iraniannukes

Parts for a New Centrifuge webpage with graphic & ads

A Public Tour of a Secret Iranian Nuclear Site slide show

1 posted on 04/29/2008 11:07:20 PM PDT by neverdem
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To: neverdem

Iranians are clever, well-educated and intelligent mungrels, and we in the West underestimate them at our peril. They are at least as clever as we are.

I’d prefer this “Tantalizing Glimpse” to be done thru radioactive glowing glass.

We will deeply regret allowing Iran to develop nuclear capability.


2 posted on 04/29/2008 11:18:48 PM PDT by DieHard the Hunter (Is mise an ceann-cinnidh. Cha ghéill mi do dhuine. Fàg am bealach.)
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To: neverdem
This is intel to die for,”

Literally.

3 posted on 04/29/2008 11:21:50 PM PDT by Nachum
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To: neverdem

He who hesitates is lost.


4 posted on 04/29/2008 11:22:01 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY ((((Obama's issues would be better resolved in a psychotherapists office, than in the Oval Office))))
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To: wardaddy; Joe Brower; Cannoneer No. 4; Criminal Number 18F; Dan from Michigan; Eaker; Jeff Head; ...
“Christian Street” Erupts Over Verhoeven Jesus Book Excellent satire!

Why Does Ahmadinejad Want Russian Troops in Iran?

U.S. Department of Interior Proposes New Rule Regarding Right-to-Carry in National Parks

OUR RIGHT-TO-CARRY IS UNDER ATTACK!

From time to time, I’ll ping on noteworthy articles about politics, foreign and military affairs. FReepmail me if you want on or off my list.

5 posted on 04/29/2008 11:35:26 PM PDT by neverdem (I'm praying for a Divine Intervention.)
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To: neverdem

The challenge is large. Israel took out Sadaams reactor easily...it was a single above ground target. Many articles in the last couple of years have detailed counts of more than 391 dispersed sites, and unknown of underground sites. Military has said publicly that much could be taken out, but that the total number of important potential sites is unknown.

It has been reported that advanced North Korean tunneling technique has been extensively used for years in Iran. After only potentially crippling their programs of nuclear technology, a govt. change is still necessary if we are to gain reasonable benefit from nuclear risk. An attack against their military is necessary at some time before withdrawal without military disaster can be contemplated. Turning away from facing these realities with Iran at war with US is not possible.

Iranian missiles have been tested to detonate at 62 thousand feet, the altitude for a nuclear electromagnetic weapon to wipe out all electronics for hundreds of miles..missiles have been tested capable of being launched by small cargo ships...we ourselves proved a captured scud could be launched in such a manner. Irans missle technology threatens Europe also.

I have read where we have developed deep penetrative weapons with delivery commencing soon...maybe this is what we are waiting for.

Since we cannot withdraw from the ME without a fight, unless we surrender first...is this what Dims talk with middle easterners about?..we should and must take on Iran when we deem ourselves able as they have been at Islamist war with us since the Carter seventies.


6 posted on 04/29/2008 11:37:28 PM PDT by givemELL
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To: givemELL

Iran has Azeris, Kurds, Arabs and Baluchis besides Persians. IIRC, the Persians are only 51% of the population, and they like us. Iran just needs regime change, preferably from within as the mullahs are reported to be as corrupt as sin.


7 posted on 04/29/2008 11:51:50 PM PDT by neverdem (I'm praying for a Divine Intervention.)
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To: givemELL
"Since we cannot withdraw from the ME without a fight, unless we surrender first...is this what Dims talk with middle easterners about?..we should and must take on Iran when we deem ourselves able as they have been at Islamist war with us since the Carter seventies."

50% of the Democrats are hard at work getting a man named Obama Hussein elected president.

8 posted on 04/29/2008 11:55:13 PM PDT by NoLibZone (Is the purpose of the 2nd amendment to brag at gun shows and chat rooms?)
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To: neverdem

Regime change is clearly best if we can help engineer it. Appreciate your numbers on the makeup of the country. US does not want to wipe out the various peoples clearly, but it has announced specific targeting of the regime and the Iranian Army and Navy in regard to that already. The Iranians who recall the Shahs pro west regime are on our side for the good things the west brought them...knocking off the Iranian army, govt, missle capabilities may be necessary for the desired regime change, leaving most of the country and nearly all the populace intact.


9 posted on 04/30/2008 12:06:52 AM PDT by givemELL
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To: NoLibZone

“50% of the Democrats are hard at work getting a man named Obama Hussein elected president.”

Islamo facists want us wiped from the earth and the ass clown Obama has this planned....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl32Y7wDVDs

the lessons of 9-11 are all too soon forgotten by some, comfortable in their safety earned by the blood of heroes, Or perhaps, some even welcome another 9-11, and as we know, some seeminlgy cheered it on.... “chickens have come home to roost”


10 posted on 04/30/2008 12:07:38 AM PDT by Names Ash Housewares
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To: neverdem
"Iran has Azeris, Kurds, Arabs and Baluchis besides Persians. IIRC, the Persians are only 51% of the population, and they like us."

...except for the Persians referred to as Arab-lovers ("parasts").

"Iran just needs regime change, preferably from within as the mullahs are reported to be as corrupt as sin."

The clerics administer everything of importance, including information, down to the very local levels. I also wish that no war happens, but it's likely that visiting students and instructors have given us a rather rosy picture of the scenario. Some of them have been arrested and imprisoned in Iran over the past couple of years (and some probably executed).


11 posted on 04/30/2008 1:37:38 AM PDT by familyop (cbt. engr. (cbt), NG, '89-'96)
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To: givemELL; neverdem
"Regime change is clearly best if we can help engineer it. Appreciate your numbers on the makeup of the country. US does not want to wipe out the various peoples clearly, but it has announced specific targeting of the regime and the Iranian Army and Navy in regard to that already."

Well said.

"The Iranians who recall the Shahs pro west regime are on our side for the good things the west brought them...knocking off the Iranian army, govt, missle capabilities may be necessary for the desired regime change, leaving most of the country and nearly all the populace intact."

Yes. I've met some of the men who were once soldiers under the Shah. The youngest of them is in his 50s. For the most part, the only men who can run fast, jump high, and would fight against the Iranian soldiers, are the MEK (designated as terrorists by our leaders and hated by other Iranians).


12 posted on 04/30/2008 1:46:29 AM PDT by familyop (cbt. engr. (cbt), NG, '89-'96)
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To: neverdem

The photo and size comparison are misleading. Ahmadinejad is supposedly standing next to a P-1 design in the photo. He’s so short, it’s tough to tell when the size comparison is scaled to an average sized person.


13 posted on 04/30/2008 4:54:40 AM PDT by edpc (Republican Attack Machine Field Service Technician)
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To: Nachum

Don’t you just love the last sentence in this article from the Slimes:

“Ultimately, Tehran could use them for good or ill, for lighting cities or destroying them. Only time, they say, is likely to reveal Iran’s true intentions.”

TIME is apparently the only thing the liberals are willing to consider when it comes to Iran. Let’s just let TIME tell us what Iran’s intentions are with this technology!!

Go figure....

They gave Saddam so much time, he was able to defy the international community for 13 years and in the end, was able to send his WMDs into hiding in Syria.

TIME has really helped North Korea as well. They have had so much TIME..they managed to build a bomb during the Clintoon administration and test it during this administration.

YEP....TIME IS THE ANSWER FOLKS.... NOW JUST SIT BACK AND WAIT!!


14 posted on 04/30/2008 6:31:31 AM PDT by penelopesire ("The only CHANGE you will get with the Democrats is the CHANGE left in your pocket")
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To: Nachum; neverdem; patton; theDentist; NeoCaveman
“This is intel to die for,” Andreas Persbo, an analyst in London at the Verification Research, Training and Information Center, a private group that promotes arms control, said in a comment on the blog site Arms Control Wonk...

You noticed that phrase too, eh?

Note that this “arms control group” would be (if liberal) violently opposed to the US blowing up an Iranian nuclear weapons production plant, but praises the Iraqi/Iranians for blowing up /Isreali civilians/US soldiers/Iraqi civilians with women and children bombs on the belt.

But,, no we cannot fight back, by fighting first.

15 posted on 04/30/2008 7:23:22 AM PDT by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but Hillary's ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: neverdem

Thanks for the ping!


16 posted on 04/30/2008 7:23:38 AM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: neverdem
Image hosted by Photobucket.com

17 posted on 04/30/2008 3:13:06 PM PDT by Chode (American Hedonist ©®)
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