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Khan Network Had Advanced Nuclear Warhead Design
The Washington Post is reporting that the now defunct A.Q. Khan nuclear smuggling ring was in possession of a far more advanced nuclear warhead design than has been previously reported. The blueprints were discovered on seized computers and showed how to build a compact nuclear warhead that would easily fit atop ballistic missiles. Specifically, the kind of missiles that both North Korea and Iran possess.
The real stink of it is that U.S. intelligence and the U.N. simply have no idea who the blueprints may have been shared with before they were discovered.
US shows evidence of alleged Syria-N. Korea nuke collaboration
Via the AP:
The Syrian nuclear reactor allegedly built with North Korean design help and destroyed last year by Israeli jets was within weeks or months of being functional, a top U.S. official said Thursday.
The facility was mostly completed but still needed significant testing before it could be declared operational, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
However, no uranium—needed to fuel a reactor—was evident at the site, a remote area of eastern Syria along the Euphrates River.
The Syrian reactor was similar in design to a North Korean reactor at Yongbyon that has in the past produced small amounts of plutonium, U.S. officials said. Plutonium is highly radioactive and can be used to make powerful nuclear weapons or radiological bombs.
Top members of the House intelligence committee said Thursday after being briefed on the facility by intelligence and administration officials that the reactor posed a serious threat of spreading dangerous nuclear materials.
“This is a serious proliferation issue, both for the Middle East and the countries that may be involved in Asia,” said Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich.
Iran Begins Installing 6,000 New Centrifuges
Iran has begun installation of 6,000 new centrifuges which will be added to the 3,000 centrifuges already producing enriched uranium for their nuclear weapons program (that they don’t have).
The workhorse of Iran’s enrichment program is the P-1 centrifuge, which is run in cascades of 164 machines. But Iranian officials confirmed in February that they had started using the IR-2 centrifuge that can churn out enriched uranium at more than double the rate.
A total of 3,000 centrifuges is the commonly accepted figure for a nuclear enrichment program that is past the experimental stage and can be used as a platform for a full industrial-scale program that could churn out enough enriched material for dozens of nuclear weapons.
What this means is that America’s brilliant intelligence services who recently got a thrill by knee-capping President Bush with their ridiculous intelligence estimate claiming that Iran suspended it’s weapons program several years ago.
As a result of the CIA’s continued incompetence and dishonest ambushing of the executive branch, Iran will indeed become a nuclear power unless Israel steps in to stop them.
-Chris Jones
Israel: “Americans Are Treating Iranian Threat Like They Did Auschwitz”
Israeli Cabinet Member Yitzhak Cohen allegedly said this during a cabinet meeting:
“The manner in which the Americans relate to the intelligence report on Iran is similar to the way in which they viewed those reports they received during the Holocaust on railways transporting hundreds of thousands of Jews to their death at Auschwitz,” Minister Yitzhak Cohen of Shas said during a security cabinet meeting Sunday morning on the Iranian nuclear issue.
“It can not be that (US President George W.) Bush is committed to peace as was declared at Annapolis, and then the Americans propagate such an intelligence report which contradicts the information we have proving Iran intends to obtain nuclear weapons,” Cohen said. “How can we rely on the Americans if they publish this report that emasculates what the world explicitly knows regarding Iran, and renders impotent the entire struggle against the Iranians?”
Minister Cohen asserted that the report must have been “ordered by someone who wants dialogue with Tehran” and formulated an historical analogy to express just how serious the situation is: “In the middle of the previous century the Americans received intelligence reports from Auschwitz on the packed trains going to the extermination camps. They claimed then that the railways were industrial. Their attitude today to the information coming out of Iran on the Iranians’ intention to produce a nuclear bomb reminds one of their attitude during the holocaust.”
Cabinet Member Cohen had this to say to his fellow ministers not present in the meeting: “Whoever thinks that the president of Iran is a lover of Zion, with Kosher certification from the Americans, misleads and is mislead. He is not a lover of Zion, but instead an aspiring strangler of Zion. Someone in America fell asleep on his watch, but we must remain awake and aware.”
I think the Israeli’s just might be on to something. That intelligence estimate seems more like a political ploy by those in the intelligence community to prevent President Bush from striking Iran. It’s no secret that many people at CIA purposely leak classified material to the NY Times in an effort to damage President Bush.
The very first plans developed by the Pentagon to destroy Iran’s nuclear sites from the air were leaked, and many believe it was to prevent Bush from using the plans.
They have since drafted new plans, but have been careful to share them with only a very small number of people.
-Chris Jones
U.S. Intel Report: Iran Halted Weapons Program In 2003
A new U.S. intelligence report concludes that Iran’s nuclear weapons development program has been halted since the fall of 2003 because of international pressure.
The finding is part of a National Intelligence Estimate on Iran that also cautions that Tehran continues to enrich uranium and still could develop a bomb between 2010 and 2015 if it decided to do so.
The conclusion that Iran’s weapons program was still frozen, through at least mid-2007, represents a sharp turnaround from the previous intelligence assessment in 2005. Then, U.S. intelligence agencies believed Tehran was determined to develop a nuclear weapons capability and was continuing its weapons development program. The new report concludes that Iran’s decisions are rational and pragmatic, and that Tehran is more susceptible to diplomatic and financial pressure than previously thought.
Some of the changes in the new report reflect the use of “open source” intelligence—public information from sources such as the news media and international organizations. An official said, for example, that photos taken at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility during U.N. inspections in 2002 were particularly useful in assessing the capabilities of the civilian uranium enrichment program.
The report did say that it’s crucial for the U.S. and it’s allies to keep up the pressure on the Iranian regime through tough sanctions and other diplomatic measures. An interesting piece of the report said the U.S. invasion of Iraq may have been partly to blame for the suspension of the weapons program.
The intelligence officials said they do not know all the reasons why Iran halted its weapons program, or what might trigger its resumption. They said they are confident that diplomatic and political pressure played a key role, but said the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Libya’s termination of its nuclear program and the implosion of the illegal nuclear smuggling network run by Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan might also have influenced Tehran.
If the Iraq war did serve to scare the hell out of the various bad actors in that part of the world, then that ultimately is a very good thing.
-Chris Jones
Time To Act On Iran
The International Atomic Energy Agency issued its report on the status of Iran’s nuclear program, and it’s extremely troubling. What the report revealed is that Iran is much farther along in it’s weapons development than most intelligence agencies.
According to the report Iran has already installed 3,000 centrifuges for enriching uranium. That is enough to begin production of highly enriched uranium on an industrial scale. This would allow Iran to produce enough highly enriched uranium to have a nuclear warhead within a year.
The installation of 3,000 fully-functioning centrifuges at Iran’s enrichment plant at Natanz is a “red line” drawn by the US across which Washington had said it would not let Iran pass. Israel has also expressed similar sentiments and is thought to already be ready to strike Iran’s nuclear sites.
It is my belief that Israel will take military action if the U.S. does not. If Mexico was developing nuclear weapons while at the same time threating to wipe us of the map, you can be sure that the United States would take action.
While I do believe we must continue diplomatic talks, I don’t believe they will ultimately be successful. If diplomacy does fail I think one of two things will happen.
The first possibility is that Israel will launch air strikes against Iran and the U.S. will back them up with sea based cruise missiles and stealth aircraft.
The second possibility is that the U.S. will take military action against Iran and Israel will stand down. The purpose of the attack will be to not just delay the Iranian’s nuclear program, but to effectively end it. We would achieve this not with an Iraq-style invasion, but with a combination of air and sea assets.
Whatever happens, I suspect it will be happen within the next 4-6 months or at least before the Bush Administration leaves office. In light of the campaign rhetoric on the Democratic side, it’s not likely that a Democratic President would ever take military action in Iran or anywhere else.
-Chris Jones
Ahmadinejad: Key Nuke Target of 3,000 Centrifuges Reached
Iran has achieved a landmark, with 3,000 centrifuges fully working in its controversial uranium enrichment program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced Wednesday.
Ahmadinejad has in the past claimed that Iran succeeded in installing the 3,000 centrifuges at its uranium enrichment facility at Natanz. But Wednesday’s claim was his first official statement that the plant is now fully operating all those centrifuges.
Experts say 3,000 centrifuges are in theory enough to produce a nuclear weapon, perhaps as soon as within a year.
Iran says it plans to expand its enrichment program to up to 54,000 centrifuges at Natanz in central Iran – which would amount to the level of industrial-scale uranium enrichment.
-Samantha Giles
U.S. Experts Begin To Disable North Korean Nuclear Program
U.S. experts on Monday launched an unprecedented process to disable North Korea’s nuclear arsenal at the key Yongbyon atomic complex under a multilateral agreement.
A State Department spokesman acknowledged that the process has in fact started, but did not give details on what had been undertaken so far in the disablement of the plutonium-producing reactor at Yongbyon.
Disablement aims to make the reactor and other plants unusable for at least a year while talks on total denuclearization continue.
North Korea agreed to end its nuclear weapons drive in return for aid, security and diplomatic guarantees under the agreement among the United States, the two Koreas, China, Russia amd Japan.
U.S. team to begin disabling North Korean nuclear plant
U.S. technicians are likely to begin dismantling by the end of this week North Korea’s nuclear complex, which makes weapons-grade plutonium.
Christopher Hill, the top U.S. envoy to six-way talks to end Pyongyang’s nuclear arms program, said the U.S. team had “a specific list of measures” and would arrive at the nuclear complex to begin the dismantling process on Friday or Saturday.
Following lengthy six-party talks in Beijing involving North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China, Pyongyang agreed that by the end of 2007 it would have disabled its main nuclear facilities.
Satellite Imagery shows cleansing of suspect Syrian site
New satellite photos show that a Syrian site believed to have been attacked by Israel last month no longer bears any obvious traces of what some analysts said appeared to have been a partly built nuclear reactor.
Two photos, taken Wednesday from space by rival companies, show the site near the Euphrates River to have been wiped clean since August, when imagery showed a tall square building there measuring about 150 feet on a side.
Putin Makes Idle Threats Again
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday chastised the United States over its policy in Iraq and Iran, and announced “grandiose” military plans, including development of a new nuclear weapon.
In a nationally broadcast link-up with ordinary Russians across the country, Putin called the US intervention in Iraq a “dead end” and called on Washington to set a deadline for the withdrawal of troops.
Putin suggested that Iraq had been invaded because of its oil wealth and assured one caller that energy-rich Russia could not suffer the same fate. To think so, he said, was “political erotica.”
I don’t know anything about “political erotica” that must be something they only have in Russia. What I do know is that Putin is a lot of talk and little else.
In a video link-up with servicemen at the Plesetsk nuclear missile base, Putin said that Russia would build another nuclear submarine next year and was also planning a “completely new” atomic weapon.
The Soviet Union could use threatening rhetoric, because they had a powerful military. Besides, its nuclear stockpile Russia’s military is in complete tatters. The average soldier in Russia earns less than $2.00 a day and over half are serious alcoholics.
Putin likes to talk about America being bogged down in Iraq, but he should try not to throw stones when he lives in a glass house. Putin has over 100,000 troops occupying Chechnya and fighting a gruesome gorilla war with Muslim militants.
Russia’s army lives in horrible conditions and when a soldier is killed in Chechnya, the Russian Government can’t even afford to ship the corpse back. The other soldiers take up a collection if they can to pay for the shipment, otherwise it’s up to the family.
Every single branch of the Russian military is an absolute mess, so Putin just makes himself look like a jackass when he talks tough.
By Chris Jones
Bush warns of World War III if Iran gets nukes
President Bush said Wednesday that he had warned world leaders they must prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons “if you’re interested in avoiding World War III.”
“We’ve got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel,” Bush said at a White House press conference after Russia cautioned against military action against Tehran’s supect atomic program.
