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North Korean Ship Reverses Course?
This from the AP:
U.S. defense official: North Korean ship under watch reverses course.
Developing…
U.S. Removes 550 Metric Tons Of Uranium From Iraq
The U.S. has removed the last remnants of Iraq’s nuclear program in the form of 550 metric tons of “yellowcake” uranium from the Tuwaitha nuclear complex outside Baghdad.
The Iraqi government sold the uranium to Canada for “tens of millions of dollars” and the U.S. delivered the material to Canada.
The Iraqi government sold the yellowcake to a Canadian uranium producer, Cameco Corp. (CCJ), in a transaction the official described as worth “tens of millions of dollars.” A Cameco spokesman, Lyle Krahn, declined to discuss the price, but said the yellowcake will be processed at facilities in Ontario for use in energy-producing reactors.
Even with the uranium gone, Iraq still has many radioactive “hot zones” leftover from Saddam’s regime. Nuclear waste and other materials were buried in concrete during Saddam’s reign and must be dug-out and removed. Both U.S. and Iraqi experts recently trained at the Chernobyl fallout zone in the Ukraine are participating in the clean up effort.
Ahmadinejad Calls U.S. Intel Report “Declaration Of Surrender”
Iran’s president said on Sunday the publication of a U.S. intelligence report saying Iran had halted a nuclear weapons program in 2003 amounted to a “declaration of surrender” by Washington.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also dismissed in an interview with state television the prospect of new U.N. sanctions against Iran over its refusal to halt sensitive atomic work.
“It is too far-fetched,” he said when asked whether he expected the U.N. Security Council to impose fresh sanctions on Iran following two such resolutions since last December.
UK spy chiefs believe Iran ‘deceived’ CIA over nuclear program
According to ynet news, the Brits believe that U.S. Intelligence Agencies have been fooled by the Iranians.
The UK-based Sunday Telegraph reported that British spy chiefs have serious doubts that Iran has shelved its nuclear weapons program, as a US intelligence report claimed last week, and believe the CIA has been deceived by Tehran.According to the report, “the timing of the CIA report has also provoked fury in the British Government, where officials believe it has undermined efforts to impose tough new sanctions on Iran and made an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities more likely.
“British intelligence is concerned that US spy chiefs were so determined to avoid giving President Bush a reason to go to war – as their reports on Saddam Hussein’s weapons programs did in Iraq – that they got it wrong this time.”
The newspaper quoted a senior UK official as saying that British spies shared the concerns of Israeli defense chiefs that Iran was still pursuing nuclear weapons.
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
New Book Says Saddam Admitted His WMD’s Were A Bluff
A new book tells among other things the story of the FBI agent who spent seven hours a day everyday for a year with Saddam Hussein after his capture. They drank coffee, smoked cigars, and talked about everything. FBI Special Agent George Piro says Saddam even cried on their last meeting before his execution.
Saddam admitted that he bluffed the U.S. about his weapons capabilities in hopes of scaring Iran. He didn’t think the Bush Administration would actually attack him. He also told the agent outright that his plan was to wait until the UN sanctions were eventually lifted, and then reconstitute his nuclear program.
Surprisingly, Saddam never used body doubles – as was widely believed – because no one could “play” him, Piro quoted Saddam as saying.
To find out more you’ll have to read “The Terrorist Watch: Inside the Desperate Race to Stop the Next Attack.”
-Chris Jones
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.
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