Infinite Unknown

On their History Rewrite Tour, Bush and Cheney insist the pre-war intelligence about Iraq’s WMD’s was bad and they were innocent dupes.

Of course we all know the truth from the Downing Street Memos and dozens of other sources, which is that “the intelligence and facts were fixed” around the policy of invasion. And here’s one more damning piece of evidence, courtesy of Roads to Iraq. (The Aljazeera link is in Arabic - someone needs to translate it.)

In an interview with Aljazeera today, former Chief of the UN weapons inspectors in Iraq told the TV that he and the Head of the IAEA “Mohamed Al-Baradei” were subjected to direct threats from Dick Cheney before the war.

Blix said that Cheney threatened to defame both men’s reputations if they didn’t came with the “required” answers.

It’s the same story from everyone else - Bush and Cheney demanded pro-war lies under one threat or another - being defamed, getting fired, and even outing covert CIA operatives. The Bush Administration was nothing more than a mafia operation.

But here’s the good part:

Blix also added that he is ready to be a witness on the United States’ false allegations before an International tribunal.

You go, Hans!

Submitted by Bob Fertik on December 21, 2008

Source: Democrats.com

Tags: Bush administration, CIA, Crimes, Dick Cheney, George Bush, Government, IAEA, Iraq, Politics, Treason, U.N., U.S., War, War Crimes, WMDs

The White House, announcing the meeting with Mr Olmert, gave little indication that Tehran’s nuclear ambitions would be at the top of the agenda

President Bush is to hold White House talks with the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday after publication of a nuclear watchdog’s report this week showing that Iran may have stockpiled enough enriched uranium to make a nuclear bomb.

The International Atomic Energy Agency believes that Iran has amassed 630kg of low enriched (=useless) uranium, up from 480kg in late August. Some experts believe this is enough to produce the weapons-grade material needed for a crude nuclear device similar in size to that which America used to destroy the city of Nagasaki at the end of the Second World War.

Sean McCormack, the US State Department spokesman, said: “It’s concerning. This is a matter that will be taken up next week at the IAEA Board of Governors meeting.” Asked if Tehran now had sufficient material to build a bomb, he suggested that there were different opinions. “Some said it was enough; others said it was not enough, but close,” said Mr McCormack. “In any case, you don’t want Iran to get close.”

In its report, the IAEA said that Iran was working hard roughly to double its number of operating centrifuges. European diplomats say that Iran might have 6,000 centrifuges enriching uranium by the end of the year - and plans to install another 3,000 early next year.

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Tags: Condoleezza Rice, Dick Cheney, Ehud Olmert, George Bush, IAEA, Iran, Israel, Middle East, nuclear bombs, Nuclear weapons, Politics, Robert Gates, U.S., uranium

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has obtained evidence suggesting that documents which have been described as technical studies for a secret Iranian nuclear weapons-related research program may have been fabricated.

The documents in question were acquired by U.S. intelligence in 2004 from a still unknown source — most of them in the form of electronic files allegedly stolen from a laptop computer belonging to an Iranian researcher. The US has based much of its push for sanctions against Iran on these documents.

The new evidence of possible fraud has increased pressure within the IAEA secretariat to distance the agency from the laptop documents, according to a Vienna-based diplomatic source close to the IAEA, who spoke to RAW STORY on condition of anonymity.

The laptop documents include what the IAEA has described in a published report as technical drawings of efforts to redesign the nosecone of the Iranian Shahab-3 ballistic missile “to accommodate a nuclear warhead.” The documents are also said to include studies on the use of a high explosive detonation system, drawings of a shaft apparently to be used for nuclear tests, and studies on a bench-scale uranium conversion facility.

These technical papers, along with some correspondence related to the alleged secret Iranian program — referred to by the IAEA as “alleged studies” — have been the primary basis during 2008 for the insistence by the US-led international coalition pushing for sanctions against Iran that the Iranian case must be kept going in the United Nations Security Council.

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Tags: Government, IAEA, Iran, Nuclear weapons, Politics, U.N., U.S.

The International Atomic Energy Agency conference of 145 nations criticizes Israel for refusing to put its atomic program under monitoring.

Israel is known to have nuclear arms, but has a “no tell” policy on the issue.

However, Israel managed to evade a vote to link it to nuclear proliferation in the Middle East.

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Tags: EU, Government, IAEA, Israel, Middle East, Nuclear weapons, Politics, U.N., U.S.

TEHRAN, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) — Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Sunday that Iran will never halt uranium enrichment even if the West guarantees its need for nuclear fuel, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Mottaki made the remarks at a joint press conference with his visiting Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro.

“They (the western countries) are not trustworthy and we have experienced this,” Mottaki said.

“The peaceful nuclear activities of Iran, especially the enrichment and generating of fuel for the nuclear power stations, will never be stopped until we gain independence,” he added.

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Tags: Government, IAEA, Iran, nuclear, Nuclear weapons, Politics, Sanctions, U.N., uranium

Have a look at the related articles from the Jerusalem Post:

“Column One: Israel must bomb Iran’s nuclear installations”

Warmongers ahead!?

Israel has according to Jimmy Carter around 150 nuclear weapons. Even if Iran wants to develop a nuclear weapon, is this reason enough for an attack? If so, then maybe someone should have been attacking Israel for developing 150 of them. And not just Israel is beating the war drums: Ron Paul: I hear members of Congress saying “if we could only nuke Iran”.

So Israel and/or the US might nuke Iran to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon? How can you even come up with such madness? Are there so many potential Hitlers walking the face of the earth these days?

The US have told Israel recently several times not to attack Iran, but that could be just a ruse. And who sold Israel just recently 1000 smart bombs? ‘U.S. to sell Israel Air Force smart bombs for heavily fortified targets’

Politicians and military ‘experts’ may call this a ’surgical strike’, but any attack on Iran will cause WW III. Basta!
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Sep 22, 2008 0:05 | Updated Sep 22, 2008 15:53
Source: The Jerusalem Post

Military intelligence: Iran halfway to first nuclear bomb

Iran is halfway to a nuclear bomb, and Hizbullah, Hamas and Syria are using this period of relative calm to significantly rearm, Brig.-Gen. Yossi Baidatz, the Military Intelligence’s head of research, told the cabinet Sunday during a particularly gloomy briefing on the threats facing the country.

Ahmadinejad: We’ll stop any attacker

Baidatz said there was a growing gap between Iran’s progress on the nuclear front and the West’s determination to stop it. “Iran is concentrating on uranium enrichment, and is making progress,” he said, noting that they have improved the function of their 4,000 centrifuges.

According to Baidatz, the Iranian centrifuges have so far produced between one-third to one-half of the enriched material needed to build a bomb.

“The time when they will have crossed the nuclear point-of-no-return is fast approaching,” he said, though he stopped short of giving a firm deadline. Last week in the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, however, he put the date at 2011.

RELATED

• Column One: Israel must bomb Iran’s nuclear installations
• Analyze This: How partisan politics is dirtying the US consensus on Teheran

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Tags: Government, Hamas, Hizbullah, IAEA, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Military, Nuclear weapons, Politics, Ron Paul, U.N.

AFP Photo/US Navy/ Peter Scheu

The U.S. military could have plans to use Georgian air bases to launch air strikes against Iran, according to Russia’s envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin. He pointed out that Georgia would be the perfect base for a potential U.S. operation in Iran.

Speaking in Brussels, Dmitry Rogozin said:

“What NATO is doing now in Georgia is restoring its ability to monitor its airspace, in other words restoring the whole locator system and an anti-missile defence system which were destroyed by Russian artillery. Now these systems are being restored as soon as possible. We have unconfirmed information that American ships under cover of himanitarian aid have delivered all the equipment  necessary for the restoration of these systems.”

He noted that there it is impossible that these preparations are designed for Georgia’s protection against Russia, since the war in the Caucasus is over and all the security measures in South Ossetia and Abkhazia are being pursued.

“It’s done for logistical support of some air operations either of the alliance as a whole or of the United States in particular in this region. The swift reconstruction of the airfields and all the systems proves that some air operation is being planned against another country which is located not far from Georgia. What country could it be? Which country is in the spotlight now? Of course it’s Iran, there are no other countries,” the envoy said.

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Tags: Georgia, Government, IAEA, Iran, Middle East, Military, NATO, nuclear, Nuclear weapons, Politics, Russia, U.N., U.S., uranium

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran has blocked a U.N. inquiry into whether it researched ways to make a nuclear bomb, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Monday, as Britain said it would push hard for tougher sanctions against Tehran.

A confidential IAEA report said Iran had raised the number of centrifuges enriching uranium by 500 to 3,820 since May and was stepping up development of an advanced model able to refine nuclear fuel 2-3 times faster, in defiance of U.N. resolutions.

But a senior U.N. official familiar with the International Atomic Energy Agency findings said Iran seemed a good two years away from enriching enough uranium for an atomic weapon, if it eventually chose to do so.

Iran denies its nuclear work is aimed at developing a bomb.

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Tags: Government, IAEA, Iran, nuclear, nuclear bombs, Nuclear weapons, Politics, U.N., uranium

Qatari emir, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani

The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, has warned that Doha will not allow any country to turn the Persian Gulf into a war zone.

His remarks on the subject come in an environment of long-standing US and Israel threats to launch an attack against Iranian nuclear installations under the pretext that Tehran, a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), is planning to secretly weaponize its civilian use nuclear program.

The international nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has strongly denied the charge with. IAEA chief Mohammad elBaradei stating he would resign if Iran is attacked on this pretext.

Tehran insists that its program is purely for electricity generation.

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Tags: Abu Dhabi, IAEA, Iran, Israel, Military, nuclear, Politics, Qatar, U.S.

Stressing that era for the US Government to consider itself the owner of the entire world is over, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here, “Resorting to countless capabilities, world nations would establish an independent new world order, if hegemonic powers would keep on exerting pressure over them.” President Ahmadinejad made the comment in an interview with Japan’s Kyodo news agency, adding, “Today is beginning of an era for the domineering of the world nations who will soon impose their will, like many governments that are fed up with the status quo of the unjust international relations and willing to alter them, and this is an event that would definitely take place.”

OPPRESSIVE POWERS HAVE BECOME ISOLATED
The President of the Islamic Republic of Iran pointed out that the oppressive powers of the world had assumed they could isolate the Iranian nation, but the reverse has happened today, since Iran enjoys excellent and friendly ties with most world nations based on mutual respect.

President Ahmadinejad further reiterated, “On the contrary, the US government is suffering from having achieved the worst international status today. They had assumed if they would sit at the UN Security Council and decide over a matter it would be done for sure, while they had better realize if such decisions remain unheeded it means that they need to harmonize with world nations.”
He added, “It is to their own benefit to do so, since otherwise they would be fully isolated in the long run.”
Ahmadinejad added, “Today no nation, including the Japanese nation, likes the politicians of the oppressive powers, such as the US president, and I can assure you that even the Americans do not like their own president.” Continue reading »

Tags: Government, IAEA, Iran, Japan, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, nuclear, nuclear program, nuclear technology, Politics, UN Security Council, US president