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Posts Tagged ‘Nukes’

US Shelves Iran Diplomatic Outpost

by Phantom Ace Comments Off on US Shelves Iran Diplomatic Outpost
Filed under Dhimmitude, Iran, Nuclear Weapons, Politics at October 7th, 2008 - 12:40 pm

Last weekend the Bush administration quietly abandoned plans to send diplomats to Iran.

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration has shelved plans to set up a diplomatic outpost in Iran, in part over fears it could affect the U.S. presidential race or be interpreted as political meddling, The Associated Press has learned.

The proposal to send U.S. diplomats to Tehran for the first time in three decades attracted great attention when it was first floated seriously over the summer but has now been placed on indefinite hold as November’s election nears and Iran continues to defy demands to halt suspect nuclear activities, officials told the AP.

(Hat tip:Charlie)

Bayefsky: Focus, People

by Phantom Ace Comments Off on Bayefsky: Focus, People
Filed under Barack Obama, Election 2008, Iran at October 7th, 2008 - 12:35 pm

We seem to have forgotten something: Focus, People.

Since the time of Hitler, civilization has never been so close to the brink of total catastrophe.  This American election will decide whether civilization as we know it will survive.  As much as economic questions are currently front and center, with blame to go all round, this is not an election primarily about corporate greed, or individuals living beyond their means, or government neglect of economic oversight. Nor is it about whether we should have gone into Iraq where, like it or not, American boots on the ground have begun to create an emerging democracy. This election is about whether there will be a nuclear holocaust.

Alarmist? I sure hope so. Isn’t it about time that we got to the point about the stakes in this election? How many more pundits do we have to watch talking about the minutae — a candidate’s look, an accent, a stumble, a slogan? We have four weeks to talk about the thing that matters most: a nuclear-armed Iran, and which candidate will prevent it.

(Hat tip:The LGF Cult Leader)

David Kay Advises Waiting Until Nuclear Attack

by Phantom Ace Comments Off on David Kay Advises Waiting Until Nuclear Attack
Filed under Iran, Nuclear Weapons at October 2nd, 2008 - 12:46 pm

Former head of the Iraq Survey Group David Kay says Iran is 2 to 5 years from nuclear weapons.

But he also says we should not even think about a military strike until after one of our cities is nuked.

“My personal guess is they are two to five years away from having a sufficient amount of fissile material and weapon design work to put them in a place where you believe they have the capability of putting a warhead on the end of a missile,” Kay said.

Kay said there is “virtually no possibility” Iran will give up its uranium enrichment program, which can be used to fuel civilian reactors for domestic energy use as well as make fissile material for warheads.

He dismissed the notion that a U.S. or Israeli military strike on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure would be effective or useful. He said it would only delay the development of a weapon by one to two years at the most, and would unite Iran’s people more firmly behind its leaders.

Kay would only advocate a military attack “if I found the Iranians had transferred a nuclear weapon to a third party, a terrorist organization or another state,” or if it used a nuclear weapon in an attack.

A reminder: it’s been four months since Mohamed ElBaradei said on Al-Arabiya television that Iran could have a nuclear weapon within 6 months.

(Hat tip:Chuckles our #1 Contributor)

El Baradei: Idiot

by Phantom Ace Comments Off on El Baradei: Idiot
Filed under Iran, Iraq, Nuclear Weapons, Syria, United Nations at October 2nd, 2008 - 12:39 pm

Today’s jaw-dropping example of United Nations idiocy comes from the head of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, who declared that his agency is powerless to do anything about nuclear proliferators who don’t tell the truth.

He actually seems surprised to discover that nations like Iran and Saddam-era Iraq would try to hide their nuclear programs. Say it ain’t so, Mohamed!

Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the crux of the problem was that some countries under investigation, the latest being Syria, had failed to ratify an agency protocol permitting short-notice IAEA visits to sites not declared to be nuclear to ensure no bomb-related work was going on at secret locations.

“Our legal authority is very limited. With Iraq, we have discovered that unless we have the Additional Protocol in place, we will not really be able to discover undeclared activities,” he said on the sidelines of the agency’s annual 145-nation General Conference in Vienna.

“Our experience is that any proliferator will not really go for declared diverted activities (that would quickly reveal them as violators of the Non-Proliferation Treaty), they will go for completely clandestine undeclared activities,” he said.

(Hat tip:Chas)