I haven’t seen anything here yet regarding this bit of news:
AP via Yahoo News:
Iran stepped up its confrontation with the West over its nuclear program, restarting work at a uranium conversion facility Monday in a move the United States and Europe have warned will prompt them to seek U.N. sanctions.
More below the fold…
The resumption strikes a blow at European efforts to persuade Iran to rein in a program that Washington says is intended to develop nuclear weapons. Over the weekend, Iran, which says it aims only to produce electricity, rejected European proposals for economic incentives in return for limiting its nuclear activities.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, will hold an emergency meeting of its 35-member board of governors Tuesday to discuss the standoff with Iran.
Reading various news accounts of Iran’s move has me very anxious. The rhetoric is already building and I fear that we will soon be repeating history with the neighbor of our current quagmire.
For further reading:
I dunno.
Two months ago, I thought the only thing that would keep the White House out of Iran was an Iranian nuclear bomb.
Now we’ve got the Iraq poll numbers.
Remember how the Republicans used the “wag the dog” attacks to discredit Clinton’s anti-terrorist moves during the Monica scam? That effectively prevented the Dems from using the “wag the dog” line of attack against Bush when he was staging a war under false pretenses in Iraq.
I think the same principle is in play. Americans have seen the “WMD requires war” maneuver. All that matters now is we know we’ve been played. They cried wolf. Iran starting a 5-15yr program to create the bomb isn’t gonna galvanize Americans into wanting to take on Iran.
Our appetite for imperialist expansion waned when we didn’t see the promised benefits. I hope.
Besides, even the ass-kisser in the pentagon have to be scared of doubling our conflict in the middle east.
I’m sure the politicos (Rove, etc) would love to use Iran as an excuse to bail on Iraq, but there’s even less chance of winning a ground war in Iran.
Let Europe or China or Russia deal with Iran if its weapon’s ambitions are a serious threat to world safety. After all, they’re a hell of a lot closer and more likely to feel the effects than we are. And our world credibility is zero.
Thanks George.
unfortunately I have little hope that the Bush War Council will make any rational decisions as long as they are in power. Their track record defies past precedent, they are the most stubborn, ill-guided group of monsters I have ever had the displeasure of knowing. When Bush says, “all options are on the table”, I am programmed to expect the worse possible course of action.
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The facility covers over 150 acres spread along mountains outside the city. Parts of the facility were built in tunnels in the mountains as protection from airstrikes. The facility is also surrounded by radar stations and anti-aircraft batteries.
Isfahan uranium facility <click pic to enlarge>
Iran learned a lesson from the 1981 Israeli airstrike against Iraq’s main nuclear reactor. Iran has spread its facilities over several locations, each with underground installations. The Isfahan facility and the uranium enrichment plant in Natanz house the heart of the country’s nuclear program.
The Isfahan Conversion Facility, 255 miles south of Tehran, carries out an early stage of the cycle for developing nuclear fuel, turning yellowcake into UF-6 gas, the feedstock for enrichment.
In the next stage of the process — which Iran has said it will not resume for the time being — the gas is fed in centrifuges for enrichment. Uranium enriched to a low level is used to produce nuclear fuel; further enrichment makes it suitable for use in an atomic bomb.
Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said work was resuming “stage by stage” at Isfahan, starting with the unit that makes ammonium uranyl carbonate, or AUC, a component in the conversion process.
FRONTLINE/World reporter Paul Kenyon
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I added info to my new diary —
Nuclear Spy AQ Khan – CIA/America Refused Arrest in 1975 & 1985
Pakistani nuclear spy AQ Khan stole essential blue prints in the Netherlands in the seventies. The Dutch secret service BVD was on to the espionage and uncovered the role Khan played to remove documants from nuclear facilities of UCN/URENCO ultracentrifuge process for enriched uranium and NIKHEF research institute.
Ruud Lubbers reveals today that on two occasions to his personal knowledge, the decision to arrest Khan for espionage was twarted by the CIA and America. The reason was the CIA and US was following Khan in his effort to obtain nuclear materials and sophisticated nuclear test equipment, in order to uncover the countries and persons involved in world-wide nuclear proliferation. Therefore on both occasions, Dutch government and Justice stepped back and let Pakistani nuclear spy travel out of the Netherlands.
Illicit Nuclear Weapons Programs Involve Smuggling High-Precision Bearings
Uranium enrichment gas centrifuge bearing, confiscated
by the U.S. CIA in Iraq in mid-2003 represents an older,
less-efficient design of uranium gas centrifuge:
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