There is No Evidence of An Iranian Nuclear Weapons Programme

[Count Bobulescu]

The only thing that will interest US officials is a regime subservient to the US.

“only subservient” seems a bit harsh Sam. Whether speaking about Iran, or talking more generally, I’d credit the US with interests beyond that.

Granted, the “outside the US perception" changes when there is a big ideological shift in the White House as has occurred in the Clinton-Bush-Obama continuum. Some would allege that there was little or no ideological shift in that continuum. I would call that view naive.
Even that bastion of anti-US rhetoric the UN is concerned about Iran. Otherwise why send nuclear inspectors?

[Count Bobulescu]

Right winger Charles Krauthammer has an interesting column today on the proposals of Anthony Cordesman.

What to do? The sagest advice comes from Anthony Cordesman, a military analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Cordesman is a hardheaded realist — severely critical of the Bush administration’s conduct of the Iraq war, skeptical of the “war on terror,” dismissive of the strategic importance of Afghanistan, and a believer that “multilateralism and soft power must still be the rule and not the exception.”

He may have found his exception. “There are times when the best way to prevent war is to clearly communicate that it is possible,” he argues. Today, the threat of a U.S. attack is not taken seriously. Not by the region. Not by Iran. Not by the Israelis, who therefore increasingly feel forced to act before Israel’s more limited munitions — far less powerful and effective than those in the U.S. arsenal — can no longer penetrate Iran’s ever-hardening facilities.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...rc=nl_opinions

More on Iran from today’s NYT.

WASHINGTON — International nuclear inspectors will soon report that Iran has installed hundreds of new centrifuges in recent months and may also be speeding up production of nuclear fuel while negotiations with the United States and its allies have ground to a near halt, according to diplomats and experts briefed on the findings.

Almost all of the new equipment is being installed in a deep underground site on a military base near Qum that is considered virtually invulnerable to military attack. It would suggest that a boast by senior Iranian leaders late last month — that the country had added upward of 1,000 new machines to its installation despite Western sabotage — may be true.

“

For now, the talks are dead in the water,” one senior official said Thursday.
Mr. Obama and his staff have been trying to avoid a crisis over Iran that would unfold in the last months of the presidential election. But the report, expected to be the last by the I.A.E.A. before Election Day, will lay out a stark reality: Despite increasingly painful sanctions, and a covert program called Olympic Games that aimed to slow the Iranian program with cyberattacks, Iran has made substantial progress in producing enriched uranium in recent years — from about one bomb’s worth when Mr. Obama took office in 2009 to the equivalent of about five bombs’ worth today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/wo...pagewanted=all

[fluffybiscuits]

Scaring Iran into backing down? Has it not been tried already and Iran has more or less stood up to the Americans and more or less told them to sod off?

[Count Bobulescu]

Another Way?

Najmedin Meshkati and Guive Mirfendereski in the Los Angeles Times on a relationship with Iran Sanctioning won't change Iran's behavior and would result in further radicalization. Instead, the U.S. should try to build a relationship and use baby steps to overcome its "idealogical angst" with Iran, just as the U.S. did with the Soviet Union and China. Allowing Iran to slowly purchase goods and services will benefit both countries economically. "A fresh and bold approach to U.S.-Iran relations is not only desirable but imperative for the United States' national interests in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa."


As the gathering of the Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran demonstrates, Iran is isolated mostly in the minds of some U.S. policymakers and their cheerleading pundits. It is U.S. interests that suffer as a consequence. By not reckoning with Iran as a major player in the Middle East, the U.S. deprives the American private sector of a lucrative market, indirectly keeps Israel's security in a state of limbo and deepens the stagnation in the Arab-Israeli peace process. A fresh and bold approach to U.S.-Iran relations is not only desirable but imperative for the United States' national interests in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/...,3764322.story

[fluffybiscuits]

Is it the old adage, "keep your friends close and your enemies closer?" which applies here? The US wants to be seen as a leading influence in Iran and other spheres of influence and should follow the policy of the Putin administration (Im speaking positive of Putin what next!!). Arms deals, stand up for them in the UN, supply them with knowledge etc. Obama's policies on Iran hurt the working man and the latest in these sanctions is computer gamers having their access to World of Warcraft cut off. Give the Iranians an incentive to disarm or perhaps encourage them to look at alternative forms of power like renewable energy. Dangle a carrot and dont use the stick to beat them before they have taken the carrot.

[Count Bobulescu]

Answers to All Your Questions About Iran, Israel, Bibi and Obama!

Question: So, is Israel going to attack Iran's nuclear facilities before the presidential election on November 6?

Answer: Maybe. But probably not. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak would have ordered a strike already if not for the determined opposition of President Obama. That opposition is undiminished. And Netanyahu and Barak may now be thinking that holding off -- agreeing to Obama's wishes, in other words -- may buy them some favor with the President, should he be reelected.This runs counter to an earlier belief, that an Israeli attack before the election would put Obama in a box, that he would have to support Israel for fear of alienating its supporters in America.

http://www.theatlantic.com/internati...-obama/261906/

[Count Bobulescu]

Canada has just broken off diplomatic relations with Iran, citing threat to global peace.

Canada has closed its embassy in Iran and is expelling all remaining Iranian diplomats in Ottawa, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said Friday.
It wasn’t immediately clear why Canada was choosing now to sever diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic. In explaining the move, Mr. Baird gave a laundry list of reasons: Iran’s current support for the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, its nuclear program, its long-time support for organizations Ottawa considers terrorist groups, its threats against Israel, its human-rights record and even the 1979 hostage-taking at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle4526167/

[Count Bobulescu]

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, did not publicly (if indirectly) criticize the Obama Administration because he is trying to tip the election to Mitt Romney. He criticized the Obama Administration because he believes the President won't actually stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon.

Netanyahu doesn't appear to understand three aspects of Obama's position on Iran:

Obama is committed, and has been committed, long before he became president, to a vision of a nuclear-free world. He is a militantly opposed to proliferation. He believes that if Iran were to go nuclear, the world's most volatile region would quickly become the scene of a nuclear arms race. He has said many times that this is completely unacceptable to him.

Obama has stated clearly, and repeatedly, that a nuclear Iran would represent a "profound" national security threat to the United States. Nothing in his behavior suggests he does not actually believe this to be true. He understands that competent presidents do not go about identifying profound national security threats and then ignoring them.

Obama understands that his presidency will be judged a failure if Iran goes nuclear. He has gone on record many times promising the American people, and the world, that Iran will not get a bomb. If Iran succeeds, he will have failed, catastrophically. His legacy will be shattered, his credibility will be destroyed, and he will bequeath to his party a reputation for weakness and fecklessness that will not be shed for a generation. For these reasons alone, Obama knows he cannot let Iran go nuclear.

http://www.theatlantic.com/internati...-obama/262381/

[Dr. FIVE]

hmmm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19665225

Pro-Israel adverts that equate jihad with savagery are to appear in 10 of New York's subway stations next week, after officials failed to block them.

The ad says: "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel Defeat Jihad."

New York's transportation agency barred the ads citing demeaning language.

But a judge ruled in July for the American Freedom Defense Initiative (FDI), the group behind the campaign.

[Count Bobulescu]

IDG News Service - The Iranian government appears to have blocked access to Google's search engine and Gmail webmail service from inside Iran, according to Internet users there.

A security researcher going by the Twitter handle of @0xal reported late Sunday that access to Gmail and Google had been restricted", and later said that he could only access the services using a VPN or a proxy.

However, he later reported that it is still possible to access Google via some IP addresses rather than a hostname.

"Both Gmail and google.com are blocked since last night, but Gmail is not blocked in some mobile operators," he said via direct Twitter message.
Regional news site Your Middle East said its Tehran correspondent was no longer able to access the services. The site, and other news agencies, said that the block had been confirmed by Abdolsamad Khoram Abadi, the secretary of an official group responsible for detecting illegal Internet content. The move was made in response to demands from the Iranian people, he told the news outlets

.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/artic...rnet_users_say

More.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/worl...l-blocked.html

[Count Bobulescu]

Panic in Tehran

October 2, 2012
Large crowds of anxious Iranians gathered in Tehran on Sunday and Monday at foreign exchange offices — some of which had shuttered their doors — as Iran's currency continues its free fall.
From Sunday to Monday, the rial lost nearly one-third of its value against the dollar — and the decline appears to have continued Tuesday.
Most economists say it's the very tough economic and banking sanctions against Iran, as well as an embargo on Iranian oil sales, that are responsible for the currency collapse. Iran's government is blaming currency speculators and what it's calling "defrauders."

http://www.npr.org/2012/10/02/162156...es-to-new-lows


http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=286450

[Count Bobulescu]

Maybe there was more than one reason for the panic.

IN THE LOOP: Iranian news service cites faux Onion story on poll finding Ahmadinejad more popular than Obama
Fars News Agency, described as "Iran's leading independent news agency," apparently was the latest in a proud tradition to mistake an Onion story for the real deal.
» Read full article

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...=nl_pmpolitics

[Count Bobulescu]

I

ran says its offshore oil and gas platforms have been targeted for cyberattacks in recent weeks, but that they managed to successfully repel the attempts to bring down their drilling stations. The head of information technology for the Iranian Offshore Oil Company blamed the attacks on "the regime occupying Jerusalem and a few other countries," but claims that no damage was done. None of the usual suspects (Israel and the United States) is talking.

While there has been much worrying about a possible air battle between Israel and Iran, it appears that their war is already well underway in the digital realm. The Iranian nuclear program has already been hit by malicious computer programs several times and the nation is trying to build its own private internet to combat security concerns. (And maybe keep its own people in line.)

Now the oil industry, which is beleaguered by international sanctions, is under assault as yet other avenue for undermining the already struggling Iranian economy. (A pipeline between Iran and Turkey was also hit by a blast today, but that looks more like an attack on Turkey by Kurdish separatists.) No matter who is really to blame it has become more obvious than ever that when nations do battle from now, computer warfare will be just as important as guns and bombs.

Of course, this stealth war won't remain stealthy forever if, as some have speculated, that mysterious drone that was shot down over Israel this weekend actually came from Tehran. Don't worry. The old ways of fighting wars are still pretty popular too.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2012/...mid=tw-nytimes

[DCon]

Cammy baby has an itcfhy trigger finger

[Andrew49]

Iranian authorities on Jan. 2 advised the 1.5 million residents of Isfahan to leave the city if they can because air pollution has reached emergency levels. (BBC Radio, Jan. 2 - 0850) Tehran's Air Quality Control Company also warned Jan. 2 that air pollution in the capital has also reached alarming levels, and ordered elementary schools and daycare centers closed in the city due to heavy smog.

Source

There are links within the source above which verify the story to some degree or another - but I did read one right-wing report linking the evacuation to a radiation leak!