“I formally declare that Iran has joined the club of nuclear countries”
by Dave Cantrell · 04/11/2006 4:33 pm
Dancers perform as they hold capsules of uranium hexaflouride, or UF6 gas during a ceremony in Mashhad, Iran’s holiest city, Tuesday, April 11, 2006. Iran has successfully enriched uranium for the first time, a landmark in its quest to develop nuclear fuel, hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday, although he insisted his country does not aim to develop atomic weapons. In a nationally televised speech, Ahmadinejad called on the West "not to cause an everlasting hatred in the hearts of Iranians" by trying to force Iran to abandon uranium enrichment. (AP Photo/Mehr News Agency)
Photo source: AP
More from AP:
"At this historic moment, with the blessings of God almighty and the efforts made by our scientists, I declare here that the laboratory-scale nuclear fuel cycle has been completed and young scientists produced enriched uranium needed to the degree for nuclear power plants Sunday," Ahmadinejad said. "I formally declare that Iran has joined the club of nuclear countries," he told an audience that included top military commanders and clerics in the northwestern holy city of Mashhad. The crowd broke into cheers of "Allahu akbar!" or "God is great!" Some stood and thrust their fists in the air.
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There goes the neighborhood
T-Minus 36 hours before the Israeli Air Strike. I can’t wait to watch the fireworks from this one.
here we glow again…
Iran has every right to acquire new-clear technology as a sovereign nation.
To deny, is to peddling into other’s people business. There is so much work here to do , such as protecting our borders than to thinking about attacking Iran.
Clearly, we have not learned anything from Iraq failure. Anyone who thinks invasion of Iran will be a cake walk , should spend 6 months atleast ,at a mentally challenged resort because you will also be fighting with Russia, China and N Korea at the same time.
Do we really have resources?
#4:
Rahman, Iran wants nukes so it can threaten (and maybe accomplish) the annihilation of another sovereign nation. Nuking Tel Aviv is the ultimate meddling in other people’s business.
Mattt
My father used to say ” Barking dogs seldom bite”.
The Iranian leadership is all talk, he enjoys it. Iran is no threat to Tel Aviv or to the United states.
Rahman, I’m not sure what you mean when you say Iran is no threat. Do you mean:
1. Iran doesn’t want nukes; or
2. Iran wants nukes, but they won’t threaten Israel or us with them; or
3. Iran wants nukes, but they won’t drop them on Israel/us?
Let’s say you’re a Metro cop. A madman gets on the bus, waving a gun around and screaming about how he’s going to kill everyone on the bus named Steve. What do you do? Do you bet that his bark is worse than his bite?
Why take a bigger gamble when it’s a nuke instead of a gun, and the world’s Jews instead of Steves?
#7
We dont have to worry about Iran. We are self destructing.
Rahman,
Hitler didn’t want to take over the world either, if I recall. Hide your head in the sand and let those who are true patriots save your butt! Then bitch again!
Ironic that it was the Shah that originally started Iran’s quest for the bomb, and it was the anti-American Khomeini that originally put a stop to development when the Islamic revolution took power in Iran. Unfortunately, Iran is but an example of the problem.
“Suspicions were raised after officials from the UN-sponsored International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) travelled to Pakistan at the end of last year to interview A Q Khan, the atomic scientist who masterminded the successful development of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons arsenal.”
“Khan is known to have sold Teheran the technical expertise to develop an atomic bomb, together with key components, such as sophisticated equipment for enriching uranium. During the interview with IAEA inspectors, Khan is said to have provided a full disclosure of the nuclear dossier he gave the Iranians. The inspectors compared Khan’s material against the documentation the Iranians have so far provided.”
http://www.ncr-iran.org/content/view/1269/75/
“The A. Q. Khan nuclear supplier network constitutes the most severe loss of control over nuclear technology ever…”
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2006/03/a_study_of_the_aq_khan_network.html
http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/clary.pdf
“But the breakthrough came in the 1980s when Iran bought a blueprint for a P1 centrifuge from the AQ Khan network, which operated like a nuclear supermarket.”
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/04/10/1557045.htm
Not to worry - even they refuse to let us directly question AQ Khan about who, what, when and where (who being the key issue after 9/11), GW insists that this Islamic fundamentalist nation (run by a military dictator) is our close “allie”. Time to rent Dr. Strangelove again.
Let us hope this is not another “ports” or “guest workers” deal in the making….
“Kasuri, however, beliefs that Washington will come around sooner than later on the issue, as Pakistan would be engaging US officials for this purpose in the days to come.”
http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?action=fullnews&id=31373
Too bad one of the dancers didn’t accidentally drop and bust one of those vials of UF while President “I’m mad in the head” was on the stage next to them, woulda been fun watching him and his buddies die from the toxic stuff.
Rahman, here is a thought for you to chew on. WE DON’T CARE if Iran is a soveriegn nation or not, same is true for North Korea. If we decide it is in our best interest for Iran to glow in the dark, it will glow in the dark and there ain’t a damned thing that nutcase president of thiers can do about it. Bush may be all brokeback for vicente, but when you openly threaten him, you are buying yourself a heap of trouble.
The US is the last superpower on earth, WE will decide who is sovereign or not, not the UN, and certainly not some nutcase in love with the bomb.
Rahman is just throwing out a flame hoping someone will answer him!
Testing
I kinda agree with Rahman. Matt, its illegal to carry a gun on a bus. Iran is a sovereign nation and can do what it wants. Yeh, its run by a madman but that is who was elected by the people. However you define that. As you see in Iraq the days of conquering a nation are over. There is just too much area,toomany ethnic groups and money involved not to mention the lives of our young men and women for what?
I would be really surprised if we bomb Iran. If they use the same theory as us they will bomb us for planning to bomb them. Are we willing to take one in our major cities to go after Iran? Why doesnt China take this issue on? Russia? Why is it up to us to stop every idiot despot out there?
If we do bomb them and dont get all the nukes they will destroy Israel and probably 100K of our troops in Iraq. Is that ok with ya’ll? Not me.
Like someone else said. We got Mexicans basically rioting in the streets demanding our country become Mexico or they are going to tear it up. We have enough issues here without worrying about those sand farmers.
I for one have learned a lesson with Iraq. I am done with that part of the world. They can drink their freekin oil. We need to find another source of fuel and start now or we will be a memory in the books of time of a once great civilization that vanished.
Gregg, it is not illegal to carry a gun on a bus (why on earth would you think it was?), but what if it was? Would that stop anyone who was bent on killing from doing so? They are already ready to commit murder, violating a little pissant misdemenor like unlawful possession of a handgun is the least of thier worries, they have bigger fish to fry.
Iran has ratified the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which they are openly violating. The UN has already sanctioned them to no avail too (again proving the total waste of time the UN is.). So it IS illegal for them to develop nukes, but obviously that little detail is not stopping them.
BTW Greg, as far as Russia or China getting involved, who do you think has been selling them MIRV, Stealth, and Ultra-High Speed torpedo technology? Turkmenistan?
#12 -
Given our abiltity to decide all things, I’m surprised that Iraq has not come around quicker. Especially if WE want it too.
#17.
I guess they arent too worried about Iran. It seems like everyone is selling arms to Iraq,Iran,Syria and whatever country wants them while they build their economy and secure oil for their future while we go around the world saving people who dont want to be saved costing us lives,money and not doing anything about our energy future. Our leaders have let us down. May god help us and our kids. Iran and N’Korea are the least of our worries. Wait till our politician cowards start letting the millions of Mexicans vote in our elections. Millions more will follow and you can kiss every white or black American in office goodbye forever. Amexico will be nothing but body shops,used car dealerships and pawn shops as far as the eye can see.
It seems we have adopted the same immigration policy as the Indians(native Americans). I guess we didnt learn from our history. Paybacks are a bitch huh!
I know this is an Important Global Issue and all, but all I am doing is staring at the picture. The guy on the left looks like C. Thomas Howell. I can’t get over that.
I know, I am sad.
Holy crap, he really does look like C. Thomas Howell. Good call!
It is!
Rorschach
Didn’t Iran start a multi-year thousand upon thousands of dead on each side was with Iraq? Gee now they have rearmed like crazy and claim they have nukes
I meant war
didn’t Iran go to War first
Also the Shah was an ardent anti communist who shared a long vicious border with Russina who - if we all remember was always searching for a WAR WATER PORT AND HAD A LONG BORDER WITH PAKISTAN who was also developing nukes
Kind of hard to say he was just developing them for offensive purposes only
O.K.,…I’ll bite, who the hell is C. Thomas Howell?
#23, I think you may be confusing me with Mike S, he was the one that brought up the Shah.
And yes you are right, we backed the Shah, not because he was such a nice guy or that his government was the embodiment of democracy or enlightenment, but because he was willing to buck the Russians in thier search for a warm water port for thier nuclear ballistic missile subs. This was during the cold war when we were still scared sh!tless that Russia could and would make a decapitationg strike from close ashore with sub-launched nuclear ballistic missiles with less than 10-15 minutes of warning. Now Iran has bought Ballistic missile subs from China and Russia, they have missile technology obtained from China, Russia and North Korea, They have nuclear capability bought from Russia, Pakistan, and North Korea, they have High Speed rocket torpedoes, probably obtained from Russia, and stealth technology that could have been obtained from multiple sources as well. Iran may soon be able to do exactly what we were afraid Russia would do. Park a Diesel-Electric sub (dang near impossible to hear when running on Batteries) 50 miles offshore from DC and lob 20 Kiloton nukes at DC, it would be over in under 10 minutes. That capability can not be allowed to be obtained because it will be used. Once DC is out of the fight, you can be sure phase II will involve a similar strike on Tel Aviv and the US bases in Saudi, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Qatar. There are not enough Patriot and Arrow ABM’s in theater to stop it.
Iran in the time of the Ayatollah started a bloody multi-year war with Iraq that dang near depopulated both countries, at the end, kids were being conscripted to fight. and at that time, we backed Saddam, again not because we approved of him or his governemt, but because he was fighting Iran, our enemy. We hoped that the war would be a war of attrition with Iran eventually loosing, but hopefully not too quickly, we wanted Iran to be completely out of resources when it was over and done with. As long as he was busy loosing to Iraq, the Ayahtolla would not have time, money, or resources to bug us. Iraq was Iran’s pacifier.
#23, As a sidebar, you can thank Jimmy, Peanut-Head, Carter, for the Fall of The Shah.
Dave D
http://www.cthomashowell.net/