The latest report being prepared by the International Atomic Energy Agency about Iran appears to be a sobering retort to those who have spent the summer trying to claim that Israel’s warnings about the need to act should be ignored. The report, which has not yet been released but whose contents have been leaked, says that Iran has installed hundreds of new centrifuges in recent months and is devoting its efforts to refining uranium to a level of greater than 20 percent, a sign that it is working on a nuclear bomb and not, as it disingenuously contends, on medical research. Of equal concern is that all of this new equipment has been installed in facilities near the holy city of Qum and buried so far under underground that they may be invulnerable to attack.
This evidence would mean the alarms being sounded in Israel in recent months were entirely justified. If the Iranians have dramatically increased their stockpile of refined uranium and are now transferring more of their work into hardened bunkers, they may be close to what Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Barak have called a “zone of immunity”: the point at which their program can no longer be halted by force. But rather than taking this as a sign that their complacent attitude toward Iran needs to be revised, the Obama administration remains in denial. Despite the obvious failure of the P5+1 talks and Iran’s determination to run out the clock on its nuclear program before the West acts, a White House spokesman said Friday there is still “time and space” for a diplomatic solution to the standoff. Indeed, as the New York Times noted, the administration seemed more intent on trying to undermine Israel’s stance on the nuclear peril than it was on actually doing anything about the problem.
President Obama has pledged to stop Iran from going nuclear, but his priority throughout the last year has been to stop Israel from acting on its own to deal with the problem. No serious observer has any confidence that the sanctions on Iran that were belatedly adopted (and loosely enforced) by Washington will force the ayatollahs to back off on their nuclear plans. The P5+1 talks led by the European Union’s Catherine Ashton got nowhere despite several tries. Any revival of these negotiations would only serve Iran’s purposes as they string Western diplomats along while their centrifuges keep spinning.
But despite the evidence of Iran’s progress, the administration is doing its best to downplay the crisis. An “administration official” speaking without attribution to the New York Times — the White House’s favorite outlet for leaks — confirmed the latest intelligence gleaned from the IAEA report but pooh-poohed it as “not a game changer.” The argument from the source was that a “breakout” that could convert the existing Iranian stockpile to weapons grade could be rapidly accomplished. But the source said the U.S. would find out about it and still have time to deal with it. The upshot of this statement was that the world should ignore Israel’s fears and trust President Obama to deal with the problem in his own good time.
Yet how can the president be trusted on the issue if his whole focus seems to be on kicking the can down road until after the presidential election in November? It is one thing to accuse the Israelis of alarmism or of trying to exert pressure on Obama to pledge to act. But if the Iranians are able to compile enough refined uranium and store it in places that can’t be attacked, a U.S. policy rooted in a predisposition to delay action is a formula that is certain to fail.
Time is running out not only on the countdown to the day when Iran will be able to quickly assemble a bomb but until the point where it will no longer be possible to use force to prevent them from doing so. Four years of Obama policies toward Iran have shown the administration to be willing to do nothing but talk about the need to avert this danger. The latest information from the IAEA is more proof that despite the media campaign orchestrated from the White House intended to undermine Israel’s appeals, it is Jerusalem, and not Washington, that is talking sense about Iran.
O bummer
I give up. As far as Iran getting nukes, I give up.
When the IAEA finally gets around to issuing a report that the Iranians have moved centrifuges and enriched uranium to underground bunkers, we must all realize that it is already too late. The IAEA has been consistently behind the curve by months and sometimes years. Their sources and information are almost always less than the whole picture and they often publish less than the worst information that they possess.
So if the IAEA is saying the Iranians have some bomb material in underground bunkers in Qom, bet that the Regime has *lots* of it there. If the IAEA is saying the Regime is installing lots of sophisticated centrifuges underground, bet that there are more of them there and they’ve been spinning away for alot longer than revealed.
In short, you can bet that the day that the IAEA (and the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate for that matter) says that the Iranians are weaponizing their nuclear material and it is now time to act, it is far too late. The Regime not only has nukes ready to go but is already programming in the target coordinates.
This is 1939 all over again with evil authoritarians that no one will believe really want to wage unthinkable war in support of their ideology and once again the West and the Jewish community are going to wake up to alot of death and destruction that could easily have been averted but for the spineless, contemptible inaction of our leaders (Bush II included).
Not sure the IAEA's fidings either way merit the breathlessness of this post. n nAnyone with two neurons strung together knows Israel's assessments of Iran's status are far more reliable than the IAEA's. Even with Iranian Agent Baradei no longer heading it up. n nAs for this American Admin, it is not and never was about what is actually going on in Iran. n nIt is entirely about 'getting through the next election, getting through the next election, getting through the next election', like a dog going after 'kibbles and bits'.
Confirmation that Iran is enriching over 20% is Qom is not nothing. Then again, every one knows that Iran is going for the bomb and prattling every day about "exterminating the Zionist cancer" and reaching "a balance of terror" so nothing new there. And our own Golfer-in-Chief would kick the can down the road if it were Mexico threatening to exterminate the United States and enriching uranium underneath Iztaccihuatl–wherever his ultimate commitments lay–if he has them–they don't recognize what generations of America thought of as traditional national security. For him, America is more secure if it is perceived as less hostile, or incorporates and recognizes greater international diversity, or whatever. And Israel is not even on the conceptual grid. n nBut for now there is no evidence that Bibi and Ehud have the political or conventional military wherewithal to preempt the Persian Nazi regime. Israel may be left with no choice except: a) deterrence, or b) launching of Israel's own Pupik and Kind Oysgeposhet.
Iranian proliferation is utterly inevitable. Discussing the merits of proliferation must take into account the realistic understanding that Iran’s ambition to acquire nuclear weapons is unparalleled and will invariably come to fruition. Iran borders Pakistan and Afghanistan to the east, two countries that are incredibly unstable and, with Sunni majorities, pose at least a small threat to Iran. To the west, Iran borders Iraq, which engaged in heavy conflict for eight years with Iran during the 1980s. The fact that Saddam Hussein has been replaced by an American-controlled puppet does not do much to encourage optimism. Turkey, a NATO member, has close security ties with the United States, and could serve as a proxy for a pre-emptive strike against Iran. But by far the most imminent threat to Iran’s security is Israel which has the ability to attack with ballistic and submarine-launched cruise missiles, and has also publically announced the willingness to do so. From a realist standpoint, Iran has every justification to acquire nuclear weapons for the sake of its own security, and will stop at nothing to do so.
It's pretty obvious that Obama will permit Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. If not, then Obama would have already given Iran a firm deadline to stop producing enriched uranium or the US will bomb those nuclear facilities. Obama has given a timeframe to withdraw troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, but he refuses to do so with nuclear weapons with Iran. n n Simply put: Any Jew voting for, and supporting, Obama is aiding and abetting in the destruction of the Jewish People if Iran acquires nuclear weapons during his term in office which are used against Israel. Their hands will drip with Jewish blood and no amount of rationalizing their support for Obama will wash off the blood. n
The Jewish democrats support Pr O against Israel. The same Jews kept silent during the 2nd WW while Jews were send to the crematoria. Pr. O is using Jews to blackmail Jews. And the Jewish democrats far away from the future battlefield side against their own.
Time to drop the conceit that Obama is naive or mistaken. He is no dumber than the rest of us, so he can conclude what's obvious without our help. That he chooses to conclude something else is what we must focus on—because that choice is the clue to his intentions. n nOne day, assuming Israelis are foolish enough to go along with the president, a nuclear explosion occurs over Tel Aviv and destroys the city and most of its inhabitants. That is what Obama is shooting for. To claim otherwise is to underestimate him and a good deal of the other evil souls in the world! His is a barely concealed hatred for Jews. Many who serve him are "Jews in name only," i.e, Evil Sons. They feel pretty much as he does towards Israel. n nI find it odd, that although we readily admit that there are tens of thousands of Jews who simply "hate" Israel and actively seek to bring harm to the Jewish state, when it comes to a man like Obama with an explicit, undisguised bias for Islam, suddenly we go all wobbly! This president is the enemy of the West, including Israel, and the sooner we come to grips with this fact, the sooner we can get rid of him.