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 Iran Calls Bush’s BluffPosted on May 15, 2007
On Sunday came news from the U.N. inspectors on the ground that Iran has made a breakthrough in the enrichment of uranium. It was previously thought that the Iranians were having trouble developing the tight engineering and high speeds needed to get their centrifuges to produce nuclear fuel. But inspectors, on a short-notice visit, came upon 1,300 centrifuges merrily spinning away and churning out the raw ingredient for massive carnage. “We believe they pretty much have the knowledge about how to enrich,” said Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the U.N. agency that won the Nobel Prize after getting it right about Saddam Hussein’s nonexistent WMD program. That makes his current alarm all the more credible when he warns about Iran’s enrichment program breakthrough: “From now on, it is simply a question of perfecting that knowledge. People will not like to hear it, but that’s a fact.” Great. Tehran’s religious fanatics have moved closer to the potential for nuclear conflagration, and what can bully-boy Bush do about it? Nothing. He shot his wad gambling on the invasion of Iraq, a nation that didn’t pose a WMD threat, and now needs Iran—which the United Nations fears may pose a real threat—to bail us out in Baghdad. Now it is bluffing time, with the Bush administration making all the appropriate warning noises about Iran’s nuclear program while cozying up to Tehran to help our puppet government in Baghdad pretend to be in power. That Bush is dependent on Iran’s ruling ayatollahs to salvage a modicum of face-saving stability in Iraq also was made clear on Sunday when, despite new concerns about Iran’s nuclear potential, the White House confirmed an upcoming Iran-U.S. meeting in Baghdad in the next few weeks to discuss Tehran taking a “productive role” in Iraq’s security. “You could expect a meeting in the next few weeks with Ambassador [Chester] Crocker and Iranians,” said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe. His lame excuse for formal talks after a 25-year break in diplomatic relations with Iran: “The purpose is to try to make sure that the Iranians play a productive role in Iraq.” A blunter assessment of the dark codependency motivating these talks was provided by Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari: “The U.S. is a major player and so is Iran, and there will be a room for some substantial discussions for the stability of Iraq.” Sure there will, but it will be on Iran’s terms, and soft-pedaling U.S. opposition to that country’s nuclear program is a given. So is the acceptance of a version of Iran’s theocratic model, exported to formerly secular Iraq. Talk about desperation. To bring peace to Iraq, Bush now turns to the very “rogue regime” he accuses of threatening the survival of the planet with its nuclear weapons program, not to mention support of worldwide terrorism. But what choice does he have? Many of the key players Bush installed in power in Iraq were trained during decades of exile in Iran, and key Shiite militias, according to U.S. military commanders, are increasingly supplied with deadly explosives from Tehran. The serious subtext here, rarely noticed by pundits, is that the United States created a vacuum for the vast expansion of Iranian influence throughout the Mideast. In the creation of a new hegemony, the fervid goal of the neoconservatives led by now-disgraced World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, our nation appears en route to becoming Tehran’s junior partner. Although a military strike against Iran is certainly a continually examined possibility, such action would ignite an anti-American tidal wave in the region, beginning with Iraq. Of course one should never underestimate the ineptitude of the Bush administration. The big losers in all this are the ordinary citizens in Iraq and throughout the Mideast who were promised an infusion of democratic ideals in the wake of the invasion. Instead, they have been left with a widespread resurgence of religious fanaticism. Never have those fundamentalist forces, which produced 9/11, been more popular in the Mideast—particularly in Iraq, where al-Qaida was ruthlessly suppressed by Saddam Hussein. It was particularly odd, writing this on a day when a special World Bank committee issued its devastating report on Wolfowitz’s corruption of bank standards, to read Vice President Dick Cheney’s defense of his main henchman in engineering the Iraq invasion. Cheney described Wolfowitz, the leader in hyping regime change in Iraq as the avenue to democratization, as “one of the most able public servants I’ve ever known.” Takes one to know one in that strange alchemy of Bush ideologues, where stunning success is the inevitable product of abysmal failure. Previous item: Give 'Em Hell, Mr. Terkel Next item: Watergate Without the Break-In Elsewhere: . CommentsAre you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig.
By Lee Boyland, March 16 at 12:22 pm # Robert Chaney provides credentials that cannot be verified. However, they sound authentic, until you analyze his terminology. Also, he seems to have been everywhere and done everything. I doubt it. I sounds like Mr. Chaney learned some buzz words, mixed his security classes (Q and sigma), and talked in generalities and used information available on the web. I did find the following comment posted by Mr. Chaney on an article in the Tehran Times, dated January 31, 2008, “I enjoyed a trip to Tehran in the 1960s. From Grad.School I went to Los Alamos Sci. Lab. Congratulations, don’t let the Bush , jew gangsters intimidate you—press on ! The Oak Ridge effusion plant closed in 1987, employed 75,000 at K-25 U enrichment plant—in addition to the five Lawrence cyclotrons at “dogpatch” site. The cascade effusion had a separation factor of only 1.0043 requiring some 4000 stages to get 0.72 to 99% U235. Centrifuge method, e.g., J.W. Beams, was considered & a pilot plant was built, but the method was judged of too great a magnitude of engineering problems involved.” The K-25 plant, known as the Orange Juice Plant, did not achieve 99% enrichment. I also had access to the information he cited, and more. My credentials are posted on my site, LeeBoylandBooks.com. Some terminology problems: the gaseous diffusion (not effusion, used twice so it was not a typo) plant at Oak Ridge is another way to enrich uranium with the isotope U235 from .7% to 90+% making bomb grade fissile material. Centrifuges do the same thing. The “staggering problems” listed are applicable to implosion devices and bombs, not gun-type uranium bombs like the Little Boy. All that is required is sufficient highly enriched U-235 components (obtaining HEU and casting the rings and projectile is the hard part), a cannon, and a neutron source. Mr Chaney says, “Here’s a simple fact, it’s almost impossible to make a bomb out of uranium ! wow !” Why doesent someone, anyone say that ?” Absolutely not true. Enriching uranium to 90% U-235 is very difficult. Once enriched, which Iran is doing, making bomb parts for a gun-type device or weapon is simple. ANY MAJOR TERRORIST GROUP CAN MAKE A GUN-TYPE NUCLEAR DEVICE IF PROVIDED THE FISSILE COMPONENTS. At the end of WWII, the U.S. only had enough HEU for one gun-type bomb, which was dropped on Hiroshima. The first test on July 16, 1945 code named Gadget, was a Pu-239 implosion bomb, and there was two bombs plus Gadget. The last one was to be dropped on Tokyo. No, I have never carried a Uzi although I have fired one. I have to wonder why an anti-Semitic like Mr. Chaney, see his posting below, would chose an Uiz. Mr. Chaney presents himself as a civilian, so it is doubtful if he was authorized to carry a firearm (probably a good idea to do so, but not authorized). My point: If Iran, North Korea, or Pakistan provides a terrorists with HEW U-235 fissile components they, the terrorists, can make a gun-type atomic device and assemble it at the point of detonation. The Rings of Allah is the story of such an event and is technically accurate.
By Peter RV, May 21, 2007 at 4:36 am # Ref.#71284 by Michael Show.
By William, May 20, 2007 at 3:50 pm # ElBardei was raising cain before the quagmire in Iraq began that Saddam DID NOT have the capacity to produce nuclear weapons. I remember Dick Stainey stating on the Sunday Morning propaganda shows that ElBardei was “simply wrong”, and the administration, as usual went to great lengths to smear him. I bet they are jumping on board with him now if it means the Bushits have an opportunity to expand the war into another state rich in oil.
By Peter RV, May 19, 2007 at 3:24 pm # Ref.#71111 by Leefeller
By Ichthus, May 17, 2007 at 11:31 pm # Ron Paul will live forever Surrounded by truth, he walks about being lashed at by lies. Many have pulled the covers over their heads. And many have refused to hide. Ron Paul is the representative of these who kick them off. They who face the darkness. And too those who are afraid. He is free speech. What will he do when the ultimate question is put upon him? They are trying to shut his mouth. And those who look closely at him see he loves America. The media smear him, and spread his message around and alienate themselves. On radio and television hear he is: the taker. And the media mouths express their sold opinions. The People have awoken, humble Paul to lead the charge, Pennsylvania Avenue awaits. Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Paul. These men seek the truth and see the danger in world unification. Simply, one leader. Each man is his own President and bows before his own King. We are all sovereign. We are each our own slave and master. Support Paul. Be the ocean of hands on which he sails. Ron Paul for president. Vote for truth.
By Kellina, May 17, 2007 at 10:41 pm # I’d have to agree with the other posters who question Sheer’s sincerity. I would like a published apology for this smear-job against Iran. They are adhering to their treaty, something the US and Isreal have not. They have every right to develop nuclear power. If I were them, I’d make every effort to get the bomb, but that is NOT what they seem to be doing. Truthdig: We’re all watching you—you are now aiding and abetting this apparently impending war with Iran. We will not let you get away with it. This is behavior that we’ve come to expect from the NYTimes, but not from Truthdig. If you can’t do the slightest bit of investigation instead of merely reprinting the propaganda from the mainstream media, you will lose all your readers, and you deserve to do so. I am so upset about Rachel Corie, too. She deserved better. The sad part is that how they treated her is no different than what they normally get away with against Palestinians, but no one cares here because they are so blind and racist.
By Matt, May 17, 2007 at 9:53 pm # I hope that Iran gets a nuclear deterrent capacity ASAP, so that we will have no further talk from the neocons of having the US nuke Iran for dear little Israel.
By Robert Chaney, May 17, 2007 at 7:42 pm # If DN! or “truthdig” is really interested in “truth”, which is questionable, why do they not simply print it ? I, now retired, went to Los Alamos (Scientific Lab.) from grad school when it was still the closed “secret” city. I had every clearance, Q-Sen., critical weapon design, all Sigma, all Source, Cripto, & everything else. I kept in my office safe the TOTAL designs of every nuclear weapon in the US stock pile—was the Lab Sr. Scientific Rep. for all test weapons in the Pacific ; with one other we wrote the first CIA report on what evidence there would be if any country was developing a nuclear weapon; I’ve briefed heads of state & military throughout the world on soviet weapons; schooled & spent many hours studyint surveilanve ("spy") satellite film & at NPIC in Wash & at Langley. I studied the NSA intel. from the China air-drop nuke tests. I’ve been in 47 countries & carried a Uzi thru the middle east. Here’s a simple fact, it’s almost impossible to make a bomb out of uranium ! wow ! Why doesent someone, anyone say that ? It took Los Alamos, 25,000 workers at Oak Ridge in the most massive (effusion) facilities ever built requring hundreds of acres and thousands of miles of pipes; Lawrences massive cycotorns at Y-12 each with a magnet that weighed 5,000 tons --- and far, far more to make ONE uranium bomb. It required that the 0.72% of U-235 isotope in natural uranium be enriched to esentially 100%—requiring some 4000 monster effusion stages—buildings the size of a large aircraft hanger. The other two bombswere, of course, plutonium - which doesen’t exist in nature,but must be made in a (special) nuclear reactor. At the end of war only 3 bombs existed, & no more fission material. The one (simple gun type) uranium bomb & one plutonium implosion bomb were dropped on Japan. The third, implosion plutonium bomb was tested at Trinity Site, New Mexico. Further, it is not possible to produce plutonium without it readily being detected. Even if you had fully enriched U-235 metal, or even plutonium there remains countless, staggering technical problems of chemistry, materials, explosives, hydrodamanics, thermodynamics, physics, all aspects of engineering particularly chemical, before you’d even have the slightest chance of making a bomb. Example: an astute high school class knows fundamentals of aircraft flight—for the science fair, tell them to gargage-shop produce a F-16 aircraft. There are many, many in the national labs that could easily refute each & every claim made for the Iraq invason & all similar claims now being made against Iran ( I’ve been in Tehran) which has every right to enrich uranium to the 3% for power reactors & indeed to have a nuclear weapon defense. The above can readily be supported by hard scientific facts, basic physics, --- things rarely seen over any of the internet sources that appear most interested in self- promotion rather than truth.
By Peter RV, May 17, 2007 at 3:41 pm # So, we discovered that Robert Scheer is also a warmonger- sort of Closet Neo Con.
By Reza Fazli, May 17, 2007 at 12:51 pm # All I want to add here is that I really like ordinarie Americans. Most of them like most of the ordinarie Persians are descent, hardworking, caring people. I have waited almost 28 years to see the day My fellow American friends once againg come back to Iran and reside there side by side with their true allies (Iranians) as they did in the past. On the other hand I am sick and tired of Mr. Bush and the company’s fabricated stories and neverending lies in order to dominate our natural resources and devestating our lifes over here. What Bush did was to empower the fanatics in Tehran and kill the democracy movement in Iran (secound time by the American regime). When it comes to Nukes, well I am against these horrifing arms but if Blair and Bush got them why not Ahmadinejad should not get them!?
By Lee, May 17, 2007 at 10:29 am # For gods sake, what are we going to do in Iran? If GWB was really serious, he would drop a few nukes on Tehran, wipe out all the people, and then send in Halliburton and Exxon to drill the country dry. All we need are a few planes. I challenge GWB to stop messing around and just get the job done. We don’t need rhetoric just no-bid contracts and more oil. Besides, Iran wants nukes, so let’s give them nukes.
By Iranian, May 17, 2007 at 10:22 am # Mr.Scheer clearly states “short-notice visit”, which I think is congruent with the NPT. So in essence, Iran is actually abiding by international law! Secondly, he states that “Iran now has the raw ingredient for massive carnage”. Interestingly so does an increasing big part of the world including the US who already has utilized this ingredient twice on Japan, and the depleted ammunition in Iraq. Additionally, I would like to add that this story which you state “was reported by the UN inspectors on Sunday” is nothing new. When the Iranian President in March stated that Iran had reached industrial level which needs 3000 centrifuges, ElBaradei was quick to dismiss it and reduced the number to exactly 1300 centrifuges. And the lie that it previously was thought that “the Iranians were having trouble developing the tight engineering and high speeds needed to get their centrifuges to produce nuclear fuel” is just nonsense. You obviously choose your words with care in order to instill fear in the hearts of people reading your article. Trying to give the impression that the things you state are something new and urgent. Only fools will be fooled by your rhetoric! The major terrorist attacks occur within the Shiite neighborhoods so why the hell would Iran being a Shiite country kill Shiites? It is obvious that the car bombings and most of all the other terrorist attacks are sponsored by the Sunni Arab countries, mainly “Saudi America”. And for the “key Shiite militias sponsored by Iran”, I believe that is true. However, their acts of aggression, with IED explosives and other projectiles are restricted to US occupation forces. I’m not saying that these weapons do not kill innocent civilians but they are meant for killing the SOLDIERS. I do not see any fault in Iran aiding Muqtada Al Sadr in killing US, Italian, Danish, Peruvian, Japanese or British soldiers, because you have nothing to do there anymore. You toppled Saddam, yippee, now get out! I’m not saying that things would immediately become better in Iraq, but the Iraqi people would start to take care of themselves simply because they would have no other option. And don’t get me wrong, I don’t like to see people die whether soldiers or not, but when you have soldiers furthering the hypocritical and terrorist agenda of the US government (whether intentionally or not) then I do not see any other choice than to resist. Mr. Robert Scheer. I do not know which pundits you are referring to when you say that “the serious subtext here, rarely noticed by pundits, is that the United States created a vacuum for the vast expansion of Iranian influence throughout the Mideast.”, but in my view a vast majority of not only the pundits but the corporate media reporters have noticed this even the racist and idiot Mr. Bill O’Reilly. Also, “those fundamentalist forces, which produced 9/11” are not popular. I do not see the majority of Iraq, being Shiite, cheering when Al-Qaeda (sponsored by Saudi America) blows them up. What I do see is them cheer when Muqtada Al Sadrs weaponry kills occupation forces. You are giving the impression that the entire Middle East, particularly the Iraqi people, has turned to the terrorists and that is wrong. They have turned to the insurgents and insurgency is something totally different from terrorism - check it up in an (old) dictionary! For the record, I am not religious at all. In my point of view, religions only segregate humanity and it is also the cause of many great power’s decay!
By Inherit The Wind, May 17, 2007 at 3:45 am # So....Iran’s development of nukes is the fault of....Israel????? Until the Shah was overthrown, Israel and Iran were de facto allies. In fact, they still should be allies since they are on either side of a series of common enemies. Without nukes, Iran poses little if any threat to Israel, nor has Israel been a threat to Iran. Sure, Iran makes lots of politically popular statements about Israel, and the current President is loud in his hateful criticism and denial of the Holocaust, but he’s on the way out anyway. No, the fault is ours, America’s. From Jimmy Carter’s mis-read that led to the hostage crisis, to decades of an inability to cope with them, to the total screw-ups of George W. Bush, it’s been our failed policies. I have few criticisms of Mr. Carter, but this was one, yet none of the hostages died. Note that “heroic” Ronald Reagan cut a totally treasonous deal with Iran before he was even President. But the true screw-up of all time is Bush. After 9/11, when we determined that the Taliban was aiding Al Qaeda, Iran offered to help us. Despite Rice’s denial of this, it was actually in the news at the time. It was the perfect opportunity to make common cause with Iran, to find ways to make peace and normalize relations. After all, we had clobbered and contained Iran’s great enemy, Saddam Hussein. Now we were going to war with two other enemies of Iran: Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The Iranian secular leadership was not so strident, either. So what did the idiot-in-chief do? He gave his insane Axis-of-Evil speech and named Iran in it. Naturally, Iran was shocked and offended. She had held out her hand and Bush pissed in it, for no good reason. Then, again for no good reason, we attacked and invaded the now-harmless Iraq, on obviously false pretenses. Clearly, to anyone with a brain anywhere, Iran was the next target. Which, of course, it still is. Yet another AOE nation, North Korea, was able to stop Bush’s bully-boy diplomacy with its own nuclear program. Somehow, nobody realizes that both Iran and North Korea are bordered by nuclear nations that are NOT happy with current developments. That would be Russia and China. Yet President Moron only after years realized that China was the real deterent to NK, not the USA. Another problem with nuclear technology is that it is now about 65 years old. The success of the technology came 62 years ago. To assume that any industrial nation can’t rapidly develop nuclear weapons is absurd. One could expect a slew of countries to be able to rapidly create them if threatened. Japan, Australia, and all the Western European nations could all have them in months. Others could have them in just a little more time. The only deterrent is reliable responsible behavior from the current nuclear nations. But when the most powerful of them, our America, becomes scary and irrational, the rest of the world has good reason to be terrified. Hopefully, the next President will be a Democrat and start the process of re-proving to the world that we are responsible and can be trusted again.
By Davian, May 16, 2007 at 8:08 pm # Forget about the imminent threat of a nuclear-tipped theocracy in the Middle East. How about the threat of the one presently sitting in the White House? How is it that, the twitchy finger attached to that very desperate puppet is not considered the more dangerous and imminent catastrophe to avert? Please, triage must be the order of the hour, as we assess that which must be dealt with first, and most urgently. While we fidget with what ifs, we squander precious seconds by ignoring what is. Thus impeachment may finally be employed for its highest purpose: removing the twitching finger of a madman, the one who would normalize first-use of nuclear weapons, yet, who cannot correctly pronounce the word.
By I wish I knew, May 16, 2007 at 1:43 pm # truthdig’s credibility problem extends to this “mickey mouse” translation error falsely reported here on Truthdig as in the mainstream press: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m32878&hd;=&size=1&l=e Truthdig should publish a retraction or else just admit that they too are stenographers for the powers that be.
By Mark, May 16, 2007 at 12:51 pm # America couldn’t be in a weaker negotiating position with Iran if it tried. A tip of the hat to Bush-Cheney and Company. Of course maybe, just maybe, this is what they want...a nuclear Iran to play the role of the bogey man for the next fifty years. Not enough nuclear weapons to actually threaten us but just enough to keep the military-industrial complex humming along quite nicely. A great platform for future hawks to run on also.
By Cesco, May 16, 2007 at 11:05 am # What the “$%??&/? is M. Scheer talking about? The only way you could make people fear Iran is by demonizing its rulers! PERIOD! they have to be “evil”, “terrorists”, “religious fanatics” ...etc. because, nowhere in recent history one could find examples of Iran agression on other countries ... unless you go as far as the movie “300”. As for being a state sponsor of terror, don’t make me laugh. I can find more examples of US sponsored terrorism ... in Columbia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Iran, Iraq. M. Scheer has lost every bit of credibility with his take on Iran ...
By Charles Newlin, May 16, 2007 at 10:05 am # “what can bully-boy Bush do about it? Nothing.” That’s a big assumption, based on the Bushies being rational and responsible. We all know by now that that is not a wise assumption. In reality, while the Army and Marines are being destroyed by the Iraqi meat grinder, the Air Force and Navy haven’t had the full Bushie treatment...yet. They are available for an attack that would probably plunge us into WWIII. Given the willingness of Democrats in Congress to go on playing patsy, the only thing standing between us and disaster would be a mutiny by the military. This is not a happy outcome. A further note: a previous commenter pointed out that Iran is a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, under which they are entitled to nuclear enrichment at the level they are now carrying out. One of the goals of present policy is to negate that treaty, as the administration made clear by its treatment of Pakistan and India. Just pressuring Iran not to exercise its rights under the treaty makes it a dead letter. Why the Bushies want to do that isn’t clear to me; perhaps it’s the rights granted to other countries that offend them. Or maybe they really do want to start Armageddon. If so, their policies are a big success, and we can expect more and worse. Are the Fundies popping champagne corks over this? That would be a very bad sign.
By Dale Headley, May 16, 2007 at 9:51 am # Had George Bush not rendered our military impotent by his illegal, immoral, and unnecessary expenditure of American blood and treasure in harmless Iraq, he might now possess a credible counter threat to a truly dangerous regime. |
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