Category Archives: Middle East Nuclear

Britain, Iran, Israel, Middle East Nuclear, Mossad, nuclear Iran, Saudi Arabia, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran

Short Western Memories: Khomeini, the Chemical West, and the Bomb………………

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“The Israeli President warns us now that Iran is on the cusp of producing a nuclear weapon. Heaven preserve us. Yet we reporters do not mention that Shimon Peres, as Israeli Prime Minister, said exactly the same thing in 1996. That was 16 years ago. And we do not recall that the current Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in 1992 that Iran would have a nuclear bomb by 1999. That would be 13 years ago. Same old story. In fact, we don’t know that Iran really is building a nuclear weapon. And after Iraq, it’s amazing that the old weapons of mass destruction details are popping with the same frequency as all the poppycock about Saddam’s titanic arsenal. Not to mention the date problem. When did all this start? The Shah. The old boy wanted nuclear power. He even said he wanted a bomb because “the US and the Soviet Union had nuclear bombs” and no one objected. Europeans rushed to supply the dictator’s wish. Siemens – not Russia – built the Bushehr nuclear facility. And when Ayatollah Khomeini, Scourge of the West, Apostle of Shia Revolution, etc, took over Iran in 1979, he ordered the entire nuclear project to be closed down because it was “the work of the Devil“. Only when Saddam invaded Iran – with our Western encouragement – and started using poison gas against the Iranians (chemical components arriving from the West, of course) was Khomeini persuaded to reopen it………………”

Even within the short span of the past year we have heard and read several different conflicting assessments of the Iranian nuclear program:

  • It is military. No, it is civilian. No, it is both.
  • They are zeroing on the nuclear bomb. They have not decided yet.
  • They already have everything the need for a bomb.
  • They will have a bomb this year. They will not have a bomb until at least next year.
  • They won’t be able to before 2014, or is it 2015.
  • The IAEA says they have suspicions, but no proof, that it is possible that the Iranians may be thinking of perhaps maybe looking into the possibility of  staring to think of the probability of the degree of feasibity and applicability of the likely scenario of …………..
  • Dagan of Mossad says they have not started the bomb yet.
  • Netanyahu says they will have a bomb soon and that Ahmadienjad is worse than Hitler, will continue to be worse than Hitler even after his term expires and he leaves office in 2013.
  • Ehud Barak says war is closer unless the Iranians relent. Ehud Barak says war is months away. When asked about it, Ehud Barak responded “what war?”
  • They want to be able to build a bomb whenever they want.
  • But Ahmadinejad said they don’t want a nuclear bomb.
  • The Saudi princes, who never ever lie, are convinced they are building a bomb. So are their Salafi muftis.
  • The shaikh (sorry, king) al-Khalifa of Bahrain is certain they are building a bomb. Foreign minister al-Khalifa of Bahrain (aka Bon Vivant) is taunting us, saying “are you going to take that from the mullahs?” WTF that be. Several other al-Khalifa potantates seem to concur with the two already mentioned.
  • Shaikh Mohammed Bin Rashid of Dubai says he does not believe the Iranians are building a bomb. He thinks they have no reason to. Besides, he says “Even if they did, who gives a fuck”?
  • The al-Nahayan brothers of Abu Dhabi who own the UAE want the United States to attack the Iranian, and be quick about it.
  • The ayatollah has issued a fatwa against nuclear weapons.
  • Obama, since he is only secretly a Muslim, can’t openly abide by the Khamenei fatwa.
  • Newt Gingrich says their goal is to attack the United States.
  • Rick Santorum insists he had a vision that their aim is to establish a Persian Caliphate in all the Blue States, before sweeping through Georgia.
  • Ron Paul thinks everybody this side of the Atlantic (and some on the other side) are out of their minds. He is most likely right.

Cheers
mhg


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Iran, Israel, Middle East Nuclear, nuclear Iran, Sanctions, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy

Disturbing Solo Brainstorming: So What is the Goal in Iran?………

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         BFF   

“The Obama administration has been adamant that regime change per se is not the goal of U.S. sanctions. On Wednesday, a Washington Post article initially quoted an anonymous U.S. official as saying “regime change” was the goal, but then was quickly corrected to say “public ire” was the sanctions’ goal, not regime change. Today, a U.S. official told AFP that the goal of the sanctions was to “close down” the Central Bank of Iran (CBI)……..”

This is confusing. There are conflicting reports about the goal in Iran. The three (red) goals given above do not include the ‘nuclear’ program which the Iranians insist is civilian. The Obama administration and the Israelis and the Saudi princes and their Gulf Salfi and Wahhabi faux-liberal admirers insist is for military purposes. There are two reasons not mentioned here for the sanctions and the possible war that may follow: Reason One is to keep the Israeli extreme right-wing government quiet before the 2012 U.S. elections. If you don’t believe that is one important, possibly the most important reason, then I still have that perfect old lame camel for sale. The Likud and its American lobbyists and worshipers can make Mr. Obama’s life miserable between now and November, and they probably will do so anyway.
Reason Two may be to keep Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from being “disturbed”. Lately she has been describing many news, allegations, and rumors about the Iranian mullahs as “disturbing” or that she is ‘disturbed’ about them. The secretary and her spokespersons have been doing that at a ‘disturbing’ rate.
I am sure my confusion, and yours, has not been clarified by this individual solo brainstorming by yours truly.
Cheers
mhg


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GCC, Gulf states, Iran, Middle East Nuclear, Persian-American Gulf, Saudi Arabia

Iran Tries to Reassure the Neighborhood…….

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“Head of Iran Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) says the Islamic Republic is capable of exporting services related to nuclear energy to other countries……. The IAEO chief said that Iran can now produce heavy water (deuterium oxide), which is very useful for medical applications. Abbasi added that with the recently unveiled third-generation centrifuges, which perform much faster than the previous models and can considerably accelerate the enrichment process, the country can enrich uranium at level of20 percent……………” Press TV

“Iran’s Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari has expressed the country’s willingness to engage in joint military maneuvers with regional countries……. He noted that the 10-day Velayat 90 naval exercise was planned as a response to enemy threats and sanctions. Iran’s Navy launched the Velayat 90 on December 24, 2011, which covered an area stretching from east of the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Aden…..…”

I don’t think the Iranians will have many takers this year. In the past they had some limited Qatari and Omani participation during military exercises. Qatar, which hosts the CentCom Gulf HQ, has been wary of Saudi Arabia since the late 1990s, when it thwarted a Saudi plot to overthrow the current Emir. Omanis are wary of the Salafi Wahhabis who look down on their Islamic faith which is unorthodox.
These are days of heightened sectarian tensions. The Saudi Wahhabi campaign of sowing divisiveness in the Gulf region has succeeded. Admittedly the Iranians may have lent a hand with some of their heavy-handed approaches. But there is no doubt that the all-out Saudi campaign of sectarian baiting, after Iraq and the Arab Spring, has succeeded in dividing Shi’as and Sunnis more than at any other time in many centuries. That was the goal: to divide the Arabs by sect. When even ignoramus Tea Party politicians from Texas and Georgia start talking about Sunnis and Shia’s, you know that it has succeeded.
Cheers
mhg


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Al-Qaeda, Espionage, Middle East Nuclear

Iranian Illusions and an Alleged American Spy………..

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      BFF   

“U.S. sought to prevent Iran from being a model in Mideast……. “The U.S. intended to bankrupt Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) through gaining control over Iraq’s oil wells and to do something so that oil would be traded only in dollars and that the U.S. power would be greater than that of China and Russia. One of the reasons behind the U.S. military presence in Iraq was to have presence in the Middle East and to infiltrate Muslim people through infiltrating into Islamic groups and cause deviation (in them). Another objective of the U.S. was to keep a rein on the Middle East(ern) (countries), including Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Bahrain, and even Tunisia to prevent the Islamic Republic from becoming a model for these countries…….……“

The part about “U.S. sought to prevent Iran from being a model in Mideast” makes little sense to me. The Iranian ruling mullahs often did their best to keep their country from becoming a model theocracy for the region. There was no need to the Americans to do much, even though they probably did what they could. The repressive policies of the Iranian regime itself and the fierce sectarian campaign by the vast Saudi propaganda machine together did an excellent job in repelling many Arabs from wanting an Iranian model regime.
Much of what this young man said in his ‘confession’ fits in with the usual Iranian media claims and propaganda. It sounds suspicious to me, whether this man was an American spy or not. It sounds almost as suspicious as some ridiculous American claims of an Iranian- al Qaeda- Hezbollah-Colombian-Mexican-Texan-West African plot to take over the Middle East then the whole wide world.
Cheers
mhg


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Humor, Iran, Middle East Nuclear, North Korea, nuclear Iran, Saudi Arabia, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran

The Iran Bomb: Comparing a North Korean Voter to an American Voter………

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      BFF

What is one difference (or the similarity if you prefer) between a North Korean voter (I know, North Koreans don’t vote, but humor me) and an American voter?

North Koreans are told and believe the following, among other things: that the Americans want to bomb North Korea and obliterate it with nuclear weapons and only the WMD of Kim Jong Il are keeping them at bay. Kim Jong Il and his sons Kim Jong Un, Kim Jong Nam and Kim Dim Sum may also believe that.
 
Americans are told by the media and some politicians and ‘may largely’ believe the following, among other things:
The Iranians are building nuclear weapons which they will immediately use to destroy Israel. After that they would love to use their Hiroshima vintage bombs to trigger Armageddon or take over the world and make it a safer place for the awaited Mahdi (their Messiah). One pre-condition of all that is to bomb Europe back to the good old day of May 1945. Hence all the missiles deployed in Turkey and soon in other places near Iran. All that may have been corroborated by Saudi Intelligence, the shaikhs of Abu Dhabi, the Saudi ambassador in Washington, John Bolton, and one Texas screw-up named Mansoor Arbabsiar (I know you expected me to say Rick Perry). Provided that the End of Time and Rapture and the Christian right and the Republican Party do not beat them to it.
Cheers
mhg


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Iran, Iraq, Middle East Nuclear, nuclear Iran, Persian-American Gulf, War on Iran, WMD

The Beatles and Iranian Intentions: Western Fools on the Hill of Nuclear Intelligence……….

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“But the fool on the hill,
Sees the sun going down,
And the eyes in his head,
See the world spinning ’round.
Well on the way,
Head in a cloud,
The man of a thousand voices talking perfectly loud
But nobody ever hears him,
or the sound he appears to make,
and he never seems to notice,……” Les Beatles

“It was the Little Interventionist Tony Blair who first began sanctions on Iran. And the build-up of hostilities has unnerving parallels with the case for war conjured by Blair and George Bush against Iraq. We have another dodgy dossier, in the shape of the report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which claims Iran is developing nuclear weapons but says so largely on the basis of intelligence which ends in 2003. It relies on documents on a laptop, found in 2004 by the Israelis, whose reliability prompted deep scepticism among Western intelligence at the time. The foreign scientist said to have worked on a bomb with the Iranians turned out to be a nanotechnologist. And a former IAEA chief inspector has said the type of explosion chamber referred to in the report could not be used in a nuclear test. On that, is based hawkish noises and sabre-rattling sanctions. Intelligence chiefs publicly say such things as, the West must use covert operations to sabotage Iran’s nuclear programme. Politicians make thinly veiled threats of military attack using weasel words such as “all options are on the table”. Pardon me if it feels like Iraq all over again……… But Iran is a big, politically sophisticated country whose constitution of parliament, president, councils and assemblies of religious experts, creates a system of checks and balances in which change is possible. Reformers have held sway at times in this political pluralism. The Iranian establishment is fragmented into factions; a third of MPs did not vote for the measure to reduce the diplomatic status of Iran’s relations with Britain last Sunday. But it is precisely the wrong reactionary factions which are strengthened by the bellicosity of the West. And make no mistake, the war has begun. …………”

The West gets some of its ‘intelligence’ from certain Iranian exiles, and from the Israelis, not exactly an impartial source. The Israeli Likud would love for the Iran nuclear program to dominate the news so much that people would forget all about the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They would love for the world to focus on any other issue, HIV-AIDS, Global Warming, Tax Cuts, the War on Drugs, Dr Phil, anything but the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The Israelis get some of their ‘intelligence; from certain Iranian exiles.
Everybody else relies on Tony Blair and the Saudi royal family and Alarabiya (which belongs to the Saudi royal family) for intelligence on the Iranian nuclear program. Some are beginning to rely on the ruling al-Nahayan clan of Abu Dhabi for ‘intelligence’.
 
This does not mean that I have reliable intelligence that the Iranians are NOT working on a nuclear weapon. For all I know they could be in the last stage of making a Doomsday Bomb. I have no idea, but I would never believe what the IAEA or the UN or the US intelligence or British Intelligence or Israeli intelligence or Iranian intelligence or Ahmadinejad say about the Iranian program. That is what I learned from Iraq. And the writer is right, they are pushing the same arguments they used before the invasion of Iraq (which I supported at the time), and it is very likely based on faulty or downright fake information. The true goal is not nuclear weapons, it has to do with a balance of power in the Middle East.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, GCC, Gulf states, Iran, Middle East Nuclear, Saudi Arabia

Riyadh Gathering of Flunkies: no Iranians, but a Turki and a Gargasha from UAE, Mutual “Satisfaction”……..

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““Iran is escalating tension in the region and the world at large,” said Prince Saud Al-Faisal, minister of foreign affairs, in a speech read out by Prince Turki bin Mohammed bin Saud Al-Kabeer, deputy minister for multilateral relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs…….. The remarks by Prince Saud came as another blow to the Iranian policy after Europe ramped up pressure on Tehran following attacks on the British Embassy in Tehran last week………. Speaking on the role of GCC states in changing the international landscape, Anwar Mohammad Gargash, the UAE’s minister of state for foreign affairs, expressed his concerns on the Iranian nuclear program. He, however, said that the GCC had emerged as a strong bloc with unified approach and with capacity to solve issues confronting the region. “This is evident from our support to Bahrain, where troops from the GCC Peninsula Shield were sent to protect vital installations,” added Gargash…………..”

The dour mullahs or their representatives were not invited, which led me to call it a GWTW without Rhett or Scarlett. So these third and fourth tier GCC flunkies met in Riyadh, all appropriately scowling in the style of flunkies on my Gulf to show some missing gravitas. Presumably with a select gaggle of invited foreigners, to discuss Gulf security. They read speeches written for the potentates, who did not attend, from Prince Saud al-Faisal to prince Muqrin.
Instead of security, the focused on bashing Iran and its ruling mullahs. Not much of a conference, if that is what it was. Not sure what the point of the thing was. A bunch of Saudi and UAE and Bahrain and other retainers meeting in Riyadh and exchanging the very same opinion with each other, extolling the Saudi invasion to crush the Bahrain uprising. Nothing new added, no value added. Just repeating the same usual shared mantra, sort of like mutual masturbation (wtf that be).
Cheers
mhg


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Iran, Middle East Nuclear, Persian-American Gulf, Turkey, War on Iran

Rude Iranians Threaten to Retaliate if Attacked! White Folks Rights and Colored Folks………

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“A senior commander of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard says the country will target NATO’s missile defense shield in Turkey if the U.S.¬ or Israel attacks the Islamic Republic. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Guards’ aerospace division, is quoted by the semiofficial Mehr news agency as saying the warning is part of a new defense strategy to counter what it sees as an increase in threats from the U.S.¬ and Israel. He says Iran will now respond to threats with threats rather than a defensive position. Tehran says NATO’s early warning radar station in Turkey is meant to protect Israel against Iranian missile attacks if a war breaks out with Israel. Turkey agreed to host the radar in September as part of NATO’s missile defense system. Earlier Saturday, another Iranian defense official threatened retaliation against Israel if any of its nuclear or security sites are attacked. ………”

Rude and uncivilized, is all I can say. The Iranians threaten to strike back if attacked. That is unheard of among civilized nations. Even the Bush administration did not wait to be attacked: they invaded Iraq ‘long’ before that. But then these are white folks, and some of their Arab sidekicks are helpful. White powers are white, they have the right, along with their brown helpers.
FYI: I don’t think the Iranians will attack Turkey. Nay, I am certain they will not attack Turkey. I don’t think they will even attack some of the Arab monarchies that host U.S. bases, unless attacks on Iran are initiated from these bases. All the talk of attacks on Gulf states are legends created and spread by Saudi media and their fifth columnists among the Salafis and Wahhabi faux-liberals of the Persian-American Gulf states. The mullahs don’t want to give the West an excuse to annihilate their country, and they don’t want o be like Iraq’s Saddam, attacking neighbors. Contrary to Wahhabi propaganda, they will also antagonize the Arab Shi’as. They will never live all that down.
Cheers
mhg


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Iran, Middle East Nuclear, nuclear Iran, Persian-American Gulf

Of Uranium Enrichment and Balance of Power in the Gulf………

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“The significance of this aspect becomes especially clear upon realising how much popular support the nuclear programme enjoys. Even if much of this popularity can be attributed to state propaganda, it can still be concluded with some certainty that Iran’s citizens stand behind the – ostensibly peaceful – nuclear programme. As a matter of fact, it is probably the only project for which the regime enjoys the support of broad segments of society……….. The so-called “right to uranium enrichment”, in other words, the right to utilise the full fuel cycle, has been elevated by Tehran propagandists to a matter of national honour. This right is not in fact documented in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but many nations, primarily those in the developing world, infer this entitlement from the right to peaceful use of nuclear energy. The problem is that uranium enrichment is the key technology that opens the gate to the production of weapons-grade fuel, i.e. to a nuclear weapons programme, and that fact alone can indeed be used by the Islamic Republic to support its claim to leadership in the region, even without producing a single nuclear weapon. A nuclear-arms-capable Iran would have to be accepted in the region as a de facto nuclear power and hence as the dominant regional power. This would have a number of consequences for the region’s nations. First of all, it would deal a severe blow to Saudi Arabia, which would then clearly fall behind in the leadership ranks. Furthermore, the small countries lining the Gulf would be forced to align their foreign and security policy to Iran’s “virtual” nuclear power, which would also prove detrimental to Saudi influence…………”

Interesting piece, but does not make a good case for why having the nuclear technical “know how” makes a country the leader of the region. Israel and Pakistan (and North Korea) have had actual nuclear weapons for years, and they are not regional leaders. Germany has no nuclear weapons There is no reason why shoring up the influence of the Saudi oligarchy should be a goal of the “international community”. Saudi regional influence is not through direct military prowess, but through money and the sway the kingdom holds over the West and its Gulf policies. Besides, there already is a “virtual” Western (mainly American) protective umbrella over the whole Gulf already, which is why I call it the Persian-American Gulf.
Cheers
mhg


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Iran, Israel, Middle East Nuclear, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran

American Polls, Locating Nebraska and Bhutan: Israeli Polls, Iranian Missiles, West Bank, Sound Bites………

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“Most Americans support an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear sites, while a smaller majority endorses such US strike, according to a poll commissioned by the Anti-Defamation League. Some 63% of poll respondents characterized Israel as a “crucial ally” and said that the Jewish state’s relationship with the US does not undermine America’s image in the world. As to Iran’s development of nuclear weapons, the poll showed that 57% of Americans support Israeli military action to prevent such scenario while only 31% opposed such move. Some 50% of respondents suppor. Meanwhile, nearly half of all Americans said they sympathize with the State of Israel, while only 18% said they sympathize with the Palestinians. Some 63% of respondents said they believe Israel is serious about peace. ………”

That last 63% almost certainly don’t know much about Netanyahu and his Likud. You always get a “generic” answer when asking a “generic” question. The tendency among American voters, assuming this was a “good” poll, is to use whatever vague general information they have and answer accordingly to specific questions. For example, if the question was “Do you think the Likud wants to be left in peace to complete the takeover of the West Bank?” They may have answered the same affirmative.

Besides, the most recent headlines drive opinion polls in the United States in this era of sound bites. Iran and its nuclear program being in the headlines cause people to quickly associate Israel with peace. I bet ($5) many of these same folks would answer affirmative if asked whether the US faces an imminent threat of an Iranian nuclear attack. It is all headlines driven, I tell ya.
(Sad fact is, most people in the United States cannot identify Missouri or Nebraska on a map, let alone Iran or Israel. As  for locating Bhutan…..).
Cheers
mhg


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