Iran's leader: Obama wrong to say nuke site hidden

[The abyss]

Source: Yahoo/AP

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press Writer – 23 mins ago


TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's president hit back Saturday at President Barack Obama's accusation that his country had sought to hide its construction of a new nuclear site, arguing that Tehran reported the facility to the U.N. even earlier than required.

The Iranian president defended his government's actions as the head of the U.N.'s nuclear monitoring agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, arrived Saturday to arrange an inspection of the uranium enrichment facility near the holy city of Qom.

The revelation that Iran has been building a new nuclear plant has heightened the concern of the U.S. and many of its allies, which suspect Tehran is using a civilian nuclear program as a cover for developing a weapons-making capability. Iran denies such an aim, saying it only wants to generate energy



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091003/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_nuclear

[virgogal]

1. Mr. A. is a madman. eom

[foxfeet]

2. Right. And Iran has no GLBTQ people, either.

:sarcasm:

[Wizard777]

3. We have much better things to argue than semantics.

:boring:

[TheWraith]

4. ...You built it inside of a mountain.

I guess that's, what, so you don't spoil the local scenery?

[The abyss]

5. Not the “Mountain Fortress” again! Oh my god!!

<>


Where is Waldo?

Shaking with fear

[AverageJoe5]

6. They built it in a mountain to enhance its defence ....

.......Because Israel (with a wink from the U.S.) threatens, almost daily, to attack Iran's nuclear facilities (even though Israel's threats are most probably phony, because Israel knows Iran could retaliate by launching missiles targeting Israeli's "secret" nuclear facilities and other places).

[ShortnFiery]

7. +1

[JackRiddler]

8. Inside a mountain? The perfidy of it!

Why don't they place it in the middle of an empty plain with concentric red circles around it and a big sign you can see from outer space that says, BOMB ME?

[TheWraith]

10. You just referenced a facility designed to survive a nuclear war.

You are not supporting the Iranian government's contention that this is a peaceful facility for electrical generation. :eyes:

[JackRiddler]

11. Israel has threatened to bomb this facility.

You'd also stick your power plants deep underground, if you faced such threats.

Furthermore, if they're building a bomb, that's very bad but only about 1/200 as bad as having 200 of them.

When the nuclear powers agree to scale back, when they all allow UN inspections and adopt no first strike policies, then they will have the standing to also complain about Iran's facilities, underground or above.

[TheWraith]

21. Iran has repeatedly failed to meet the standards of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

You can't blame that on anybody but them.

[Braulio]

15. U.S. to sell Israel smart bombs for heavily fortified targets

It's not designed to survive a nuclear war. It's designed to survive Israeli and USA bunker buster bombs. This article describes a bit of what's going on, it's from an Israeli paper (it's notable that the Israeli press is more open than the US press when it comes to these issues, the US media is controlled, afraid of the Israel lobby and its friends, and doesn't publish as much information the US public could use to understand a bit better what's going on):

www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1020702.html

"Despite reservations in Washington regarding a possible Israeli strike on Iran, the American administration will supply Israel with sophisticated weapons for heavily fortified targets, the U.S. administration announced.

The U.S. Department of Defense announced it would sell the Israel Air Force 1,000 new smart bombs, rumored to significantly enhance the IAF's military capabilities. The deal was approved amid public and secret messages from Washington, with the Americans expressing their reservations about a possible Israeli strike against the Islamic Republic's suspected nuclear sites.

The Pentagon's announcement, which came on Friday, said the U.S. will provide Israel with 1,000 units of Guided Bomb Unit-39 (GBU-39) - a special weapon developed for penetrating fortified facilities located deep underground."

[TheWraith]

18. I was talking about the photo of Cheyenne Mountain. Try to keep up. nt

[Braulio]

14. Iranian Construction Practices

Most Iranian facilities are built inside mountains, so they don't get destroyed by Israeli or US bombs. It's a tad more expensive, but it's effective.

[tocqueville]

9. civil plant built on military Revolution Guard missile range, nothing suspicious

[JackRiddler]

12. Does the US have no satellite photos of the Israeli nuclear facilities?

Why aren't these available? Why weren't they released to the world? Why no condemnation of Israel's failure to comply with the NPT, or to allow UN inspections? Consider the relative threats, empirically speaking: Iran never attacked another country (it was attacked by Iraq). Israel has, many times. Iran has no bomb. Israel has hundreds, according to the unofficial but accepted estimates.

[Behind the Aegis]

13. QUICK! Look over there!

Hurry, while I make things up!

[TheWatcher]

17. What exactly did he make up?

[TheWraith]

19. Those satellite photos are available. Do a Google search.

As a matter of fact, here's one now of the Negev Nuclear Research Center at Dimona:

[JackRiddler]

23. Thank you for making my point!

Of course those photos are available. My question was rhetorical: Why isn't this dangerous facility the focus of US policy and threats?

Dimona is widely reported to have already produced hundreds of nuclear weapons for

- a state with a proven record of aggression against its neighbors, most recently committing war crimes against civilians in Gaza earlier this year

- a state that has repeatedly threatened Iran with a military first-strike (something Iran has not done in return)

- a state that refuses to join the NPT or the IAEA inspections system

- a state that not only refuses to adopt a no-first-strike policy, but in fact still refuses to acknowledge it has been a nuclear power for decades and thus shrouds its program in secrecy (unlike Iran, which reports to the IAEA and allows UN inspections).

All of this is well-known poses a far more serious and proven threat than anything Iran has ever done. So where's the US campaign against Israel?

[TheWraith]

25. Thanks for proving that you have no interest in rationality.

I don't suppose it could possibly have anything to do with the fact, say, that one country is an ally which already has nuclear weaponry, and the other one is an enemy which doesn't? :eyes:

[JackRiddler]

28. Who declares allies and enemies?

Those are determinations of the government with which one may disagree. Israel's policies are wrong in themselves, which should be enough for people who identify as humans first and Americans second. But Israel's policies are also enormously destructive to the interests of the people of the United States. The USG should stop financing and arming this rogue state immediately. Iran suffers under a repressive theocracy and enslaves its people to an irrational religious straitjacket. Its current elected leader (who is not the military commander however) engages in false and malicious rhetoric against Jews, among others. But Iran poses no threat to the US or the Israeli nuclear superpower, for that matter, and it is not my enemy in the sense of war and peace.

[Braulio]

16. The Israel Lobby as the root of the US-Iranian conflict

The Iranians established ground to air missile batteries in the area around 2006. These are new missiles being delivered by the Russian Federation as part of an extensive cooperation agreement they have.

The Iranians are being threatened all the time by Israel and the USA, and are preparing just in case. Subsequent to the construction of the ground to air missile batteries, they began to build tunnels, intended to house a small uranium enrichment facility. This facility is much smaller than the larger one at Natanz, and it's intended to disperse their uranium enrichment technology, such that a US or Israeli attack will have to strike multiple targets.

The Iranian government, pursuant to the applicable treaty, have notified the IAEA the plant is being built and will become operational next year. It's not a "secret" facility nor were they forced to reveal it, they sent the notification as required - at least six months before the plant becomes operational.

Regarding the Iranian nuclear enrichment program, it is making small amounts of 5 % enriched uranium 235. This isn't the same as weapons grade, which is about 90 % enriched, and much more difficult to make. The US is just being pushed around by its Israeli handlers to pursue a fairly irrational policy. Israel, being the only nuclear armed state in the area, wants to retain its monopoly, and it knows that even if the iranians aren't making nuclear weapons now, they will be gaining valuable knowledge they can use to make them in say 10-20 years.

The answer for the USA is not to let its foreign policy driven by the Israelis, which do so to a large extent via the Israel lobby, a powerful organization which buys US politicians, controls a large portion of the US media, and otherwise terrifies any Americans who wish do discuss the truth. This story is told in the book "The Israel Lobby". The authors, of course, have been relentlessly attacked by said Israel lobby, accused of being nazis, anti semites, and other lies, but they have been trying to raise the consciousness of the American public about this problem.

[TheWraith]

20. Yes, they were "forced" to reveal it.

They only reported it to the IAEA *after* the they were notified by the US that we knew it was there and what it was for. Look, I think as much as anybody that the Israeli government is batshit crazy, but that doesn't automatically make the Iranians angels.

[JackRiddler]

24. Stop right there.

Iranians aren't angels. Automatically or otherwise.

Israeli government is crazy - and dangerous.

Do we have a consensus?

Does this follow?

Therefore the current Iran campaign is misguided and itself dangerous. The US should focus on pressuring all parties to allow international inspections, for a start, and to follow up by joining the NPT and engaging in reductions of all weapons systems and a scale-back of all preparations for war.

If you're there, we're fine!

[TheWraith]

26. Apologia for the Iranians shouldn't be the hallmark of objection to Israeli policy.

It is not a good thing for the Iranian government to seek a nuclear weapon. Period. That's true whether you approve of the Israeli government's actions or not. I don't. But some people on DU are automatically leaping to the defense of Iran simply because they don't like the Israeli position.

[The abyss]

27. Maybe people are waking up to all the lies.

Or, perhaps in this case, the Chinese & Russians in cooperation with Iranians, just put paid to another invasion.

Of course the Russians could have allowed a US/Israeli strike to occur, but then again they do have a considerable stake in the region. The Chinese might allow a strike and invasion to occur; then again they have considerable investment in the developing gas fields.

Just a side thought: The Russians can make Omaha disappear in 20 minutes or less, but I don’t think they want to wipe out the world. The Chinese can bring us down in less than 48 hours by simply not showing up at the next T-Bill sale.

[rmp yellow]

22. Iran was required to disclose the site a long time ago

The rules called for Iran to announced its intention to build any nuclear sites; not the intention to make it operational.

The former UN chief Mohammed El Baradei said Iran broke the rules: http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-42812320090930