America- Stop sucking up to Israel!

[mhgaffney]

This piece by Israeli peace activist Gideon Levy just appeared in Ha'aretz. Be sure to read the final paragraph.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1124928.html

America, stop sucking up to Israel

By Gideon Levy

Barack Obama has been busy - offering the Jewish People blessings for Rosh Hashanah, and recording a flattering video for the President's Conference in Jerusalem and another for Yitzhak Rabin's memorial rally. Only Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah surpasses him in terms of sheer output of recorded remarks.

In all the videos, Obama heaps sticky-sweet praise on Israel, even though he has spent nearly a year fruitlessly lobbying for Israel to be so kind as to do something, anything - even just a temporary freeze on settlement building - to advance the peace process.

The president's Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, has also been busy, shuttling between a funeral (for IDF soldier Asaf Ramon, the son of Israel's first astronaut Ilan Ramon) and a memorial (for Rabin, though it was postponed until next week due to rain), in order to find favor with Israelis. Polls have shown that Obama is increasingly unpopular here, with an approval rating of only 6 to 10 percent.
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He decided to address Israelis by video, but a persuasive speech won't persuade anyone to end the occupation. He simply should have told the Israeli people the truth. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who arrived here last night, will certainly express similar sentiments: "commitment to Israel's security," "strategic alliance," "the need for peace," and so on .

Before no other country on the planet does the United States kneel and plead like this. In other trouble spots, America takes a different tone. It bombs in Afghanistan, invades Iraq and threatens sanctions against Iran and North Korea. Did anyone in Washington consider begging Saddam Hussein to withdraw from occupied territory in Kuwait?

But Israel the occupier, the stubborn contrarian that continues to mock America and the world by building settlements and abusing the Palestinians, receives different treatment. Another massage to the national ego in one video, more embarrassing praise in another.

Now is the time to say to the United States: Enough flattery. If you don't change the tone, nothing will change. As long as Israel feels the United States is in its pocket, and that America's automatic veto will save it from condemnations and sanctions, that it will receive massive aid unconditionally, and that it can continue waging punitive, lethal campaigns without a word from Washington, killing, destroying and imprisoning without the world's policeman making a sound, it will continue in its ways.

Illegal acts like the occupation and settlement expansion, and offensives that may have involved war crimes, as in Gaza, deserve a different approach. If America and the world had issued condemnations after Operation Summer Rains in 2006 - which left 400 Palestinians dead and severe infrastructure damage in the first major operation in Gaza since the disengagement - then Operation Cast Lead never would have been launched.

It is true that unlike all the world's other troublemakers, Israel is viewed as a Western democracy, but Israel of 2009 is a country whose language is force. Anwar Sadat may have been the last leader to win our hearts with optimistic, hope-igniting speeches. If he were to visit Israel today, he would be jeered off the stage. The Syrian president pleads for peace and Israel callously dismisses him, the United States begs for a settlement free ze and Israel turns up its nose. This is what happens when there are no consequences for Israel's inaction.

When Clinton returns to Washington, she should advocate a sharp policy change toward Israel. Israeli hearts can no longer be won with hope, promises of a better future or sweet talk, for this is no longer Israel's language. For something to change, Israel must understand that perpetuating the status quo will exact a painful price.

Israel of 2009 is a spoiled country, arrogant and condescending, convinced that it deserves everything and that it has the power to make a fool of America and the world. The United States has engendered this situation, which endangers the entire Mideast and Israel itself. That is why there needs to be a turning point in the coming year - Washington needs to finally say no to Israel and the occupation. An unambiguous, presidential no.

[W*GS]

gaff-o! Stop sucking Nazi dick!

[Meck77]

Wigs just what is your affection for Israel? Please explain.

I certainly don't agree with all of gaffs posts but I certainly agree that America needs to stand up to Israel and America needs to stop fighting THEIR holy war.

[Rohirrim]

Gaff is right on this one. Unfortunately, there is not one, single American politician who will stand up to AIPAC. Not one. Our foreign policy as it relates to Israel is not decided in Washington DC. It is decided in the boardrooms of AIPAC.

[W*GS]

Wigs just what is your affection for Israel? Please explain.

I don't have any particular affection for Israel.

I do have a hatred of those, like gaff-o, who blame Israel and the Jews for everything that's wrong in the ME and the world generally. Remember, gaff-o is always popping in with his "'Zionists' (read Jews) are to blame" crap.

[Hotrod]

Ok if we agree to stop spending $ on Israel can we also stop sending aid to the ME and Africa or would Gaffo then put the increase deaths of starving/diseased people on Americas shoulders also?

Hey gaff suck on a cock

[mhgaffney]

There is plenty of blame to go around. The British ****ed up royally everywhere they went -- from India to China to Africa to Palestine. But probably the BIGGEST **** up was the Balfour Declaration -- which promised the Zionists a state on Arab land in Palestine.

The Balfour Declaration, like the UN Partition plan which followed in 1947 -- included a guarantee that nothing would be done that would infringe on the rights of the Palestinians. But once the Zionist cause gained the veneer of respectability -- they soon proceeded to their true agenda -- which was to take ALL of Palestine -- and **** the Palestinians. Of course, the Europeans and Americans also quickly forgot all about the guarantees. The rights, land and property of the Palestinians was soon only a memory -- and incredibly the victims soon were demonized in the western press.

In the decades since the Zionists have continued to expand their agenda. Which today is regional hegemony. Beyond that - who can say?

Recently I read that Lord Balfour went along with the Zionist agenda in WW I because he himself was an anti semite -- and wanted the Jews gone from England. Balfour vainly hoped that the Jews would leave the UK for Palestine.

Strange how the Zionists have invariably made common cause with rabid anti semites, the racist white South African regime (which during WW II was allied with Nazi Germany), and even with the Third Reich itself.

I for one deeply resent the charges of anti semitism -- which are false. I personally welcome Jews to the US. I have had Jewish friends and girl friends -- and I would welcome Jews into my neighborhood.

But anyone who dares to speak the truth in the US today -- on a range of issues - -will come under attack. This is an accurate barometer of how far down America has sunk.

As my poet friend put it -- "America is the graveyard of rainbows..."

[ak1971]

Th
I for one deeply resent the charges of anti semitism -- which are false. I personally welcome Jews to the US. I have had Jewish friends and girl friends -- and I would welcome Jews into my neighborhood.


like David Duke saying...I'm not racist I have lots of black friends and colleagues

[mhgaffney]

**** David Duke. And go **** you too, AK.

I posted an op ed written by an Israeli in the Israeli press. In Israel dissent is still allowed -- even if the vast majority ignore it. Amazing this is still true in Israel -- yet is NOT true here in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

AK, you are a typical A-hole on this board -- a know nothing knee jerk.

Zionism is the worst thing that ever happened to Judaism. It's without a doubt the most pernicious expression of colonialism we've ever seen on planet earth.

Not in terms of absolute numbers of victims -- but definitely in terms of the ultimate consequences -- where things are headed.

No one would have started a nuclear war because of some colonial backwater - in S America or Africa. But it is a very real possibility in the Mideast. And if it happens I guarantee it will ruin YOUR day.

[ak1971]

**** David Duke. And go **** you too, AK.

I posted an op ed written by an Israeli in the Israeli press. In Israel dissent is still allowed -- even if the vast majority ignore it. Amazing this is still true in Israel -- yet is NOT true here in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

AK, you are a typical A-hole on this board -- a know nothing knee jerk.

Zionism is the worst thing that ever happened to Judaism. It's without a doubt the most pernicious expression of colonialism we've ever seen on planet earth.

Not in terms of absolute numbers of victims -- but definitely in terms of the ultimate consequences -- where things are headed.

No one would have started a nuclear war because of some colonial backwater - in S America or Africa. But it is a very real possibility in the Mideast. And if it happens I guarantee it will ruin YOUR day.

or maybe they will start a war with spray-on explosives!

[Hotrod]

**** David Duke. And go **** you too, AK.

I posted an op ed written by an Israeli in the Israeli press. In Israel dissent is still allowed -- even if the vast majority ignore it. Amazing this is still true in Israel -- yet is NOT true here in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

AK, you are a typical A-hole on this board -- a know nothing knee jerk.

Zionism is the worst thing that ever happened to Judaism. It's without a doubt the most pernicious expression of colonialism we've ever seen on planet earth.

Not in terms of absolute numbers of victims -- but definitely in terms of the ultimate consequences -- where things are headed.

No one would have started a nuclear war because of some colonial backwater - in S America or Africa. But it is a very real possibility in the Mideast. And if it happens I guarantee it will ruin YOUR day.

Oh my

ROFL!

[TexanBob]

Isreal's going to bomb Iran's nukes for us because our Kenyan leader doesn't have the guts to do it himself. And we're going to help them while publicly condemning it. It's "good cop, bad cop". But it needs to be done and I'm glad Israel is there to take the hear for it.

[Rohirrim]

Isreal's going to bomb Iran's nukes for us because our Kenyan leader doesn't have the guts to do it himself. And we're going to help them while publicly condemning it. It's "good cop, bad cop". But it needs to be done and I'm glad Israel is there to take the hear for it.

Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face?

[ak1971]

Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face?

Survival kit contents check. In them you'll find: one forty-five caliber automatic; two boxes of ammunition; four days' concentrated emergency rations; one drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills; one miniature combination Russian phrase book and Bible; one hundred dollars in rubles; one hundred dollars in gold; nine packs of chewing gum; one issue of prophylactics; three lipsticks; three pair of nylon stockings. Shoot, a fella' could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.

[Hotrod]

survival kit contents check. In them you'll find: One forty-five caliber automatic; two boxes of ammunition; four days' concentrated emergency rations; one drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills; one miniature combination russian phrase book and bible; one hundred dollars in rubles; one hundred dollars in gold; nine packs of chewing gum; one issue of prophylactics; three lipsticks; three pair of nylon stockings. Shoot, a fella' could have a pretty good weekend in vegas with all that stuff.

lol

[W*GS]

Survival kit contents check. In them you'll find: one forty-five caliber automatic; two boxes of ammunition; four days' concentrated emergency rations; one drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills; one miniature combination Russian phrase book and Bible; one hundred dollars in rubles; one hundred dollars in gold; nine packs of chewing gum; one issue of prophylactics; three lipsticks; three pair of nylon stockings. Shoot, a fella' could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.

Or, as originally scripted and said:

"Shoot, a fella' could have a pretty good weekend in Dallas with all that stuff."

but since JFK had just been assassinated, it was dubbed over.

[mhgaffney]

Isreal's going to bomb Iran's nukes for us because our Kenyan leader doesn't have the guts to do it himself. And we're going to help them while publicly condemning it. It's "good cop, bad cop". But it needs to be done and I'm glad Israel is there to take the hear for it.


They lied us into war against Iraq because of imaginary WMDs.

Now, they are doing the same thing -- scamming us AGAIN -- in the case of Iran. Exact same scam.

Point being, Iran does NOT have nukes. The only state in the Mideast with nukes is Israel.

Check out this video which aired on Israeli TV -- about Israel's nuke program.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYeJ7uIPEbE

[Hotrod]

They lied us into war against Iraq because of imaginary WMDs.

Now, they are doing the same thing -- scamming us AGAIN -- in the case of Iran. Exact same scam.

Point being, Iran does NOT have nukes. The only state in the Mideast with nukes is Israel.

Check out this video which aired on Israeli TV -- about Israel's nuke program.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYeJ7uIPEbE

You are hilarious. So somehow the evil Jews planted "intel" within our government and the governments of most european nations. Thats rich you ****ing Anti-Jew **** up.

[W*GS]

Yep, as I said...

gaff-o blames the Jews for everything.

He's a grade-A Nazi ****wad.

[mhgaffney]

McStupid,

Your post is so absurd -- that no reply is even possible.

So I will have to wing it. Here goes.

Both the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the 16 US intelligence agencies ALL agree that Iran deconstructed its nuclear weapons program way back in 2003.

This means the ongoing attempts in the US media to scare up another war are just that -- scare tactics. Do you understand, now?

So, here's the question: ARE YOU STUPID ENOUGH TO FALL FOR THE SAMNE SCAM TWICE IN A ROW?

[W*GS]

Find a cock and suck it, ya mother****ing **********.

Go back to the Nazi ****hole you climbed out of, prick.

[watermock]

McStupid,

Your post is so absurd -- that no reply is even possible.

So I will have to wing it. Here goes.

Both the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the 16 US intelligence agencies ALL agree that Iran deconstructed its nuclear weapons program way back in 2003.


wow


thanks for the update

[watermock]

Ahmadinejad Personally Recruited Sanctions Buster During New York Trip, Court Documents Show
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
By Claudia Rosett


http://www.foxnews.com/images/565395/1_61_092209_amirnazmipicture.jpg
Ali Amirnazmi, right, meets with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in New York. The photograph was found when federal agents
Ali Amirnazmi, right, meets with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in New York. The photograph was found when federal agents searched the Philadelphia businessman's home.
NEW YORK — For the fifth time in five years, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is descending on New York to speak at the September opening of the United Nations General Assembly. His previous visits have stirred controversy as a circus of parties, interviews and, in 2007, his provocative speech at Columbia University.

Now we can add one more item to that list of attainments: A hands-on role, starting with a meeting in New York City in 2006, in helping one of his New York party guests commit the felony of violating U.S. sanctions on Iran.

That story of sanctions violation, pieced together here for the first time, shows Ahmadinejad's brazen abuse of diplomatic courtesies offered to him by the U.S. in allowing him to attend the UN General Assembly — where he is again scheduled to speak Wednesday afternoon.

The details come from evidence introduced in a federal trial in Philadelphia earlier this year of a 65-year-old Iranian-American businessman named Ali Amirnazmi. Press accounts at the time somehow missed Ahmadinejad's role in the case, perhaps because he was mentioned in the indictment only as "Iranian Official #1." But court documents show a web of sanctions-busting intrigue, involving not only Ahmadinejad, but also including communications running through the Iranian mission to the U.N. in New York City, as well as Iran's de facto consular service in the U.S. — the Iranian Interests Section housed at the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington, D.C.

Out of these interactions grew a sanctions-violating plan to transfer to Iran, from the U.S., advanced technology and expertise in the chemical manufacturing industry.

Ahmadinejad himself has not been charged with any crime. As a visiting head of state, he enjoys diplomatic immunity — which he abused with impunity.

The fellow on the other side of the deal, Ali Amirnazmi, was not so lucky. Amirnazmi was found guilty in February on three counts of violating U.S. sanctions on Iran, and one count of conspiracy to violate them. At the same trial, he was also convicted of bank fraud and making false statements to federal officials. Amirnazmi is now in federal custody, awaiting sentencing.

From testimony, letters and other evidence introduced in court, it's possible to sketch a picture of how Ahmadinejad encouraged and agreed to lend a hand to Amirnazmi's sanctions-busting.

Born in Iran in 1944, Ali Amirnazmi came to the U.S. in the 1960s to study at Berkeley, and went on to earn a Ph.D. from Stanford University in chemical engineering. Eventually he settled near Philadelphia, where he founded and ran a business called Trantech Consultants, Inc., marketing a powerful software system he had developed, called ChemPlan. This was a tool for strategic planning in chemical manufacturing industries, sold on a subscriber basis. Among the clients were a number of well-known companies in the U.S.

Since 1996, Amirnazmi had also been doing some quiet business with Iran, in violation of the U.S. trade embargo known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. But that law-breaking was low-key compared to what came of his meeting in 2006 with Ahmadinejad in New York.

As part of his visit to speak at the 2006 opening session of the U.N. General Assembly in Manhattan, the Iranian president hit town and embarked on his trademark social whirl. He met with peace groups, gave an interview to CNN and guest-starred at a roundtable of the Council on Foreign Relations.

On Sept. 21, 2006, Ahmadinejad also spoke at a reception for Iranians and Iranian-Americans, held in Manhattan. Amirnazmi was among those invited. During the festivities, as Amirnazmi later recounted to a U.S. federal agent, Ahmadinejad asked if anyone were willing to help Iran and do business with them. A number of people raised their hands, including Amirnazmi.

That got the businessman a chance to chat with Ahmadinejad. According to letters written later by Amirnazmi, and later corroborated by correspondence from Iran, the result was a sanctions-busting plan in which Amirnazmi would move back to Iran and transfer his entire business there. According to Amirnazmi's lawyer, speaking in a recent phone interview, the meeting with Ahmadinejad was important to Amirnazmi "in the sense that it encouraged him to believe he would be well received if he moved back home to Iran."

Writing to Ahmadinejad just a few weeks after that New York meeting, in a letter dated Nov. 7, 2006, Amirnazmi recapped his proposal to move himself and his business to Iran. He added: "I await your Excellency's response so I can come to see you in Tehran as soon as possible." He also proposed to lecture in Iran, especially to young people, on "the cruel and tyrannical regime of the United States."

• Click here to see the letter.

Apparently, the Iranian president was willing to lend a hand. In June 2007, Amirnazmi wrote to Ahmadinejad again, thanking him for helping the plan along: "You were kind to facilitate my trip to Iran on June 8, 2007 in order to meet with the National Petrochemical Company and the Technology Cooperation Office of the President."

The following September, in 2007, Ahmadinejad returned to New York to speak again at the U.N. General Assembly. While in town, he met again with Amirnazmi, who was by then sorting out the practicalities of moving his business to Iran, but running into low-level bureaucratic snags.

It appears that Ahmadinejad again pitched in to help, issuing direct orders to two high-ranking Iranian officials to smooth the way for Amirnazmi. Confirmation of this reached Amirnazmi by way of a letter written less than a month later, dated Oct. 7, 2007, from Ahmadinejad's chief secretary, under the letterhead of Iran's Office of the President.

• Click here to see the letter from Ahmadinejad's office.

The letter referenced Amirnazmi's interest in transferring ChemPlan to Iran. It also summarized Ahmadinejad's instructions to help him, as issued to Iran's oil minister, Gholam Hossein Nouzari, and to Sadegh Mahsouli, a presidential adviser and veteran of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Ahmadinejad urged both officials to "follow up" and "report the result." Nouzari was also told to do this "personally" to "make sure the job is done."

This letter from Ahmadinejad's office was relayed to Amirnazmi the following month, November 2007, by the director of the Iranian Interests Section in Washington, Mostafa Rahmani. He sent it to Amirnazmi along with his own cover letter "in regards to your proposal."

Two months later, Amirnazmi followed up by sending a note to the Iranian ambassador to the U.N. in New York, Mohammad Khazaee. Writing to thank Khazaee for his hospitality at a party the previous evening at the Iranian mission, Amirnazmi said he was attaching a copy of the "the order of His Highness, the President" for "transferring" ChemPlan to Iran. Amirnazmi added that he would be "more than happy" to meet Iran's oil minister and "discuss how to implement the President's order."

The plan gained traction during the first half of 2008, as Amirnazmi shuttled between Philadelphia and Iran. He negotiated with Iranian businesses and officials, hammering out plans potentially worth millions, not only to transfer his Chemplan software system to Iran, but for involvement in other enterprises, such as building factories.

Then, on April 24, 2008, while returning via Paris from a trip to Tehran, Amirnazmi was stopped by customs agents at the Philadelphia airport. They found Iran-related documents in his bags, questioned him, but let him go.

Four days later, Amirnazmi went in person to the Iranian Interests Section in Washington. The next day, he sent the director of the Interests Section, Mostafa Rahmani, a "thank you for yesterday's meeting" and for the "guidance," and asked Rahmani to arrange a "secret meeting" in Iran with Ahmadinejad.

Among the letters that Amirnazmi wrote to Ahmadinejad, there is one, from May 2008, that adds a plaintive note. Helpful though Ahmadinejad had been in telling Iranian officials to ease the way for Amirnazmi's business ventures, red tape was clogging the works. Amirnazmi wrote to the Iranian president that after 18 months of hard work to deliver his ChemPlan system to Iran "based on your instructions," lower level officials had required "four different proposals, numerous phone calls, and unnecessary correspondence, which caused me a security headache." In the letter, Amirnazmi asked for a two-hour private meeting with Ahmadinejad in Tehran.

• Click here to see the letter to Ahmadinejad.

He concluded by praising the Iranian Interests section at the Pakistan Embassy in Washington, D.C., "under the extraordinary management of Dr. Rahmani," for "its meritorious behavior with the clients and their quick actions."

In June, 2008, returning to Philadelphia via Detroit from a trip to Iran, Amirnazmi was again questioned by U.S. border agents. Soon after that his home and office were searched, yielding a trove of documents. In July, he was arrested.

Rahmani is still running the Iranian Interests Section in Washington, but when FOX News tried to reach him by phone with queries about his role in the Amirnazmi case, an official there said all questions should be directed to the Iranian Mission in New York. The Mission did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Now Amirnazmi is in jail, awaiting his fate. The issue of tougher sanctions against Iran is being hotly debated, and President Ahmadinejad is again visiting New York City to address the U.N. General Assembly.

Invitations have gone out yet again for more of his signature socializing in New York.

What is he planning to ask party-goers this time?

Claudia Rosett is Journalist-in-Residence with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and writes a weekly column on Foreign Affairs for Forbes.com.

.

[Mile High Magic]

They lied us into war against Iraq because of imaginary WMDs.

Now, they are doing the same thing -- scamming us AGAIN -- in the case of Iran. Exact same scam.

Point being, Iran does NOT have nukes. The only state in the Mideast with nukes is Israel.

Check out this video which aired on Israeli TV -- about Israel's nuke program.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYeJ7uIPEbE




Iran tested advanced nuclear warhead design – secret report

Exclusive: Watchdog fears Tehran has key component to put bombs in missiles

Iranian long-range Shahab-3 missile

An Iranian long-range Shahab-3 missile being fired at an unspecified location. Photograph: Press TV/AFP/Getty Images

The UN's nuclear watchdog has asked Iran to explain evidence suggesting that Iranian scientists have experimented with an advanced nuclear warhead design, the Guardian has learned.

The very existence of the technology, known as a "two-point implosion" device, is officially secret in both the US and Britain, but according to previously unpublished documentation in a dossier compiled by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iranian scientists may have tested high-explosive components of the design. The development was today described by nuclear experts as "breathtaking" and has added urgency to the effort to find a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis.

The sophisticated technology, once mastered, allows for the production of smaller and simpler warheads than older models. It reduces the diameter of a warhead and makes it easier to put a nuclear warhead on a missile.

Documentation referring to experiments testing a two-point detonation design are part of the evidence of nuclear weaponisation gathered by the IAEA and presented to Iran for its response.

The dossier, titled "Possible Military Dimensions of Iran's Nuclear Program", is drawn in part from reports submitted to it by western intelligence agencies.

The agency has in the past treated such reports with scepticism, particularly after the Iraq war. But its director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, has said the evidence of Iranian weaponisation "appears to have been derived from multiple sources over different periods of time, appears to be generally consistent, and is sufficiently comprehensive and detailed that it needs to be addressed by Iran".

Extracts from the dossier have been published previously, but it was not previously known that it included documentation on such an advanced warhead. "It is breathtaking that Iran could be working on this sort of material," said a European government adviser on nuclear issues.

James Acton, a British nuclear weapons expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: "It's remarkable that, before perfecting step one, they are going straight to step four or five ... To start with more sophisticated designs speaks of level of technical ambition that is surprising."

Another western specialist with extensive knowledge of the Iranian programme said: "It raises the question of who supplied this to them. Did AQ Khan [a Pakistani scientist who confessed in 2004 to running a nuclear smuggling ring] have access to this, or is it another player?"

The revelation of the documents comes at a time of growing tension. Tehran has so far rejected a deal that would remove most of its enriched uranium stockpile for a year and replace it with nuclear fuel rods which would be much harder to turn into weapons. The Iranian government has also balked at negotiations, which were due to begin last week, over its continued enrichment of uranium, in defiance of UN security council resolutions.

There are fears in Washington and London that if no deal is reached to at least temporarily defuse tensions by the end of December, Israel could set in motion plans to take military action aimed at setting back the Iranian programme by force, with incalculable consequences for the Middle East.

Iran has rejected most of the IAEA material on weaponisation as forgeries, but has admitted carrying out tests on multiple high-explosive detonations synchronised to within a microsecond. Tehran has told the agency that there is a civilian application for such tests, but has so far not provided any evidence for them.

Western weapons experts say there are no such civilian applications, but the use of co-ordinated detonations in nuclear warheads is well known. They compress the fissile core, or pit, of the warhead until it reaches critical mass.

A US national intelligence estimate two years ago said that Iran had explored nuclear warhead design for several years but had probably stopped in 2003. British, French and German officials have said they believe weaponisation continued after that date and may still be continuing.

In September, a German court found a German-Iranian businessman, Mohsen Vanaki, guilty of brokering the sale of dual-use equipment with possible applications in developing nuclear weapons. The equipment included specialised high-speed cameras, of the sort used to develop implosion devices, as well as radiation detectors. According to a report by the Institute for Science and International Security, the German foreign intelligence service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst, testified at the trial that there was evidence that Iran's weapons development was continuing.

The IAEA is seeking to find out what the scientists and the institutions involved in the experiments are doing now, but has so far not been given a response. The agency's repeated requests to interview Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, whose name features heavily in the IAEA's documentation and who is widely seen as the father of the Iranian nuclear programme, have been turned down.

The agency has also asked Iran to explain evidence that a Russian weapons expert helped Iranian technicians to master synchronised high-explosive detonations.

The first implosion devices, like the "Fat Man" bomb dropped on Nagasaki on 9 August 1945, used 32 high-explosive hexagons and pentagons arrayed around a plutonium core like the panels of a football. The IAEA has a five-page document describing experimentation on such a hemispherical array of explosives.

According to a diplomat familiar with the IAEA documentation, the evidence also points to experiments with a two-point detonation system that represents "a more elegant solution" to the challenges of making a nuclear warhead, but it is much harder to achieve. It is used in conjunction with a non-spherical pit, in the shape of a rugby ball, or explosives in that shape wrapped around a spherical pit, and it works by compressing the pit from both ends.The IAEA has expressed "serious concern" about Iran's failure to give an account of the research its scientists have carried out.

Descriptions of "two-point implosion" warheads designs have occasionally appeared in the public domain (there are extensive descriptions on Wikipedia) and they were first developed by US scientists in the 1950s, but it remains an offence for American officials or even non-governmental nuclear experts with security clearance to discuss them.

Julian Borger, diplomatic editor
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 5 November 2009 20.45 GMT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/05/iran-tested-nuclear-warhead-design/print


You may want to rethink your position.

[mhgaffney]

Mile High,

Thanks for posting this. It's the first I've heard of it.

It is troubling -- and along with the recent US-Israeli test of the Arrow ABM system -- in Israel - indicates that we have entered a new time of increasing tensions.

My view has been that Iran does not need nukes to deter Israel. It can do this with the medium range missiles it already has -- armed with conventional bombs -- because during the last few years the accuracy of Iran's medium range missiles greatly improved thanks to the introduction of GPS technology.

As a result, Iran can now target Israel's OWN nuclear sites. One or two direct hits on the Dimona Nuclear REactor in the Negev (where Israel makes plutonium) would cause a mini Chernobyl -- the release of a toxic plume.

This would make much of Israel and Jordan uninhabitable for tens of thousands of years. No need for Iran to make nukes.

Still, the recent report does raise new questions.

[W*GS]

Mile High,

Thanks for posting this. It's the first I've heard of it.

Of course it is - because it didn't appear in your English-language version of "Der Stürmer".

[Mile High Magic]

Mile High,

Thanks for posting this. It's the first I've heard of it.

It is troubling -- and along with the recent US-Israeli test of the Arrow ABM system -- in Israel - indicates that we have entered a new time of increasing tensions.

My view has been that Iran does not need nukes to deter Israel. It can do this with the medium range missiles it already has -- armed with conventional bombs -- because during the last few years the accuracy of Iran's medium range missiles greatly improved thanks to the introduction of GPS technology.

As a result, Iran can now target Israel's OWN nuclear sites. One or two direct hits on the Dimona Nuclear REactor in the Negev (where Israel makes plutonium) would cause a mini Chernobyl -- the release of a toxic plume.

This would make much of Israel and Jordan uninhabitable for tens of thousands of years. No need for Iran to make nukes.

Still, the recent report does raise new questions.

I think I missed something, why would Iran or any other country in the region need to deter Israel? Deter them from what, breathing? When was the last time Israel was imperialistic?

[W*GS]

I think I missed something, why would Iran or any other country in the region need to deter Israel? Deter them from what, breathing? When was the last time Israel was imperialistic?

Your second question is what gaff-o believes. Jews need to be "deterred" from existence.