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Dick Cheney: Iran Not Making Nukes
But he’s considering bombing them anyway.
From his interview with the Australian.
‘You get various estimates of where the point of no return is,’ Mr Cheney said, identifying nuclear terrorism as the greatest threat to the world.
‘Is it when they possess weapons or does it come sooner, when they have mastered the technology but perhaps not yet produced fissile material for weapons?’
Goodness! Does this mean that Dick Cheney admits that the nuclear technology Iran is developing is only what we all know about since there are international inspectors everywhere?
That they are just beginning, after many failures, to be able to enrich uranium to 3.6% U-235, which cannot be used to make bombs anyway?
That’s all you got, Dick?
You’re not even going to bother making assertions about a secret program that cannot be proven to not exist? (Or can it?)
Debate over the “point of no return,” huh?
There you have it folks, Dick Cheney’s case for “regime change” in Iran:
Nothing.
Discussion
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What do I tell someone who is convinced that the UN discovered traces of “highly enriched uranium” back in May in Iran, an event that received widespread coverage in the mainstrem press?
Do I explain that what they found was the 3.5% U235–and NOT the weapons grade stuff that is nearly 100% U235 in hexafluorated form and requires centrifuges that run at supersonic speeds?
Or is what they found simply just a stray reading on a geiger counter that would not even be able to determine what the hell it was?
oh wait, that was 2003…or was it… I dont know.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/01/world/middleeast/01vienna.html?ex=1314763200&en=c6f81151c3cba4fc&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
anyway, even the New “you cant make an omelette without breaking some eggs” York Times doesnt come out and say that this is definitive evidence of a functional weapons program.
It was HEU, but it was left over from Pakistan where they got the equipment.
Read Target Iran. See also here. http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/744/iaea-clears-iran-on-heu
Interesting article on the whole subject was in le Monde Diplomatique in English: Iran needs nuclear energy, not weapons
That was very good, indeed. Thanks.
The web of lies and deception around Cheney and his Neo Con “warriors” is slowly unraveling, and Americans would not trust Cheney to put out the wet garbage at the White House. The real problem is the Congress and Senate. Americans believe that they voted in an anti war congress in 2006, when in fact they voted in an alternate gang of war enablers. With congress dutifully in line with Likud’s position on Iran, there is no check on the increasing belligerence emanating from the White House.
Our ground troops and our naval units are now targets. The administration sits back and waits for a pretext to occur; a downed airplane over Iranian territory; a border clash between Iranian forces and US special ops; an anti ship missile fired at a US Carrier group in a pre-emptive strike by a panicked Iran; or some other “provocation” real or imagined.
Congress wrangles over a non-binding resolution when they should be shutting down the Gulf build up through massive military apending freezes. Bush and Cheney must be impeached. Nothing short of a revolution in Congress, and a rethinking of America;’s “special relationship” with Israel and the Middle East in general, will end this wretched, wretched, war.
thank you scott. thank you hass. both excellent articles.
as reading them, i found myself playing what scott calls “cheney’s advocate. ” not to justify a belligerent stance, but would be wondering how to answer questions such as
-If the uranium enrichment part from Khan’s garage sale contained HEU not EU, does this confer HEU production capability to Iran’s technicians and scientists at their nuclear facilities?
My answer–no because that would be like asking someone to build a car from a junk heap after selling them a couple of nice spark plugs.
-Why did Iran pursue the equipment so furtively, via the AQ Khan route? Why not openly?
My answer–because Iran found itself facing a tremendous amount of friction from the international community to pursue even peaceful nuclear projects, and did not want to delay more. Also, perhaps, some of the mullocracy thought that it would be wise to keep the international community guessing about its intentions via elaborate bluffs in order to gain respect.
-We all know that Iran is ful of crazies, right? Even if they have the intention to acquire a nuke, that is a serious threat to regional stability and the national interest to keep the oil flowing through the Hormuz.
My answer, so…diplomatic and economic isolation and or massive bombing wold help? Really?
Dont know if my retorts are good enough…what would yall say?
yeah, cant wait to see what happens when “order 66″ goes down, and the Interior ministry people we installed follow through on their word to “do their duty.”
that is seriously f***ed up s*** that will be happening to american sons, daughters, fathers who will begin to die over there en masse. while the cold, callous fox news addicted people might not really care about that much here, perhaps they will notice gasoline rationing and oil at 200 a barrel.
-If the uranium enrichment part from Khan’s garage sale contained HEU not EU, does this confer HEU production capability to Iran’s technicians and scientists at their nuclear facilities?
My answer–no because that would be like asking someone to build a car from a junk heap after selling them a couple of nice spark plugs.
—-Exactly. All they got from him was old junk.
-Why did Iran pursue the equipment so furtively, via the AQ Khan route? Why not openly?
My answer–because Iran found itself facing a tremendous amount of friction from the international community to pursue even peaceful nuclear projects, and did not want to delay more. Also, perhaps, some of the mullocracy thought that it would be wise to keep the international community guessing about its intentions via elaborate bluffs in order to gain respect.
—–Because America was putting pressure on every state to not sell them anything. The article Hass linked to explains it pretty well.
-We all know that Iran is ful of crazies, right? Even if they have the intention to acquire a nuke, that is a serious threat to regional stability and the national interest to keep the oil flowing through the Hormuz.
My answer, so…diplomatic and economic isolation and or massive bombing wold help? Really?
——Right. They need to make money too. How would we like it if the Iranian navy was building up in the Gulf of Mexico.
Dont know if my retorts are good enough…what would yall say?
I think you answered the first 2 well.
We all know that Iran is ful of crazies, right? Even if they have the intention to acquire a nuke, that is a serious threat to regional stability and the national interest to keep the oil flowing through the Hormuz.
I’d point out that the Persians haven’t been militarily aggressive in a very long time. I’d also mention that America gets most of its oil from North America, South America, and West Africa which Iran can’t do anything about even if they wanted to.
Pointing out that America’s invasion of Iraq tripled the price of oil and that the price of oil & gasoline is lower than it was decades ago (when adjusted for inflation) will remove any warped economic reasons for the wars too.
…This Goddamned war is not going to end in our lifetimes, nor for that matter your Great Grandchildern’s, Why—Because Ted Koppell and ABC News say so…Tune in March 11 for his Special Report…