Bush denies plan to attack Iran

From The Jerusalem Post:

The White House on Tuesday flatly denied an Army Radio report that claimed US President George W. Bush intends to attack Iran before the end of his term. It said that while the military option had not been taken off the table, the Administration preferred to resolve concerns about Iran's push for a nuclear weapon "through peaceful diplomatic means."

Army Radio had quoted a top official in Jerusalem claiming that a senior member in the entourage of President Bush, who concluded a trip to Israel last week, had said in a closed meeting here that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were of the opinion that military action against Iran was called for.

The official reportedly went on to say that "the hesitancy of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice" was preventing the administration from deciding to launch such an attack on the Islamic Republic for the time being.

The Army Radio report, which was quoted by The Jerusalem Post and resonated widely, stated that according to assessments in Israel, the recent turmoil in Lebanon, where Hizbullah has de facto established control of the country, was advancing an American attack.

Bush, the official reportedly said, considered Hizbullah's show of strength to constitute evidence of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's growing influence. In Bush's view, the official said, "the disease must be treated - not its symptoms."

However, the White House on Tuesday afternoon dismissed the story. In a statement, it said that "[the US] remain[s] opposed to Iran's ambitions to obtain a nuclear weapon. To that end, we are working to bring tough diplomatic and economic pressure on the Iranians to get them to change their behavior and to halt their uranium enrichment program.

Yes, I'm sure that a good scolding is all that the Iranians need to understand the error of their ways.

I do not believe for one second that the president has any intention of attacking Iran in some blitzkrieg program to destroy their nuclear capabilities before the new president can be sworn in.

Now that plan would make a great deal of sense. Once Iran has tested a nuclear device, which they will before the next president's first term is over, then whole picture changes. Bush, knowing that his popularity cannot get any lower, could take the backlash from the Democrats and independents for attacking yet another country and conservatives just might see the attack, which badly needs to happen, as evidence that the Republican party has not become totally useless and be a bit more inclined to vote for McCain.

But I don't think it will happen.

Do they or don't they?

From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 — A new assessment by American intelligence agencies released Monday concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains frozen, contradicting a judgment two years ago that Tehran was working relentlessly toward building a nuclear bomb.

The conclusions of the new assessment are likely to reshape the final year of the Bush administration, which has made halting Iran’s nuclear program a cornerstone of its foreign policy.

The assessment, a National Intelligence Estimate that represents the consensus view of all 16 American spy agencies, states that Tehran is likely to keep its options open with respect to building a weapon, but that intelligence agencies “do not know whether it currently intends to develop nuclear weapons.”

Iran is continuing to produce enriched uranium, a program that the Tehran government has said is intended for civilian purposes. The new estimate says that the enrichment program could still provide Iran with enough raw material to produce a nuclear weapon sometime by the middle of next decade, a timetable essentially unchanged from previous estimates.

But the new report essentially disavows a judgment that the intelligence agencies issued in 2005, which concluded that Iran had an active secret arms program intended to transform the raw material into a nuclear weapon. The new estimate declares instead with “high confidence” that the military-run program was shut in 2003, and it concludes with “moderate confidence” that the program remains frozen. The report judges that the halt was imposed by Iran “primarily in response to increasing international scrutiny and pressure.”

It was not clear what prompted the reversal. Administration officials said the new estimate reflected conclusions that the intelligence agencies had agreed on only in the past several weeks.

Perhaps the Iranians stopped their nuclear weapons program (if they have indeed stopped it) as a consequence of the US invasion of Iraq. After all the invasion was enough to induce Libya to give up its own WMD program. It is amazing what the fear of a visit from a hundred thousand heavily armed soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines can accomplish.

Of course it is entirely possible that the estimate is wrong and that the Iranians are still trying to build a bomb. After all Israel is still convinced of this and they have much better human intelligence than we do and they are highly motivated to get it right where Iran is concerned. After all the only reason that Iran would build a bomb is to use it on Tel Aviv.

I hope this estimate is accurate. I hope the Iranians are not currently working on nuclear weapons. I hope this because contrary to what the lunatic fringe left, steeping in the insanity of their Bush Derangement Syndrome, believe the administration is not seeking to find or manufacture a pretext to invade or bomb Iran.

The fact is that the Democrat Party, otherwise known as the Jackass Party or the Party of Treason or the Surrender Party or the Hate America Party, has so poisoned the political waters that action against Iran, no matter how justified or urgent, is effectively impossible.

Even an action by Israel to do away with the Iranian uranium enrichment program is nearly impossible because it would require the active participation of the US and the Left, which is the new home of antisemitism in the Western world, sees Jewish conspiracies hiding behind every tree to a degree not seen since Julius Streicher published the last issue of Der Sturmer. Even letting the IDF overfly US controlled airspace in Iraq would ignite a firestorm among the latter-day neo-Nazis in organizations like Code Pink, MoveOn.org, DailyKos and DemocratUnderground.

No, if the Iranians don't stop themselves they aren't going to be stopped. At least not until the next president takes the oath of office.

What I also find interesting about this is that the left is taking this intelligence estimate as gospel when the other estimates that said that Iran was working on a bomb were assumed to be deceptions by the administration designed to provide a pretext to war. Just like the consensus of intelligence agencies not only of the US but of the world which said that Saddam Hussein had an active WND program is assumed to have been a gigantic lie cooked up by Bush and Cheney to justify invading Iraq.

It would seem that the left only believes what it wants to believe. Just like the British politicians who believed that they could make friends with Hitler in the years leading up to WWII.

War with Iran?

From The Washington Post:

Independent experts have pinpointed what they believe to be the Euphrates River site in Syria that was bombed by Israel last month, and satellite imagery of the area shows buildings under construction roughly similar in design to a North Korean reactor capable of producing nuclear material for one bomb a year, the experts say.

Photographs of the site taken before the secret Sept. 6 airstrike depict an isolated compound that includes a tall, boxy structure similar to the type of building used to house a gas-graphite reactor. They also show what could have been a pumping station used to supply cooling water for a reactor, say experts David Albright and Paul Brannan of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS).

U.S. and international experts and officials familiar with the site, who were shown the photographs yesterday, said there was a strong and credible possibility that they depict the remote compound that was attacked. Israeli officials and the White House declined to comment.

If the facility is confirmed as the site of the attack, the photos provide a potential explanation for Israel's middle-of-the-night bombing raid.

The facility is located seven miles north of the desert village of At Tibnah, in the Dayr az Zawr region, and about 90 miles from the Iraqi border, according to the ISIS report to be released today. Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector, said the size of the structures suggested that Syria might have been building a gas-graphite reactor of about 20 to 25 megawatts of heat, similar to the reactor North Korea built at Yongbyon.

"I'm pretty convinced that Syria was trying to build a nuclear reactor," Albright said in an interview. He said the project would represent a significant departure from past policies. ISIS, a nonprofit research group, tracks nuclear weapons and stockpiles around the world.

Israel, which has nuclear weapons of its own, has not said publicly what its warplanes hit or provided justification for the raid. Syria has denied having a nuclear program. But beginning construction of a nuclear reactor in secret would violate Syria's obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which requires all signatories to declare their intent when such a decision is made, according to sources at the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

North Korea may be willing to stop nuclear weapons research and production inside North Korea, but it is clearly unwilling get out of the nuclear business altogether. Iran is just as clearly attempting to outsource a portion of its own nuclear weapons program to a client state.

Israel is warning that there is "very little time" to keep Iran from going nuclear and Dick Cheney is saying that Iran will not be allowed to build nuclear weapons.

I would not have thought that the president would be willing to take on a new military operation in another country this close to the election with the current war in Iraq being so unpopular. However the urgency of the situation and the absolute need to keep Iran from having the bomb could force his hand.

Putin runs interference for Imadinnerjacket

From The Washington Post:

MOSCOW, Oct. 10 -- President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday there is no evidence that Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons, reiterating a Kremlin position that has hamstrung efforts by the United States and European Union countries to impose tougher U.N. sanctions on Tehran.

"We have no real data to claim that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, which makes us believe the country has no such plans," Putin said after a meeting in Moscow with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who suspects the opposite and supports a third and much harsher round of U.N. sanctions.

Translation: There's a lot of money to be made helping these sand-monkeys nuke up and they're only going to hit Israel, so who cares about the consequences.

North Korea giving Syria nuclear materials

From The Times Online:

Israeli commandos seized nuclear material of North Korean origin during a daring raid on a secret military site in Syria before Israel bombed it this month, according to informed sources in Washington and Jerusalem.

The attack was launched with American approval on September 6 after Washington was shown evidence the material was nuclear related, the well-placed sources say.

They confirmed that samples taken from Syria for testing had been identified as North Korean. This raised fears that Syria might have joined North Korea and Iran in seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.

Israeli special forces had been gathering intelligence for several months in Syria, according to Israeli sources. They located the nuclear material at a compound near Dayr az-Zwar in the north.

Evidence that North Korean personnel were at the site is said to have been shared with President George W Bush over the summer. A senior American source said the administration sought proof of nuclear-related activities before giving the attack its blessing.

Diplomats in North Korea and China believe a number of North Koreans were killed in the strike, based on reports reaching Asian governments about conversations between Chinese and North Korean officials.

Syrian officials flew to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, last week, reinforcing the view that the two nations were coordinating their response.

Right now the problem is North Korea and Iran. If we put out the fire before it spreads from those two sources all will probably be well, however if we allow it to spread there will be no containment.

One step closer to an Islamic bomb

WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 — The Sept. 6 attack by Israeli warplanes inside Syria struck what Israeli intelligence believes was a nuclear-related facility that North Korea was helping to equip, according to current and former American and Israeli officials.

Details about the Israeli assessment emerged as China abruptly canceled planned diplomatic talks in Beijing that were to set a schedule to disband nuclear facilities in North Korea. The Bush administration has declined to comment on the Israeli raid, but American officials were expected to confront the North Koreans about their suspected nuclear support for Syria during those talks.

The American and Israeli officials said the Israeli government notified the Bush administration about the planned attack just before the raid. It is not clear whether administration officials expressed support for the action or counseled against it.

The raid has aroused intense speculation in Washington and Jerusalem, but details remain extraordinarily murky. Officials said access to new intelligence about suspected North Korean support to Syria has been confined to a very small group of officials in Washington and Jerusalem.

We wonder why the Chinese are canceling talks about dismantling the North Korean nuclear program. Perhaps they want to protect the North Koreans from any confrontation with the United States.

What we have to consider here is that Syria is a satellite of Iran. Whatever technology the Syrians get will sooner than later find its way to Iran.

I have a challenge to all the Ron Paul pod-people. Put this together with the fact that Syria, Iran and North Korea all have access to nuclear scientists and engineers who used to build the nuclear weapons for the Soviet Union and then tell me how all this doesn't add up to a threat.

US attempts to upgrade nuclear arsenal

From The Washington Post:

The selection of a basic design for what could become a new generation of U.S. nuclear warheads has drawn immediate opposition from some key members of Congress.

The National Nuclear Security Administration announced on Friday that it had selected a design by the California-based Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW). It would be the first of a new generation of secure and reliable nuclear warheads initially intended for the Navy's submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Within the next 12 months, a team from Livermore and the Navy is to put together cost estimates and an engineering and production plan that would be presented to Congress next year for approval, according to acting NNSA Administrator Thomas P. D'Agostino.

Why do they want to build a new generation of nuclear warhead?

D'Agostino told reporters on Friday that the RRW "is not about starting a new nuclear arms race." He said the program would use a warhead design that was tested in the 1980s but package it with new features, such as insensitive high explosives less liable to explode by accident, as well as locking devices that would prevent the warhead from being used if it fell into the hands of terrorists.

Sounds pretty good, right? Well not to everyone:

Rep. Peter J. Visclosky (D-Ind.), the new chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that controls the funds for the nuclear weapons complex, has sharply questioned why a new warhead is needed. Saying the NNSA announcement "puts the cart before the horse," he called on the Bush administration to present a "clear, coherent national policy" to justify the new warhead.

Visclosky said he plans to hold oversight hearings and may seek to slow or eliminate the RRW if the administration does not present a strategy "that defines the future mission, the emerging threats, and the specific U.S. nuclear stockpile necessary to achieve the strategic goals."

Is it just me or doesn't "more reliable", "less likely to explode by accident" and "harder for terrorists to use if they obtained one" sound like damn good reasons?

Of course no example of Democrat moonbattery would be complete without the queen of the Senate's moonbats getting the chance to bloviate:

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a longtime opponent of new nuclear weapons, has declared that she is "100 percent opposed" to building the RRW. A member of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that funds the nuclear complex, she said in a statement: "While I appreciate the fact that Lawrence Livermore was selected, this in no way answers my questions about the Reliable Replacement Warhead program."

She questioned how other countries would view the U.S. effort to develop new nuclear weapons at the same time that the United States is pushing Iran, North Korea and other countries to drop nuclear weapons programs. "What worries me is that the minute you begin to put more sophisticated warheads on the existing fleet, you are essentially creating a new nuclear weapon. And it's just a matter of time before other nations do the same thing," she said.

I guess Feinstein is too stupid to figure out the difference between a rogue state like North Korea or Iran building nuclear arms when it did not possess them before and a responsible free nation like the US upgrading its already existing nuclear arsenal.

This is another demonstration of why Democrats should not be trusted with power.

Catching up with the times

From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 — President Bush reversed a decades-old ban on nuclear cooperation with India on Monday, signing legislation allowing the United States to sell civilian nuclear fuel and technology to India for the first time since that country tested a nuclear device in 1974.

Mr. Bush, who has taken a hard line against nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea, negotiated the atomic energy pact during a visit to India in March, and Congress approved the measure shortly before adjourning this month. In return for access to American technology, India must now open its nuclear program to international inspection.

“This is an important achievement for the whole world,” Mr. Bush said during a signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House. “After 30 years outside the system, India will now operate its civilian nuclear program under internationally accepted guidelines, and the whole world is going to be safer as a result.”

Critics say the pact will open the door to nuclear proliferation. Representative Edward J. Markey, the Massachusetts Democrat who has been a leading opponent of the bill, said it “may well become the death warrant to the international nuclear nonproliferation regime.”

It should. The "international nuclear nonproliferation regime" is based upon a flawed concept. The "regime" attempts to keep any nation which currently does not possess nuclear weapons from acquiring them.

The flaw is this. Not every nation is irresponsible yet the nonproliferation regime them as though they were. India is a civilized nation which offers no threat to any other civilized nation. The only people who need feel threatened by India's nuclear arsenal are the Islamic fanatics who always seem to hover a hair's breadth away from the taking over the levers of power in Pakistan.

The only people threatened by Israel's nuclear weapons are the Arab/Muslim tyrants who have the stated goal of "pushing the Jews into the sea" and the nukes of NATO nations were only ever aimed at communist targets.

The people who we ought to fear having atomic weapons are the "bad-guy" states like Iran and North Korea. To devote the same efforts to keeping nukes out of the hands of the good guys as we do to keeping them from the bad guys all in the name of avoiding "hypocrisy" is a moronic wast of time.

The fact is that a nuclear armed Japan and South Korea would do wonders for damping Communist China's ambitions to establish hegemony in the Asian sphere and would effectively pull Kim Jong-il's fangs. Just as putting the former Soviet satellites under the NATO nuclear umbrella significantly limits the damage that a newly totalitarian Russia can inflict on the world.

The fact is that weapons in the right hands (doesn't matter if we are talking about a nuclear tipped ICBM in a silo in Nebraska or a .38 handgun tucked into the purse of a nurse who has to go to her car in a dark parking lot at 1:00 AM) are a force for good in the world.

It is past time that the civilized world abandon nonproliferation in favor of targeted proliferation.