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August 24, 2006
Is Iran Planning A Nuclear Surprise? - And Other Boring News Our Spy Agencies Are Ignoring
Let's take a look at just a few of the Iran-related news items that we all should be keeping up with. Iran isn't going away, and we either face up to the fact that it's time to drag out the old "coalition of the willing" - perhaps better described as the "coalition of the wide-awakes that want to live in a world covered in a nuclear cloud," and take action while there still is an opportunity to do so.
While the Jerusalem Post is reporting that Iran may be planning a nuclear 'surprise' in the next few days
(A senior official in Teheran said yesterday that in the next few days, a "surprise" was expected regarding Iran's nuclear program), the ever-consistent New York Times uses Iraq to downplay the meat of today's story about senior Bush administration officials and top Republican lawmakers voicing anger that American spy agencies haven't been as quick to vocalize more ominous warnings about the threats that they say Iran presents to the United States. Both the NYT's framing and the spy agencies' failure to get the real word out about Iran is understandable, given the open willingness of the NYT and some of the employees of these agencies to divulge national secrets when it suits the political agenda they share with the Democratic party. Apparently, our friends on the Left feel that the fate of the free world plays second fiddle to their Soros-funded political agenda. [Related: Riehl World View wonders how it is that the U.S. and Israeli spy agencies are seeing such different pictures of Iran's capability. Couldn't have anything to do with that political agenda, could it?]
Yesterday, Captain Ed wrote of the Israeli surprise announcement of it's purchase of German subs on the day of the Iranian's surprise, the "Dueling Nuclear Surprises":
The Jerusalem Post hints that Iran will unveil a nuclear "surprise" in the next few weeks, but the Israelis may have beaten them to it. This comes as the fragile consensus at the UN Security Council on Iranian defiance appears to have unraveled.The "Captain" goes on to point out in his piece that after having Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shoot off his mouth at every opportunity about the need to wipe Israel off the map - the Israelis have apparently taken him at his word.... However, the Israelis have the real nuclear surprise waiting for Iran. They have bought two nuclear-capable submarines from Germany, giving them a potential mobile platform for their own nuclear-tipped missiles
In other Iran news, and very much related to the 'im'possibility of UN sanctions on Iran for building an atomic bomb while pretending to talk about their nuclear ambitions, our friends - the Russians, have just finished the water conditioning facilities at Iran NPP:
MOSCOW, August 24 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly said Thursday it has put water conditioning facilities at a plant it is helping to build in Iran.And the U.S. expects Russia to throw away $1-billion and instead vote for sanctions on Iran? We already know where that one's going.Atomstroiexport experts are working on the $1-billion plant in Bushehr, 400 kilometers (250 miles) southwest of Tehran on the coast, which was previously scheduled to become operational by the end of 2006 but that date has been set back to the second half of 2007.
"These are auxiliary facilities at the NPP and their launch allows us to start testing the main systems and units," the company said in a statement.
In today's glogeandmail.com piece - Iran's strategy of delay, Iran's leaders are referred to as "a confident bunch" and that we shouldn't be surprised that they are thumbing their noses at the rest of the world over the nucear issue:
Iran's leaders are a confident bunch these days, so it should come as no surprise that they are still gleefully thumbing their noses at the rest of the world over the nuclear issue. The United Nations Security Council set a deadline of Aug. 31 for Tehran to suspend all activities related to the enrichment and reprocessing of uranium. The ultimatum came with a package of incentives designed to meet Iran's security concerns, provide significant economic benefits and enable the government to achieve its professed goal of developing nuclear power for peaceful energy purposes. The deal would include a light-water reactor powered by uranium enriched in Russia.If that doesn't sound bad enough, the Telegraph is declaring that Iran is 'the victor in war on terror', and that Iran has replaced America as the most influential foreign power inside Iraq, seizing an opportunity created by the war against terrorism.Tehran's reply was typical of its approach throughout the budding crisis: ignore the deadline, call for more negotiations and continue to exploit divisions among the major powers that have so far prevented tough, concerted action by the international community to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear power.
So far, Iran's strategy has worked well, and its leadership is stronger than ever.
An additional item of interest is the ynet.com version of the report saying that the US has misjudged the Iran threat.
More coming throughout the day...
[Also see - "U.S. Spy Agencies Criticized On Iran"]
Posted by Richard at August 24, 2006 7:40 AM
