The NYT Reports that the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has issued an eleven-page report after returning from a truncated tour of (some of) facilities in Iran tied to it's nuclear development program.
International nuclear inspectors reported on Friday that Iran was moving rapidly to produce nuclear fuel at a deep underground site that Israel and the United States have said is virtually invulnerable to attack.I give the whole thing three weeks at the outside before something happens and then everything gets really interesting, which are polite euphemisms for "air strikes", and "the possibility of a much wider international conflict with both unconventional and global dimensions".
The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency indicated that for the first time Iran had begun producing fuel inside the new facility in a mountain near the holy city of Qum. The agency’s inspectors found in their most recent visits that over the past three months Iran has tripled its production capacity for a type of fuel that is far closer to what is needed to make the core of a nuclear weapon.
The report about progress at the new facility is likely to inflame the debate over whether Iran is getting closer to what Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, calls entering “zone of immunity.” The phrase refers to a vaguely-defined point beyond which Iran could potentially produce weapons fuel without fear of an air attack that could wipe out its facilities...
The 11-page report also described how Iran has refused, in two separate meetings with inspectors, to answer questions raised in the I.A.E.A.’s last report, issued in November, about experiments that could be linked to work on nuclear weapons. Inspectors were told they could not visit a military site called Parchin, where the inspectors suspect work was done on conventional explosives that can be used to trigger a warhead. “Iran stated that it was still not able to grant access to that site,” the report said....
The failure of the most recent visit by nuclear inspectors is likely to increase already heightened tensions after the assassination of nuclear scientists in Iran and suspected retaliation against Israeli diplomatic workers. Bellicose statements by officials from both countries have fueled speculation of a possible military strike by Israel against the Iranian nuclear facilities.
And, the Pinhead Gallery, famous for having
...on CNN Thursday night, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani... casually [said] President Obama should threaten to “bomb” Iran to prevent the country from developing a nuclear weapon.Or, as the 'Crazy Old Grandfather' character says in the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, "C'MON -- BRING IT !!"
Obama has made the situation more complicated by being such a “weakling,” Giuliani said, including writing a secret letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamanei asking for a dialogue.
The president instead should be convincing Iran that he’s serious and capable of launching military strikes, which is the United States’ best chance to avoid actually carrying out a military mission, Giuliani said.
“(Obama) can’t say the words ‘bomb them,’” Giuliani said. “We need a president who can say the words ‘bomb them’ and actually can do it if he has to protect us from Iran becoming a nuclear power.”
Once the president convinces Iran that he will “bomb the hell out of them,” Giuliani said, things will change. “We are the largest military in the entire world, they are a small, tiny little military power compared to us.”
I'm so old a Dog, I remember when The Mayor Of 9-11 was considered a Very Serious Candidate for the presidency. But,as well, too also we had President Cheney running the country then, and '"Lil' Boots" feeling puffed up and happy he was Bigger 'N His Daddy At Last. Good Times...
... and may we never have any like them again.
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