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POPSIran, Obama and the Bipartisan Sanctions Bill “Suspicious aims.” New charges were also brought last month against Iranian-American scholar Kian Tajbakhsh, who was already sentenced to at least 12 years in prison on espionage charges. The regime has been going after other foreign nationals, including French teacher Clotilde Reiss, who is living under house arrest in the French embassy in Tehran. Christopher Dickey notes in Newsweek that “since Ahmadinejad took over four years ago, some 35 foreign nationals or dual nationals have been imprisoned for use as chump change in one sordid deal or another.” Diplomacy. In October, the U.S. and its allies offered to enrich Iran’s uranium in facilities outside the country, supposedly for the production of medical isotopes. Tehran finally came back with a counterproposal late last week, in which no uranium would leave Iranian soil. Even Hillary Clinton admits it’s a nonstarter:
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POPS Obama's Legacy That far exceeds what's needed to turn on the lights, but it's also beyond what's needed for a basic nuclear weapons program. Consider North Korea, which manufactured two limited yield nuclear weapons using only a plutonium reactor, a plutonium reprocessing facility, and -- presumably -- some sort of weapons laboratory. Why is Iran pumping billions more into building and protecting triple the number of facilities required to build a basic nuclear weapon, akin to the Fat Man or Little Boy bombs detonated in 1945? The answer could be that Tehran is skipping basic weapons construction and moving towards an advanced thermonuclear design. Consider that they've already experimented with advanced weapons designs like two-point implosion, nuclear triggers, and have built their own facility at Arak that could be used to produce both tritium, which is a suspected boosting agent in hydrogen bomb designs, as well as weapons-grade plutonium.
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POPSIran 'Building Nuclear Bomb Trigger' Is there a rationale for all civilized countries to wait until a rogue state sets off a nuclear device or threatens to set off a nuclear device in order to gain some as yet, unspecified goal????
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POPSSecret Document Exposes Iran’s Nuclear Trigger
In September, Iran was forced to admit that it was constructing a secret uranium enrichment facility near the city of Qom. President Ahmadinejad then claimed that he wanted to build ten such sites. Over the weekend Manouchehr Mottaki, the Iranian Foreign Minister, said that Iran needed up to 15 nuclear power plants to meet its energy needs, despite the country’s huge oil and gas reserves. Mark Fitzpatrick, senior fellow for non-proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, said: “The most shattering conclusion is that, if this was an effort that began in 2007, it could be a casus belli. If Iran is working on weapons, it means there is no diplomatic solution.” The Times had the documents, which were originally written in Farsi, translated into English and had the translation separately verified by two Farsi speakers. While much of the language is technical, it is clear that the Iranians are intent on concealing their nuclear military
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POPS10 Reasons Nuclear Iran is No Joke One is enough. While the World is busily playing word-games, Iran (and it's allies) are bursting forward with their nuclear weapons growth and spreading their influence around the globe. They're not even pretending anymore...they're telling the wold, flat-out, that they are seeking domination! I'm convinced that if tiny Israel takes the Shot, the rest of the so-called free world will line itself up *behind* Israel. Surely, in whatever reality they possess in their minds, they know that Iran is the biggest threat to peace. And when Iran moves, it's going to be huge.
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POPSUS can give Iran space to accept atom deal: Official What a bunch of fools. The IAEA is a pawn of the Iranians and the majority of UN 'diplomats' are Muslim sympathizers. It's all about stalling and doing nothing while Iran steadily moves on with it's nuclear programs. Why not just give them the dang bomb, shut down the IAEA and the UN, eliminate all diplomatic positions and end the charade. Everyone knows that Iran is NOT going to stop its nuclear weapons development.
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POPSThe World's Most Dangerous Job? He worked for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, an international agency charged with uncovering illicit nuclear tests. A UN spokesman in the Austrian capital said there were no "suspicious circumstances" surrounding the man's death, while a police spokesman said that no other person was believed to have been involved. No suicide note has been found.
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POPS Oliver North::Protecting the Image by Oliver North Mr. Obama's presentation to the assembly Sept. 23 and his speech to the U.N. Security Council's summit on "nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament" Sept. 24 were celebrated for their "breadth and understanding" and his "appeal for dialogue in the quest for world peace." But the O-Team's careful choreography collapsed just hours later, when Iran's secret uranium enrichment facility, buried in the mountains near the holy city of Qom, was exposed. In the aftermath, it was revealed that Mr. Obama had known about the site since January. When asked why he failed to mention the Iranian malfeasance in both of his U.N. addresses, a White House spokesman said the administration didn't want "to spoil the image of success" during Mr. Obama's debut at the U.N. Of course, the problem isn't "image"; it's reality. And the reality is that the Iranian pursuit of nuclear weapons has continued unabated for at least a decade. U.S. intelligence confirmed that Tehran was building . . .
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POPSHard to Imagine, Australia Brings Israel, Iran Together of a nuclear-weapons-free zone in the Middle East. Contact between Israeli and Iranian officials is sporadic and only takes place at international forums - no formal meetings between the two countries have occurred since the 1979 Iranian revolution. Officials from Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and other regional countries also took part in the three-day meeting and it is believed the talks floated an idea for a further regional conference - possibly hosted by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon - to outline the broad aims of a treaty to create a Middle East nuclear-free zone. Similar ideas have stalled in the past over the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict and questions of security guarantees for Israel. But last month's talks in Egypt attempted to skirt such obstacles by focusing on proposals to safeguard any fissile material in the region that could potentially be used for nuclear weapons.
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POPSRussia Refuses Call For Tougher Sanctions On Iran, They Would Be “Counterproductive” President Barack Obama " who visited Russia in July " has vowed to “reset” U.S.-Russia relations. Beyond Iran, Lavrov said U.S. and Russia negotiators have made “considerable” progress toward reaching agreement on a new strategic arms treaty. The 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, expires in December and negotiators have been racing to reach agreement on a successor. The two diplomats also discussed possible cooperation on missile defense following Obama’s decision not to proceed with Bush-administration plans to base such a system in eastern Europe. Russia has welcomed Obama’s new approach, but has said it was eager for more detailed information. Clinton said the U.S. would be as transparent as possible. “We want to ensure that every question that the Russian military or Russian government asks is answered,” she said, calling missile defense “another area for deep cooperation between our countries.”
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POPSIs Israel Assassinating Iran Nuclear Scientists? "Disruption is designed to slow progress on the program, done in such a way that they don't realize what's happening. You are never going to stop it," a former CIA officer on Iran was quoted as saying. "The goal is delay, delay, delay until you can come up with some other solution or approach," he added. "We certainly don't want the current Iranian government to have those weapons. It's a good policy, short of taking them out militarily, which probably carries unacceptable risks."
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POPSIAEA Director: "[Nuclear] Israel No. 1 Threat to Middle East" Bingo! Someone with weight finally said it, and while inspecting Iran's new nuclear facility. Now let's see if US media publishes and broadcasts this or not. (I bet not). This is a headline story! "Israel is the number one threat to the Middle East given the nuclear arms it possesses," ElBaradei was quoted as saying.
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POPS The Iran Attack Plan Israel would have to contend with the fact that it has consistently had a "red light" from both the Bush and Obama administrations opposing such strikes. Any strike that overflew Arab territory or attacked a fellow Islamic state would stir the ire of neighboring Arab states, as well as Russia, China and several European states. No one knows what specialized weapons Israel may have developed on its own, but Israeli intelligence has probably given Israel good access to U.S., European, and Russian designs for more advanced weapons than the GBU-28. Therefore, the odds are that Israel can have a serious impact on Iran's three most visible nuclear targets and possibly delay Iran's efforts for several years. The story is very different, however, when it comes to destroying the full range of Iranian capabilities. There are no meaningful unclassified estimates of Iran's total mix of nuclear facilities, but known unclassified research, reactor, and centrifuge facilities number . . .
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POPSIran's "Secret" Nukes "But the U.S. has known of the facility's existence "for several years" through intelligence developed by U.S., French and British agencies, a senior White House official said. Obama decided to gather allies to talk publicly on Friday about their view of the project so as not to let Iran have the only word, officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to let the statements from Obama and the leaders remain the focus. The plant would be about the right size to enrich enough uranium to produce one or two bombs a year, but inspectors must get inside to know what is actually going on, the official said. The three leaders hoped the disclosure would increase pressure on the global community to impose new sanctions on Iran if it refuses to stop its nuclear program."
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POPSWestern Powers to Accuse Iran of Covert Nuclear Site The Islamic Republic has continually been criticised for its nuclear programme, with western nations declaring Tehran's motives involve the building of a nuclear arsenal, not the development of nuclear power stations. The news comes the day after the UN security council passed a resolution calling for an end to all nuclear weapons. Iran continues to be placed under UN sanctions following its failure to suspend its enrichment programme.
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POPSNewsweek: US Intelligence Finds no Evidence of Iranian N-Weapons Program 
The other news is about so-called suppressed documents in the files at the International Atomic Energy Agency, which are alleged to show a nuclear weapons research program. Gareth Porter argues convincingly that the reason that the IAEA never took the documents seriously is that there is every reason to think they are forgeries, perhaps by the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) political cult, which wants to have the US overthrow the clerical regime in Tehran so that MEK can take over the country. As for the Western press leaks that Iran now has enough nuclear material to make a bomb or now has the technical ability to make a bomb, both are nonsense. You need to enrich uranium to 90% to make a bomb. Iran claims to be able to enrich to 4% and a lot of observers think that is an exaggeration. So ipso facto Iran cannot possibly have produced enough fissile material for a bomb. Moreover, you need to have a weapons program trying to enrich to 90% to produce a bomb, which Iran does not have, from ev
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POPSTehran now has know-how for nuclear bomb The document, prepared by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), had not been disclosed to the 35 countries on the organisation's board, but a copy was obtained by a news agency. The internal report summarised everything the IAEA knew about the "possible military dimension of Iran's nuclear programme". It also found that Iranian scientists have studied how to build a nuclear warhead capable of delivery on a missile. They tried to modify a missile so that it could carry a warhead that is "quite likely to be nuclear" and tested the system of explosives used to detonate a nuclear warhead.
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POPS“It’s Life Has Come To An End” Ahmadinejad Lays The Smack Talk On Israel Ahmadinejad’s fresh comments came ahead of his appearance at the United Nations General Assembly next week and before Tehran attends talks on Oct. 1 with major powers worried about the Islamic Republic’s nuclear strategy. NUCLEAR PROGRAMME Ahmadinejad repeated on Thursday that Iran would “never” abandon its disputed nuclear programme to appease critics. In an NBC-TV interview, he also offered no direct response when asked whether there were any conditions under which Iran would develop a nuclear weapon. “We don’t need nuclear weapons,” Ahmadinejad said, speaking through an interpreter. “We do not see any need for such weapons. And the conditions around the world are moving to favour our ideas,” he added. President Barack Obama, who came to office pledging to engage with Iran, has suggested Tehran may face harsher sanctions, possibly targeting its gasoline imports, if it does not accept good-faith talks by the end of September.
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POPSIsrael 'will attack Iran this year' Iran and the major world power are to start talks on the stand off over its nuclear programme, which stands in violation of United Nations resolutions, on Oct 1. Mr Obama's offer to talk to Iran without pre-conditions has made Israel nervous that Tehran will use detente as a cover to complete its drive for an atom bomb. "If Iran gained the bomb it would trigger a regional arms race with Saudi and Egypt quickly obtaining weapons," he said. "We would be living next to three Pakistans."
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POPSThe Chávez/Iran Nexus breaks into the MSM Finally! One mad genocidal dictator in alliance with another mad genocidal dictator... what else is new? Well…for most people it is news. But now I hope not for long. You can ask, if the WaPo editorial is true, then why are we harping on Israeli settlements as the key to world peace? Why are we obsessed with reforming the health care system? And so on. Is there a contradiction here? I don't think so: Obama is in the midst of an unprecedented expansion of the state and little issues like Iran's nuclear capabilities and genocidal intent against Israel are not helpful, according to his thinking. He's wrong: the state has expanded historically on the wings of war. He can't expand the state while at the same time promoting a pacifist agenda, as much as this will satisfy his legions of followers.
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POPSAnother WMD Lie -- What Will Obama Do? The U.S. and Israel are "fixing the intelligence around the policy" (as with the Iraq war) again, now against Iran. Will the American public fall for it again? Will Obama act like George W. Bush and his neoconservative advisers, and go along with this, and give primary credence to this fabricated and spurious evidence? Answer: "Yes, we can", and yes he will.
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POPSIsrael Claims UN's IAEA Withholding Info
Israel, which has hundreds of secret illegal nukes and god knows what weapons of mass destruction...and has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...now accused the UN of withhold info and accused Iran of not abiding by "proper," nuclear policies. And it wants the USA and the West to go to war about this and/or cripple the Iranian economy. What's wrong with this picture? -- It's the opposite of the truth. The truth is Israel's secret and illegal nuclear weapons. But we're suppose to go to war because of empty claims of Iran's alleged "desire," for nuclear weapons. Israel is in no position to make such accusations or demand more wars. It's the one that should open it nuclear weapons programs to UN inspection (like Iran does). Supporting Israel is support collective punishment, apartheid, policies of genocide towards the Palestinians. It's best the worst mistake in USA modern history and in the EU, too. Israel is the active and real threat to world peace
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POPSIran Cooperating on Nukes: U.S. Says No. Israel, U.S., France and other Western powers continue to dispute any reports than Iran is cooperating with the IAEA. While Israel has hundreds of illegal nuclear weapons and refuses to reveal any info about it, not a signatory to the nuclear Non_Proliferation Treaty....it wants to lead us into another war based on lies to a nation that has signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has cooperated with the IAEA every step of the way for many years. But our corrosive and toxic news would have us believe otherwise. The old saying "fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me," comes to mind.
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POPS`Iran nowhere near nuclear weapon` That being the case we have to assume that the ongoing harassment of Iran is about oil - and the USA`s assumption that they have the right to any oil anywhere, endangering us all.
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POPSJohn Bolton Expects Israel To Take Iranian Matters Into It’s Own Hands He vaguely promises to offer the country the carrot of diplomacy"followed by an empty threat of sanctions down the road if Iran does not comply with the U.S.’s requests. This is precisely the European Union’s approach, which has failed for over six years. There’s no reason Iran would suddenly now bow to Mr. Obama’s diplomatic efforts, especially after its embarrassing election in June. Under the worst-case scenario, Iran will continue improving its nuclear facilities and Mr. Obama will become the first U.S. president to tie the issue of Israel’s nuclear capabilities into negotiations about Iran’s. Israel understands that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent commitment to extend the U.S. “defense umbrella” to Israel is not a guarantee of nuclear retaliation, and that it is wholly insufficient to deter Iran from obliterating Israel if it so decides. In fact, Mrs. Clinton’s comment tacitly concedes that Iran will acquire nuclear weapons, exactly the wrong message.
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POPSIran threatens to target Israel’s nuclear sites Just like north korea. Like school yard bullies that tough talk scares everybody. One of these day's your mouth's are going to deal out a hand your ass's can't back up. Would only take swift decisive sweep over each country to wipe out all military capabilities. Only thing holding us and everybody else back is the fact there would also be some civilian causalities. But your well aware of that, thats why hide behind women and children.
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POPSPeople Power! SILENCE is complicity. Our president’s refusal to take a forthright moral stand on the side of the Iranian freedom marchers is read in Tehran as a blank check for the current regime. The fundamentalist junta has begun arresting opposition figures, with regime mouthpieces raising the prospect of the death penalty. Inevitably, there are claims that dissidents have been “hoarding weapons and explosives.” Foreign media reps are under house arrest. Cellphone frequencies are jammed. Students are killed and the killings disavowed. And our president is “troubled,” but doesn’t believe we should “meddle” in Iran’s internal affairs. (Meddling in Israel’s domestic affairs is just fine, though.) We just turned our backs on freedom. Again. … For decades, Washington policymakers from both parties have prodded Iranians to throw off their shackles. Last Friday, millions of Iranians stood up. And we’re standing down. That isn’t diplomacy. It’s treachery
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POPS"The Cairo Effect" We Just Saw It In Iran (The Persian cat really enjoys toying with the mice.) But the point really isn't whom the voters chose. It's that Iran's entrenched interests read Obama's meant-to-be-conciliatory remarks as a confession of weakness, a signal that the United States is at the end of its strategic rope. For its part, the administration appears stunned, still unable to believe that its self-abasement toward the Middle East didn't inaugurate the Age of Aquarius. Well, consider the view from Tehran (or from Qom, Iran's religious capital): Improved relations with the United States would rob the religious junta of the justification for much of what it does, from looting the country in the name of righteousness to pursuing nuclear weapons. The rulers in Tehran need us as an enemy (along with Israel). A demonized foe is essential to their grip on power. And all that rhetoric about the impending end of time and the return of the Hidden Imam? A key faction -- which includes President Ahmadinejad --
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POPSIs North Korea acting on behalf of Iran? Though this issue is certainly gaining some attention in the news, it seems to me that people are becoming complacent about this type of stuff...kind of shrugging our shoulders as this continues to heat up.
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