Haaretz:
[H/T Shab]
An in-depth reading of the last several IAEA reports have led Anthony Cordesman to conclude that anyone who believes Iran is not yet pursuing a nuclear-weapons program is committing an act of willful delusion.
I hesitate to recommend Rethinking Our Approach to Iran’s Search for the Bomb by the Center for Strategic & International Studies’ Anthony Cordesman as weekend reading, since its conclusions are just too sobering. On the other hand, the comprehensive report is rather heavy-going, and may be hard to find sufficient time to do it justice during the working-week. It is compulsory reading for anyone with an interest in strategic issues, and does a fantastic job of summing up all the most up-to-date and unclassified information available on Iran’s nuclear program, with the added bonus of Cordesman’s invaluable insight.
The veteran national-security expert has done much of the work for us by wading through hundreds of pages of the full versions of the last two International Atomic Energy Agency reports on Iran and other relevant documents, rendering them into something approximating laymen’s terms. As he notes at the beginning of study, very few of those commentating on these affairs have actually read the entire documents, probably even less have the necessary qualifications to actually understand them.
Any serious readers of this blog would do very well to make the time and read Cordesman, unless you have access to classified material, as this is the most important report on Iran you will read until something really big and new comes out. I certainly hope the Western negotiators who are about to meet their Iranian counterparts for the second round of the P5+1 talks in Baghdad, ten days from now, will have read it by the time they land in Iraq. It is probably much better than anything they will get in their briefing papers.
Here is a short summary of the document. I hope I do it justice:
– Anyone who believes that Iran is not yet actively pursuing a nuclear-weapons program and merely developing the capabilities is committing an act of willful delusion. The intelligence supplied to the IAEA and verified by different “member countries,” is clear on that Iran has been working on a wide range of projects for over a decade, all of which are specifically aimed at acquiring the capabilities necessary not only to enrich uranium to weapons-grade, but to assemble a nuclear advice that can be launched by long-range missile. Talk of a fatwa against nuclear weapons is just that: talk.
– Despite sanctions and international monitoring, Iran has received highly specialized instruments and equipment, benefited from the knowledge of foreign nuclear weapons designers and made impressive advance in its own scientific centers, so as to be able to carry out most of the necessary testing for a nuclear device, without actually creating a nuclear detonation. There has also been preparation for an actual nuclear test.
Listen to Tamar Yonah’s most recent show on Israel National Radio. One of her regular guest is I Q Razouli, an ex-muslim who is trying to unplug the deaf ears of the West. One of many, such as Sultan, Darwish, Gabriel, Spencer, Geller….
This is getting to be a repeat of 1938 Munich, without even the naive intent of Chamberlain this time, but a willful intent to assist Iran by the Western nations, not even a pretense of concern this time.
Here’s the link:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/3963#.T7CU4Ziz7_N
The left have been pushing their bull about everything being the Wests fault for so long they are incapable of seeing any Third World country doing anything wrong. I am afraid it is going to take a major war to wake some of them up, the others will never wake up.
From the moves and statements coming out of Iran something is going to happen soon.
Man, that picture sure shows a nice target. Hopefully, there is a well programmed missile aimed for it and ready to go.
All the missiles in the world can be targeted, they are useless without the will to use them. Our political leaders are to afraid to use any force against Iran, that would be starting a war like Bush did and would mean they would have trouble vilifying Bush.