Has President Obama Accepted The Idea Of A Nuclear Armed Iran?

Photo from The Sydney Morning Herald

Thinking The No Longer Unthinkable -- The Belmont Club

Fox News reports that Barack Obama is offering Israel an nuclear guaranty against Iranian attack, signalling that a nuclear Iran is inevitable.

President-elect Barack Obama will offer Israel a strategic pact designed to fend off any nuclear attack on the Jewish state by Iran, an Israeli newspaper reported on Thursday.

Haaretz, quoting an unnamed source, said the Obama administration would pledge under the proposed “nuclear umbrella” to respond to any Iranian strike on Israel with a “devastating U.S. nuclear response.”

Granting Israel a nuclear guarantee would essentially suggest the U.S. is willing to come to terms with a nuclear Iran, the paper reported.

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My Comment: I agree with Richard Fernandez's observation. It appears that President-elect Obama has accepted the idea of a nuclear armed Iran. If this is the case .... whoa is us when that day happens.

Iran Raises Its Enriching Capability

From The New York Times:

TEHRAN — Iran said Wednesday its main uranium-enrichment plant was now equipped with 5,000 centrifuges — a sharp increase from the 4,000 it announced in August. machines that spin incredibly fast to enrich the element into nuclear fuel.

The announcement came amid growing international concern over Iran’s nuclear program, which it says is for energy production but the West fears is intended to produce weapons. Uranium, which can be used a fuel for a nuclear power plant, can serve in making bombs if enriched to high levels.

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My Comment: The Iranians now know that they have a window to manufacture and develop the materials that are necessary in their nuclear bomb development program. With a U.S. transition taking place, Israel in political disarray, and the world focused on the financial crisis .... the time for them is now.

Iran, President Obama, And The Bomb

Will Iran Acquire A Nuclear Bomb With Barack Obama As US President? -- The Telegraph

If America ever goes to war with Iran, Mustapha Attaee will find himself uncomfortably close to the frontline.

Just a few miles from the 42-year-old farmer's homestead on the outskirts of Isfahan is the city's nuclear research facility, viewed by the Pentagon as one of the key incubators for Iran's atomic weapons programme, and marked on its intelligence maps for a priority strike.

The plant's gleaming chimneystacks are strategically hidden behind a range of rust-coloured hills, but in the event of a strike with high-powered bunker-buster missiles, Mr Attaee fears the shock waves would do more than just rattle his windows.

"We are worried what damage would be done to our houses in the event of a strike," he said. "But we Iranians are used to threats after all these years."

As of last Tuesday, those threats seemed to recede with the presidential triumph of Barack Obama, a man who appears keener on dialogue with Iran than his rival John McCain and his predecessor George W.Bush, who both made no secret of their interest in the "military option".

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Are Russian Nuclear Specialists Helping Iran Make A Nuclear Weapon?

The IAEA flag flatters in the wind in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency headquarers in UN city in Vienna. International inspectors are looking into whether a Russian scientist helped Iran carry out experiments on how to detonate a nuclear weapon, The New York Times reported Friday. (AFP/Joe Klamar)

Is The Russian Freelancer Talking? -- Westhawk

Last Thursday, the New York Times revealed that investigators from the International Atomic Energy Agency are seeking to debrief a Russian nuclear scientist who the IAEA suspects was hired by the Iranian government to help Iran fabricate nuclear weapons:

As part of the investigation, inspectors at the International Atomic Energy Agency are seeking information from the scientist, who they believe acted on his own as an adviser on experiments described in a lengthy document obtained by the agency, the officials said.

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is under way, said that the document appeared authentic, without explaining why, but they made it clear that they did not think the scientist was working on behalf of the Russian government.

Still, it is the first time that the nuclear agency has suggested that Iran may have received help from a foreign weapons scientist in developing nuclear arms.

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My Comment: When there is smoke .... there is a fire. There is a lot of smoke on this case.

Iran .... A Problem From Hell -- A Commentary From The Australian

A Threat Bigger Than Wall St -- The Australian

IRAN is a problem from hell. The next US president, be it Barack Obama or John McCain, is going to have plenty to worry about: the Wall Street financial crisis, the war in Afghanistan, Pakistan's internal crisis, the relentless military build-up of China and the temptation it will soon have of trying to retake Taiwan militarily. But you can be sure of this. At some stage during the next presidency, Iran will blow up into a full-scale crisis that will dominate global politics and that may indeed be more important even than the other problems listed above.

The new president will have one modestly useful extra resource, a bipartisan report commissioned by two former US senators and written primarily by Middle East expert Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute. The Weekend Australian has obtained a copy of the report, to be released later this week. Before I got the report, I had a long discussion with Rubin.

Rubin is a Republican, but the report he wrote was the consensus work of a bipartisan taskforce that includes Dennis Ross, Obama's key Middle East adviser.

The report is sobering and in some ways shocking reading. It begins baldly: "A nuclear weapons capable Islamic Republic of Iran is strategically untenable."

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My Comment: A must read opinion piece from The Australian.

Iran On Way To Atomic Bomb Capability: ElBaradei

Inside Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Plant

From ABC News:

IAEA Chief Says Iran Is On Way To Mastering Technology To Create Atomic Bombs

Iran is on its way to mastering technology that would enable it to build atomic bombs, if it so chose, International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohamed ElBaradei said in remarks published on Friday.

Iran says its uranium-enrichment program is only for civilian purposes -- electricity generation -- but is under IAEA investigation and U.N. sanctions over past undeclared activity and failure to prove its intentions are wholly peaceful.

ElBaradei said having nuclear arms unfortunately still symbolized prestige and power, tempting nations with security worries to at least develop the potential for a bomb through the "dual use" enrichment process.

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My Comment: The IAEA should return their Nobel Prize as a symbol of their failure to prevent nuclear proliferation.

Iran Withdraws $75 Billion From Europe: Report

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center, visits
the Natanz Uranium Enrichment Facility.

From Reuters:

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has withdrawn around $75 billion from Europe to prevent the assets from being blocked under threatened new sanctions over Tehran's disputed nuclear ambitions, an Iranian weekly said.

Western powers are warning the Islamic Republic of more punitive measures if it rejects an incentives offer and presses on with sensitive nuclear work, but the world's fourth-largest oil exporter is showing no sign of backing down.

"Part of Iran's assets in European banks have been converted to gold and shares and another part has been transferred to Asian banks," Mohsen Talaie, deputy foreign minister in charge of economic affairs, was quoted as saying.

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News on Iran From Other Sources:
Iran defiant in nuclear row despite sanctions threat -- Reuters India
Iran not in hurry to comment on EU package: MP -- Tehran Times
Risk of new sanctions as Iran rejects latest UN nuclear deal -- Guardian
Pakistani May Have Delivered Advanced Nuclear Designs -- Wall Street Journal

My Comment: Money talks .... and it is clear that Iran has made the decision to proceed with its nuclear enrichment process. Iran expects sanctions to be levied .... and is now taking the steps to protect its interests.

Will Iran Give Hezbollah A Nuke?

From an IBD Editorial:

The U.S. and the European Union this week announced tentative plans to ratchet up economic sanctions against Iran for refusing to halt its uranium enrichment program.

It's a pretty tough move, one spearheaded by President Bush, that will grab Iran's attention. It also appears to be a preparatory step to a possible military strike against Iran if it refuses to stop its nuclear weapons program.

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My Comment: The biggest foreign policy issue for the next U.S. administration will be to contain Iran's nuclear ambitions and its public support for the destruction of Israel. I personally believe in President Bush when he mentioned to The Times in an interview today that he is now only establishing the mechanism and structures for the next U.S. President when it comes to Iran.

This means .... to me .... that there will be no preemptive U.S. strike on Iran's nuclear facilities for the balance of his administration.

This policy unfortunately ignores the dedication and determination that Iran's rulers have in pursuing their own agenda. As far as they are concerned .... the U.S. is Satan, and they in turn must have all the means to confront and provoke the West's defeat. This religious mission has no boundaries, no lines to cross, and definitely little if any awareness of the consequences for their actions.

Will they give Hezbollah the bomb? .... I do not know the answer to that question but I do know that they have given them everything else.

US Intel Links Iran With Nuke Bomb Bid

From Yahoo News:

VIENNA, Austria - The U.S. has recently shared sensitive information with the International Atomic Energy Agency on key aspects of Iran's nuclear program that Washington says shows Tehran was directly engaged in trying to make an atomic weapon, diplomats told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The diplomats said Washington also gave the IAEA permission to confront Iran with at least some of the evidence in an attempt to pry details out of the Islamic republic on the activities, as part of the U.N. nuclear watchdog's attempts to investigate Iran's suspicious nuclear past.

The decision by the U.S. administration to declassify its intelligence and indirectly share it with Iran through the IAEA was a clear reflection of Washington's' drive to pressure Iran into admitting that it had focused part of its nuclear efforts toward developing a weapons program.

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My Comment: Why share classified information? Iran's leaders have not only made their intentions clear, but in fact have been very public about it. If you want to destroy Israel, I doubt that they are talking about a peaceful process. Since Israel is too strong to me defeated using conventional military forces, the only way that it can be destroyed will be through the use of unconventional military forces .... i.e. nuclear.

The fact that they also provide financial and logistical support to organizations such as Hezbollah, elements of Al Qaeda, Hamas, and who knows who else .... it is very clear that their intentions are not peaceful nor accommodating.