There's No There There: IAEA Inspects Iran Nuclear Site; Finds "Nothing To Be Worried About"
By Nicole Belle Friday Nov 06, 2009 4:15pm
What happens after all the fear mongering that Iran is developing a nuclear weapons bunker turns out to be bunk?
U.N. inspectors found "nothing to be worried about" in a first look at a previously secret uranium enrichment site in Iran last month, the International Atomic Energy chief said in remarks published Thursday.
Mohamed ElBaradei also told the New York Times that he was examining possible compromises to unblock a draft nuclear cooperation deal between Iran and three major powers that has foundered over Iranian objections.
The nuclear site, which Iran revealed in September three years after diplomats said Western spies first detected it, added to Western fears of covert Iranian efforts to develop atom bombs. Iran says it is enriching uranium only for electricity.
ElBaradei was quoted in a New York Times interview as saying his inspectors' initial findings at the fortified site beneath a desert mountain near the Shi'ite holy city of Qom were "nothing to be worried about."
"The idea was to use it as a bunker under the mountain to protect things," ElBaradei, alluding to Tehran's references to the site as a fallback for its nuclear program in case its larger Natanz enrichment plant were bombed by a foe like Israel.
"It's a hole in a mountain," he said.
But, let's not let you get too comfortable about Iran...GuardianUK's Julian Borger comes up with a new scare:
The UN's nuclear watchdog has asked Iran to explain evidence suggesting that Iranian scientists have experimented with an advanced nuclear warhead design, the Guardian has learned.
The very existence of the technology, known as a "two-point implosion" device, is officially secret in both the US and Britain, but according to previously unpublished documentation in a dossier compiled by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iranian scientists may have tested high-explosive components of the design. The development was today described by nuclear experts as "breathtaking" and has added urgency to the effort to find a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis.
Ooooh...booga booga booga! Two things that glare out for me: one, Borger cites the IAEA unpublished report without one single quotation. Two, Borger claims the "two point implosion" is "officially secret" in the US and UK, but how secret can it be when it has its own Wikipedia page?
The media really does think you're dumb and can't figure out teh Google.
Login or Register to post comments.
.
Oh, but there is FEAR there.
.
there would have been a war... they invaded Iraq for about the same amount of evidence.
Less evidence, actually. The "images" the George Bu**sh** Whorehouse had of Iraq's alleged "facilities" were computer modelled imaginations of boogeymen, not pictures.
The IAEA has pictures of Iran and were there in person. Then again, if Bu**sh** were in charge and had wanted war, he would have avoided sending inspectors, much like the US avoided inspecting Iraq's facilities when it had the chance.
The IAEA has said the same thing each time it inspects over there, but she just won't listen!
Israel, AIPAC are the deciders in this issue. Clinton looks to them as her higher power, much the way Bush looked to God for advice over his fathers (can't decide which was worse there either)
was really talking about Darth Cheney - he was the gawd behind Georgie's curtain.
The ventriloquist fist up his whoosis...
Fri, 11/06/2009 - 16:29 — curtilingus
__________________________________________________________________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecMVvGenOA8
Thank you for stating the obvious. To say more gets your account closed on most websites. So we are not only captive to the Israeli propaganda machine run by their relatives in America - they launch the A bomb if we are not very very careful in how we rattle our chains.
I'm sick of this. I question the loyalty of Jews in America every day - yet they are not held to the same standards as Muslims OR Gentiles.
Day after day after day we are bombarded with scare stories from media owned and operated by the diaspora - yet nobody is 'allowed' to question the obvious bias.
Yet a Muslim Major goes nuts and that same Jewish media starts planting the seeds of group identity and group guilt.
So which is it?
Jews are to be judged - not as Jews but individuals... but Muslims are guilty of group identity????
I feel like Cary Bradshaw writing to herself....
Bibi Netanyahu ....!
The ruskies sent their latest SAM systems, the Chinese depend on Iranian oil, and Israel depends on Chinese contracts.
The leadership in Israel is so disconnected with reality that they thought they were getting some F-22s just for the asking, LOL.
This is just the normal saber rating that has been going on forever. The Iranians need a perennial Jewish boogie man in that area, and the Israeli hard right need an evil Iranian just as well.
It is all kabuki from now on...
You mean bukkake from now on.
Japanese is a tough language.
gross....
But wouldn't glow-in-the-dark Iranians be easier to hit in night battles?
Blackwater soldiers only fight between the hours of 9 to 5, wirth a thirty minute lunch and two ten minute breaks.
... then again Blackwater contractually stipulates that they can only fight if they are facing unarmed civilians. Fanatical well trained armed to the teeth Iranian troops are not covered by their insurance...
I find it hard to believe Blackwater would follow union regulations. Although, I'd hate to sit down to negotiate contracts with the Mercenaries Union. If they want dental coverage, and two weeks paid vacation a year, who would say no? :)
OK so there are no WMD's. Don't you want to save a country from a brutal dictator? They'll greet us with flowers you know.
The sole reason Iran still has a religious regime 30 years on is US and foreign antagonism of the regime. When the Iranian people are forced to choose between supporting their own unpleasant government or supporting the US attempts to invade (with thoughts of 1953 still fresh in their minds), they will always choose to support the clerics. Better the devil you know....
If the US would F.O. and stop interfering politically, the young people in Iran would have already pressured the clerics to give up power and return to a democracy. Successive US governments want Iran to remain a dictatorship because it's easier to justify invading; you can't justify invading a free country.
Most importantly, the US has never learned (or has forgotten) its own history: democracy is built from WITHIN a country, it is NOT imposed from the outside. Democracy only happens when the majority of the people in a country want it. The Iranians do, the Afghans don't.
The Ayatollah keeps the nukes hidden under his robes! They're in Syria! They buried them!
What explanations am I forgetting from last time?
They moved them to Syria.
buried them in Niger......
The dog ate my WMD evidence.
We know they have 'em, we kept the receipts!
...we cannot wait for the inspectors because we do not want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud and we know for certain they have teh weapons of mass destruction and regime change will be a slam dunk because we will be greeted as liberators and democracy will spread across the middle east and we'll order now what they ordered then because everything old is new again...
The IAEA are WEASELS!!!
some yellow cake from a source called "Sara Lee."
So we gotta kill them for freedumb and stuff.
They hate us for our Little Debbie.
http://www.roadfood.com/photos/10277.jpg
It's so secret, everyone knows about it.
I should hope not. That would make it a very, very high yield device. I doubt if any of the Iranian missiles currently in use or planned would be able to deliver it.
It's what they do.
the lies.
This news is only a surprise to those not paying attention or to those who want an excuse to invade Iran. Sure, watch and make sure that Iran doesn't develop nuclear weapons, but let's admit the reason the country wanted the reactor is the reason they've been giving all along: to generate electricity and reduce their dependence on oil.
Because of the Shah's mismanagement and toadying to the US, no refineries were built before 1980 and because of US and western anti-Iranian sentiment, they couldn't get any refinery equipment after 1980. Iran has to export oil and then re-import gasoline. That is why they want a nuclear reactor.
Meanwhile, Israel's 150-200 nuclear weapons and poorly run (and leaking) nuclear facilities continue to go unquestioned by the US government, UN and rightwing media....
I have been thinking about this and I am having trouble coming to terms with it. If Iran has been capable of getting enough know how and equipment to manufacture nuclear bomb or nuclear reactors or whatever they have now how could they not get the equipment to make a simple oil refinery or six? I'm not saying what you said is not true but I am having trouble understanding it. They can make missiles and facilities to make whatever nuclear stuff they are making now (and getting the world all worked up and worried) but they could not get it together to come up with some pipes and shit to make an oil refinery? How is this possible?
Here is the conundrum. I am leaning toward believing that Iran should not have nuclear capability and I am leaning toward believing that they are trying their hardest to get nuclear capability.
The thing that is so bothersome is that I cannot believe anything that our country says. After Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld did the WMD dance and started this insane war that we should never have been involved in and can't seem to get out of and we found out that they were full of shit how am I to believe anything any of these assholes say. The Bush/Cheney administration screwed it up for me and everybody else. We all wanted to believe them. We didn't want to believe that they would lie about something so important. NOW, now they have been proven wrong. They were full of shit. Cheney, since then, has said that the CIA are a bunch of amateurs. There are still people who cannot believe that they would lie to us. These right wing dumbasses wanted too believe these jokers so much that they now say that the WMD were moved to Siria. EVEN after Bush/Cheney say there were not any WMD.
So because of Bush and Cheney I am having a hard time believing what they they are saying about Iran but because of the Iran history I lean to the side of being very careful about giving Iran any slack. In my mind, from what I have heard about these radical people in the middle east (and we know that Amadinajad is as radical as they get. Let's be word serious here!) and I think that they would be very happy to try to blow Israel off the face of the earth and the consequences be damned because when Iran and Amadinajad get blown up there will be 57 or 58 virgins dancing on the head of a pin waiting for them (or something like that).
The other thing is that we are in no position to actually do anything to Iran because we are bankrupt and all our military are burned out. This is why what Bush and Cheney did to us was so screwed. I just could not believe that somebody in their position would actually do what they did. I know that Limbaugh and Hannity and Ingrham and Malkin and all those idiots would be yelling this but I always thought that the real leaders, whether they were Republicans or not, would never do something as idiotic as they did. Now when there is serious danger (in my mind) we cannot believe a word they say. This is sooooo fucked up!!!
...want to blow Israel off the face of the earth?
Iran hasn't launched an aggressive war in well over a century. Has Israel even gone over one hundred months and been able to say the same? ... ever?
How does Iran turn into the scary bad guy without the exact same tricks that the neocons used on Iraq. And they lied on Iraq.
Spot on in describing many of the reasons for doubt, Captain.
I'm sick of hearing that. Not only is it a web rumor spread by the chosen - the chosen are never taken to task for spreading it.
AND by the way.... Somebody should do SOMETHING about the murderous Israelis.... because they have their greasy paws in all the 'intel' that feeds American paranoia.
Watch for members of that group to begin complaining about me. When I'm gone... somebody needs to mention WHY I've been banned, booted and shut up.
America is Sobibor West... with Israeli operatives in every watch tower.
And I don't see us complaining loudly enough. What will it take?
Your knowledge of Iranian history appears to have been given to you by neocons.
Iran is hardly radicalized, especially considering some of its neighbors. I invite you to watch Rick Steves' special, where he dispelled many of the myths surrounding Iran.
And as far as Ahmadinejad, he does display classic narcissistic sociopathy. But so do many, many of our political leaders. Did you know that as President, he has little more to do than Hillary Clinton? He is the face of their foreign policy, but ultimate decisions about the control of the country belongs to the ruling mullahs. So like John Bolton, he can bluster and puff up and act like he's ready to bomb everyone off the face of the planet, but in reality, it's all an act. The mullahs have ruled that nuclear weaponry is against Islam because it indiscriminately destroys.
And that oft-repeated phrase attributed to Ahmadinejad about wanting to wipe Israel off the face of the planet is flat out wrong:
So Iran has not done anything to threaten Israel, but that cannot be said for Israel, who appear via their agents, to be the people whispering in the ears of our leaders to distrust Iran.
And the promised number of virgins is 72. And that isn't part of the Iranian version of Islam, which is Shi'ite. The Sunnis were reportedly the ones who translated that part of the Koran as 72 virgins(and I think the literal translation is "pomegranate seeds" not "virgins"). However, I personally think this is more propaganda, because Arabs friends of mine have told me they don't know where this came from, and they never heard it in their homes in Palestine and Jordan.
Thank you.
Edit: I am aware of the real translation of Amadinajad's quote. It is another reason I don't trust any of these jerks telling us what is and what is not.
To begin with, if you're going to chide people over not knowing how to use Google, maybe you should have illustrated this article with the actual site, and not a satellite photo of the previously-known Natanz enrichment site, which most certainly is an enrichment facility.
The point was never whether there's something to be worried about or not at that particular site. The point was that they haven't been as open and truthful towards the IAEA as they could be. The crux of the issue remains: Not whether or not Iran should get to have nuclear power, but whether or not Iran should be allowed to run enrichment sites, since this would bring them close to having nuclear-weapons-making capabilities.
Personally I don't think they should. Most nations, including quite a few more trusted than Iran (say, Spain) don't have their own uranium enrichment facilities. Reactor-grade enriched uranium is available from multiple sources on a global market. (all nuclear powers + Japan, Netherlands, Brazil, and a few others)
If you follow the subject at all, you'll know this is not a concern limited to Iran. I recall the USA going ballistic over finding out in 1991 that the Swedish (a peaceful nation, if there ever was one) heavy-water reactor at Ågesta was mothballed rather than dismantled, as they'd previously held. (heavy-water reactors being able to produce plutonium)
After Iraq I can see why people distrust the US government, and there's every reason to believe the Neocons and Israel are playing up the threat from Iran. But that doesn't mean there's nothing to worry about. If you don't trust our government, then listen to the Europeans - who are also concerned, if not to the same extent that the Republicans are. (and lest someone forget, with the exception of UK and Spain, the Europeans did not buy into the Iraq B.S.)
This is what my problem is. what you said is just swimming around in my brain as I also think about what Cheney and Rumsfeld and Wolfewitz and Billy "The Bloody" and Bush and the other asshole neocons said and did.
The one thing in my mind that keeps be from actually losing it is the fact that if Iran nukes anybody it will be Israel and if they do that I will still be alright for a while.
Not to pick too fine a nit, but I never chided people over not being able to use Google, I said the media doesn't think that you can Google "two-headed explosives" to realize it's not some super-secret weapon we don't know about. Borger writes some bizarre "ooga-booga be very afraid" that is easily debunked by a housewife in San Francisco with a cable modem. I'm just sayin'...
As to the picture of Natanz, I suggest that you look at the link of the original post that I quoted. Look familiar?
Finally, my only beef in this case is the dishonesty with which we approach the whole nuclear question. Why is Iran--a country that has never attacked another country and who has complied with inspections and is a signatory to the NPT--somehow more of a threat to develop nuclear power than Israel, Pakistan and India? Israel has actual weapons, they are not a signatory and they have acted aggressively against their neighbors. India and Pakistan have been fighting each other for centuries and the Pakistan government is hardly a bastion of stability. And North Korea is testing BOMBS--albeit ineffectively.
Who are we to tell Iran that they can't develop nuclear power (not weapons--power) but we turn a blind eye to these other, far more concerning nations?
I'm not sure the U.S. is telling Iran that they can't develop nuclear POWER. Didn't we say that they can have what it takes to have unclear power plants but we don't want them to be able to produce it themselves? Nicole, don't get me wrong here. I fully understand where you are coming from and I don't trust OUR government but it seems to me that at THIS point in time Iran is not cooperating very much. I understand that I could be completely wrong about this whereas I know I am not at all wrong about neocons being complete assholes.;^) I just don't know who is
rightcorrect and who is wrong here and I blame Bush Cheney for that.We've had IAEA reports and three of our own NIE reports saying that they are not pursuing a weapons program, and yet we keep posturing to them that we know they're doing it anyway.
Look at it from their shoes. They're a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (which we're not). They've allowed inspections (hence the IAEA and NIE reports), they've complied with the UN restrictions and they still are the bad guy. They can't win.
We on the other hand, sell arms to Iraq in the 80s and then invade and occupy (and destroy a country that once held the birthplace of civilization) them in the 00s on the pretense that we know they have WMDs (maybe because we sold it to them?). We turn a blind eye to NK's bomb tests and do nothing when we find out that Russia sold technology to them and they were the third leg of that Axis of Evil.
And worst of all, we completely enable Israel, a nuclear power that doesn't even admit to having weapons, much less sign the NPT. They attack Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Palestine; we do nothing. They launch fantastic lies against Iran and we nod our heads.
What would you do if you were Iran?
I understand what you are saying Nicole. I really agree with you. I just don't think that Iran is a clean as you are making it sound. Having said that, I think we should just stay out of it. We should leave Afghanistan because we have driven Al Qaeda out and that is what our mission was. We should never have done anything to Iraq/Saddam (look what it got us).
I"m sick of being coy about this 'rhetorical' question.
We all know WHY Israel is immune to scrutiny or accountability.
THEY'RE RELATIVES OWN OUR MEDIA!!
If you don't rattle your chains America - nobody will hear!!
The bush/chenny cabal used 911 as an excuse to start two wars. I am ashamed of the media and our government reps that allowed the criminal cabal to start these wars and now how many people have been killed, a million or more, millions of lives ruined, billions of dollars wasted, ruined our economy and that of the rest of the world and now have the nerve to stand and act they did something right! Hell I would be happy if they had done one thing right.
republicanism/conservatism is a mental illness that is killing America!
They had plenty of time to ship their weapons of mass destruction to Syria or Thailand, swear to Gawd! We're in big TROUBLE!
Only problem is... Tomorrow, another story will come out that you will believe.
The U.S.(and I do mean you the People) have done nothing but poke Iran in the eye time after time, yet when Iran swats the finger from its eye. You'll all jump back on the bandwagon saying just how evil and how Iran can not be trusted.
I just do not understand you Americans at all.
You are always saying onething, yet act so different
For a country that tells people every chance they get how much you all love democracy, you just love your dictators.
Love them so much you would overthrow a goverment elected by the people
and install a King (Shah)
The Shah didnt even have to pay for and train a police force that Killed over 100 000 souls (SAVAK) you did that for him.
Everyday its onemore story that comes out saying this and that about Iran and how evil they are.
The U.S. spends $400million to disrupt Iran from the inside.
Bombs start going off inside Iran, people killed and maimed
Terror used against the people of Iran, groups that are even on the U.S. terror list start receiving weapons and training.
Yet, none of you Americans can connect any of those dots
Iran did not do anything to you Americans but time after time you Americans keep up your Hate for Iran.
It is your fault, every single one of you.
It's your Goverment, but you do nothing to stop your goverment.
You are just as guilty as the ones lying, arming, bombing and killing
Myself and many others only now see America as a Warmonger
Believe it or not... this breaks many a heart.
For many of us did believe in a much better future,
lead by the American Dream of Justice/Liberty for all.
Anyhow... this is a good read about how the talks on Iran and its Legal right to nuclear energy
http://original.antiwar.com/prather/2009/10/2...
After you read this... ask yourself if you Americans want Peace or War
You are wrong when you say all American's want war. The fact is, our government is now a corporate fascist enterprise, which by defiition means power is usurped from the people.
Unfortunately, about half the people in this country are so stupid, that the neocons can fool them without any difficulty, over and over and over.......
The American people voted overwhelmingly for many of the things you cited. But once in power, the lying politicians jump onto the global fascist money train - and the people be damned!
The only option we have left is taking to the streets?
see what it gets you.
If we rattle our chains too loudly - our accounts are closed.
IT's not just the GOP - it's the entire apparatus that runs America - from The 5 Fed families, to Wall St, to media, to ownership of our legislators.... now if I identify the glue which binds this unsavory group.... I'll be booted.
So don't say you don't know WHY ... we all know WHY and WHOM ... we are just now allowed to SAY or do anything .... it's the BORG steins.
OK, OK, we get it, the joos are bad. Maybe your accounts get closed because you turbo post the same message within a single story? Once is sufficient, thanks.
The IAEA lacks all credibility on this subject because they were right about Iraq also not having the nuclear capabilites feared for it. BUT THEY WERE RIGHT TOO SOON! They were right in a timeline that worked to discredit the US, and therefore was objectively pro-terrorist.
So here they go again. Being right when being right will tend to derail the ongoing effort to get us into a war with Iran. What's wrong with these people? Bunch of peace-mongers!
I beg to differ. Maybe there are no nukes now, but anyone who has an anti-Israeli revisionist view of history and who is nothing more than a spokesman for anti-Zionist jihadist-enabling mullahs is probably more dangerous than a nuke.
in this regard, that is illegal or not within the rights of any sovereign nation to do. I think anybody who pursues nuclear power is a fool and shows callous disregard for the well-being of future generations, but the Iranians have the right to make that decision for themselves, just as we did.
Anyhow, I think such examinations should be performed further or sometime uranium will be enriched not "only for electricity". Iran seems really unstable comparing with other states with nuclear power. We can only guess about long-term purpose of Shahab ballistic missiles development.
Login or Register to post comments.