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Iran’s on ground nuclear facilities destroyed by Israel: Wikileaks

The emails, snatched by hackers, could unmask sensitive sources and throw light on the murky world of intelligence-gathering by the company known as Stratfor, which counts Fortune 500 companies among its subscribers.

WikiLeaks: Israel destroyed nuclear facilities in Iran Anti-secrecy group releases email by US-based global security firm linked to CIA, citing Israeli intelligence source who claims Israelis destroyed all Iranian nuclear infrastructure on ground weeks ago Ynet  02.27.12,   Israel News sraeli commando forces destroyed, with the help of Kurdish rebels, all of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure on ground, an email by a US-based global security analysis company released by WikiLeaks on Monday claims. Continue reading →

February 28, 2012 Posted by | Iran, Wikileaks | Leave a comment

Kuwait scraps nuclear power project

Kuwait abandons nuclear power option Feb. 23, 2012, KUWAIT CITY, Feb. 23 (UPI) –– Kuwait has decided to abandon civilian nuclear power production…. Kuwait is scrapping plans formulated last July to build four nuclear reactors by 2022.

Officials at the Kuwaiti government at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research made the announcement, Kyodo news agency reported Wednesday. Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research scientist Osama al-Sayegh and two colleagues said the Fukushima incident resulted in the public questioning the necessity of building nuclear power plants in oil-rich Kuwait.

There was also the question of where Kuwait would store the radioactive waste generated by the NPPs…… Read more: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2012/02/23/Kuwait-abandons-nuclear-power-option/UPI-63001330021334/#ixzz1nQxkSo5S

February 25, 2012 Posted by | MIDDLE EAST, politics | Leave a comment

Is a Saudi Arabian nuclear bomb a bigger danger than Iran’s?

Unsurprisingly, many US politicians are extremely worried about a Saudi bomb. As in the case of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia had what one might call ‘fluid’ ties to Islamist terrorists.

Never mind Iran, is Saudi Arabia about to acquire a nuclear bomb? Mail Online, By MICHAEL BURLEIGH, 24th February 2012 Both Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council maintain that they want a WMD-free Middle East. However, key members of the Saudi royal elite have recently signalled that if Iran develops a nuclear weapon, then Saudi Arabia will get one too.
Speaking of signalling, they have also long indicated that if Israel were to overfly the desert kingdom to bomb Iranian nuclear sites, they would temporarily turn their radars off.
Saudi Arabia has signed nuclear technology agreements with several
states: China, France, Argentina and South Korea, Continue reading →

February 25, 2012 Posted by | Saudi Arabia, weapons and war | 1 Comment

A Jewish plea for sanity on Iran

 The only realistic option is to allow Iran to enrich uranium in return for enhanced oversight and inspection of its nuclear program.

Leaders of Cleveland’s Jewish community urgently need to promote discussion of this best option for Israel and the U.S. before it is too late.

Allow Iran to enrich uranium, http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/opinion/op-eds/article_56abe920-5c9b-11e1-88cc-001871e3ce6c.html  Cleveland Jewish News, February 17, 2012  Norman Robbins  If you’re pro-Israel and want to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, it’s time to leave the U.S./Israeli echo chamber that gives only two ineffective options – more sanctions or war.
First, some background. It is vitally important to distinguish between nuclear “break-out” capability and the actual building of a nuclear weapon. As long as Iran is not attacked, it has many reasons to achieve nuclear capability but not manufacture.

An attack on Iran by nuclear powers such as Israel and the U.S. in the absence of concrete evidence of actual nuclear bomb manufacture would violate international law and be intensely criticized by most of the world. It would legitimize a subsequent crash-program of bomb-making by Iran, as many experts anticipate. Therefore, not making a bomb actually serves Iran as a better deterrent than manufacture, which would cross an obvious “red line.”

In addition, Iran has genuine religious compunctions about building a weapon of mass destruction, as it showed by choosing not to use chemical weapons during the Iran-Iraq war , by Ayatollah Khamenei’s fatwa against nuclear weapons and by Iran’s support of a nuclear-free Middle East. Also, it is inconceivable that Iran would pre-emptively use a nuclear weapon against Israel, when it would kill huge numbers of Palestinians, contaminate Islam’s third-most holy site, enrage the entire Muslim world, and suffer Israel’s terrible retaliation. In fact, three directors of Israel’s intelligence (Ephraim Halevy, Meir Dagan and Tamir Pardo), who should know best, have said that Iran poses no “existential” threat to Israel. Continue reading →

February 22, 2012 Posted by | Iran, politics international | Leave a comment

No agreement between IAEA experts and Iran

U.N. experts leave Iran without nuclear agreement, By the CNN Wire Staff February 22, 2012  Two days of talks with Iran have failed to produce agreement on how to verify that Iran’s nuclear program remains peaceful, the International Atomic Energy Agency announced
Tuesday. Iran also refused to allow a team from the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency to visit its military base at Parchin, southeast of Tehran, during the two-day visit, the IAEA said.
“Intensive efforts were made to reach agreement on a document facilitating the clarification of unresolved issues in connection with Iran’s nuclear program, particularly those relating to possible military dimensions,” an IAEA statement on the visit read. “Unfortunately, agreement was not reached on this document.” The high-level team of experts was on its way back from Iran late Tuesday, the agency said.

There was no immediate comment on its account from Iranian authorities….. http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/21/world/meast/iran-nuclear/?hpt=wo_c2

February 22, 2012 Posted by | Iran, politics international | Leave a comment

Class action in Israel, by cancer sufferers who worked for nuclear centre

Israel nuclear reactor sent unprotected workers to search for uranium ore, lawsuit claims Haaretz 13.02.12 Former employees at the Negev Nuclear Research Center in Dimona saywere given only dusk masks, goggles during an official search for the rare mineral.

By Gili Cohen Workers at the Dimona nuclear reactor were sent to search for uranium ore across Israel without the necessary protective gear, a court hearing discussing the class-action suit advanced by the reactor’s former employees indicated on Sunday.

The hearing in the Petah Tikva District Court was held on the complaint by 44 employees and their families that the workers are suffering from cancer and other diseases due to radiation at work . According to claims made by the plaintiffs, some of the reactor’s workers were employed at a “project to search for uranium ore inIsrael,” working week-long stints, equipped with only goggles and dusk masks…… http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-nuclear-reactor-sent-unprotected-workers-to-search-for-uranium-ore-lawsuit-claims-1.412648

February 14, 2012 Posted by | Israel, Legal | Leave a comment

The war-mongering of Israel and USA.

How the US and Israel are Shredding the NPT, The Real Nuclear Outlaws CounterPunch, by CARL BOGGS, 5 April 12,  While United States and Israeli leaders, duly assisted by a warmongering media, ramp up war talk against Iran, two troublesome pieces of information are ritually ignored.  First, even American intelligence reports conclude that Iran is not close to building a nuclear-weapons program.   Second, it is the U.S. and Israel – not Iran – that stand in flagrant violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).  The real nuclear outlaws are located in Washington and Tel Aviv rather than in Tehran.

The consensus of 17 U.S. agencies, as reported by National Intelligence Estimates of 2007 and 2011, finds that Iran has not enriched uranium above 20 percent purity, far short of the nearly 90 percent essential to weapons development.  Further, no viable nuclear delivery system or command structure has been uncovered.  High-powered U.S. surveillance and espionage operations, many inside Iran, have revealed nothing beyond (an entirely legal) civilian energy program.  Recent International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) investigations, the latest in November 2011 and February 2012, cite “continuing enrichment processes” but nothing beyond the 20 percent level.  The IAEA merely states what should be obvious – that some Iranian sites “could be” used for a weapons program at some point in the future…..

The Iranians have every right within existing international rules to carry out their program – a fact conveniently obscured by the Western media and politicians.  Their Israeli antagonists, on the other hand, not only possess a nuclear arsenal of up to 400 warheads – possibly fifth largest in the world – but breezily dismiss the NPT as a worthless nuisance…..

Make no mistake:  despite the media fiction of a small, weak, relatively defenseless country isolated and surrounded by aggressive foes, Israel currently rivals Britain, France, and China as a world nuclear power, central to its shared goal (with the U.S.) of military supremacy in the Middle East.  Credible sources indicate that Israel possesses not only neutron bombs but an array of tactical nukes, ballistic missiles, atomic land mines, cruise missiles, nuclear-armed subs, and high-explosive artillery shells.   The subs alone are armed with four cruise missiles each, replete with multiple warheads.   The general Israeli military arsenal dwarfs the actual or potential armed forces of all other Middle Eastern nations combined.  Several U.N. resolutions calling for Israel to join the NPT, open up its nuclear facilities to inspection, and agree to a regional nuclear-free zone have been stonewalled by the U.S. and Israel.   After the CIA reported that Israel had the Bomb in 1968 (fully 18 years before Mordecai Vanunu’s insider revelations), no outside visits to Israeli military sites have been allowed.

Meanwhile, India – still a non-NPT state – has long benefitted from a massive transfer of atomic resources and technology from the U.S., dating to years before the Indian weapons breakthrough of 1974.   As an imagined counterweight to Chinese military power, India was empowered to build as many as 65 warheads, manufactured and deployed in the absence of external monitoring and made possible by the work of 1100 U.S.-trained scientists.  Like Israel and also Pakistan, India maintains a hostile attitude toward IAEA monitoring.  In July 2005 the U.S. signed an historic deal with New Delhi for nuclear cooperation, just when India was busy modernizing its illegal atomic stockpile and delivery systems.  (The deal was approved by Congress in October 2008.) Those profiting, of course, included dozens of U.S. technical and military corporations……

n the end, the Iranian “crisis” is symptomatic of a deeper predicament:  nothing will be resolved until every state – not just the targeted villains – is held accountable to the same universal norms.   This means, above all, the U.S., Israel, and other nuclear outlaws.  Blix noted that the NPT “is not a treaty that appoints the nuclear-weapons states individually or jointly to police non-nuclear weapons states and threaten them with punishment.  It is a contract in which all parties commit themselves to the goal of a nuclear weapons-free world.”  There can be no meaningful “contract” without an internationalization of security arrangements that, in the end, will require a dismantling of the American warfare state that underpins its nuclear outlawry and that of its clients. http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/04/04/the-real-nuclear-outlaws/#.T33s-UO4hjA.facebook

February 13, 2012 Posted by | Israel, Reference, USA, weapons and war | 1 Comment

What really is Israel’s purpose in killing Iran’s nuclear scientists?

Mossad training terrorists to kill Iran’s nuclear scientists, U.S. officials claim… but is Israel’s real target Obama? Israel funding dissident People’s Mujahedin of Iran, say officials in Tehran   DAILY MAIL  10th February 2012 U.S. officials confirmed today that Israel has been funding and training Iranian dissidents to assassinate nuclear scientists involved in Iran’s nuclear program.

The claim has already been levelled by the Iranian government who believed that Mossad, Israel’s secret service, have been arming
dissidents with the terrorist organisation the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK). Last month Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, 32, a chemistry expert, was killed in a brazen daylight assassination when two assailants on a motorcycle
attached a magnetic bomb to his car in Tehran.
Washington insiders confirmed there is a close relationship between Mossad and MEK, according to NBC, but said the U.S. was not involved. Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior aide to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told NBC: ‘Israel does not have direct access to our society. Mujahedin, being Iranian and being part of Iranian society, they have… places to get into the touch with people…..
Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan’s death was the latest in a string of attacks on Iranian scientists. : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2099142/Mossad-training-terrorists-kill-Irans-nuclear-scientists-U-S-officials-claim–Israels-real-target-Obama.html#ixzz1m76bXdno

February 11, 2012 Posted by | Israel, secrets,lies and civil liberties | Leave a comment

Secret build of renewable energy by Palestinians

Palestinians Attempt to Build Secret Renewable Energy Plants Green Prophet,    | February 8th, 2012 |Palestinians living in Masafer Yatta who do not have access to the electrical grid have been developing home grown renewable energy plants.

 

Palestinians living in the Masafer Yatta village have been secretly pursuing wind and solar energy projects in order to mitigate a serious shortfall of energy in the village.

But the 150,000 residents that live in Area C, which has been under Israeli control since 1993, live in constant fear that Israeli authorities will demolish their projects. Continue reading →

February 9, 2012 Posted by | Israel, MIDDLE EAST, secrets,lies and civil liberties | 1 Comment

Why is Iran singled out on the nuclear issue?

What exactly is Iran’s crime? Guardian UK, Anna Romano, 7 Feb 12,  (EU risks oil embargo, 27 January)? Its burgeoning nuclear activities are not in contravention of international law.

There are several countries that have nuclear weapons and are not subject to scrutiny and inspection from the IAEA, most notably Israel. It remains a source of contention that this institution is prepared to tolerate Israel’s policy of deliberate ambiguity.

Additionally, countries such as India and Pakistan could never have obtained their nuclear capability without the consent of the US. Neither of these nations is a signed up member of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, while Iran is.

Iran has little reason to trust the west. Its first more or less democratically elected leader, Mossadegh was toppled from power in a CIA coup in 1953, with Britain’s blessing and support.

Iran’s real offence is to strongly criticise the west’s double standards regarding foreign policy in the region and to remain in control of its resources. The crux of the matter lies within this power structure, and so the west must support wars in the Middle East every two or three years to preserve’s Israel’s position as the only viable, militarised nuclear state in the region. Indeed, the aim of recently imposed sanctions may well be to go even further and covertly instigate regime change, illegal under international law.

Reference to Iran’s’ repressive government has little leverage in light of Saudi Arabia’s record and its repression of democracy in Bahrain. David Cameron’s recent visit to the region to sell more weapons to Saudis reflects this amorality. http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2012/feb/07/letters?newsfeed=true

February 8, 2012 Posted by | Iran, politics international | Leave a comment

Close to Iran’s nuclear reactor – an earthquake strikes

Earthquake strikes near Iranian nuclear power plant, February 5, 2012. PennEnergy, By Brien Southward An earthquake, measured at 5 on the Richter scale by the US Geological Survey, was felt only 70km from Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, which is expected to go online on March 20. As of 9:46am CST on February 5, 2012, there has been no report yet of casualties or damage at the reactor facility. If damage did occur, it could have consequences for the future of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

 The quake strikes as Iran is mired in a diplomatic crisis with the West overthe ambitions of its nuclear energy program. Iran claims that their research is only for the sake of producing nuclear power to meet the growing energy needs of the developing country of some 74 million people, but numerous world leaders and global organizations such as theUN-affiliated International Atomic Energy Agency are concerned that they could be secretly using nuclear enrichment technology to develop nuclear weapons….. The most recent earthquake, measured at 5.5 on the Richter scale, was felt on January 19 near the city of Neyshabour in northeast Iran, injuring 100 people and causing some structural damage. Iran’s deadliest earthquake struck the northern provinces of Gilan and Zanjan, killing around 37,000 people and injuring more than 100,000. http://www.pennenergy.com/index/power/display/8633237470/articles/pennenergy/power/nuclear/2012/february/quake-strikes_near.html

February 7, 2012 Posted by | Iran, safety | Leave a comment

Iran says enriching uranium under IAEA supervision

Iran Starts Uranium Enrichment at Underground Complex, VOA, January 9th, 2012  Iran on Monday confirmed it has started uranium enrichment at a second facility where the material can be upgraded quickly for potential use in a nuclear bomb.

Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said Tehran is refining uranium at the newly-launched Fordo complex and an older facility in the city of Natanz. He told Iran’s Arabic language al Alam TV network the work was taking place under thesupervision of the United Nations atomic agency.

Diplomats with ties to the IAEA confirmed that Iranian centrifuges have begun refining uranium to a purity of 20 percent at Fordo, an underground complex near the Shi’ite holy city of Qom.
The United States and France condemned the move…… Most of the work at the Natanz facility has involved refining uranium to a relatively low purity of 3.5 percent. Enrichment to the 20 percent level at the Fordo complex could reduce the time needed for Iran to further refine the material to the 90 percent purity required for nuclear weapons.
Iran says its nuclear program is designed only to generate electricity and material for medical research.
The United States and its ally Israel have not ruled out military action to stop the program. Israel sees a nuclear-armed Iran as a threat to its existence.
http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2012/01/09/iran-starts-uranium-enrichment-at-underground-complex-3/

February 7, 2012 Posted by | Iran, politics international, Uranium | Leave a comment

Middle East- a nuclear weapon-free zone or allout nuclear arms race?

AP Interview: Saudi warns of Mideast nuclear race, Google News, By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press  26 Jan 12, DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — An influential member of the Saudi royal family warned Wednesday that unless the Middle East becomes a nuclear weapon-free zone, a nuclear arms race is inevitable and could include his own country, Iraq, Egypt and even Turkey.
Prince Turki Al Faisal said the five permanent U.N. Security Council members should guarantee a nuclear security umbrella for Mideast countries that join a nuclear-free zone — and impose “military sanctions” against countries seen to be developing nuclear weapons. “I think that’s a better way of going at this issue of nuclear enrichment of uranium, or preventing Iran from acquiring weapons of mass destruction,” the former Saudi intelligence chief and ambassador Continue reading →

January 26, 2012 Posted by | Saudi Arabia, weapons and war | Leave a comment

There is a diplomatic avenue that would prevent war with Iran

Now, the West is all but isolated. Most non-Westerners would prefer to see Iran treated like other treaty parties – allowed to enrich uranium in return for intrusive monitoring by IAEA inspectors.

 this gathering crisis could be avoided by a deal along the following lines – Iran would accept top-notch IAEA safeguards in return for being allowed to continue enriching uranium. In addition, Iran would volunteer some confidence-building measures to show it has no intention of making nuclear weapons.

Iran deal would allow West to make U-turn on highway to war, The Age, January 25, 2012 There is little realism behind the demand that Tehran give up its capacity to enrich uranium, writes Peter Jenkins.

The Iranian nuclear controversy is reaching a critical juncture. On Monday, the European Union agreed on an oil embargo as part of sanctions against the country. On Sunday, Britain, the US and France sent warships through the Strait of Hormuz. Recent months have seen a big rise in the twin risks of military action and grave damage to the world economy. This is the consequence of what I believe to be a great diplomatic overbid – the West’s demand that Iran surrender its capacity to enrich uranium. Continue reading →

January 25, 2012 Posted by | Iran, politics international, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Double standards of the West in sanctions against Iran

Like sanctions, war will not work either. A war could not deter Iran from pursuing its nuclear program and seeking nuclear weapons. 

The flaw in the arguments used by the United States, Israel and the European Union against Iran’s nuclear program is the apparent double standard. How can the US expect to persuade Iran to relinquish its nuclear program when America has acquiesced to India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea acquiring nuclear weapons? The US has even signed a nuclear partnership pact with India…….

Accepting the inevitable: A nuclear Iran, DAILY NEWS EGYPT, By   Mamdouh G. Salameh      January 22, 2012, The only sanctions able to hurt Iran are those that ban its crude oil exports, but getting the international community to agree on such sanctions is virtually impossible.

The international political and economic repercussions of these sanctions would be so huge that they are not worth pondering. Even if, by the very unlikely chance, such sanctions were agreed upon by the United Nations Security Council, Iran’s retaliation would be immediate and destructive.

Iran could easily mine the Strait of Hormuz in the face of the 17 million barrels of oil a day (mbd) exported by the Arab Gulf oil producers. This would push the price of oil to more than $150-$200 a barrel (it is currently about $100 a barrel). The biggest loser, of course, would be the biggest oil consumer — namely the United States, which imports 12-14 million barrels of oil every day. This would spell an economic catastrophe for the United States in particular and the world-at-large. Continue reading →

January 24, 2012 Posted by | Iran, politics international | Leave a comment

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