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Open anti nuclear activism in Iran

Iran Activists Join Antinuclear Push, WSJ, 14 Nov 11, By FARNAZ FASSIHI, A group of Iranian dissidents for the first time openly called on their government to suspend uranium enrichment, in an open letter published Monday that adds to the momentum of the international effortto convince Tehran to abandon its alleged nuclear weapons program.

“The current deadlock over Iran’s nuclear ambitions and empty power play will set the stage for war and the people of Iran will have to pay the price,” said the letter. Continue reading

November 15, 2011 Posted by | Iran, opposition to nuclear | Leave a comment

Doubts and inconsistencies in IAEA report on Iran’s nukes

Careful examination of the “alleged studies” documents has revealed inconsistencies and other anomalies that give evidence of fraud. But the IAEA, the United States and its allies in the IAEA continue to treat the documents as though there were no question about their authenticity.

IAEA report on Iran contains falsified information allegedly supplied by Israel, Moral Outrage, 11 Nov 11 The Hindu reports that the latest report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Iran appears to have falsified information about a Russian scientist who allegedly helped Tehran advance its nuclear weapons program. The IAEA report published by a Washington think tank Tuesday included a sensational claim that a former Soviet nuclear weapons scientist had helped Iran construct a detonation system that could be used for a nuclear weapon.

However, the Russian media has found out that the scientist, Vyacheslav Danilenko, had never worked in nuclear physics but their field of expertise was instead the production of nanodiamonds by explosion. Nanodiamonds are used in the manufacture of lubricants and rubber.

Contacted by the Russian daily newspaper Kommersant, the 76-year-old scientist, now retired, refused to discuss his work in Iran, saying only: “I’m not a nuclear physicist and I’m not a father of Iran’s nuclear programme.” Continue reading

November 14, 2011 Posted by | Iran, secrets,lies and civil liberties | 1 Comment

Obama gets no support from China and Russia on tougher measures to Iran

Russia and China stay silent after Obama seeks their support over Iran nuclear bomb threat Absolutely no consensus’ between three leaders By DAILY MAIL REPORTER 14th November 2011 Barack Obama was met with a wall of silence from his counterparts in China and Russia when he brought up the increasing problem of Iran’s nuclear programme at a global summit. Continue reading

November 14, 2011 Posted by | Iran, politics international | Leave a comment

Iran’s history – how the West promoted the tragedy of Iran

Iran a tragedy of the West’s own making. SMH, November 14, 2011 “…..The tragedy of this now oppressive theocratic state is that it was once the sole exemplary democracy in the Middle East. Its secular democracy was destroyed in 1953 by the US and Britain in a self-interested move to prevent Iran falling under the influence of the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

The imposition by the West of the Shah saw the establishment of a murderous and corrupt regime protected by the West to ensure the survival of Britain’s oil interests.

When the excesses of this regime became an embarrassment the West stood back as the Islamic revolution swept to power. Again the democratic forces were violently repressed by the new government…..

the West later supported the Saddam Hussein government in its war on Iran. Small wonder then that Iranians feel they have strong reasons to distrust and fear the West and its protege, Israel.

And given that the current oppressive Iranian regime has largely destroyed the remnant democratic forces in Iran, any chance of a democratic revolution is remote. The constant threat of military intervention and the sanctions imposed play into the hands of the present Iranian government… http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/iran-a-tragedy-of-the-wests-own-making-20111113-1ndx3.html#ixzz1djIAWf2u

November 14, 2011 Posted by | history, Iran | Leave a comment

USA’s under cover terrorism against Iran

VIDEO US confesses to covert ops against Iran Press TV 13 Nov 11 Washington is seeking to stop Iran’s nuclear program by means of maximum covert operations including the assassination of Iranian scientists.

Speaking at the Republican presidential debate in Spartanburg, South Carolina, on Saturday former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich openly advocated increased covert terrorism against Iran.He suggested employing “maximum covert operations to block and disrupt the Iranian program including taking out their scientists, including breaking up their systems. All of it covertly, all of it deniable.”  Continue reading

November 14, 2011 Posted by | Iran, Resources -audiovicual, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

Iran warns against Israeli military strike

Nuclear standoff: Iran warns US, Israel against strike News.com.Au 11 Nov 11 IRAN will hit back against any attack or even threat of military action, the country’s supreme leader says after Israel warned the world must act to prevent Tehran getting nuclear weapons.

Iran “will respond with full force to any aggression or even threats in a way that will demolish the aggressors from within”, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told students at a Tehran military college, according to his official website. Continue reading

November 11, 2011 Posted by | Iran, Israel, politics international | Leave a comment

Unwisdom of attack on Iran, and not much new in IAEA report

despite the rhetoric about last chances, there is still time for a peaceful way out of the crisis. The Obama administration has no stomach nor money for another war, and its generals insist that every way they game the scenarios, America comes out the loser.

The IAEA report: what does it really mean and will it lead to war with Iran?  by 9 November 2011 guardian.co.uk Tuesday’s IAEA report has rekindled the global debate over what to do about the Iranian nuclear programme with a familiar array of options on the table: engage, sanction or attack. The various protagonists are familiar too. Russia is complaining the IAEA report has spoilt the chance of renewed dialogue, the US, Britain and France want a new push towards tighter sanctions, and Israel is threatening to strike unless the international community sorts the matter out in the next few months.

There is something a little phoney about all the sound and fury. There is nothing in the report that was not previously known by the major powers. The West and Israel supplied most of the original tip-offs for the annex on weapons development, while Russia was briefed and no doubt knew one of its own scientists had been lecturing the Iranians on how to make explosive implosion devices (ostensibly for making tiny diamonds).

Furthermore, the bulk of the report is historical, referring to the years leading up to 2003. Continue reading

November 10, 2011 Posted by | Iran, politics international | Leave a comment

A British warning against an attack on Iran

Iran is a far more sophisticated and divided society than the picture generally painted in the west.

An attack on Iran would halt and reverse moves to reform. The Arab spring would become an Arab winter with disastrous consequences for US and European interests as well as Arab societies, including Saudi Arabia. The alternatives are many – to continue to apply economic sanctions, a policy of carrot and stick, but with much more emphasis on the carrot. Embraces are far more difficult to withstand than attacks…

An attack on Iran would be disastrous Britain must resist US pressure for military action. Even if Iran had nuclear weapons, engagement is the only course to take, Guardian UK 6 Nov 11

“Would a British prime minister ever refuse a plea from a US president to join America in a controversial military operation?” This was the response, rhetorical and unanswerable as far as they were concerned, by Whitehall mandarins whenever they were asked why Tony Blair agreed to invade Iraq. It was not a matter of whether the invasion was wrong or right; it was that the occupier of 10 Downing Street would simply not turn down such a request from the White House.

For the US, Britain could offer not only political and “moral” support but a juicy physical asset – Diego Garcia, the base conveniently placed for American bombers, on the British Indian Ocean Territory.

This is what so worries Whitehall, and Britain’s top brass in particular – a growing fear that Barack Obama will find it difficult to oppose increasing pressure for military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities within the next 12 months. Continue reading

November 7, 2011 Posted by | Iran, politics international | 1 Comment

Researchers show that Syria’s supposed nuclear site is a textile factory

That secret nuclear facility in Syria? It’s a textile factory, researchers say in new report, Washington Post By   4 Nov After a four-year search for hidden atomic facilities in Syria, U.N. officials appeared this week to have finally struck gold: News reports linked a large factory in eastern Syria to a suspected clandestine effort to spin uranium gas into fuel for nuclear bombs.

But after further probing by private researchers, Syria’s mystery plant is looking far less mysterious. A new reportconcludes that the facility and its thousands of fast-spinning machines were intended to make not uranium, but cloth — a very ordinary cotton-polyester.

“It is, and always has been, a textile factory,” said one of the researchers, Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear policy expert at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies and publisher of the blog Arms Control Wonk…..

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/that-secret-syrian-nuclear-facility-its-a-textile-factory-researchers-say/2011/11/04/gIQA0MV7mM_blog.html

November 5, 2011 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, Syria, weapons and war | Leave a comment

United Nations passes Iran’s nuclear disarmament bill

UN passes Iran’s bid for N disarmamentPress TV 1 Nov 11The UN General Assembly’s First Committee has endorsed an Iran-sponsored resolution on nuclear disarmament despite attempts by the US and the Israeli regime to kill the bid.

The committee, which focuses on disarmament and international security issues, approved the resolution with 107 votes on October 31, despite strong opposition and negative campaigning by the US, the Tel Aviv regime as well as some European governments, IRNA reported.

The resolution calls for the implementation of pledges made at the three most recent Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conferences.  It also reiterates the urgency for a nuclear-free Middle East and demands that the Israeli regime must sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Israel, widely believed to be the sole possessor of a nuclear arsenal in the Middle East with over 200 undeclared nuclear warheads, pursues the policy of “deliberate ambiguity” for its nuclear program.

Tel Aviv has so far rejected all global demands to join the NPT and does not allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors to inspect and monitor its controversial nuclear program.

The Israeli regime has never denied or confirmed the existence of its nuclear arsenal as part of its long-held ‘nuclear ambiguity’ policy. Despite international objections to such dubious policy, the UN and its nuclear regulatory agencies have never taken serious steps to censure or impose sanctions on the defiant regime.  Tehran has also proposed a draft resolution on missiles, which is to be discussed in the committee’s next session.

November 2, 2011 Posted by | Iran, politics international, weapons and war | Leave a comment

UN investigators suspect nuclear weapons site in Syria

Syria nuclear weapons site revealed by UN investigators, Guardian UK 1 Nov 11, IAEA identifies uranium enrichment plant design at Hasakah and finds correspondence with Pakistan atomic expert, sources claim

UN investigators have identified a previously unknown complex in Syria that bolsters suspicions the government in Damascus worked with Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan‘s atomic bomb, to acquire nuclear weapons technology. Continue reading

November 2, 2011 Posted by | Syria, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Wikileaks reveal Saudi Arabia’s fears about Iran’s nuclear plant

Plumbing WikiLeaks: Saudi Arabia Fears Iranian Nuclear Meltdown and Potential Terrorism to Desalination, Circle of Blue, By Brett Walton, 28 OCTOBER 2011  Classified cables show that Saudi and U.S. officials believe water supplies along the Persian Gulf are at high-risk for terrorist attacks and possible contamination from nearby nuclear plants. This is the first of a new series that will analyze the water-related U.S. embassy cables published by WikiLeaks.

“The location is so dangerous,” said Prince Turki Al-Kabeer, the undersecretary for multilateral affairs from the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Not just to us, but to the world economy!”

Ostensibly, Prince Turki was meeting with the Netherlands ambassador, the Russian ambassador, and a political/military counselor from the American embassy to discuss an initiative against nuclear terrorism. But — according to a classified American embassy cable from 2009 that has since been published by WikiLeaks — the conversation turned to Iran’s nuclear program and the Russian-built reactor at Bushehr, a site less than 300 kilometers (186 miles) from Saudi shores on Iran’s Persian Gulf coast.

Prince Turki went on to say that Russia should “use its influence” to persuade Iran to relocate the reactor to the Caspian Sea, where there would be sufficient water for cooling, and, the cable’s author makes clear, isolation from Saudi territory, if a nuclear accident were to occur.

At risk, according to both Saudi and U.S. officials, are the desalination plants supplying much of Saudi Arabia’s drinking water, and the Persian Gulf waterway that conveys a large portion of the world’s oil exports — 6.6 million barrels per day… http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2011/world/plumbing-wikileaks-saudi-arabia-fears-iranian-nuclear-meltdown-and-potential-terrorism-to-desalination/

October 29, 2011 Posted by | politics international, Saudi Arabia, water | Leave a comment

Iran’s troubled nuclear program

Iran’s nuclear program suffering new setbacks, diplomats and experts sayWashington PostBy ,  October 17 Iran’s nuclear program, which stumbled badly after a reported cyber attack last year, appears beset by poorly performing equipment, shortages of parts and other woes as global sanctions exert a mounting toll, Western diplomats and nuclear experts say. Continue reading

October 18, 2011 Posted by | business and costs, Iran | Leave a comment

Iran’s uranium enrichment offer should be accepted by USA

“These measures set out a foundation for diplomatic efforts focusing on establishing enhanced safeguards on Iran,” according to Vaez. He added that he thinks there is still “plenty of time” to strike a diplomatic accord.

U.S. Should Accept Iran’s Latest Uranium Enrichment Offer, Experts Say, Oct. 7, 2011 By Martin Matishak Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The United States should accept Iran’s offer to halt its production of higher-enriched uranium if provided equivalent material by Western powers as the first step in breaking the diplomatic standoff between the two countries, a new report by a pair of nonproliferation experts argues (seeGSN, Oct. 5). Continue reading

October 10, 2011 Posted by | Iran, politics international, Uranium | Leave a comment

USA – Israel’s cyberwar against Iran’s nukes

US, Israel Guilty for Worm Attack on Iran’s Nuclear Program: Russia, SPAMfighter News – 07-10-2011 Though it is shocking, it is true. Russia has blamed the United States and Israel for the Stuxnet worm, calling it a case of real cyber-war, according to a Techworld news report published on September 26, 2011. A number of Stuxnet infections were found in Iran and it was speculated that the worm, which was skilled to identify the system it was to hit, targeted at damaging the country’s nuclear facilities.

The experts, however claims that the Stuxnet system was initiated in June 2010 against the centrifuge control system with an intention to enrich uranium in Iran. Though Iran has also blamed Israel for the Stuxnet, it could not offer much evidence.

Meanwhile, Tehran has also held Israel and the US responsible for killing its two nuclear scientists in November 2010 and January 2011….. In early 2011, Russia’s NATO ambassador Dmitry Rogozi asserted that the Stuxnet infection had seriously affected Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant causing the equipment to breakdown.

The Stuxnet has drawn their attention towards the susceptibility resulting due to the industrial control systems that were under attack by the worm.Who created the Stuxnet still remains unproven and a mystery, but according to experts, Israel was responsible for this malicious cyber attack, which was likely funded by the US. http://www.spamfighter.com/News-16866-US-Israel-Guilty-for-Worm-Attack-on-Iran%27s-Nuclear-Program-Russia.htm

October 8, 2011 Posted by | Iran, politics international | Leave a comment