Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Latest US Tactic Against Iran Smacks of Desperation

Oppose Neo-Fascism | 22.12.2007 17:43 | Anti-racism | World

After the NIE report, the UN isn't going to consider any further sanctions, which China and Russia would simply veto anyway. (And which the US and Israel are only using to leverage a 'legal' justification for a war they view as inevitable, whose planning precedes both Ahmadinejad and the nuclear power program.)

Russia has begun shipping fuel to the reactor site, and even if it's just the rods which are hit at this point, the resulting fire from a military attack hitting the rods and graphite would cause a regional catastrophe.

Russia has already stated that an attack on Iran will be perceived as an attack on Iran.

The word "checkmate" comes to mind, but one can never entirely dismiss the potential for sheer craziness and hubris coming from DC and Tel Aviv.

US wants Iran to admit to nuke program

Senior US Envoy: Iran Needs to Admit to Past Weapons Program

GEORGE JAHN
AP News

Dec 21, 2007 16:04 EST

Iran must "confess" to running a past nuclear weapons program or its claims of cooperating with a U.N. investigation will not be credible, the chief U.S. envoy to the U.N. atomic watchdog agency said Friday.

(Since the IAEA has stated unequivocally that Iran has no weapons program, and has cooperated with its inspections, this is a desperate attempt to undo that success, reframe the debate, and perpetuate the illusion of a crisis.)

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, meanwhile, said in Washington that if Iran wants U.N. sanctions lifted and avoid new ones, it must halt uranium enrichment and related activities that could make the ingredients for an atomic bomb.

(This is the US Regime's way of avoiding meaningful negotiations, since they don't really care about this issue, as they know they're just making it up, and only want a war with Iran.)

If Iran complies, Rice said she was "prepared to meet my (Iranian) counterpart any place and anytime and anywhere, and we can talk about anything." But "as long as the Iranians are talking and practicing enrichment, we're not getting anywhere," she said.

(Enrichment is Iran's right under the NPT, and these demands are a way to scuttle talks, and ensure that diplomacy cannot work. This should be what is discussed, not a demand to preclude negotiations.)

Iran says it needs an enrichment program to produce fuel for civilian power plants, but Washington suspects it is part of its ultimate drive to possess nuclear weapons. Low enriched uranium generates power, but highly enriched, it has no use other than for the fissile payload of nuclear warheads.

(Responsible journalists would have explained that Iran's growing energy demands and limited petroleum refining capability supports these claims, while the US has no evidence to support their empty allegations. As well, vastly more construction would be required to start a refining process necessary for a weapons program, which would be immediately evident to the many eyes peering at Iran.)

Gregory L. Schulte, the chief U.S. delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, said Iran's refusal to suspend enrichment "violates Security Council resolutions and casts doubt on its leaders' ultimate intent."

(The Resolutions, which were designed to create a crisis, violates Iran's NPT rights. Several investigations are currently underway into allegations that the US coerced nations like India to vote for these resolutions.)

"Iran is already a danger in the Middle East," Schulte said. "That danger only increases as Iran's leaders shorten the timeline to produce nuclear weapons."

(The only real threat to the region is that posed by Israeli and American Extremists, who have already started several illegal wars, are conducting illegal covert wars against others - including Iran - are illegally brutalizing the Palestinians, and have created this crisis in order to start another war.)

The IAEA has been investigating Iran's nuclear programs since revelations in 2003 that the country had conducted nearly two decades of secret atomic activities, including developing enrichment and working on experiments that could be linked to a weapons program.

(However, none of this work was ACTUALLY linked to any weapons program. This irresponsible misrepresentation of the IAEA's work is reminiscent of the media's complicity in starting the disastrous war against Iraq.)

A recently published U.S. intelligence assessment concluded that in the same year, Iran stopped direct work on creating nuclear arms.

(But this claim only comes from a single, unreliable source, and is not in any way supported by any hard evidence.)

Under a plan agreed to earlier this year with the IAEA, Iran committed itself to answering all lingering questions about its past nuclear activities. That, by implication, included programs that could have weapons applications.

"We are looking for an acknowledgment that they had nuclear weapons," Schulte said. "The end of the year is rapidly approaching (and) we are waiting to see if Iran's leaders are ready to confess."

(They never had nuclear weapons. The desperation, and willingness to do anything to start a war, on the part of the Israeli and American Extremists is frighteningly apparent.)

However, the agreement between Iran and the IAEA makes no direct mention of a clandestine Iranian weapons program, and because Iran denies it ever tried to develop one, the U.S. demands are unlikely to be met.

(Because it is a ludicrous request ...)

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called the U.S. intelligence estimate a victory for his country, and officials of other governments have suggested it could relieve pressure on the Islamic republic.

Schulte warned against such interpretations. Iran had been engaged in a "concerted, covert program, conducted by military entities, under the direction of Iran's government," he said. "Iran's leaders could choose to restart that program."

(But there is no evidence that such a program ever existed. Using the Neo-Con's own terms for 'pre-emption', wouldn't Iran be justified in attacking Israel or the US, both nulcear powers, since they're plotting to attack the country ... ?)

Still, the revised U.S. National Intelligence Estimate on Iran has stiffened resistance from permanent U.N. Security Council members Russia and China to moving quickly on a third set of sanctions against Iran.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei has said he wants to wrap up the investigation by December. But diplomats accredited to the agency, who demanded anonymity because their information was confidential, told The Associated Press this week that the agency had run into unspecified obstacles, and that Iranian officials were now talking about March as the new deadline — something they said the United States and its allies would be unlikely to accept.

(El Baredei also said that any attack on Iran would be "an act of Madness", and was subsequently attacked/slandered by the Israeli Government, and the US tapped his phones.)

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report from Washington.

 http://www.rawstory.com/news/mochila/US_wants_Iran_to_admit_to_nuke_prog_12212007.html

'Israel will attack Iran on its own'
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/12/388351.html

Iran, Nukes, and the 'Laptop of Death'
How we were almost lied into war – again
 http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12030

'Laptop of Death': Revising the NIE on Iran

The claim that Iran once had a nuclear program comes from a single, questionable source, reminiscent of the false information passed to the US neo-cons by Ahmad Chalabi.

 http://www.antiwar.com/ips/akhavi.php?articleid=12028

Oppose Neo-Fascism

Comments

Display the following 2 comments

  1. Repost from right wing site — Oppose NeoConservatives
  2. Associated Press? — Take A Hike, Plant
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech