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Report Claims Iran Has Data To Build a Nuclear Bomb
reporter writes "According to a startling report just covered by the New York Times, 'senior staff members of the United Nations nuclear agency have concluded in a confidential analysis that Iran has acquired sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable atom bomb.' In 2007, American intelligence erroneously concluded that Tehran in 2003 stopped further research into designing a nuclear bomb. This conclusion was contradicted by German, French, and Israeli intelligence. Recently, London also concluded that the American assessment is incorrect. So, here we are. The Iranians have the knowledge to build a nuclear bomb and have been working relentlessly to perfect its design. Tehran is apparently able to create the components (e.g. enriched uranium) that can be assembled into such a weapon. Meanwhile, Jerusalem is communicating with the Kremlin about a list of Russian scientists it believes are assisting Iran's efforts to develop the bomb."
More proof that the overt cold war ended, but the covert battle continues.
Should we really be so shocked? Haven't nuclear weapons been present in the middle east for over 3 decades now, in Israel?
Low on substance. High on unreliable sources. This is not news for nerds.
Doesn't that just proof that they have Internet access?
NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
Wiki nukes - The nuke building resource that anyone can edit.
Kim_Jong_il (Reverted edits by Ali Khamenei (talk) to last version by Sadr-e-Mumlikat)
How reliable is US intelligence today? I mean, they were wrong (or lied) about Iraq, and now they are seemingly wrong about Iran.
I cannot make up my mind which is worse, them being wrong or them lieing...
Lies, thats worse...
But them being (apparently) wrong on this makes me wonder how often they are wrong with intel regarding the The War On Terror (TM)
Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity
that the Iranians are trying so hard to get access to discoveries primarily made by American Jews?
As a member of the NPT Iran is well within its rights to posses the outlined technologies. The article clearly omits the fact that such capabilities can also lead to better yeilds from civilian/peaceful uses of nuclear technology.
I believe the adage of "it takes one to know one" can be attributed to people claiming Iran intends to use such technologies for aggressive non-peaceful purposes.
Arash Partow's Philosophy: Be a person who knows what they don't know, and not a person who doesn't know.
North Korea.
Apparently, no one dares to dream about invading THEM since they got themselves one of those "toys for the big boys".
Gee... I wonder why would Iran work on such technology?
Hey... Such is the world today.
You want to be free to spew your ideological/religious/economic nonsense at the world? Nuke up!
Worked for USA.
Nobody stepped up to challenge Bush for stealing the election, open aggression on two countries without any real evidence of their involvement in an attack on the US, blatant violation of human rights, screwing up flying commercial airlines for everyone in the world and destroying world economy.
Nukes work. Plain and simple.
It's perfectly possible to design a basic nuclear weapon with freely-available information today. Any country large enough to have competent physicists and engineers could do it.
Obtaining raw materials is the problem.
There was a project in the US, the name of which I forget (could someone furnish us with a link?), in which a group of scientists with no background in nuclear weapon design and no access to classified information were asked to design a nuclear weapon. They then had experts with access to nuclear test data and so on to analyse the plans and determine whether they would work. The results were classified, but so were the plans, suggesting they worked.
# cat
Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
And, as mentioned above, pretty much everyone with an internet access and a curious mind.
Even without it, with a little help from a Finite Element Analysis software and the most basic equation from Particle physics and theoretical chemistry, pretty much anyone can aquire the Data to build the bomb.
The Manhattan project used punchcard analog computers and human calculators (google it) to derive the necessary data, every desktop computer has much more calculating power.
However this is not the issue. The issue is how to apply this knowledge, this is what eats up all the budget of most Nuclear programs. Its not enough to know how to separate the uranium isotopes with a gas centrifuge, you have to build it, actually several thousands of them, and even then it will take years.
IMHO its not about the Data we should be worried, its about whether or not they have the necessary hardware to apply this data.
Almost anyone could make an A-bomb if they had sufficient amount of weapons grade uranium 235, or plutonium. The real challenge is extracting the uranium 235 isotope from uranium ore.
Even Wikipedia has enough detail on both purification and bomb building to give you a good head start. I don't think the challenge is the lack of theoretical knowledge or the process, but technology to do so. Those centrifuges are not easy to make (they spin up to 90,000 RPM) and something as a fingerprint on one of them will make it shatter when it's spinning that fast.
But these days, almost any country that really wants to (and does not care about political or economic repercussions) could develop nuclear technology.
As the island of our knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.
The only way to use the A-bomb is to kill civilans en masse. Theres no military use of an A-bomb without 99% civil casualties.
So, supposed we dont want Iran to be able to kill civilians en masse, why should we allow _anybody else_ to be able to kill civilians en masse? What is the precise reason the US/UK/ France/Russia _need_ to have an A-bomb but Iran doesnt?
Dude, I totally see why you posted AC, but bang F@$k on man.
"You can see I know very little about pimp policy." George McGovern.
I bet they can't wait to join the lets-pay-huge-amounts-of-money-to-maintain-dormant-stockpiles-of-useless-weapons club.
Do you see what I did there?
If any country doesn't have plans for at least a 1940s-era bomb, it's for lack of trying.
Having blueprints and having the means to build a bomb are two very different things.
Besides, a lot has changed since the 1940s - it's very hard to hide the very-large-real-estate/very-high-power-demand technology the Manhattan Project used to enrich uranium.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
One thing about being part of the "Axis of Evil" is that it tends to make one feel insecure. Sometimes other countries threaten to invade and/or talk about bombing back to the stone age... and then one notices that they don't talk that way about countries with nukes...
just sayin..
seems inevitable right now and America must protect it's territory or they will be endangered by Iran in no time(or just a little bit of time).
You were right that they were developing WMD, it was just Iran, not Irak. Blame it on the autocorrect :p
You mean their scientists have a grasp on basic chem and physics? O NOES!!
It's a pretty simple answer, considering Iran's clear intentions to "Wipe Israel off the map".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/oct/27/israel.iran
Some people seem not to know what the capitals and the seat of governments are for some countries. The capital and seat of government for israel is tel aviv. Everyone should know that as they just recently celebrated the city. Jerusalem is disputed and illegally annexed according to every state on this earth and UN. Even USA (incl. during Bush) to recognize jerusalem in any other terms than disputed and annexed territory.
If you RTFA you'll see that it's highly qualified to the effect that "we really don't have good intelligence."
I remember watching Colin Powell at the UN showing aerial slides that I couldn't figure out that he said were mobile chemical weapons plants.
I remember thinking to myself, "Well I think this WMD business is bullshit, but if the whole Bush Administration is going to put themselves on the line over it, then maybe there's something to it. If they're lying, Bush will lose the next election."
Anyone who unskeptically believes the government is stupid.
Iran has a lot of natural gas. Why use nukes and piss off the west?
I'm not saying they don't have the right to build a nuclear power plant for civilian use, but I don't believe their intentions. Not with the way they've been acting.
The Genie is out of the bottle.
Further, it is the height of arrogance that we sit on an arsenal of thousands of nuclear weapons and sit on high and tell the rest of the world, "No, you cannot have nuclear weapons."
I thought "Do as I say, not as I do" was stupid when I was a child, and I still do as an adult.
If I were in charge of a nation and any nation with nuclear weapons tried to tell me I could not have them I would tell them to come back when they have no nuclear weapons themselves.
But, given the nature of American diplomacy today, where we will invade anyone without the bomb in the name of "democracy and freedom", if I were in charge of a nation without the bomb I would make it my nation's highest priority to obtain it so that I would not be the next nation who has American "democracy and freedom" brought to me on the tip of a sword.
A work that expires before its copyright never enters the public domain and thus enjoys eternal copyright protection.
Exactly. And this is modded -1? It's insightful. If USA can have them, why not other countries?
This is an utterly ridiculous thing to say. The standard US warhead, the W88, has a yield of 475 kilotons. That gives it a third degree burn radius of only nine kilometres.
Do you really think it's impossible to deploy a weapon with a nine kilometre radius of effect without causing 99% civilian casualties? Really? Of course it isn't. That's not to say that they wouldn't, in most scenarios, be deployed against urban areas and cause huge civilian casualties, because they would. But huge civilian casualties isn't a property inherent to the weapon itself! It doesn't spawn a few hundred thousand civilians ready to be incinerated, you have to fire it at an area full of civilians!
as soon as dimona is opened up for inspection, the isralis can whine all they want, until they sign off on the ntp and all ow inspections, they need the seiously stfu.
-.no
If you mean, "Why is there a nuclear arms race?"
It's because Eisenhower fired Patton.
The Admin and the Engineer
Skill is a bit harder to come by.. You have to go buy/threaten an ex soviet scientist for that.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Total coincidentally, of course. They switched over a whole year ago now, and of course americans don't have an attention span long enough to allow them to build up an excuse to attack Iran. Oh no.
The country people *should* be bombing the fuck out of is Saudi Arabia. They're seriously evil bastards.
Just remember, "building a nuclear weapon" requires technology from 64 years ago.
"Building a thermonuclear weapon" requires technology from 55 years ago.
"Compact thermonuclear warheads" (deployable on medium-sized missiles) requires technology from 47 years ago.
On the engineering and manufacturing side, the hard part is creating metal parts with really, really fine tolerances. Which requires machining equipment you can buy for under a hundred thousand dollars nowadays.
The only hard part about building a nuclear weapon is getting the materials...
I DID stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night!
Over-the-top Response Guy! Giving "Over-the-Top Responses" since 1970.
That is the US logic about gun ownership. If you own a gun, criminals (with guns) will stay away from you.
Sure... because no criminal would ever just shoot you if they think you have a gun and just take your money of your corpse.
Iran doesn't want to be invaded so it develops weapons of mass destruction... That worked REALLY well for sadam didn't it (people forget that Saddam might have had any, but constantly pretended that he did).
Sorry, but your logic falls flat in the real world. Countless nations don't have nukes and don't invaded at all.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
"We did so because other did so too."
In retrospect, I glad you - USA - haven't copied what Hitler did.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.
Any competent physicist who can get the tools and materials (that's the hard part) can do it.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
...an U235 device (like this one) kan be built on the kitchen table by anyone.
The only real challenge in the project is getting your hands on enough U235.
If you didn't learn it in school, you may read how to do it in "The Fourth Protocol" by Frederick Forsyth...
Elections on my TV. Obama at the UN saying, "No," to nukes. Media telling me Iran might have nukes. Iranian president gives hateful speech at UN. Conflict with Israel.
Me thinks they're getting ready to start a war.
And they're engineering consent.
I don't know, if the USA had killed all of their jews and homosexuals then they'd be a long way behind the rest of the world scientifically, so their military wouldn't be such a threat to small countries, and fewer people would want nukes. Mind you, they'd probably have lost the cold war, so things might not be better overall...
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
SO does the internet. Operations undertaken by highly trained and specialized intelligence units have found that there is atomic bomb data available on the internet, and thus far the INTERNET has REFUSED to allow inspections - additionally there are islamic radicals taking about jihad.
Whatever your worst nightmare is, the internet has it..There is only one option:
The INTERNET MUST BE LIBERATED (by bombs).
Don't let the warning come in the form of a mushroom cloud, (or lolcat suicide bombers).
Well, no.
During the Cold War period, the overwhelming majority of the nuclear weapons were targetted on the other side's nuclear weapons.
Which, oddly enough, were generally kept out in the boonies far from civilian populations.
Sure, there were Bombs targetted at command and control centers, and those tended to be in places that had civilians all around, but even if every command and control center in the USA were obliterated, there'd not have been more than 30% civilian casualties.
Now, one must, of course, keep in mind that 30% civilian casualties is horrendous. It would probably cause a complete breakdown of society above the local level....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
A ploy not to go to war? That's funny!
Just look around today-- the very same tactics that were used to get us to support invading Iraq have been rolled out to manufacture support for attacking Iran: The drumbeat of ever-more-dire media reports, claims of the "greatest threat to the world today," making outrageous demands of the target so that they look evil when they do not comply (because they cannot comply), reporting provable falsehoods and failing to retract them, et cetera. Most of the very same people who wanted a U.S. invasion of Iraq are still in high positions of influence and power, and now they want an invasion of Iran. Never mind that these people were utterly wrong (at best) or liars (at worst) about Iraq-- no nuclear weapons, no biological weapons, no yellowcake from Niger, no fleets of unmanned drones, no al-Qaeda connection whatsoever. It doesn't matter. The media still holds them up as the only credible voices, the people with realistic foreign policy "gravitas" and experience. The people who were right about Iraq are still dismissed as naive, not credible on foreign policy, or fruitcakes.
No, the United States is not "extremely pacifistic about war" now! It's definitely on course to get involved in a third major war.
The sad part, to me, is that Americans are falling for it again. We just lived through the propaganda 8 years ago, and our troops are still occupying Iraq. Yet, here we are again, cowering under our beds in fear of a nation with less than 1/4 our population and about 0.6% of our military budget. Worried sick about a country half-way around the globe that doesn't have the motive nor the means to launch at us a weapon that they don't even have, can't yet build, and may or may not even want!
Worse, getting into this war would harm us more than Iran ever could. We're already mired in an economic crisis in part brought on by the massive diversion of our resources to two on-going conflicts. An attack on Iran could very well be our economic coup de grace, finishing off the dollar as the international reserve currency and ending our ability to finance our astronomical debt. Goodbye military spending, goodbye overseas empire, and goodbye American Dream. Even if we could keep the current, unsustainable borrowing going despite an attack on Iran and more-enormous military spending, that spending will keep our economy weak.
It's ridiculous to the point of absurdity, but the U.S. government is not trying to avoid war now.
Dons tinfoil hat and asbestos apron
(CIA World Factbook)
Oil - proved reserves:
136.2 billion bbl based on Iranian claims (1 January 2008 est.)
country comparison to the world: 3
Want to know why western nations are starting to get all shock-horror about the Iranian bomb? Follow the money.
I had the data to build a nuclear bomb back in 1999! Pulled it right off the Internet! Including contacts to buy the "special materials" needed.
Fact is: The data is worth shit. What's important, is the experience of building it with an extremely low error margin. One explosive going off at a tiny bit wrong time, and the whole thing never reaches critical mass. So you have to test like crazy, and work very properly. You also need the uranium for all this tests!
The plans alone are easy peasy. I could draw a working one myself right now. Would not help anyone a bit without really good and experienced engineers though.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Israel commits crimes that make Iranian transgression look like shoplifting by comparison.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vjJ5fOtvksM/SWYvR4IFthI/AAAAAAAAAAU/AcXQzvRoxsw/S1600-R/headline9637e7.jpg
They are a house of horrors, paid for by the endless U.S. debt.
Who they are:
http://www.itisapartheid.org/
http://politicaltheatrics.org/2009/10/01/binyamin-council-head-jews-arabs-should-have-separate-roads/
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Israeli-Army-T-Shirts-Mock-Killing-Palestinian-Women-And-Children-During-Gaza-Offensive/Article/200903315245946
What they do:
http://www.kawther.info/wpr/2009/09/30/israeli-army-terrorizes-teenagers-inside-a-school
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1253198149221&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
You do realize Iran hasn't invaded a country in over 300 years? The last time they did was to get some land back from Afghanistan. That's older the US constitution. It's moronic to believe the only country to drop 2 nuclear bombs during a war and continuing to use depleted uranium ammunition is protesting another country have the technology solely for international concern. The US needs to go after iran since iran is getting off using the dollar in their oil markets and switching to the Euro. The same thing Saddam tried before the US invaded Iraq. it'll be a bad outcome for the US, but hey I guess those federal tax dollars have to go somewhere other than the middle class
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BHdsjo-NR4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_North_Korean_nuclear_test#Yield_estimates_and_authenticity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_North_Korean_nuclear_test#Lack_of_radionuclide_confirmation
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
If Iran would to launch a nuke? We or Isreal would flatten the country in minutes.
Get up!
"The only way to use the A-bomb is to kill civilans en masse. Theres no military use of an A-bomb without 99% civil casualties."
That's utter babble, long disposed of by the atmospheric testing of low-yield tactical nuclear weapons including plenty of detonations within the continental US. If one uses smallish tac nukes against large military targets, from troop formations to fleets, they are viable and effective weapons.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
You're an ignorant fuck. From the quaran Verse 9:123 - "Believers, make war on the infidels who dwell around you."
Yeah, they'll never fool us again!
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23623.htm
"It's Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran Time"
We didn't believe UN the last time, why should we do so now?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23602.htm
"No Credible Evidence' of Iranian Nuclear Weapons, says UN Inspector"
Maybe CIA will be right with the tortured evidence THIS time! They couldn't be wrong twice, could they?
What's that bit about Jerusalem? Maybe Israel changed its capital to a city that is a point of discord with Palestine, without anyone but the poster noticing :)
"I remember Y1K, every abacus had to get another bead"
starting in 1....2...3....
The only way to use the A-bomb is to kill civilans en masse. Theres no military use of an A-bomb without 99% civil casualties.
That is not even close to being true, the B6Mod10 nuclear bomb has had the dial a yield feature since the 1960's alowing the yeilds to be set to 0.3, 5, 10 or 80 Kt and the Mod11 is designed for bunker busting. Variants of the W54 range from 10 tons (note not KiloTons) to 1KT. All of these have a sufficiently low yield to allow a carefully planed and executed Nuclear event to occur without excessive civilian casualties, unless you count civilian nuclear centrifuge technicians. Hell we could probably drop a dialed down B61Mod11 into a centrifuge facility and they'd never be able to prove they were even nuked.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
MOD PARENT UP:
"Terrorism is desperation. The ONLY way to stop determined terrorism is to hear the claims of the terrorists and negotiate. If someone blows the fuck out of himself and a bunch of other people, it might be a good idea to hear what they're mad about. Do it covertly if you want, so that it doesn't seem you negotiate with them, but do it."
A lot of talk about "terrorism" is really a discussion designed to get U.S. taxpayers to pay for Israel's security.
Just saying. I don't live in NYC or San Fran but, if I did, I'd probably be happier if we invaded fewer countries and actually did meaningful border and import screenings.
as was just revealed by the sunday telegraph by analyzing a photo of his id documents.... nothing would surprise me about iran anymore.
maybe the ayatollah has a collection of john cusak movies, who the hell knows
When I was in high school, one of my science teachers gave us a handout that described in less than 2 pages how to make a nuclear bomb. His point behind doing this was not to teach us how to make a bomb, per se, but to show that it was quite simple to build, given that one had the necessary resources to do so. From what I recall, the only particularly difficult thing about building such a bomb was acquiring and managing the plutonium. But the actual information itself was quite easy to understand, requiring no more technical background to follow than what I had at the time.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
If you've ever been curious about this sort of thing check out this video from UC Berkeley:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3893232447213614208#
The professor goes over different types of uranium isotopes, different ways one can enrich uranium (Including calutrons like those found in Iraq), and how truly easy it is to make an atom bomb if you can find the materials.
It's an amazing lecture, and very worth the time to watch it.
weapons grade is somewhere around 90 percent,,, but you can get by with much less. you wont get as 'efficient' an explosion.. but who gives a crap? a mushroom cloud is a mushroom cloud.
Why do I feel like we're totally being played with all this recent "Nukular Iran" business? Last week we find out about a "secret" enrichment facility that it turns out we knew about since George Bush was president, then we get this whole kabuki dance at the UN with Gordon Brown and Sarkozi and Obama and Netanyahu each playing their respective parts in a drama that seems a little too rote.
I've got a feeling that this drama is being played to entertain us and enrich the military manufacturers and contractors. It sucks that the citizens of every country are expected to accept a lower standard of living while there seems to be no limit to the money available for these small men to play war games.
I can understand why the young crazies in Pittsburgh are so ready to have the whole thing torn down.
You are welcome on my lawn.
'Senior staff members of the United Nations nuclear agency have concluded in a confidential analysis that Iran has acquired "sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable" atom bomb'.
Wow! Panic, everyone!!
Oh, wait. An American high school kid already did that - 32 years ago.
http://www.amazon.com/Mushroom-True-Story-Bomb-Kid/dp/0671827316/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254673660&sr=1-7
I bet no one at the Pentagon knew that...
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
*I* have enough information to make a basic fission bomb. I'm not even a physics or engineering student.
looks like it's about time for the US to start their invasion of iran, the ground work is pretty well set government subverting democracy and shit! they have nukes too.
...and that is all I have to say about that.
http://jessta.id.au
Get real.
Let's not repeat it with nuclear weapons in the hands of unstable or theocratic regimes.
45 years ago, had the nuclear weapons states been regimes characterized by fanaticism and fundamentalism rather than ultimately by secular rationality, we might well be living, or not living, in a post-apocalyptic world. We almost were.
30 years ago Iran was overthrown by religious fanatics and angry, vehemently anti-Western mobs who established a theocratic regime that still rules unopposed today.
It's not about fairness or deserts. "Deserve's got nothing to do with it." Iran having a nuclear weapon is simply not in our rational self interest. Is it worth a few billion in military hardware to Israel and giving them the greenlight to take out some nuclear sites like then did in 1981, in exchange for being damn sure there is one less nuclear weapons state? It sure seems that way.
I just heard on the news that Iran is letting the negotiators in to their Nuclear facilities and are opening up to negotiation... can another middle east conflict maybe be avoided?
Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity
Every Chemistry, and Physics student is told about "Critical Mass", and what causes it. So ya, Iran now has the knowledge to make an Atomic Bomb. And if Iran gets enough of the radio active crap together, in one place, eventually Iran will have an Atomic Bomb. And ya, Iran can "pizza" deliver the bomb to some place in Tel Aviv. Which demonstrates just how far the collective heads of Iran's leadership is shoved up the bung hole of its, "head" cleric? Now if Iran wanted to really start an uncontrollable urine emptying frenzy, on a global scale; It could do two things. Let the IOC tell Iran how to build a commercial atomic energy business,[why Iran doesn't look into Atomic Powered Cargo Vessels is beyond me]. The other thing Iran could do is build about 1000 Giga-Watts worth of Solar Panels and sell it on the open market. Then Iran could collectively sit back, light up their Huka's, order some Tea, and watch while the Western World's "Energy" leaders desperately try to keep from defecating all over themselves. Go Figure...
Some obvious things:
a) This story is not about "having data to build a nuclear bomb". Any accredited university engineering program has "the data to build a nuclear bomb", but it would be unwieldy to tactically deploy. The minor news is that Iran is close to the capability to produce a atomic bomb which is sufficiently compact to be mountable on a missile with decent range to threaten neighbors.
b) The major news should be that Iran is receiving assistance with deployment systems which can be used with a much wider array of conventional, chemical, biological and other categories of payloads which are much easier to deploy (politically and militarily). I would be very glad if this were a continuation of the Cold War as we knew it, since that would mean that enough of the MAD thinking is in place by both sides that sufficiently tight controls are in place to prevent the nuclear option from ever being deliberately deployed.
c) Remember that the first atomic bomb makers were working in and with what would be third-world technologies and systems were we to encounter them today. Why would it be remarkable to report that a country which does not follow our economic, social or value systems is capable of producing something now which was first demonstrated 60 years ago?
d) This has been a pretty poor "covert battle" since the belligerents manage to sneak it into international headlines on an almost weekly basis without any combat engagements. Perhaps the important message is that the proxy wars which pre-dated the Cold War, and which lasted through it, remain an important feature of the real world which cannot be simplified into alarmist and misleading headlines?
e) If we're worried about unauthorised use of nuclear material, the logical measures are to prevent everyone from having nuclear material (not possible due to the low barriers to entry), or to assist anyone who wants to work with nuclear material to do so in a secure way. There are vastly many more ways to proliferate nuclear materials from the hundreds of globally distributed nuclear stockpiles and waste bins of the former Cold War combatants than from a couple of tightly guarded and highly monitored bunkers on a mountain. The nuclear haves pretending that the nuclear have nots' nuclear ambitions represent a primary terrorist threat demonstrates a remarkably strong faith in current nuclear proliferation control systems (lost sources kill more people every year than all dirty bombs and terrorist-related nuclear incidents have in history), as well as an unassailable arrogance about LDCs.
There are 1.1... kinds of people.
Unfortunately, there's a severe oversupply of stupid here in the US, so we got another term worth of Bush.
There are engineering details to building a nuclear weapon that aren't well known. But they're not all that deeply hidden, either. A few minutes with Google gets you the basics.
A big, dumb Hiroshima-type implosion bomb made of uranium isn't that hard. Plutonium bombs are tougher to build; more compression is necessary. The later designs have reflectors, tampers, and quite a few layers. Considerable simulation is required to get the design right. Of course, the US and the USSR designed their nuclear arsenals with computers in the 1 MIPS range; today, any laptop has enough CPU power for bomb design. Some older hydrodynamic software for this is available, in FORTRAN. Note the test cases provided, "Detonation example" and "SSTAFF warhead".
A more modern version of that software is available from LLNL. The code was released in 1996 and was upgraded through 2005. There's a torrent available.
Making the components is a pain because many of the materials involved are radioactive, poisonous, flammable metals, or high explosives. Machining uranium is difficult. However, there's a convenient how-to guide, "Machining of Uranium and Uranium Alloys", written by a head machinist at the Oak Ridge Y-12 plant and distributed by the U.S. Government. That guide concludes "With proper techniques and safety precautions, uranium and uranium alloys can be safely machined by most shops." Exotic techniques like robotic handling and machining in a liquid bath weren't required. They didn't even use a glove box back then.
Machining plutonium is more difficult. US plants have had troubles with that for decades, and didn't even have a facility that could do it between 1989, when Rocky Flats shut down, and 2002, when Los Alamos started up. But Iran is taking the uranium route, so they don't have to worry about that.
The explosive components have to be made very uniform, to get the uniform compression required. This was a big problem for Los Alamos in the early days, but now that everyone has plastic explosives, it's easier. There's also a problem with the explosion blowing out at the gaps between explosive blocks, but there's a simple trick to fix that. (It's classified in the US, but has leaked out from the USSR side.)
The necessity for krytron detonator switches is overrated. A krytron is a gas-filled tube device from the era of the thyatron. Basically, you need a switch for about 1000 amps at 1KV that turns on in a few nanoseconds. Conveniently, the U.S. Government distributes a design using standard IGBT semiconductors. That's 15 years old; you could probably downsize that design (10" of rack space) today.
Most of the complexity in bomb design appears as bombs are made physically smaller. Truck-bomb sized units are 1940s technology. Smaller warheads require late 1950s technology, and the US did about a hundred full-scale nuclear tests in the 1950s to get that right. Some of that can be replaced with simulation. Eventually, you have to set one off to be confident it will work.
As Ted Taylor (who designed many US bombs) once said, "Everyone (who built an atomic bomb) has succeeded on the first try."
Keep in mind Iran just opened an oil futures market trading oil in Euro's. This is the only country to do so. The rest trade in american dollars. Check out Mike Ruppert's talk on peak oil. Iran is one of the last places to have a good chunk of oil still in the ground.
Should we really be so shocked? Haven't nuclear weapons been present in the middle east for over 3 decades now, in Israel?
Israel hasn't pledged to push it's neighbors "into the sea". As soon as Israel was created (by the United Nations, backed by American Democratic politicians), Arab neighbor states began attacking immediately, and have regularly attempted invasions since then. Iran's top politician has made a promise to "smash the Jewish" state numerous times, promising to, in fact, wipe them off the map.
The fact is that Israel has used their supply of nukes as a deterrent... indeed, no other state has attacked since they've had them. Surrounding hostile states have relied on funding and equipping terrorists to do their dirty work for them instead. But no one will send an army against Israel anymore.
Iran, on the other hand, has openly made statements to the effect that any new military technologies they develop... nukes included... will be used to eliminate Israel. They've threatened in effect that their nukes will have offensive purposes. These weapons will be in the hands of a leadership that believes they can bring about the end of days... and thus the coming of the 12th Imam... by launching a cataclysmic attack on Israel, and perhaps on her allies.
It matters who has these weapons, and who doesn't.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
According to a startling report just issued by the "New York Times", "senior staff members of the United Nations nuclear agency have concluded in a confidential analysis that Iran has acquired 'sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable' atom bomb." In 2007, American intelligence erroneously concluded that Tehran in 2003 stopped further research into designing [a] nuclear bomb. This [American] conclusion was contradicted by Germany, French, and Israeli intelligence. Recently, London has concluded that the American assessment is incorrect.
So, here we are. The Iranians have the knowledge to build a nuclear bomb and have been working relentlessly to perfect its design. Tehran is now creating the parts (e. g., enriched unranium) that can be assembled into such a weapon.
Meanwhile, Jerusalem is justifiably on the verge of ordering its military to bomb the Iranian nuclear facilities. Will Paris offer military support to the Israelis? A bombing mission against Iran is a difficult military operation and needs the assistance of the French superpower."
After the Kremlin exited Eastern Europe, the peoples of each nation in Eastern Europe rapidly established a genuine democracy and a free market. Except for Romania (where its people killed their dictator), there was no violence.
In Iran (and many other failed states), no external force is imposing the current brutal government on the Iranians. The folks running the government are Iranian. The president is Iranian. The secret police are Iranian. The thugs who will torture and kill democracy advocates are Iranian.
If the democracy advocates attempt to establish a genuine democracy in Iran, violence will occur. Why? A large percentage of the population supports the brutal government and will kill the democracy advocates.
Let us not merely condemn the Iranian government. We must condemn Iranian culture. Its product is the authoritarian state.
We should not intervene in the current crisis in Iran. If the overwhelming majority of Iranians (like the overwhelming majority of Poles) truly support democracy, human rights, and peace with Israel, then a liberal Western democracy will arise -- without any violence. Right now, the overwhelming majority clearly oppose the creation of a liberal Western democracy. The Iranians love a brutal Islamic theocracy.
The Iranians created this horrible society. It is none of our business unless they attempt to develop nuclear weapons. We in the West are morally justified in destroying the nuclear-weapons facilities.
Note that, 40 years ago, Vietnam suffered a worse fate (than the Iranians) at the hands of the Americans. They doused large areas of Vietnam with agent orange, poisoning both the land and the people. Yet, the Vietnamese do not channel their energies into seeking revenge (by, e. g., building a nuclear bomb) against the West. Rather, the Vietnamese are diligently modernizing their society. They will reach 1st-world status long before the Iranians.
Cultures are different. Vietnamese culture and Iranian culture are different. The Iranians bear 100% of the blame for the existence of a tyrannical government in Iran. We should condemn Iranian culture and its people.
Opening up to inspections and destroying weapons did nothing to help Iraq avoid an invasion, and only made it a sitting duck when the invasion started. Given what Iran saw happen to Iraq, I'd say there's somewhere between zero and bugger all chance they'll actually reduce their military capability when requested.
Fighting a string of increasingly dubious "preventive wars" will not reduce the number of enemies you have in the world, but increase them.
I hate printers.
I frankly don't care what kind of vehemently anti-Israel statements you make (and you seem to have made quite a few today), but not bothering to give us any references for your claims is rather insulting to the (already rather low) level of discussion here on Slashdot.
This is 2009. Use hyperlinks. Otherwise you look like a silly zealot.
As far as I can tell Iran's Supreme Leader is an Ayatolla. The thugs cutting people with axes in the street, who shot Neda, are some sort of informal religious moral police - acting on the orders of and with the authority of the Supreme Leader. The military may take over the government soon. The entire dialog between the protestors and the leadership is just impossible for a western mind to get around. They're raping political prisoners as a matter of policy to discourage dissent. They express a commitment to ensure a nearby nation is not just defeated, but wiped out to the last man - genocide as a mission statement.
This is just not a group I want joining the Nuclear Arsenal club. They just seem a tad too unpredictable.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Being designated anything means jack to Iran. Iran is run by a loon who makes weekly declarations to the effect of destroying other countries.
The real stinker is we let them persist so long. So far we are fortunate to not have a country with a nuke that openly asks for the destruction of another. Yet this is what is going to happen because all the nice talk is basically just giving Iran the time they need. So the day you wake up $300 dollar per barrel oil will show how good that did.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
There's not a whole lot of reason to have them, but how do you get the US, UK, France, and Russia to give up A-bombs? If one person has A-bombs, and the other doesn't, then the one who doesn't have it is screwed if it goes to war. But if everyone has them, then it's only a matter of time before someone is stupid enough to use them on someone who also has nukes, and then both of them will become glass parking lots. You can't win either way.
Our current best effort is to let those who already have nukes keep them, and try to keep it from spreading. The hope is that the nations who currently have nukes are developed nations who are smart enough to not use them, and have too much to lose to risk being bombed in return.
Most Americans are decent hard working people. They bear you and your thousands of years old religion no ill will. They are poor, sometimes unemployed, trying to feed their families, spending time bettering themselves through reading and fitness.
There is a problem group of Americans though that give the corporations free reign, subvert our constitutional democracy, and starve and torture our citizens as well as yours, and hundreds of others across the globe.
These heathens and criminals by and large live in Washington DC. You can google map it.
Please leave Seattle, Portland, Boise, Tampa, LA, Frisco, San Diego, Atlanta and all the rest of our cities alone. The people who live there are decent hard working honest people, who really wish the best for you and the rest of the planet.
Most Americans still want to know who killed JFK effectively ending their constitutional democracy. Most Americans know that buildings don't explode from the top down spontaneously. Most Americans know that the most extreme "terrorists" were actually trained and hired by the CIA and Mossad.
Once again, Washington DC is easy to find. I'd just like to point that out again.
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
I am an American Jew who has lived in Israel for over 20 years and consider it my home now.
You are correct that currently the majority of Jewish Israelis aren't motivated by religious ideology with respect to, for example, refusing to return territory in exchange for peace (I say "currently" since the demographics indicate that this will eventually become false in the future).
There is some of truth in the matter that many of the settlers in the occupied territories are American Jewish immigrants who are driven by very strong religious beliefs. I know quite a few of them. It is actually an internal Israeli stereotype, unfortunately (most Israelis don't understand what, other than this, could motivate an American Jew to decide to live in Israel).
"I'm not a fan of guns in any way shape or form, but if you're going to allow police to have them, you can't complain about convicted murderers, rapists, drug dealers, and child molesters wanting them as well."
The criminals may WANT them, but it doesn't mean that we should (a) disarm the police, (b) let the criminals have weapons, (c) excuse the poor, poor criminals in their attempts to actually GET them, or (d) direct our wrath at the police rather than at the violent criminals.
Need to work on the penultimate line :-)
I think this whole article is sensationalist, and most likely part of the propaganda preparing us all for an invasion of Iran, just like the propaganda they spread to pave the way to invading Iraq. Frankly, the whole "possible military dimensions" concept sounds astoundingly similar to Rumsfeld's "we will in fact find weapons of mass destruction" bullshit.
I mean, really... what is there to be shocked ABOUT here anyway? Iran has the *information* to build a nuclear weapon? Whoopdeedoo. I know the basics of building a nuclear device myself, and would happily share that information with any kid who was curious about physics. Having information makes you knowledgeable, not evil. If anything, being uninformed is more likely to lead to evil.
You are innocent until proven guilty. People in the US have the right to bear weapons, if they do anything wrong then they go to jail.
The problem here, is that you're trying to state that Iran is "criminal" ahead of time. Although it is comprehensible that you may think using nuclear bombs don't let too many options. The case is, who is America or any other country to believe they can have the weapons and rule who's to get them also.
If I were to built weapons, clearly, I'll give them to my friends and not people I have problems dealing with. Certainly, that doesn't (or shouldn't) prohibit those others to built theirs.
You're using a poor analogy here.
The physics behind the bomb has been widely known for over 60 years. There are at least tens of thousands of people in this country have the knowledge to make a fission bomb. There are probably people in nearly every country of the world who have this knowledge. The hard part really is having a government willing to spend the incredible resources to create the material for a bomb. Iran's government is obviously willing to make the investment.
"Israel deserves more trust than Iran? Are you serious?"
I don't know about him, but I am, absolutely.
"Iran has not, in recent military history, conducted a single war of aggression against its neighbours
No, they've been smart enough to let terrorist proxy groups like Hezbollah do it for them, groups funded, trained, and equipped by Iran. And taking over an embassy is considered an act of war. And I was in the area when they unilaterally tried to cut off traffic in the Persian Gulf, and one of their mines almost sank the U.S.S. Samuel B. Roberts. No, no aggression against other states there.
For all of its history, most of Israel's neighbors have denied its right to exist, and sworn to push them into the sea. They've attacked them literally since the day the Jewish state was founded. After several failed invasions, Jordan and Egypt now have peace treaties with Israel that recognize her right to exist. There's been no wars with those countries since then. Syria, however, tired of losing to Israel in conventional warfare, conquered Lebanon and made it a vassal state... which it has stayed, from one degree to another ever since... and continues to launch attacks on Israel from that territory, using its terrorist proxies to do the dirty work. Want to keep Israel out of Lebanon? Keep Syria out of Lebanon.
Israel, on the other hand, have no such doctrine, and history demonstrates they have adopted a first strike policy.
Considering that in every major war, Israel was invaded by surrounding states, you honestly think this is bad? Are you going to seriously make the argument that taking out Saddam Hussein's nuclear facilities (which were going to produce weapons-grade material) wasn't a smart thing to do?
Iran has been co-operating with the IAEA - not flawlessly, and there are problems, but they have been co-operating.
Yeah, they've been cooperating so closely that they built a second uranium enrichment facility that stayed secret until now.
Iran does not deny the holocaust took place
Wow
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
I've always been curious about that and wonder if anybody knows. I've read that Pu based devices are much harder to build than U based ones but also less likely to detonate accidently. Is another advantage that you can rapidly produce Pu-239 vs U-235 which I take is a pain to make quickly? Is there a size limit on Pu-239 vs U-235 or something?
Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
Time and again they put the carrot in front of the nose of the dumb jackass not getting back to back to back Asskiss Zionist Israeli Puppet awards while their puppets start to kick up enough propaganda dust that nobody will notice them raising yet another false flag.
Does the American public or the rest of the world ever catch on? Fuck no, too busy `batin and drooling over no talent banshees showing tits and ass then staring at shiny objects. I bet you are lovin it, fatties.
While the Jews tell fairy tales about a "holocaust" a true genocide is taking place against Palestinians as they are forced out of their homes at bulldozer and gunpoint and snipers murder children in school and soldiers rape and harass innocent people just trying to get to a pharmacy to get simple life saving drugs for a loved one. Where is the outcry here? Ah yes, Palestinians are not part of the 2% of the people hording 80% of the resources so they do not outright own multiple media outlets to pump out truths to counter Israeli lies pumped out on every single major network and "news" station.
I don't care what Iran does who minds their own business until CIA agents try to steal their country like in Ecuador. But, I do care about the near non-stop stream of Jew started and Jew backed pure lies and war mongering hype to push other people to fight wars they are too terrified (and cheap) to engage in personally. Truth be told, I hope Israel is indeed wiped off the face of the Earth so the world has a solid chance finally at peace and access to resources once horded not to mention normal Jews can get on with being Jewish instead of associated with rapist murdering sub-human vermin creating their Zion at any cost and price.
Reagan didn't end the USSR. The Pope did more than Reagan did. Its a MYTH that he won the cold war by himself. People forget that both sides spent their economies to be brink and greatly increased corruption-- the USA didn't fall but we have so much corruption and many attempts to save us from collapse -- the last few years being obvious how close we are; actually, we are beyond collapse under fair conditions-- the WORLD is bailing the US out because we are too big to fail; otherwise, we would have fallen already. Many people saw it coming which is why Reagan could be a stupid blowhard, the experts knew they were going down and exploited the situation for political gain (and the figurehead acted it out.) The single man who deserves most the credit is Gorbachev.
Hell, the USA has a military heavy economy we needed excuses to keep it going and global financial gambling to raise funds; among other ponzi like schemes. Inflation backed with the extortion from other nations by forcing the world to buy oil in US Dollars... There is a lot you don't know. Its such a mess that no politician who could understand it would dare to oppose something with so much political momentum. (Far more than health insurance and look how a few politicians daring to touch that is turning out.)
As far as hero worship of Reagan, I find his fans are largely similar to the christian extremists where they completely fail to understand or follow the doctrine they loudly claim to support.
The best assessments of Iran show that it'll go in a good direction over time if we just leave them alone to their own ends. try googling "game theory iran"
Iran has every right to do what it has been doing they've been following their actual agreements; unlike Isreal who officially claims to not have any bomb and will not sign onto nuclear treaties. That "secret" base was a backup facility and was expected to be inspected / regulated - it should be clear, they'd have been more timely with disclosure if they didn't have very REAL THREATS against them. Iran has as much a right as any other nation.
I'm an atheist. I have no connections with the middle east.
Iran is a sovereign country. Being a sovereign country, they have the right to possess nukes just as much as the U.S., Russia, and Israel already do.
The physics of a nuclear bomb are pretty simple. I learned how the bombs work when I was in middle school, which was before the WWW existed.
I looked it up in an old PAPER encyclopedia.
Taking that knowledge and making a bomb is harder than just "knowing how" but anyway, this is not exactly unknown knowledge.
Does it surprise anyone that a fairly educated nation like Iran knows how? And yes, they do have a lot of PhDs there and plenty of scientists. And foreign support from Russia and France. So no surprise to me anyway.
Sig for hire.
http://www.instructions.com/nuclearbombs.html
If you have read this you are now a terrorist. Please report to Guantanamo Bay.
War as we knew it was obsolete
Nothing could beat complete denial
- Emily Haines
Iran knows how to build an atom bomb? Good. So do I.
Is that why the "peaceful" muslim countries all attacked Israel right after it was founded?
If Russian scientists are helping Iran build a bomb, then Russia can stop them.
If Israel, which has nukes, is afraid of getting nuked by Iran, it can stop them - unless the assumption has been made that Muslims don't believe in deterrence.
If France, Germany, and the United Kingdom think that this is a problem, the layabout European Union can handle this one.
We have problems of our own, two very nasty wars on our hands already, and with the drums of war beating yet again - even though we allowed North Korea to obtain nuclear weapons and then menace our allies with missile tests - I find it strange that we're expected to lead the pack now after being universally reviled for taking the same role previously.
Firstly, let us not beat about the bush. The reason the US and the EU is against Iran having nuclear capabilities is to protect Israel , or rather to ensure that the balance of power is ever so slightly, in favour of Israel. Currently, Israel has nuclear weapons and unlike Iran's case, the UN seems to acknowledge this with a wink and a nod. An Iran with nuclear weapons means that Israel will find itself in a Cold War situation of Mutually Assured Destruction which will effectively prevent it from invading surrounding nations as it pleases. I also suspect that any local nuclear war between Iran and Israel will lead to Jewish refugees streaming back into Europe, whose people have historically never been very good with the Jewish people. Any other reasons bandied by the Western propaganda machine are just lies and smokescreen. Now that we got it out of the way, let us ponder the future. My gut feeling is that, Iran will eventually get nuclear capability, despite the US and Israel trying to stop them. Once they have it, there is nothing the US and Israel can do, except all out war which they could not afford. The Iranians are historically a very crafty and astute people and are masters of manipulating the UN bodies. They play for time which is what they have recently got. What this will mean is that many nations who are watching with interest will finally realise that the UN is toothless and proceed with their nuclear programs. The best case scenario is for all nuclear weapons to be scrapped but this is never going to happen. So, the second best scenario is to have all nations having nuclear weapons, to ensure Mutually Assured Destruction, on a whole new level. Once Iran succeeds, we will see an explosion of nuclear proliferation in the world. The major powers will of course would not like this erosion of their absolute power but like the introduction of gun powder, it is inevitable.
Gosh, you would think anyone with survival instinct would make some pre-emptive war preventing strikes. Sounds harsh, but then you think. If some hoodlums, we'll just call them O.G.Korea and D.J. Iran were standing outside your home with weapons threatening to fire inside would you: ,your family, neighbors and anyone else who would have encountered these hoodlums. ,life or death, choose and be quick about it.
A: Get your face shot off trying diplomacy
B: Call the U.N. cops who would threaten them with "no beer" sanctions and leave, while hoods continued posturing.
C: Blow their brains to atoms and then hunt down all their homies for some of the same, ensuring the future safety of you
D: there is no none of the above
Makes you wonder just how we survived this long putting financial interests ahead of whats important.
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
I have always been suspicious of that 2007 National Intelligence Estimate. As I understand it, the whole furor was caused by a single sentence. Had that sentence been buried deep in the report or in an appendix, it would hardly have been noticed. But it was moved to the first sentence in the report.
Even in 2007 it was plausible that Iran dropped research into weaponization technology because they obtained it from another source; not that they weren't interested.
The press went berserk, and jumped to their conclusions without reading past that first sentence. They rushed to publish stories about how wrong headed Bush administration policies were.
Certainly an Iranian mole in American intelligence could not write the entire NIE, but how hard would it be to alter the placement of a single sentence? If this little bit of idle speculation were true; it would have been a spectacularly successful bit of sabotage worthy of a Tom Clancy novel.
I'm sure Iranian authorities missed this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon_design
So, you allege that that the leadership of Iran consists of a bunch of suicidal fanatics? Pray tell, what exactly have they done to suggest this
Well, the leader of Iran said that he wanted to nuke Israel, even if it left Iran a smoldering ruin. I realize according to you this must seem quite a sensible plan, but it strikes most everyone else as suicidal.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It appears that Obama won't go along with another false-flag terrorist attack, and the lack of such has made people loose interest in the supposed "war on terror". The ruling elite desperately needs another dangerous enemy. "Nukes in Iran" seems old already, but it may catch on if they repeat it if the predominant "media" repeats it over and over and over and over. "- The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. This new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia, but to keep the very structure of society intact."
9/11: Never forget it was a false-flag operation
The why goes back further and wider than this. Does everyone nowadays think that these events in 1953 happened in a vacuum? Look at a map. Notice that Iran borders some country (now countries) to the north. There was this entity once called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Their leader had once conspired with Nazi Germany to annex neighboring countries, and the stated philosophy of the Communist party was to export revolution. They had just obtained nuclear weapons as well.
The elected government of Iran was turning out to be rather friendly with the Soviets. Perhaps this was considered alarming to Western countries with long-standing interests in Iran and the Persian Gulf? Being friendly with the Soviets at that time typically meant inviting some friendly Red Army divisions in to build some friendly bases, and establishing nice friendly alliances. A glance at the other end of Asia at the time might also give a hint of trouble in some of those areas, such as Korea and Vietnam.
I don't have nearly enough time to get more detailed in reply, and all this doesn't necessarily or completely absolve the US and the West in general for their parts in the coup. But simply blaming them wholely as knee-jerk reactionaries or evil would-be global tyrants is equally wrong. Try running a major government sometime and let me know how simple it is to manage and deal with world events.
Perscriptio in manibus tabellariorum est.
A whole lot of hearsay, rumours and fearmongering... But honestly, do you really *know* anything? And can you *prove* it?
This goes for the original poster, too.
Why on earth would anyone seriously think we should believe any of this junk after the last time some middle eastern state allegedly had WMD's hidden everywhere?
This whole Iran-nuke story is BS. It's made up, people. Don't believe the hype!
Also, Iran has openly stated that they are ready for international inspection anytime. Remember Iraq was inspected and they didn't find one single WMD?
The US warmongers together with the Israelis are pulling the same old trick again. Trying to fool the world with heavy marketing, undercover media psy-ops and stories on niche media like the original post here - and no proof at all.
Why can't you Americans just wap up your bankrupt country and go home? And stay there! Please take your damned armies with you, and do so quick.
omfg!
The most destructive bombing of the war was by incendiary bombs, in Tokyo and Dresden. Does the use of a single bomb make it morally worse than using 1000s that achieve the same or greater effect?
Dropping the nukes was only the wrong decision with the benefit of hindsight; the USA did not know the effects of fallout at the time.
Besides, you do know that there were no indications that Japan would surrender, and that a land invasion was in the works. Considering the heavy losses suffered in Okinawa and many other amphibious assaults, it was generally believed that a land invasion would result in the deaths of millions.
Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
The USA got the territory it has today essentially through ethnocentric conquest, sometimes with a genocidal twist.
The last attempt at annexing territory was the conquest of the Philippines, which did not get its independence until after WWII. Since WWII, the USA has been involved with hundreds of dirty little wars and a few big ones, and setting up a puppet is really only a small step below annexing territory. In fact it can often be worse when the puppets are inhumane dictatorships.
It seems that the hawks never really left congress. Not from the very foundation of the union. The USA is the least self-reflective developed nation in the world. Lots of smart reflective people - but jingoist memes have and are far more powerfully present in the USA than any other 1st world nation. Political theorists posit that that is because of how the political dialogue has been transformed and shaped by the neocons and also the "Fox effect" in mass media.
Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
No, no, no. No. You've got it all wrong. What you've said is merely the product of widespread liberal education.
Let me correct you.
By thumping our chest real hard, and telling people how evil they are, they will become scared, and change their ways. They will then be really nice to us, because we are the land of the free.
You see it's verrrry simple.
Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
A government can try to keep the information on building nukes classified, but the nature of physics cannot be kept secret. There is plenty of information on how to build nukes available already.
Didn't we all learn all we needed to do this in HIGH SCHOOL? Some of us learned to do it with less fissionable material in college.
It's just a matter of how good a job you want to do and how efficient you want to be.
THis is how the cold war started. USSR QUIETLY pushed in this same way. Most of the west allowed it and said that we should continue to work with them. Personally, I fear China much more than Russia since all of their actions are orientated towards winning a war, rather than working as partners. But, there are aspects of Russia that should concern all.
Do it yourself you lazy bastards. Naturally you would request the impossible of us. We have no weapon, no delivery system and most importantly no reason or intent.
"Meanwhile, Jerusalem is communicating with the Kremlin about a list of Russian scientists it believes are assisting Iran's efforts to develop the bomb." If you are referring to the capital of Israel that would be *Tel Aviv* and not Jerusalem.
Beauty is in the beholder of the eye.
You're overlooking a major point; up to recent times, at least, it has been decidedly in the US interest that Israel be more/less dependent on the US economically. Otherwise, the US would have much less say where Israel sells its advanced armament technology (e.g., see Wikipedia).
Note that as of 1007, Israel was the 11th largest arms exporter in the world.
Since the Chinese are rapidly progressing and the extra advantage that Israeli know-how might give them is more in question, now. But I still doubt that the US is going to cut off Israel any time soon (or that Israel's economy would somehow collapse because of it, even if it were to happen).
Pakistan = US Ally.
Iran = Not.
Hence "Problem".
I believe the adage of "it takes one to know one" can be attributed to people claiming Iran intends to use such technologies for aggressive non-peaceful purposes.
Either that, or the adage "pay attention when the other person is speaking".
they have Internet Access?
"Don't be a martyr -- BE THE ONE WHO GOT AWAY!"
As long as countries like the US (which actually is the only country who has ever used nukes when it even wasn't really necessary) still have nukes, any other country has just as much right to nukes as the US.. So until the US actually stops producing nukes themselves they should shut the hell up and not threaten other countries..
And why isn't anybody complaining about isreal which also have nukes but aren't allowed to have some, why aren't they doing something about that..
God save us all from arm-chair historians delighting in revisionist history.
"Don't be a martyr -- BE THE ONE WHO GOT AWAY!"
Of course they have the knowledge!
We're not stealing it from Prometheus or anybody anymore.
It is wholly american to hype Iran as a thermonuclear destructor. They let the IAEA do their work and YELL even when Iran discloses way ahead of schedule some factory that is being built. They immediately demands sanctions and pressure onto this country even when Iran does nothing wrong here.
Of course nobody besides the bankrupt US of A and some of their allies can have nuclear knowledge, nuclear weapons etc. When will the IAEA visit Israel and do an audit? Same for Pakistan?
Some of us are more equal than others?
This is just Iraq all over again, can't you see?
The stupid americans are lured into a war again, even when they cannot afford it, to distract from the mismanagement at home.
Jesus Christ, what is this ? National Pedantic Asshole Day ?
He said "military" !!!
The military use of *any* weapon is to deploy it in an area that will result in maximum opponent casualties ?
They're not going to fire millions of dollars of nukes into the fucking Gobi Desert are they ? Of course they'll fire it at the major population centres, that's the whole point !
Oh I don't know ... if that 30% were all the underprileged, the illegal immigrants, and those who can't afford private healthcare, the US might end up with a more positive balance sheet.
The hope is that the nations who currently have nukes are developed nations who are smart enough to not use them
I think the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki might disagree with you there.
Why doesn't the single person on Slashdot who has degrees in international politics, nuclear physics and Iranian history, and who has spent a decade or more studying Iran from the inside as well as assisting in the building of other nation's nuclear weapons do all the talking and the rest of us can STFU.
'Cause in the end we just don't know anything.
Stealing from the taxpayers is NOT "all good".
The Jews say they are a superior race, "God's Chosen People". Everyone else is inferior.
But their God requires sneaky theft from the U.S. taxpayer?
The theft is criminal.
Hmm.. Seems various flamewars and trolling is going on.
From a geekier perspective:
I thought everyone knew how to build an A-bomb. That it is really easy. Just put the stuff in the same place and it explodes. I learnt that in 9th grade or something like that.
The secret is how to make the uranium. That is a completely different thing, which they might not know of at all. I suspect this is media hoax.
Oh Noes!!!111!!! You mean they signed a TREATY?!?!?
Well Golly. I guess nobody has ever signed a treaty and then gone and done the exact opposite thing before.
I put no stock in treaties. Treaties are something nations sign to give lip-service to a problem and then they make their work secret.
A work that expires before its copyright never enters the public domain and thus enjoys eternal copyright protection.
It should be noted that the "One or two percent of GDP" statement is factually incorrect. The parent's third link indicates the $113B figure is cumulative *since 1949*!!!! *not* per year!
>Sure, but then they and their apologists shouldn't complain when they're called on their treaty violations.
Unless the people doing the calling are likewise busy violating every treaty they can get away with violating, too.
A work that expires before its copyright never enters the public domain and thus enjoys eternal copyright protection.