Slashdot Mirror


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."

6 of 630 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Not the first middle east nuke by Kokuyo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'd agree with Australia and New Zealand... but are you fricking out of your mind about the others?!

    America has proven to be untrustworthy repeatedly. So has Israel, war mongering bastards that they are. Being surrounded by EU countries, let me tell you that I trust them as far as I can bloody throw the lot of them.

    If it's a matter of trust, frankly I trust no single country to have nukes. I want OPPOSING forces to have nukes in order to generate a stalemate. That's the only security there is.

  2. Re:Not the first middle east nuke by hjrnunes · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I doubt any terrorist would use a nuke anyway. Terrorism is not madness, in spite of what the western countries want you to believe, because it gives them an excuse to keep doing all the shit they want to do around the world.

    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.

    Anyway, a nuke would vanish forever any chance that a terrorist has of further advancing their cause. And before you start saying that their cause is already lost, please consider Israel. It was made out of terrorism - Menachem Begin & Co. - see the King David Hotel bombing, and many others. Conclusion? They got a country and nukes. How about that?

  3. Re:Not the first middle east nuke by gerddie · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm guessing you weren't alive in 1979 when the US Embassy in Iran was overrun and everybody inside taken hostage.
    For roughly 400 days they Iranians held those hostages. Why? Nobody remembers why, but they did it - and if nobody remembers why, it must not have been a very memorable reason (if any.)

    Well, Wikipedia "remembers".

  4. Re:Not the first middle east nuke by jbengt · · Score: 4, Interesting

    From what I've observed, the Israeli government is secular.

    Israel was founded as a "Jewish state".
    Israel's claim to the land of Israel comes from their holy religious texts.
    Israel does not consider you to be a Jew, and will make it difficult for you to immigrate to the Jewish state of Israel, unless you're certified Jewish by an Orthodox rabbi.
    Israel is a country where a reform rabbi can't perform a marriage recoginzed by the government, only an officially recognized Orthodox rabbi can. (special rules allow secular marriage for Muslims and Christians)
    Some Jews, even some non-Israeli Orthodox Jews, have to convert to Orthodoxy in order to be Jewish enough for the Jewish state.

  5. Re:Not the first middle east nuke by tjstork · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That's actually not true. A british liberal paper went through the Japanese records and found that:

    a) Japanese terms for surrender negotiated through the Russians would have basically given them China. Japan made no territorial concessions.
    b) Russia had no navy to get troops onto Japan. Part of the reason for Russian success on the Continent against Japan was because Japan was busy moving the Imperial Army back to Japan to prepare to fend off an American invasion. Unlike the battered air force and virtually destroyed navy, the Japanese Army was a million man strong and essentially intact.
    c) Americans had underestimated the strength of Japan during the planning of Olympic. And, unlike the Germans, the Japanese did't fall for any American deception and knew exactly where the Americans were to land.
    d) The Emperor was actually a prime mover in the war and he would rather take the whole island down with him than give up the throne. It was -only- because of the atomic bombings that he realized that the Americans could literally kill everyone in Japan without even a shot fired back.
    e) The Emperor never actually surrendered in his speech to the Japanese people. Go read it.

    The great tragedy of the atomic bombing was that, really, the emperor was not deposed and tried as a war criminal. But McArthur liked him and to some extent Americans read Japanese aggression as a mishandling of a trade dispute. If you put in free trade, the story goes, Japan could get raw materials and export, and thus, would not need an empire.

    --
    This is my sig.
  6. Re:Mod parent Informative. by Runaway1956 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "A lot of talk about "terrorism" is really a discussion designed to get U.S. taxpayers to pay for Israel's security."

    Exactly. For some insight, people should research Israel's economy. Basically, they don't have one. They subsist primarily on the inflow of funds from around the world. The US government is probably the single largest source of funds, but money comes from everywhere. If the donations dried up, Israel would be hurting.

    And, that may well happen soon if the recession isn't cured.

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br