Iran Complies With Nuclear Deal; Sanctions Lifted (nytimes.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Iran has shipped most of its nuclear fuel out of the country, destroyed the innards of a plutonium-producing reactor and mothballed more than 12,000 centrifuges. This compliance with the nuclear accord struck in July has caused the U.S. and Europe to lift financial sanctions on Iran, releasing ~$100 billion in assets. "Under the new rules put in place, the United States will no longer sanction foreign individuals or firms for buying oil and gas from Iran. The American trade embargo remains in place, but the government will permit certain limited business activities with Iran, such as selling or purchasing Iranian food and carpets and American commercial aircraft and parts. It is an opening to Iran that represents a huge roll of the dice, one that will be debated long after Mr. Obama he has built his presidential library. It is unclear what will happen after the passing of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has protected and often fueled the hardliners — but permitted these talks to go ahead."

Comments

Israel won't like it

[Anonymous Coward]

During election time, if Israel doesn't like it, then expect every candidate to dance for Israeli money.

About 20% (> $500 million) of the $3.15 billion that flows into Israel as military defense aid, flows back into US politics via commercial conduits (Israeli/US companies that receive lucrative government contracts, whose US subsidiary in turns drives US politics directly and indirectly.

So a large part of this election cycle will be dominated by pro-Israel lobbies.

Re:Israel won't like it

[Anonymous Coward]

It's insane that a tiny client state, that's not even in the G20, can have this sort of influence. Not that you can blame them for trying. How do so called 'constitutionalists' square this with their ideals? The 'one-dollar-one-vote' system in the US makes its democracy a running joke. If it were any other nation, it would be referred to as wide-scale, systemic corruption. Except the corruption has been legalized, and is by definition no longer corruption.

Re:Israel won't like it

[edjs]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/11/politics/us-foreign-aid-report/

The top five recipients of foreign military financing in 2014:

1. Israel: $3.1 billion
2. Egypt: $1.3 billion
3. Iraq: $300 million
3. Jordan: $300 million
5. Pakistan: $280 million

Re:Israel won't like it

[drinkypoo]

The US system is "one person, one vote."

The voters do not select the president, so while what you say is technically true, all you're doing with that vote is stating your preference. Consequently, it is not really a vote.

It is the hatred for Israel that is insane.

It's not really that crazy. The Jews' own holy books explain why everyone hates them. They were a racial minority that invaded a region which had already been hotly contested basically for all recorded history, put the men and mothers to the sword, and took the virgins as wives. They got kicked out of that region eventually by force, and then the UK came up with a snazzy plan to keep the muzzies down by reinstalling the jews in a place they'd already been driven out of. The UK was clever enough to distance itself from the plan by the time it was implemented, but the US went for it, and now we are funding another Yahweh-related genocide in the region, which is why all the people who hate the Jews hate us too. Which part of this is unclear?

I'm not saying that "THE JEWS" are evil or don't have a right to exist, but I am saying that the nation-state of Israel is a deliberate evil that is being perpetrated not just upon the "Palestinians" but also against the world. Israel is a military theocracy, one of the most dangerous types of institution that our world has ever created, and people cheer it on in the name of religious freedom and respect of other cultures, as if anything could be more ironic. There's nothing anti-Semitic about being anti-Zionist. The idea that people have a right to a particular place because of religious beliefs is poppycock, and the Jews were a racial minority that came late to the region and there's no particular reason to believe that they're more entitled to it than anyone else.

Re:Israel won't like it

[cold fjord]

The current Israelis are from Eurpoe, and simple thieves and murderers. I'm in no way anti-Semitic, I'm anti asshole. It's the normal typical wolf cry of a thouroughly discredited bunch of muderous theiving liars to make that claim.

You're "anti asshole"? How do you live with yourself? Well, at least we have it on your authority that you are, "in no way anti-Semitic." @@
.
Israeli Jews, by Region of Origin

2003
14% Asia
16% Africa
15% Europe
  4% Americas
22% Former USSR
29% Israel (Native)
Total Population 5,165,400

Operation Solomon - one of several rescues .....

Ethiopian Jews and Israelis Exult as Airlift Is Completed

Israel fell into joyous celebration tonight as the Government announced the successful conclusion of an emergency airlift of 14,500 Ethiopian Jews, nearly the entire Jewish population, in just under 36 hours.

At the airport this morning, it was difficult to tell who was more joyful -- the barefoot Ethiopians who cheered, ululated and bent down to kiss the tarmac as they stepped off the planes, or the Israelis who watched them aglow, marveling at this powerful image showing that their state still holds appeal, even with all its problems.

"We've stood up to our obligation and completed the operation bringing all the Jews," Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir declared tonight. "It gives us a feeling of strength."

Israelis were no less wondrous at the operational accomplishment of ferrying so many people more than 1,500 miles in 40 flights over so short a time. The air force said 35 civilian and military airplanes, including one Ethiopian airliner, had been used in the operation.

---------------

Why Jews Fled the Arab Countries

COORDINATING A PROGRAM OF EXPULSION

In a key address before the Political Committee of the U.N. General Assembly on November 14, 1947, just five days before that body voted on the partition plan for Palestine, Heykal Pasha, an Egyptian delegate, made the following key statement in connection with that plan:

The United Nations . . . should not lose sight of the fact that the proposed solution might endanger a million Jews living in the Moslem countries. Partition of Palestine might create in those countries an anti-Semitism even more difficult to root out than the anti-Semitism which the Allies were trying to eradicate in Germany. . . If the United Nations decides to partition Palestine, it might be responsible for the massacre of a large number of Jews.

Heykal Pasha then elaborated on his threat:

A million Jews live in peace in Egypt [and other Muslim countries] and enjoy all rights of citizenship. They have no desire to emigrate to Palestine. However, if a Jewish State were established, nobody could prevent disorders. Riots would break out in Palestine, would spread through all the Arab states and might lead to a war between two races.1

Heykal Pasha's thinly veiled threats of "grave disorders," "massacre," "riots," and "war between two races" did not at the time go unnoticed by Jews;2 for them, it had the same ring as the proposition made six years earlier by the Palestinian leader Hajj Amin al-Husayni to Hitler of a "final solution" for the Jews of Arab countries, including Palestine. ... "3 . . . more

Re:Israel won't like it

[bill_mcgonigle]

If you think that doesn't work you have to accept that is because the majority doesn't agree with you. It is that simple.

You're seriously making the argument that because a government acts in a certain way, its subjects agree with it? It's too easy to even make a current list of countries that don't fit that pattern, much less spend pages on historical counter-examples.

The simple calculus is that in that situation the citizens only dislike their governments' behavior less than they dislike their odds of dying in a revolution. Eventually that changes. cf. Nero's Rome

The fatal flaw in the cycle is that once the governments get abusive enough, and they either finally collapse of their own weight or the citizens revolt, then the people make the mistake of instituting another government (because that worked out so well last time...). There have been a few notable exceptions (e.g. China c. 100AD, Iceland c. 800AD) which have led to centuries of peaceful and productive societies.

Re:Israel won't like it

[Hognoxious]

No, he was quite butch.

Re:Israel won't like it

[JoshuaZ]

It's not really that crazy. The Jews' own holy books explain why everyone hates them. They were a racial minority that invaded a region which had already been hotly contested basically for all recorded history, put the men and mothers to the sword, and took the virgins as wives.

Definitely accurate, but worth noting that this sort of behavior was pretty par for the course in ancient times. The only difference here is that this a group in question that ended up surviving in some form to the modern age with their own personal history intact.

They got kicked out of that region eventually by force, and then the UK came up with a snazzy plan to keep the muzzies down by reinstalling the jews in a place they'd already been driven out of.

This is a vast oversimplification. First, there was no intent to "keep the muzzies down" but rather to deal with an ongoing situation. In particular, there had been a small Jewish population in various parts of the land since the Roman times (such as around Safed) and there had been systematic return to the land since the 1800s with a large Jewish population by the 1920s and a very large population post World War II. The plan in question was then to partition the land between two states https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Partition_Plan_for_Palestine which the Jews accepted and the Palestinian Arabs by and large rejected.

Re:Israel won't like it

[Ramze]

Israel has no official religion, and its demographics include a 16% Muslim population and a 20% secular (atheist) Jewish population. It's hardly a theocracy with over a third of voters not identifying as Jewish (religion-wise) -- America is predominantly Christian and fits the bill a bit better than Israel.

However, I do agree that it was a huge time bomb to plant the Jews in the heart of the middle eastern holy lands surrounded by Muslim nations. But, that was intentional. Christians NEED Israel to exist so that the temple can be rebuilt as a harbinger for the apocalypse. Christians have a vested interest in keeping Israel around because the New Testament's end-times prophesies mention its existence. That's why the Republicans (largely evangelicals) strongly support Israel. It's not about the money or the oil in the region (we use Saudi Arabia, Egypt,and others for that). It's all about keeping the holy land in Jewish hands as a self-fulfilling prophesy of the Bible.

Re:Israel won't like it

[tinkerton]

Israel is an ethnocracy, not a theocracy. It's been created by eastern european Jews, and ethnocracies weren't considered that special then.
Israel has citizens and nationals. The Israeli nationals are Jews. The state is for the nationals, not for the citizens. If there are too many nonjewish citizens this is a threat to the jewish state and the jewish state may take draconian measures to handle this threat if needed.
The US is a state of its citizens, it's a completely different concept. There is no distinction between citizen and national.

Re:Israel won't like it

[quantaman]

They got kicked out of that region eventually by force, and then the UK came up with a snazzy plan to keep the muzzies down by reinstalling the jews in a place they'd already been driven out of.

This is a vast oversimplification. First, there was no intent to "keep the muzzies down" but rather to deal with an ongoing situation. In particular, there had been a small Jewish population in various parts of the land since the Roman times (such as around Safed) and there had been systematic return to the land since the 1800s with a large Jewish population by the 1920s and a very large population post World War II.

A small continuous population, that doesn't give them the right to a self-governing state in that territory any more than it does small minorities in other states.

Land claims from well over 1000+ years ago notwithstanding.

And the Jewish immigration was part of a specific plan to create a Jewish homeland. The massive Jewish immigration between 1920 and 1949 was during the Mandate when the British were in change and the local Arab population was unable to manage immigration.

The plan in question was then to partition the land between two states https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Partition_Plan_for_Palestine which the Jews accepted and the Palestinian Arabs by and large rejected.

Of course the Palestinian Arabs disagreed. A different ethnic group declares they're going to start colonizing your territory to create their own state, they then proceed to do so while you're under foreign occupation by states who generally side with the other ethnic group.

The foreign occupiers then propose to give the other group a state with most of the land even though you still have a bigger population. Is this a proposal you're going to agree to?

Re:Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

It won't matter if a Republican president takes this step. It will just mean more business for the EU, Russia, etc. No one outside the US takes this buffoon seriously, and Iran's demographics make the theocracy's grip on power increasingly tenuous. Wouldn't a future with good relations between US-Israel-Iran be so much better than one with the disgusting Saudi regime?

Re:EU and US

[tlhIngan]

Are naieve. Iran continues to enrich bomb-grade nuclear fuel in underground/concealed sites.

Perhaps, but enriched fuel is HARD to make. The technology is quite.. finicky and specialized and not available to you and me.

To enrich uranium to weapons grade requires centrifuges, a lot of them (because it's the only way to separate U-235 from U-238). Civil enrichment uses a few centrifuges to none (there are designs that don't need enriched fuel). But that's because they only need 5% U-235 to work. Weapons grade is 40% or higher (and bombs need almost pure - 90%+), which requires a stunningly large array of centrifuges at which point it's really hard to do and keep a secret underground - it's going to be a huge facility.

And let's not forget that the world IS watching and monitoring. You cannot detonate a nuclear bomb anywhere without it being detected by third parties. Underground? The earth is covered with seismographs recording everything from earthquakes to nuclear bombs. There are isotope detectors scattered around detecting the products of the nuclear reactions. And you can't do it out in the open because a lot of satellites carry detectors.

Plus, nevermind the intelligence capabilities of everyone - think of what it would take to design something like Stuxnet to only fire at the right target configured a certain way. Chances are, if there is such an underground facility, it's well known. You can't really hide such a facility - having to dig out lots of earth and then moving it places means it's captured on satellite photos and everything. And such a facility requires a lot of infrastructure and likely will generate quite a bit of heat, which shows up nicely on thermal cameras, again on satellites.

And if it really posed a threat, well, a "bomb" will be accidentally dropped on it. After all, it landed out there in the middle of the desert where there was nothing there.

Re:Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

Too bad you're posting as an AC

People like you who forget what the moderation system is for only make me want to post anonymously even more.

Re:Common sense

[Anonymous Coward]

Solar panels are greedy and absorb up all the sun's power. When you don't allow the sun's rays to hit the earth and bounce back into space to refuel the sun, you're literally causing the sun to run out of energy faster.

I bet you drive a gas guzzling SUV too, shitlord.

Re:Common sense

[Suomi-Poika]

7000GW of nuclear power is coming to Iran right now. Iran signed a deal with Rosatom, Busehr is going to have three more 1GW units and they are going to build four 1GW units to the coast of Caspian sea. It seems that "someone" noticed this, especially when you look through Google Earth. Busehr 2nd unit renovation started this autumn and suddenly there is a bi-monthly picture update on it.

However I am not saying that solar power is a flawed solution for Iran, on the contrary: Iran is also a good place for solar power, they can build CSPs easily and use solar panels too. Their energy mix is going to be very wide from traditional fossils fuels to renewables and nuclear power. Just too bad USA is not going to receive a cent from that market. Or actually not, you economy is already too good, we europoors need some new business opportunities. :)

Re:EU and US

[Mashiki]

Perhaps, but enriched fuel is HARD to make. The technology is quite.. finicky and specialized and not available to you and me.

Reminder that India became a nuclear power thanks to Canada, and them using "peaceful reactors" to produce nuclear weapons. The world was also watching when India decided to give a big-ol-fuck you as well.

NOT "purely political"! Secret gov. is not healthy

[Futurepower(R)]

That is certainly NOT a "purely political" story; although I can understand why someone would make that mistake. It's a story about the decline of technology in the United States caused by those who make money favoring secret actions by secret U.S. government organizations.

NSA = No Sales for America.

Boeing Might Lose $4B Brazil Deal For F-18 Jets After NSA Surveillance Scandal; Analysts Say Politics Won't Trump Business (09/12/13)

Three months later: President Dilma Rousseff Announces Brazil Is Buying Sweden's Saab Gripen Jet Fighters (12/18/13)

NSA = Not a Sensible Arrangement.

The NSA does not provide "Security". Instead, the secrecy makes everyone feel insecure. Anyone can claim that a secret organization did something destructive; that's an easy sale when a small group wants violence. Suppose an NSA manager wants a promotion. The manager can arrange something likely to cause violence; there is no outside review; new violence can be used as a reason for new authority.

Consider the Culture of fear. Nazi leader Hermann Goring: "The people don't want war, but they can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and for exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."

Quote from that same Wikipedia page: 'Former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski argues that the use of the term War on Terror was intended to generate a culture of fear deliberately because it "obscures reason, intensifies emotions and makes it easier for demagogic politicians to mobilize the public on behalf of the policies they want to pursue." '

Another quote: "... journalist Adam Curtis argues that politicians have used our fears to increase their power and control over society."

NSA = No Structural Authority.

There are complicated problems in running ANY organization. Managing secret organizations sensibly is impossible. Each manager of a secret organization has an excuse to hide his or her mistakes. There can be no outside ideas to fix problems because no outsiders are allowed to know what is happening.

Backdoors:

The U.S. government allows secret government agencies to go to any executive in any company, make demands for "security", and threaten the executive with prison if he or she doesn't do what the secret agency wants. Is that the reason that U.S. computer equipment has backdoors? We are not allowed to know. Secret agencies are allowed to lie, so even if an agency says it didn't force a backdoor, no one can know if the statement is true.

A few of the many stories about backdoors in U.S. hardware:

D-Link: Reverse Engineering a D-Link Backdoor (Oct. 12, 2013)

Arris: 600,000 Arris cable modems have 'backdoors in backdoors', researcher claims (Nov. 20, 2015)

Juniper Networks: Juniper drops NSA-developed code following new backdoor revelations (Jan. 10, 2016)

Cisco: Snowden: The NSA planted backdoors in Cisco products (May 15, 2014)

Netgear

Iran a democracy?

[WoOS]

Uhm, it is a 'democracy' where eligibility is limited by a religious council, ultimate power is held by a not-popular-elected (not even indirectly) individual with potentially dictatorial authority, suspicion of massive voting fraud exists, where independent polling organisations are closed down to hide this, and where the press is severely limited ("one of the world’s most repressive in 2014" ; Last but 7 in 2015).

Please remember: "Voting not a democracy make."