If the nuclear program is just for the peaceful generation of electricity, why all the secrecy, in this case and across the board? "Intel Report: Iran Looking to Smuggle Raw Uranium," from the Associated Press, December 29:
VIENNA -- Iran is close to clinching a deal to clandestinely import 1,350 tons of purified uranium ore from Kazakhstan, according to an intelligence report obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday. Diplomats said the assessment was heightening international concern about Tehran's nuclear activities.
Such a purified uranium ore deal would be significant because Tehran appears to be running out of the material, which it needs to feed its uranium enrichment program.
The report was drawn up by a member nation of the International Atomic Energy agency and provided to the AP on condition of that the country not be identified because of the confidential nature of the information.
Such imports are banned by the U.N. Security Council.
In New York, Burkina Faso's U.N. Ambassador Michel Kafando, a co-chair of the Security Council's Iran sanctions committee, referred questions Tuesday about a potential deal between Iran and Kazakhstan to his sanctions adviser, Zongo Saidou.
Saidou told the AP that, as far as he knew, none of the U.N.'s member nations have alerted the committee about any such allegations. "We don't have any official information yet regarding this kind of exchange between the two countries," Saidou said. "I don't have any information; I don't have any proof."
A senior U.N. official said the agency was aware of the intelligence report's assessment but could not yet draw conclusions. He demanded anonymity for discussing confidential information. A Western diplomat from a member of the IAEA's 35-nation board said the report was causing "concern" among countries that have seen it and generating "intelligence chatter." The diplomat also requested anonymity for discussing intelligence information.
A two-page summary of the report obtained by the AP said deal could be completed within weeks. It said Tehran was willing to pay $450 million, or close to 315 million euros, for the shipment.
The price is high because of the secret nature of the deal and due to Iran's commitment to keep secret the elements supplying the material," said the summary. An official of the country that drew up the report said "elements" referred to state employees acting on their own without approval of the Kazakh government.
After-hours calls put in to offices of Kazatomprom, the Kazak state uranium company, in Kazakhstan and Moscow, were not answered Tuesday. Iranian nuclear officials also did not pick up their telephones.
Purified ore, or uranium oxide, is processed into a uranium gas, which is then spun and re-spun to varying degrees of enrichment. Low enriched uranium is used for nuclear fuel, and upper-end high enriched uranium for nuclear weapons.
Iran is under three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions for refusing to freeze its enrichment program and related activities that could be used to make nuclear weapons.
Tehran denies such aspirations, saying it wants to enrich only to fuel an envisaged network of power reactors.
And the passivity ... . The passivity of the United States of America and its NATO allies in the face of intolerable threat of nuclear jihad. The cowardice. They are worse than the English were in 1938.
Ruslan Tokhchukov, EnragedSince1999.
The UN, with the POTUS in tow, will hint at threatening to possibly consider making a strongly worded statement expressing some concern about the alleged Iranian actions. That will come at some unspecified point in time after the POTUS returns from vacation and gives the matter serious thought.
From Canada:
"Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance." - B. Hussein Obama
Enragedsince1999,
You cite the USA for cowardice. Have you considered that the current Administration quietly supports the Iranian's acquisition of nuclear weapons? The Clinton Administration with Jimmy Carter's able assistance paved the way for the North Korean's to build their nuclear program. If you assme that Obama wants Iran to have the bomb, everything else his Administration does or doesn't do is perfectly logical.
Iran has said it wants nuclear power for peaceful purposes. Here's how it works; they build bombs, drop them all over Israel, kill the Jews and there is peace on earth. Where did they ever mention electricity?
OFF TOPIC
YEP! THE DEMS ARE THROWING THE YEMENIS UNDER THE BUS!
REMEMBER THIS STORY?
http://www.nationalreview.com/interrogatory/interrogatory091103b.asp
September 11, 2003, 11:45 a.m.
Clinton’s Loss?
How the previous administration fumbled on bin Laden.
A Q&A by Kathryn Jean Lopez
Check out this paragraph extracted from the above story:
Indeed, it is possible that Clinton and his national-security team learned of bin Laden even before the 1993 World Trade Center attack. My interviews and investigation revealed that bin Laden made his first attack on Americans was December 1992, a little more than a month after Clinton won the 1992 election. His target was 100 U.S. Marines housed in two towering Yemen hotels. Within hours, the CIA's counterterrorism center learned that the Yemen suspected a man named Osama bin Laden. (One of the arrested bombing suspects later escaped and was detained in a police sweep after al Qaeda attacked the USS Cole in 2000.) Lake says he doesn't remember briefing the president-elect about the attempted attack, but that he well might have.
Looks like Yemen was helping us:
"Within hours, the CIA's counterterrorism center learned that the Yemen suspected a man named Osama bin Laden"
I thought Kazakhstan was one of those "moderate" and "secular" Muslim countries.
What is Iran doing? Here are a few choices.
1. Developing the capability of dirty bomb. (They probably have now.)
2. Developing fission nukes. (They may have one or two now.)
3. Developing fusion nukes. (Probably wil have next year.)
4. Developing chemical and biological weapons. (They probably have now.)
Why would Iran do this? Here are a few choices.
1. To bring the middle east under their control.
2. To wipe out Israel.
3. To wipe out USA.
4. To spread Islam all around the world.
5. To bring back the Mahdi.
Most likely they are developing all these weapons and will use them to achieve all these goals. All we have to do to help them, is to do nothing. (And if anyone thinks they cannot wipe out the USA, think again. Our ABM systems are not adequate to stop them if they are allowed to continue without abatement. One fission weapon at the right place and altitude would do the trick or several fusion weapons on several cities would also work.)