Friday - May 12, 2006

The Smoking Gun?

In the story below, AP headlines that “more” uranium was recently found in Iran. Then they proceed to tell us deeper in the story that it was not a question of “more” uranium but “more powerful” uranium. Indeed, traces of weapons grade nuclear material have been found at a site that was mysteriously closed down recently and all traces of the facility destroyed. Iran still refuses to let the UN and the IAEA back into the country to monitor their nuclear facilities. All we have is their “word” that they only have peaceful intentions.

Trust the Mad Mullahs and President Ahmawhackjob? Not on your life. However, I do have a solution. Let’s all step back and let the Iranians go ahead with their plans. Does that sound insane? Well, not really. You see, if you build a nuclear bomb you have no way of knowing if you got it right or if the bloody thing will even work as advertised until you test the damned thing. Every country that has developed nuclear weapons has had to take that final step of actually testing their bomb.

So we sit back and wait. The US, Russia and several other countries have sophisticated monitoring devices that operate around the clock to detect nuclear explosions anywhere in the world. All we need to do is wait ... and listen. Concentrate on Iran with all of our “big ears” devices. The instant we hear a “BURP” out of Iran ... we launch. Fifty thousand years later radiation levels will have subsided and humans will finally be able to go back into what used to be Iran. Which will give us time to figure out what to do about North Korea. Any questions ... ?

More Uranium Reportedly Found in Iran
_{May 12, 2006 11:30pm EDT}

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - The U.N. atomic agency found traces of highly enriched uranium at an Iranian site linked to the country’s defense ministry, diplomats said Friday, adding to concerns that Tehran was hiding activities aimed at making nuclear arms.

The diplomats, who demanded anonymity in exchange for revealing the confidential information, said the findings were preliminary and still had to be confirmed through other lab tests. But they said the density of enrichment appeared to be close to or above the level used to make nuclear warheads.

Still, they said, further analysis could show that the traces match others established to have come from abroad. The International Atomic Energy Agency determined earlier traces of weapons-grade uranium were imported on equipment from Pakistan that Iran bought on the black market during nearly two decades of clandestine activity discovered just over three years ago.

The Islamic republic denies accusations it wants to make nuclear arms and says it is only interested in uranium to generate power. To argue that it never enriched uranium domestically to weapons grade, it cites the IAEA’s tentative conclusion last year that weapons-grade traces collected from other sites within the country with no suspected ties to that military came in on equipment from Pakistan.

The origin of the samples now under perusal created some concern in that regard. One of the diplomats told The Associated Press that the samples came from equipment that can be used in uranium-enriching centrifuges at a former research center at Lavizan-Shian. The center is believed to have been the repository of equipment bought by the Iranian military that could be used in a nuclear weapons program.

The United States alleges Iran had conducted high-explosive tests that could have a bearing on developing nuclear weapons at the site. The State Department said in 2004 that Lavizan’s buildings had been dismantled and topsoil had been removed in attempts to hide nuclear weapons-related experiments. The agency subsequently confirmed that the site had been razed.

In an April 28 report to the U.N. Security Council and the IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors, agency head Mohamed ElBaradei said the agency took samples from some of the equipment of the former Physics Research Center at Lavizan-Shian. The diplomat said the evaluation of those samples revealed the traces in question.

- More on this nucular madness here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/12/2006 at 12:30 PM   
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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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