Iran Could Produce Nuclear Bomb in 16 Days, U.S. Says

[pisshead]

we better bomb them with the weapons of mass destruction and nukes that we've had for decades...

Iran Could Produce Nuclear Bomb in 16 Days, U.S. Says
Bloomberg | April 12, 2006
RELATED:Our nuclear drive is unstoppable, says defiant Iran
Iran Vows Not to Back Away From Enrichment
Analysts Say a Nuclear Iran Is Years Away
Iran, defying United Nations Security Council demands to halt its nuclear program, may be capable of making a nuclear bomb within 16 days, a U.S. State Department official said.
Iran will move to ``industrial scale'' uranium enrichment involving 54,000 centrifuges at its Natanz plant, the Associated Press quoted deputy nuclear chief Mohammad Saeedi as telling state-run television today.
``Using those 50,000 centrifuges they could produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon in 16 days,'' Stephen Rademaker, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation, told reporters today in Moscow.
Rademaker was reacting to a statement by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who said yesterday the country had succeeded in enriching uranium on a small scale for the first time, using 164 centrifuges. That announcement defies demands by the UN Security Council that Iran shut down its nuclear program this month.
The U.S. fears Iran is pursuing a nuclear program to make weapons, while Iran says it is intent on purely civilian purposes, to provide energy. Saeedi said 54,000 centrifuges will be able to enrich uranium to provide fuel for a 1,000-megawat nuclear power plant similar to the one Russia is finishing in southern Iran, AP reported.
``It was a deeply disappointing announcement,'' Rademaker said of Ahmadinejad's statement.
Weapons-Grade Uranium
Rademaker said the technology to enrich uranium to a low level could also be used to make weapons-grade uranium, saying that it would take a little over 13 years to produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon with the 164 centrifuges currently in use. The process involves placing uranium hexafluoride gas in a series of rotating drums or cylinders known as centrifuges that run at high speeds to extract weapons grade uranium.
Iran has informed the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency that it plans to construct 3,000 centrifuges at Natanz next year, Rademaker said.
``We calculate that a 3,000-machine cascade could produce enough uranium to build a nuclear weapon within 271 days,'' he said.
While the U.S. has concerns over Iran's nuclear program, Rademaker said ``there certainly has been no decision on the part of my government'' to use force if Iran refuses to obey the UN Security Council demand that it shuts down its nuclear program.
Rademaker is in Moscow for a meeting of his counterparts from the Group of Eight wealthy industrialized countries. Russia chairs the G-8 this year.
China is concerned about Iran's decision to accelerate uranium enrichment and wants the government in Tehran to heed international criticism of the
move, Wang Guangya, China's ambassador to the United Nations said.


Our nuclear drive is unstoppable, says defiant Iran
London Telegraph | April 12, 2006
By Anton La Guardia
Iran yesterday defied international outcry and a threat of sanctions by announcing that it would push ahead with plans for a huge underground uranium enrichment plant with tens of thousands of high-speed centrifuges.
A day after proclaiming the "historic" achievement of mastering the technology to enrich uranium to make nuclear fuel, Iranian officials dismissed criticism from the United States, Europe and even Russia and China.
The UN Security Council has called on Iran to halt its enrichment programme by the end of the month but Teheran has so far responded by accelerating it.
"Iran's nuclear activities are like a waterfall which has begun to flow. It cannot be stopped," an unnamed senior Iranian official told Reuters.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a televised speech on Tuesday, proclaimed that Iran had made its first sample of fuel-grade enriched uranium and "joined the group of those countries which have nuclear technology".
Yesterday Iranian officials greeted the arrival of the chief international nuclear inspector, Mohamed ElBaradei, by laying out plans to speed up the uranium enrichment programme.
Mohammad Saeedi, Iran's deputy nuclear chief, said his country would expand the experimental "cascade" of 164 enrichment centrifuges to a plant with 3,000 machines by the end of the year.

Iran factfile
It would then build a full-scale factory with 54,000 centrifuges in a cavernous bunker in Natanz. Mr Saeedi did not, however, say how long this would take.
Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, said: "The Security Council will need to take into consideration this move by Iran.
"It will be time when it reconvenes on this case for strong steps to make certain that we maintain the credibility of the international community."
Her comments were a strong hint that Washington would argue for some form of sanctions in the coming weeks, but it is unclear if the Security Council would agree to move so quickly.
Other countries criticised Iran but adopted a more cautious tone. Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said he was "deeply concerned".
The US has not ruled out military action to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities, although President George W Bush has dismissed as "wild speculation" one report that it could deploy tactical nuclear weapons to destroy Natanz.
Russia chastised Teheran for taking "a step in the wrong direction", while China said the move "is not in line with what is required of them by the international community". But both said military force would not resolve the crisis.
In Teheran, hardliners rejoiced at the progress of the nuclear programme. Resalat, a hardline daily, said: "The nuclear fuel cycle is complete, the beginnings of a powerful Iran".
Iran says it has succeeded in enriching uranium to 3.5 per cent of the U-235 isotope, the level needed for nuclear fuel, and claims it only wants to develop nuclear power for "peaceful" purposes. But America and Europe fear the enrichment technology will be used to produce fissile material for atomic weapons.
Iran argues that its enrichment programme is needed to provide fuel for its ambitious programme to build seven or more power reactors.
But western officials argue that it makes no economic sense for oil-rich Iran to invest in such expensive nuclear technology, not least because it has only limited deposits of uranium.


Iran Vows Not to Back Away From Enrichment
Associated Press | April 13, 2006
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed Thursday that Iran won't back away from uranium enrichment and said the world must treat Iran as a nuclear power.
The comments were made as Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived in Tehran for talks aimed at defusing tensions over Iran's nuclear program.
"Our answer to those who are angry about Iran achieving the full nuclear fuel cycle is just one phrase. We say: Be angry at us and die of this anger," the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
"We won't hold talks with anyone about the right of the Iranian nation (to enrich uranium)."
Ahmadinejad declared on Tuesday that Iran had successfully produced enriched uranium for the first time, a key process in what Iran maintains is a peaceful energy program.
Iran's deputy nuclear chief, Mohammad Saeedi, then said Wednesday that Iran intends to move toward large-scale uranium enrichment involving 54,000 centrifuges, signaling the country's resolve to expand a program the United Nations has demanded it halt.
"Today, our situation has changed completely. We are a nuclear country and speak to others from the position of a nuclear country," IRNA quoted the president as saying Thursday.
The United States accuses Tehran of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to produce nuclear weapons but Tehran says its nuclear program is merely to generate electricity.
The U.N. Security Council has insisted that Iran stop all enrichment activity by April 28.
ElBaradei told reporters after arriving at Tehran airport that he believed the time was "ripe" for a political solution." He said he would try to persuade Iranian authorities to meet international demands for "confidence-building measures, including suspension of uranium enrichment, until outstanding issues are clarified."
Also Thursday, China said it is sending an envoy to Iran and Russia to discuss the dispute over Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Assistant Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai is due to leave on Friday.
"Recently, there were some developments of the Iranian nuclear issue," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao. "We expressed our concern. ... We hope the parties should exercise restraint and not take any actions that lead to further escalation so we can solve the question properly through dialogue and diplomacy."
At the United Nations a day earlier, China expressed strong concern over Iran's announcement that it had successfully enriched uranium and called on Tehran to suspend enrichment. However, both China and Russia have repeated their opposition to any punitive measures against Iran.
On Tuesday, Iran announced it had produced enriched uranium on a small scale for the first time, using 164 centrifuges, at a facility in the central town of Natanz.
Saeedi said using 54,000 centrifuges will be able to produce enough enriched uranium to provide fuel for a 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plant like one Russia is finishing in southern Iran.
In theory, that many centrifuges could be used to develop the material needed for hundreds of nuclear warheads if Iran can perfect the techniques for producing the highly enriched uranium needed. Iran is still thought to be years away from a full-scale program.
The IAEA is due to report to the Security Council on April 28 whether Iran has met its demand for a full halt to uranium enrichment. If Tehran has not complied, the council will consider the next step. The U.S. and Europe are pressing for sanctions, a step Russia and China have so far opposed.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday the Security Council must consider "strong steps" to induce Tehran to change course. Rice also telephoned ElBaradei to ask him to reinforce demands that Iran comply with its nonproliferation requirements when he holds talks in Tehran on Friday.
On Wednesday, Iran's nuclear chief, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, said the United States had no option but to recognize Iran as a nuclear power. But he said Iran was prepared to give the West a share in its enrichment facilities to ease fears that it may seek to make weapons.
"The best way to get out of this issue is for countries that have concern become our partners in Natanz in management, production and technology. This is a very important confidence-building measure," he told state-run television.

pisshead Reviewed by pisshead on 04-13-2006. Iran Could Produce Nuclear Bomb in 16 Days, U.S. Says we better bomb them with the weapons of mass destruction and nukes that we've had for decades... Iran Could Produce Nuclear Bomb in 16 Days, U.S. Says Bloomberg | April 12, 2006 RELATED:Our nuclear drive is unstoppable, says defiant Iran Iran Vows Not to Back Away From Enrichment Analysts Say a Nuclear Iran Is Years Away Iran, defying United Nations Security Council demands to halt its nuclear program, may be capable of making a nuclear bomb within 16 days, a U.S. State Department Rating: 5

[pisshead]

Neocon: Iran will have Nuke in Sixteen Days

Kurt Nimmo | April 13 2006

First it was ten years, then it was five or six, and now it is sixteen days. Iran will have a nuke in sixteen days and no doubt they will nuke Israel on the seventeenth day, if we are to believe the mendacious neocons. â??Iran, which is defying United Nations Security Council demands to cease its nuclear program, may be capable of making a nuclear bomb within 16 days if it goes ahead with plans to install thousands of centrifuges at its Natanz plant, a U.S. State Department official said,â?� Bloomberg reports, or rather repeats verbatim, no questions asked, as corporate media hacks never ask questions and take every whopper dispensed by the neocons at face value.

Stephen Rademaker, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, that is to say a Straussian neocon flunky, does the math. â??Natanz was constructed to house 50,000 centrifugesâ?¦. Using those 50,000 centrifuges they could produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon in 16 days.â?�

Itâ??s obvious what is going on here. Iran is thumbing its nose at the arrogance of the Straussian neocons and their obedient lapdog, the United Nations. â??Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday the country had succeeded in enriching uranium on a small scale for the first time, using 164 centrifuges. That announcement defies demands by the UN Security Council that Iran shut down its nuclear program this month.â?�

It is forbidden for Iran to develop nuclear energyâ??or even a measly bombâ??but Israel is allowed to have around 400 nukes.

France made the mistake of helping Israel manufacture its nuclear program in the late 50s. It was duped in the process.

â??Trouble arose in May 1960, when France began to pressure Israel to make the project public and to submit to international inspections of the site, threatening to withhold the reactor fuel unless they did. President de Gaulle was concerned that the inevitable scandal following any revelations about French assistance with the project, especially the chemical reprocessing plant, would have negative repercussions for Franceâ??s international position, already on shaky ground because of its war in Algeria,â?� explains the Federation of American Scientists.

â??At a subsequent meeting with Ben-Gurion, de Gaulle offered to sell Israel fighter aircraft in exchange for stopping work on the reprocessing plant, and came away from the meeting convinced that the matter was closed. It was not. Over the next few months, Israel worked out a compromise. France would supply the uranium and components already placed on order and would not insist on international inspections. In return, Israel would assure France that they had no intention of making atomic weapons, would not reprocess any plutonium, and would reveal the existence of the reactor, which would be completed without French assistance. In reality, not much changedâ??French contractors finished work on the reactor and reprocessing plant, uranium fuel was delivered and the reactor went critical in 1964.â?�

Of course, the Israelis deceived the French and everybody else and began cranking out nukes like flapjacks a few years later.

â??As early as 8 December 1960, the CIA issued a report outlining Dimonaâ??s implications for nuclear proliferation, and the CIA station in Tel Aviv had determined by the mid-1960s that the Israeli nuclear weapons program was an established and irreversible fact.â?�

It is said the Iranians are deceiving the International Atomic Energy Agency, and yet Israel went out of its way to hide its nuke program. â??United States inspectors visited Dimona seven times during the 1960s, but they were unable to obtain an accurate picture of the activities carried out there, largely due to tight Israeli control over the timing and agenda of the visits. The Israelis went so far as to install false control room panels and to brick over elevators and hallways that accessed certain areas of the facility. The inspectors were able to report that there was no clear scientific research or civilian nuclear power program justifying such a large reactorâ??circumstantial evidence of the Israeli bomb programâ??but found no evidence of â??weapons related activitiesâ?? such as the existence of a plutonium reprocessing plant.â?�

In 1986, the Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu revealed for the world the extent of Israelâ??s secret and illegal nuclear program. For revealing the truth, Vanunu spent 18 years in an Israeli prison. He is not allowed to leave Israel and essentially remains a prisoner.

Israel has around 400 hydrogen weapons, nukes 100 to 1,000 stronger power than a regular nuclear bomb. According to retired US Army Colonel Warner D. Farr, M.D., Israel is the fifth largest nuclear superpower in the world.

In the 1973 â??Yom Kippur War,â?� Israel used nuclear blackmail to force Kissinger and Nixon to airlift supplies (see John Steinbach, Israeli Weapons of Mass Destruction: a Threat to Peace). In addition, Israel has used its â??dependenceâ?� on nuclear weapons to fleece the American taxpayer.

Amos Rubin, economic adviser to former PM Yitzhak Shamir, said â??If left to its own Israel will have no choice but to fall back on a riskier defense which will endanger itself and the world at largeâ?¦ To enable Israel to abstain from dependence on nuclear arms calls for $2 to 3 billion per year in U.S. aidâ?� (Mark Gaffney, Dimona, The Third Temple: The Story Behind the Vanunu Revelation, Brattleboro, VT, 1989, Amana Books, p. 165; see previous link).

â??The Israeli nuclear arsenal has profound implications for the future of peace in the Middle East, and indeed, for the entire planet. It is clear from [the late] Israel Shahak that Israel has no interest in peace except that which is dictated on its own terms, and has absolutely no intention of negotiating in good faith to curtail its nuclear program or discuss seriously a nuclear-free Middle East,â?� Steinbach concludes.

In fact, Israel has no intention of ever signing a nuclear proliferation treaty and has worked nuclear blackmail and threats into its on-going effort to balkanize and dominate the Middle East.

â??Whoever believes that Israel will ever sign the UN Convention prohibiting the proliferation of nuclear weaponsâ?¦ is day dreaming,â?� Zeâ??ev Shiff, an Israeli military expert, wrote for Haaretz.

â??The moral and political meaning of nuclear weapons is that states which renounce their use are acquiescing to the status of Vassal states. All those states which feel satisfied with possessing conventional weapons alone are fated to become vassal states,â?� Munya Mardoch, Director of the Israeli Institute for the Development of Weaponry, declared in 1994 (see previous link).

Obviously, Iran understands this â??vassal sateâ?� dynamic all too well and that is why it may develop a nuclear bombâ??certainly not in sixteen days, as Stephen Rademaker warns, but eventually.

Rademaker is married to Danielle Pletka, vice-president for Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, the criminal organization where Bush gets his â??minds.â?� Pletka is described as an early neocon and associate of Martin Indyk, the former U.S. Ambassador to Israel, founding executive director of the criminal Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and research director for AIPAC.

Birds of a feather plot mass murder together.

Chances are slim to none the United States under the rule of perfidious Straussian neocons will allow Iran to develop a nuclear bomb and thus enjoy the untouchable status North Korea apparently enjoys (notice the neocons are not plotting to invade or shock and awe North Korea because this will result in widespread destruction of South Korea and even Japan).

Thus we can expect the neocons to launch their long-planned shock and awe campaign in the near future. It is impossible to predict an exact or even approximate date. But if the escalating rhetoric and saber-rattlingâ??prompted by hysterical demands emanating almost weekly from Israel and echoed and amplified by the Straussian neoconsâ??are any indication, it will be sooner before later.

Addendum

Stephen Rademaker may believeâ??or rather want us to believeâ??Iran is sixteen days away from building a nuke. But the Israelis disagree. Iranâ??s announcement it has enriched uranium â??is worrying for everyone as we have seen with the international reaction,â?� declared General Dan Halutz, Israeli militaryâ??s chief of staff, according to Zee News Limited. â??The Iranians are not [capable of building a nuke] yet. Time is an essential element in the diplomatic process, and I believe that things will change during this process,â?� Halutz added.

In fact, Iran appears to be a long way from developing highly-enriched uranium of the sort required for a nuclear bomb.

It should be noted that Iran has enriched uranium to 3.5 percent (fissile material) and this is sufficient for light water reactors, not nuclear weapons. â??Uranium enriched to 20 percent U-235 or higher is considered highly enriched uranium (HEU), which can be used in nuclear weapons. The higher the percentage of enrichment, the easier it is to use the uranium to make a nuclear bomb because less material would be required to form a critical mass for a nuclear explosion. The uranium used in nuclear weapons is typically enriched to 90 percent U-235 or higher,â?� notes the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

In other words, Mr. Rademaker is telling another in a long succession of Straussian neocon fibs. Iran is nowhere near the level of isotope separation required to â??worry not just Israel but the entire world,â?� as Halutz puts it.

â??Only a handful of countries have the capability to produce weapons-grade uraniumâ??namely the five nuclear weapons states (US, UK, France, USSR, and China) and a very few others (including South Africa and Pakistan). Typically, a uranium enrichment plant covers many acres of land and uses as much energy as a large city. Such plants are large and sophisticated; they cannot be hidden from aerial surveillance,â?� explains Gordon Edwards (he forgot to include Israel).

According to the UK Telegraph, Iranâ??s Natanz uranium enrichment facility â??will soon have the capacity to enrich uranium to weapons grade.â?�

Rademaker thinks that will happen in a little over two weeksâ??or he wants you to think so.

Iâ??ll conclude with a quote from Juan Cole:

What is really going on here is a ratcheting war of rhetoric. The Iranian hard liners are down to a popularity rating in Iran of about 15%. They are using their challenge to the Bush administration over their perfectly legal civilian nuclear energy research program as a way of enhancing their nationalist credentials in Iran.

Likewise, Bush is trying to shore up his base, which is desperately unhappy with the Iraq situation, by rattling sabres at Iran. Bushâ??s poll numbers are so low, often in the mid-30s, that he must have lost part of his base to produce this result. Iran is a great deus ex machina for Bush. Rally around the flag yet again.

If this international game of chicken goes wrong, then the whole Middle East and much of Western Europe could go up in flames. The real threat here is not unconventional war, which Iran cannot fight for the foreseeable future. It is the spread of Iraq-style instability to more countries in the region.

I beg to differ with Mr. Cole. Bushâ??or rather the Straussian neocons who use him every day as a less than satisfactory sock puppetâ??the neocons could not care less about Bushâ??s â??baseâ?� of pathetic fake-patriots clueless about reality (as the Straussian neocons tell us they create realityâ??at least for the easily duped and bedazzled). Additionally, â??the spread of Iraq-style instability to more countries in the regionâ?� is precisely what the neocons want.

I donâ??t know if Cole buys into the fallacy that Bush blew it in Iranâ??expecting a â??cakewalkâ?� and rose petals tossed in admirationâ??but if he does he need only read the PNAC documents and other neocon literature. The Straussian neocons will not rest until the entire Muslim Middle East is in flames.

[Great Spirit]

Maybe the war will start sooner than I expected....

[pisshead]

i don't think there could be a war without some kind of 'terrorist' attack, either here or in london or something...

[Fengzi]

i don't think there could be a war without some kind of 'terrorist' attack, either here or in london or something...

There was a terrorist attack. 9/11 remember? Dubya's excuse for everything. I'm sure if they look hard enough they'll find a link between Iran and Al Qaeda.

Excerpt from a future George Bush Press Conference: "There's this guy named Achmed living on the outskirts of Tehran. Well, Achmed's camel's mother used to belong to a man whose older brother's ex-girlfriend's boss went to school with a kid who once vacationed in Saudi and just happened to walk down the same street that Osama Bin Laden once walked down. See, definite proof their is a link between Iran and Al Qaeda"

[Great Spirit]

i don't think there could be a war without some kind of 'terrorist' attack, either here or in london or something...

My theory is that Bush will use a dirty bomb on a metropolitan area, and blame it on Iran which will generate mass hatred of Iran and anyone who says that war with Iran is not neccessary will be definately thrown in detention camps.

Fucken fascists.

[Great Spirit]

I'm sure if they look hard enough they'll find a link between Iran and Al Qaeda

Ya...its called pulling things out of your ass!!! There were more connections with the Bush family and bin Laden's family then there ever will be with Iraq and bin Laden. It was just another false excuse to get us into a war. Remember, Saddam was a secular leader...bin Laden is a fundementalist.

The fun and fascism never end in Amerika!!!!