A Truly Horrible Article on Israel and Iran from Catholic.org

Posted on 31/03/2012 by terrortrends

Catholic.org has published a truly horrible article on the conflict between Iran and Israel: Israeli War with Iran May Be More Costly Than Believed.

In that article, the author makes specious assertions about what the Israeli government is telling its people and advises naively that Israel and the West can negotiate with the Iranian regime in good faith to find a peaceful settlement.

Has the person who wrote this article calculated the possible cost of a nuclear armed gang of Mullahs in Tehran? And if war with Iran is costly now, what would the cost be once Iran goes nuclear? Does anyone with a serious view really believe that it is possible to negotiate in good faith with the Ayatollahs after all these years?

To lump the democratically elected government in Israel with the despotic, terrorist regime in Iran as being equally “devil may care,” as the author explicitly states in the article, is totally irresponsible.

The article falsely asserts that the Israeli government is telling people that they have little to fear from a war with Iran. That is a total fabrication. No one in Israel has any illusions about war; they’ve lived it non-stop for decades, in all its forms, and no one is telling anyone that there is nothing to fear. On the other hand, the Israelis know that they have MORE to fear from a NUCLEAR Iran.

As a Catholic I am ashamed that this article appears on Catholic.org. Given the church’s shameful record in facilitating Nazi war criminals making their escape after World War II, it is highly disturbing to me to find an article on Catholic.org essentially equating the two sides-Israel and Iran–with one another.

Finally, when making up your own minds about whether or not Israel or other nations need to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear power, consider that Iran considers Israel the Little Satan. America is the Great Satan. Iran has a national holiday called “Death to America Day.” Maybe that’s why they armed, trained and supplied Jihadists in Iraq and Afghanistan who killed US GIs. I for one am not comfortable with an Iran armed with atomic bombs.

http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=45504#.T3cgk_mHv3w.twitter

Filed under: Israel, Missile Defense, missiles, nuclear program, nuclear talks, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

Another Meaningless Offer From Tehran to Buy More Time

Posted on 05/09/2011 by terrortrends

Every so often, when the Ayatollahs in Iran start to feel the heat from the international community about their nuclear weapons program, they begin to make noises about compromising and negotiating. These noises are always meaningless. They result in weeks and months of fruitless talks and always amount to nothing.

Last week, French President Nicholas Sarkozy proclaimed that Iran’s nuclear program could very well get it attacked.

True to form, the Iranians then trotted out a proposal–without details of course–to allow supervision of its nuclear program (at least the parts that aren’t secret). And, just as predictably, the Iranians add the caveat that they will continue enriching uranium in violation of UN resolutions.

In other words, the Iranians want us to buy into a scheme in which the UN will supervise a nuclear program that the UN has already declared illegal! In return, all the world has to do is lift sanctions on Iran!

Such a deal!

Not surprisingly, the Los Angeles Times dutifully reported the Iranian proposal as if it meant anything at all.

What this proposal is designed to actually do is to buy the Iranians more time to work on their nukes…

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran-nuclear-20110906,0,615223.story#tugs_story_display

 

Filed under: Diplomacy, IAEA, nuclear program, nuclear talks, sanctions, United Nations | Leave a Comment »

17 Years Too Late, the UN Decides that Maybe Iran IS Working on Nuclear Weapons!

Posted on 02/09/2011 by terrortrends

 

More than seventeen years after a Clinton administration State Department spokesperson told USA Today that Iran’s nuclear program had  none of the characteristics of a peaceful energy program and all of the hallmarks of a weapons program, the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has released a statement indicating that they are “increasingly concerned” about intelligence that shows that Iran is in fact working on nuclear weapons.

This 11th hour admission is enough to make sane, sober people flip their lid. For those who may not remember, the head of the IAEA for too many years was an Egyptian politician named Mohammed El-Baradei. Baradei went to great lengths–repeatedly–to give the Iranians the benefit of the doubt on their nuclear program, despite evidence that they were lying and cheating. One has to wonder if El-Baradei was in fact running interference for the Iranians and whether he was doing so out of religious fervor, a hatred of Israel, for money or all of the above.

Former IAEA Chief Mohammed El-Baradei Meets With Iranian President Ahmedinejad: What Did El-Baradei Know And When Did He Know It?

Here are some highlights of the new 9-page report that the IAEA just released about Iran’s nuclear program:

• Iran is working secretly on developing a nuclear payload for ballistic missiles.

Iranian Ballistic Missile

• Iran has developed a new, hardened facility at Fordow in which to enrich uranium, a facility thought to be more resistant to air attack than the existing facility at Natanz.

New Hardened Iranian Uranium Enrichment Facility At Fordow, Near The Holy City of Qom

Iranian Uranium Enrichment Facility at Natanz

• It is possible that Iran has undisclosed nuclear-related activities and facilities. [In our estimation this should be a forgone conclusion!]

• Iran has enough enriched uranium right now to produce 6 nuclear bombs.

• Iran’s secrecy and lack of cooperation make it impossible for the IAEA to conclude the Iran’s nuclear program is peaceful.

This last statement is especially infuriating because Iran has been secretive and uncooperative about its nuclear program from the very beginning. For the IAEA to now suddenly admit that the Iranians’ policy is suspicious can only mean either the IAEA has gotten wiser or previous IAEA personnel looked the other way while Iran worked on nuclear weaponry.

We still maintain that should Iran be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons, the world will be forever altered for the worse and future generations of Americans will ask of our generation: “How did you ever let that happen?!”

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=14435627

Filed under: ballistic missiles, Fordow, IAEA, missiles, Mohammed El-Baradei, Natanz, nuclear program, nuclear talks, United Nations | Leave a Comment »

Sarkozy issues veiled threat to Iran

Posted on 02/09/2011 by terrortrends

French President Nicholas Sarkozy warned Iran this week that its continued evasiveness with reagard to, and pursuit of, its nuclear ambitions could result in some country attacking Iran. Sarkozy didn’t name any countries when he said this.

We have mixed emotions when it comes to this statement from Sarkozy. On the one hand, it’s about time someone played hardball with the ayatollahs and reminded them that they are subject to unpleasant consequences if they keep up their horrible behavior. Obama’s policy of taking the possibility of force off the table with regard to Iran sends a terrible signal that they will simply suffer no consequences of note for any of their actions. It’s not a bad idea to remind the Iranians that they are far from invulnerable and they have opponents in the world who are a lot stronger and more militarily competent than they are–by a long shot.

Moreover, Sarkozy is correct in his statement that the Iranians have not conducted any meaningful negotiations with regard to their nuclear program. In fact, it was the French who pointed out just how naive Obama’s expressed policy of engagement of Iran was when Obama announced it while running for president way back in 2008. The French had already tried to negotiate with the Iranians and it was abundantly clear that the Iranians had no interest in negotiating, simply because they were determined to move forward with uranium enrichment no matter what. Obama has basically wasted two years trying to wave enough carrots in front of the Ayatollahs to get their attention, not realizing, despite ample evidence, that they don’t like or want carrots!

But Sarkozy is hardly the best man to be delivering this tough message to the Iranians.

First of all, France is not militarily capable of unilaterally cutting Iran’s nuclear program down to size. France could conceivably play a role as part of a coalition in such an operation, but France wouldn’t even be a leader of that coalition. Make no mistake, only America possesses the military power–and the capability to project it–to severely damage or destroy Iran’s nuclear program. So, Sarkozy is the equivalent of the kid in school at the playground who picks a fight and then ducks behind his big brother when the fists start flying.

Second of all, France could do much–and should have done so years ago–to isolate the Iranians economically. The fact is, few nations can rival the amount of corporate life support that French firms have given the ayatollahs over the years, as United Against Nuclear Iran has done a superb job of detailing here:

http://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/ibr?order=field_country_value&sort=asc

So Sarkozy literally needs to put his money where his mouth is and impose meaningful sanctions on Iran if he really is serious about pressuring Iran.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.08e95fba9a75ed31e6c5e4213995533c.111&show_article=1

It is a shame that the Free World is essentially leaderless on the issue of Iran and we have to resort to the president of France to issue warnings to the regime in Tehran.

Filed under: France, nuclear program, nuclear talks, sanctions | Leave a Comment »

Iran’s Bushehr plant up and running

Posted on 14/08/2010 by terrortrends

Russia announced Friday it will begin the startup next week of Iran’s only atomic power plant, giving Tehran a boost as it struggles with international sanctions and highlighting differences between Moscow and Washington over pressuring the Islamic Republic to give up activities that could be used to make nuclear arms.

Uranium fuel shipped by Russia will be loaded into the Bushehr reactor on Aug. 21, beginning a process that will last about a month and end with the reactor sending electricity to Iranian cities, Russian and Iranian officials said.

Russia has walked a fine line on Iran for years. One of six world powers leading international efforts to ensure Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon, it has strongly criticized the U.S. and the European Union for following up with separate sanctions after the latest U.N. penalties — which Moscow supported — were passed.

Iran’s semiofficial ISNA news agency quoted Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who also heads the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, as saying that the country had invited IAEA experts to watch the transfer of fuel, which was shipped about two years ago, into the Bushehr reactor.

“Fuel complexes are sealed (and being monitored by IAEA). Naturally, IAEA inspectors will be there to watch the unsealing,” ISNA quoted Salehi as saying.

Russia has said the Bushehr project has been closely supervised by the IAEA. But the U.N. watchdog has no monitoring authority at the plant beyond ensuring that its nuclear fuel is accounted for, and U.S. and EU officials have expressed safety concerns.

They note that Iran — leery of opening up its nuclear activities to outsiders — refuses to sign on to the Convention on Nuclear Safety, making it subject to international monitoring of its atomic safety standards.

Filed under: nuclear program, nuclear talks, Russia, sanctions, United Nations | Leave a Comment »

Iran postponed nuclear talks for two months

Posted on 29/06/2010 by terrortrends

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday that Iran will penalize world powers by freezing nuclear talks for two months, as he laid down several conditions for resuming the negotiations.

The hardliner said Iran wanted more countries to be involved in talks over its nuclear program, and added world powers must clarify Israel’s status of nuclear arsenal and what exactly they sought from the discussions.

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Iran_to_discipline_West_by_holding_off_nuclear_talks_999.html

Filed under: Ahmadinejad, nuclear program, nuclear talks, sanctions, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

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