Scary news article…
…not the content, the article itself. The NYT is pushing for war… Iraq redux.
Damn. I guess they need to sell more papers.
Report Says Iran Has Data to Make a Nuclear Bomb
By WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID E. SANGER
Published: October 3, 2009Senior staff members of the United Nations nuclear agency have concluded in a confidential analysis that Iran has acquired “sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable” atom bomb.
The report by experts in the International Atomic Energy Agency stresses in its introduction that its conclusions are tentative and subject to further confirmation of the evidence, which it says came from intelligence agencies and its own investigations.
But the report’s conclusions, described by senior European officials, go well beyond the public positions taken by several governments, including the United States.
Two years ago, American intelligence agencies published a detailed report concluding that Tehran halted its efforts to design…
Michael Anderson:
…and Israel seems to be in on the deal, too:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6860161.ece
“Ephraim Sneh, a former Israeli deputy defence minister, warned that time was running out for action to stop the programme. “If no crippling sanctions are introduced by Christmas, Israel will strike,” he said. “If we are left alone, we will act alone.”
3 October 2009, 4:35 pmStan:
Escobar on same.
3 October 2009, 7:39 pmrootlesscosmo:
Based on past history I think there’s reason to believe (though I don’t have any confirming evidence) that the Times is acting in close collaboration with the Israeli government and military. Now and then the paper’s editorial page remonstrates gently with Likud and Netanyahu but the people who generate these alarmist pieces, and decide to give them front page space, are in effect the overseas publicity department of Avigdor Lieberman’s Foreign Ministry. Scary indeed.
3 October 2009, 11:36 pmLenny Lyons:
Isn’t “sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable atom bomb” available on the internet?
4 October 2009, 3:40 amMichael Anderson:
I did not know Iran had disclosed the existence of this facility—maybe I’d seen a small article and put it in the mental dustbin…my ignorance, there. So, taking this into account; if I read Escobar correctly, it seems we may have another “Gulf of Tonkin” episode in the making….this time with far larger ramifications. A Merry Christmas, indeed.
Keep your eyes on the prize—How did OUR oil get under THEIR sand, anyway? (sic) If SW Asia’s main export was Peppercorns, we (I speak of WE in the corporatist editorial sense) wouldn’t know the place existed.
4 October 2009, 2:16 pmSteve:
The technology in your cell phone is far more difficult to produce than a simple fission bomb.
4 October 2009, 4:06 pmseb:
They found it in the Shah’s old filing cabinets.
4 October 2009, 6:45 pmMichael Anderson:
And now Obama has won the Nobel Peace prize for work with nuclear weapons! Talk about Irony! Funny how you can win a prize for dealing with the BIG bombs, and still use DU munitions on brown people in SW Asia who have oil.
9 October 2009, 1:06 pmSean:
How did OUR oil get under THEIR sand, anyway?
Michael, when we blamed Iraq and/or Afghanistan on 9/11/2001 this was obviously the gambit. I made jokes when Operation: Iraqi Freedom started, the jokes used a punchline very similar to what you said above. “We must reclaim our oil, even where it sits beneath foreign soil!”
We really should be thanking the people of Iraq and Iran for safeguarding OUR oil for so many millennia. Not invading them. Surely not killing them. Eh?
/snark
11 October 2009, 11:49 amSean:
oops, all-italics not intended there. sorry Stan & readers!
11 October 2009, 11:49 amStan:
General apology. Been pretty much offline for a bit. Long story. Everything in the house was disconnected for a few days. Trying to catch up.
12 October 2009, 6:15 amJames:
Well, I think the average Americans of the “booboisie” are for war in Afghanistan because they are afraid of another 911. Ignorance regarding 911 remains the lynchpin of it all, in terms of war propaganda and anti-Muslim propaganda. The attempts to cast light on this have been successfully quashed and ignored, and sadly, efforts to continue to bring it to light have been abandoned for the most part. Zionism has won the day.
For the average American, Iran is also a “threat.” They swallow the Iran-nuclear power message hook, line, and sinker. The issue of women comes in as a further “reason,” much like “Sadam” was the further reason to “get” Iraq. US politics is predicated on the wholly brainwashed and carefully manipulated public.
Effectively, the US is now a corporate state–it pretty well matches Mussolini’s definition of fascism, but with the added twist of a foreign occupation de facto, to a great extent, as regards its foreign policy and its mass media propaganda arm.
12 October 2009, 4:44 pmJames:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23701.htm
The Nobel Prize, the Brand and the President
By Gilad Atzmon
October 12, 2009 “Information Clearing House” — People out there are divided whether it was a right decision to award Obama with a Nobel prize for peace. In fact, almost everyone around me is outraged, what ‘peace’ they ask, what about Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, Palestine? We are tired of promises they insist. The Nobel Prize committee on its part ‘highlighted Obama’s effort to support international bodies, build ties with the Muslim world, act in favour of nuclear disproliferation and fight Climate change’. Those who are unimpressed with Obama stress that the above is just ‘empty rhetoric’, nothing but ‘hot air’. “We want to see action, we demand facts on the ground”.
While Obama’s critics raise some valid points, they for some reason seem to fail to grasp the distinction between ‘Obama the Brand’ and ‘Obama the President’. The ‘Brand’ stands for hope and humanism. It tends to say the right things on the right occasions. It is ethically aware. It employs reason occasionally and it even manages to talk sense often enough. ‘Obama the Brand’ is, no doubt, a refreshing event in the Western political arena.
‘Obama the President’ is a different story altogether: It struggles, it fails to deliver, it fails to keep promises. It says things and does the opposite. ‘Obama the President’ is a politician and politicians are conditionally untrustworthy.
12 October 2009, 4:47 pmJames:
“After more than one hundred years of moral phantasmic delusion the Israelis are deeply stuck in an ethical coma.”
From Delusion to Vindictiveness
Interpreting the Zionist Dream
By Gilad Atzmon
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23700.htm
12 October 2009, 5:00 pmseb:
I think the Nobel committee is banking on Obama being an honest or honorable person, that this award is incentive rather than… uhh, award.
*facepalm*
Never occurred to me how silly that particular pretension of theirs may be until I just typed it out. Wait…no… having second thoughts, maybe their right… wait, wait… now it occurs to me that if I can rationalize into this, they can rationalize out of it. Oh right:
*facepalm*
13 October 2009, 7:46 amseb:
(2nd their->they’re; I’ll never live with myself unless I acknowledge my grammar is incorrect every single time my grammar is incorrect)
13 October 2009, 7:48 amm.c.:
Power tends to act as a drug for most “normal” people. Get a pass to work at the White House or Pentagon and it goes to your head. The job becomes the most important task, over-riding what should be society’s most pressing needs.
13 October 2009, 1:06 pmJames:
http://www.richardccook.com/2009/10/12/thomas-grecos-the-end-of-money-and-the-future-of-civilization-a-review-by-richard-c-cook/
Thomas Greco’s “The End of Money and the Future of Civilization”: A Review by Richard C. Cook
“…But unlike most commentators, what Greco offers is not another phony prescription for what the financiers and government should do for us, whether through “restarting” lending or another round of stimulus spending. Rather it’s what we should do for ourselves, and could do much better, if we understood what to do and if big banking and big government just got out of the way…
“…So do we really need the bankers’ fake currency, today backed by nothing but a federal deficit of $12 trillion and growing by the day?
“Greco says we don’t, and this is what his book about. But it’s not about doing without the necessities of life, or heading for the hills with a gun and backpack. Nor is it about important efforts at macro-level monetary reform like those of the American Monetary Institute, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, or advocates for a basic income guarantee. Rather it’s about individuals, groups, and communities taking control of the monetary system at the grassroots level and creating an entirely new basis for trade than bank-owed debt.
“…Greco writes about “a new paradigm approach to the exchange function.” The solution, he says, “is to provide interest-free credit to producers within the process of mutual credit clearing. That is the process of offsetting purchases against sales within an association of merchants, manufacturers, and workers. It will eventually include everyone who buys and sells, or makes and receives disbursements of any kind.”
“…Greco discusses the large and growing worldwide “LETS” movement—Local Exchange Trading Systems, like the Ithaca HOURS system in Ithaca, New York. He describes the Swiss WIR Bank, the longest-running credit clearing system in the world, with over 70,000 members. He writes about the national and international barter exchanges that involve over 400,000 businesses trading at an annual level of $10 billion.
“…Greco also describes the world-famous Mondragon Cooperatives from the Basque region of Northern Spain. Started by a Roman Catholic priest in 1941, the Mondragon system, he says, is “the hub of what is probably the most successful and progressive social cooperative economy in modern history.”
“…He also tells the inspiring story of the Argentine trading clubs—the trueques—which, when used with “provincial bonds” issued by regional governments, rescued that country during the 2001 economic collapse brought on by the collusion between the Argentine government and the International Monetary Fund…”
13 October 2009, 1:57 pmChristine:
Israel will not be dropping bombs on Iran anytime soon. Either acting on its own, or as a US-surrogate.
The cost of dropping bombs on Teheran or Bushehr would be astronomical, and they know it. (otherwise, they would have done it by now). These people seem to be in a panic-mode.
OK for the sake of argument, they decide to do a midnight carpet bombing of some nuclear facilities in Iran. Tirst of all, they would have to go in big; they will be triggering a chain reaction which will inflame the Middle East.
It would have to be a massive attack, since there would be a swift retaliation.
Here’s what would happen -
14 October 2009, 10:24 pm(1) Iran is ready. As the object of the incessant beating of the war drums for the past 5 years, they’ve made some contingency plans.
(2) The first thing they would do is to block the Straits of Hormuz. They would probably bomb the oil tankers which are travelling either in or out of the waterway. This would bring the world economy to its knees within 1 day. Oil would skyrocket to $1,000 per barrel, if any could be found.
(3) Iran would mobilize thousands of small boats to detonate the waterway. The small boats would have bombs on board. This is truly their “nuclear” option, far more powerful than any nukes.
(4) Russia would not allow Israel to do bomb; this is their trading partner. Also, there is a good possibility Russia is currently assisting the Iranians with nuclear technology.
(5) China will not allow it to happen, either. This is another trading partner.
(6) Check mate. The war mongers are blocked.
(7) Just be glad there is actually some multi-polarity in the world.
(8) Israel: just talk.
m.c.:
Have FS readers been keeping up with the Cameron Todd Willingham case in Texas with Gov. Perry’s meddling in the State Commission’s investigations/findings? Maybe the governor’s office could be labeled a hate group by the SPLC.
15 October 2009, 12:36 pmStan:
Please refrain from using phony names that are meant to deceive readers, ie, men posing as women… “Christine.”
The Wilingham case has hit the national news lately. I doubt it’s over.
16 October 2009, 4:54 amm.c.:
Someone on the Rachal Maddow Show said this week and I thought it worthy of sharing. I’m paraphrasing.
“The U.S. has Socialism for the Rich & Laissez-faire capitalism for everyone else.”
Somewhere else in a recent book review I believe, when I remember I’ll mention it again; J.M. Keynes before he died in the mid 1940′s, contemplated separating Micro & Macro Economics as destinctly different accademic fields. Microeconomics would continue to rely heavily upon statistics but macroeconomics would steer away from strong statistical analysis and use history and other social sciences more. I’m simplifying this author’s idea but that’s the gist of it.
17 October 2009, 12:22 pmmark:
I’ve been subscribing to the NYTimes for about a year now. Just the Fri,Sat,Sun editions. It has been very enlightening especially regarding national and international news. Compared to my local paper – well there’s no comparison. Although unabashedly pro Obama there is a constant bias in favor of the general thrust of state and corporate power. It reminds me of what Chomsky has said in regard to “official” propoganda. Much more sophisticated than CNN or Fox.
I would agree with what has been written earlier in this thread in regard to US-Israel vs. Iran. The chances of direct military confrontation via bombing or even invasion are very unlikely. Of course crazy things can happen. I would agree that the threat Iran poses is not nuclear. It is one of direct economic challenge to US/Israel hegemony in the region. The nuclear weapons issue is one of several tools for the US/Israel/Anglo faction to put pressure on Iran and attempt to check its rise as a regional power.
In this article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091021/ap_on_re_eu/eu_un_nuclear_iran
It appears that the Us/Israel/NATO challenge to Iran’s economic development has reached an interesting stage where Iran could demonstrate that its desire to develop a nuclear power infrastructure alone (not weapons) is true. It has to agree however, to send the uranium to Russia for enrichment. Does Stan have any thoughts on the implications of this recent development?
22 October 2009, 9:35 amm.c.:
In the U.K. there’s an old joke that the Daily Telegraph(Tory high-end rag) is read by the people who used to run the country; the Times(of London) & the Financial Times are read by the people who currently run the country; and the Guardian is read by the people who wished they ran the country. Keith Ruppert Murdoch bought the Times & what is the FT’s closest professional rivalon the other side of the water, the Wall St. Journal.
27 October 2009, 12:29 pmmark:
In my earlier post I linked up the article regarding the latest in the Iran vs. The West nuclear development issue. It appears Iran has declined the arrangement the US/Israel/Nato (I guess we’ll just call it “the West”) came up with. I figured that Iran would decline for a number of reasons. Chiefly because it can. Iran has made numerous bi-lateral and multi-lateral trade agreements with other large players in the world, China, India, Russia. Iran is hardly the “rogue” state the US media portrays, however odious its political system.
In addition, the US, with its economy a mess and its military bogged down in two wars has been losing its hegemony in the world steadily for the last decade. Everything Bush and now Obama has done to stem the tide has made things worse.
Also, it seemed to me rather insulting, the “ship your uranium to Russia cause we dont trust you” deal: needlessly adding major expense to the endeavor. It should be obvious to anyone paying attention that this is the essence of “the West” game plan. Just throw whatever monkey wrench you can find at Iran to limit their ability to be a major economic player. It’s an old game.
28 October 2009, 11:12 amm.c.:
I just finished Philip Agee’s autobiography. The subconscious lure of participation/association with EMPIRES & EMPIRE BUILDING is addictively and deceptively strong. Whether getting a good job working for the Howard Hughes Corp., the New York Times, cheering for the Yankees in the World Series(highest payroll in professional sports),the Dallas Cowboys(America’s team,or at least red-state America’s team), most people want to go with a solid-bet winner, the biggest team in town.
I’ve wondered about the status of returning Spanish Civil War Republican volunteers, many of whom were classified as “Premature Anti-Fascists” by Hoover’s outfit. Same Soviet allies but different wars!!! I’m sure Franco was staunchly anti-communist/Soviet & a potential reliable NATO partner(from 1982 on), hence no military action or economic sanctions/blockade against Hitler and Mussolini’s quieter back seat collaborator. At least he wasn’t flaky like De Gaulle, who started grumbling in 1958, but didn’t officially pull France out of OTAN[NATO in French] until 1966, not to mention withdrawing the French Army from Algeria in ’62.
p.s.- Looking back, I thought John Edwards was the best choice for VP in 2004. I voted for him in the ’04 Dem Primaries & he was my early first pick in ’08. Now I think Wesley Clark would have done slightly better in the single debate w/ Cheney and maybe help John Kerry win Ohio and fight the swiftboat charges. Who knows?
1 November 2009, 4:30 pmMy fear that Clark was a cat’s paw for the Clintons was probably wrong. Currently, Joe Biden and Ron Klain(Kevin Spacey in “Recount” are still question marks).
m.c.:
‘Recount’ is pretty good. One missing character is Roger Stone, longtime GOP hatchetman. Kind of a NYC-smooth version of Lee Atwater or Karl Rove. Supposedly Baker asked him to run ground operations in Florida, including the Brooks Bros. Riot. More recently he’ been rumored to have involvement with Eliot Spitzer’s call girl scandal.
3 November 2009, 12:50 pmm.c.:
Maybe some of the Regulars here could clarify this; I can’t seem to find anything on Wikipedia. During the 1989 or 1993 NYC Mayor’s Race between David Dinkins & Rudy Giuliani, didn’t several drunk off-duty cops stage a riot complaining that Dinkins was a bum for not paying overtime or something? A few cars were overturned or set ablaze? Rudy went on TV and gave newspaper interviews either not condemning their actions or actively supporting them. Forcasting the fate of former Detective 3rd grade(lowest rank) Bernie Kerik all these years later.
9 November 2009, 4:09 pmm.c.:
C-SPAN televised a day-long seminar yesterday by the Federalist Society in downtown D.C. For non-lawyers, these guys are the legal high priesthood; a substancial cross-section of the GOP/Establishment intelligentsia. Michael Mukasey gave one of the keynote speeches.
14 November 2009, 1:20 pmCurt Kastens:
@m.c.
15 November 2009, 6:24 amCan you give a 5 or ten sentence summary of this federalist society seminar?
m.c.:
I didn’t watch all day. Pro Big-Business Libertarianism + State Power(bad if for medicare/medicaid; buing public infrastructure, or some strong environmental laws) & (good if for Funding a Foreign War or taking away someones civil rights); I guess the Patriot Act isn’t powerful enough in some of their eyes. The federalist speakers are well educated and well heeled so they usually sound reasonable in public. How many Federalist Society Justices were on the U.S. Supreme Court that gave Bush the presidency in 2000?
15 November 2009, 4:15 pm