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Most Americans Believe Iran Is Building a Nuclear Weapon
March 23 | The Harris Poll
Wall Street Journal – A large majority of Americans believe Iran is using its uranium research program to build a nuclear weapon, according to a recent Harris Interactive poll.
About 85% of Americans say the U.S. “should be concerned” about Iran’s nuclear research activities, according to the telephone survey of 2,435 U.S. adults. And 70% say they think Iran is using its research to build a nuclear weapon, the poll shows, while another 25% say they aren’t sure.
Most Americans need to read Arms Control Wonk, to get the real picture. That’s what I think.
Security Council Fails To Reach Accord on Iran
Colum Lynch | United Nations | March 21
WaPo – The Security Council’s five permanent members and Germany failed to reach agreement at a meeting Monday on how to respond to the Iranian nuclear crisis but said they would forge ahead in the coming days to break the impasse.
The deadlock comes as U.S. and European officials confirmed that Britain had presented the United States with a paper outlining a possible diplomatic strategy to resolve the crisis, including new talks and concessions. But the British representative at Monday’s talks, John Sawers, said Britain had not made such a proposal at the meeting.
Rice: Iran ‘terror’s central bank’
Sydney | March 16
AP – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday urged Iran to resume negotiations over its nuclear program, while also calling the country a central banker for terrorism.
Rice was speaking after meeting her Australian counterpart Alexander Downer for talks that covered topics including Iraq, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Indonesia’s development and the recent nuclear deal between Washington and India.
Rice steps up rhetoric against ”˜troubled state’ Iran
Sundeep Tucker in Sydney and Andrew Yeh in Beijing | March 16
FT – Condoleezza Rice on Thursday raised the diplomatic temperature over the nuclear stand-off with Iran, accusing the country of lying about its activities and again calling it a ”œcentral banker to terrorism”.
The US secretary of state was speaking in Sydney at the start of a three-day official visit to Australia, which will include talks with Canberra and Japan over the vexed Iranian issue.
Iran ready for direct talks with US on Iraq
Gareth Smyth and Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran | March 16
FT – Ali Larijani, Iran’s top security official, said on Thursday that Iran was ready for direct talks with the US over the security situation in Iraq.
Mr Larijani was responding to Wednesday’s call for ”œdialogue” between Tehran and Washington from Abd al-Aziz Hakim, leader of Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution, in Iraq and a long-term ally of Tehran.
Iran’s secret talks with Iraqi militants spark fears of proxy war
Harry de Quetteville | 19 March
Telegraph – Iran held secret talks with Shia militant leaders from Iraq and Lebanon only days before the country’s nuclear negotiators threatened America with “harm and pain”, independent sources in Teheran have revealed.
The Iraqi firebrand cleric, Moqtadr al-Sadr and the chief of the armed Shia group Hizbollah in Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah, held separate consultations with leading officials in Teheran.
[more at link]
“We declared war on terror, it’s not even a noun, so, good luck. After we defeat it, I’m sure we’ll take on that bastard ennui.” – Jon Stewart.
Some U.S. Officials Fear Iran Is Helping Al Qaeda
They say intelligence suggests that the regime lets key figures plot. But the picture is cloudy.
By Josh Meyer, LA Times Staff Writer
March 21, 2006
WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence officials, already focused on Iran’s potential for building nuclear weapons, are struggling to solve a more immediate mystery: the murky relationship between the new Tehran leadership and the contingent of Al Qaeda leaders residing in the country.
Some officials, citing evidence from highly classified satellite feeds and electronic eavesdropping, believe the Iranian regime is playing host to much of Al Qaeda’s remaining brain trust and allowing the senior operatives freedom to communicate and help plan the terrorist network’s operations.
And they suggest that recently elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may be forging an alliance with Al Qaeda operatives as a way to expand Iran’s influence or, at a minimum, that he is looking the other way as Al Qaeda leaders in his country collaborate with their counterparts elsewhere.
“Iran is becoming more and more radicalized and more willing to turn a blind eye to the Al Qaeda presence there,” a U.S. counter-terrorism official said.
…is here.
“We declared war on terror, it’s not even a noun, so, good luck. After we defeat it, I’m sure we’ll take on that bastard ennui.” – Jon Stewart.
eom
- the WMD’s
- the crazy ruler
- the Al Q linkage
- and cojones the size of Texas!
LET’S GO GIT THEM AY-RABS!
…at one point or another.
On a somewhat related topic, I’m in the process of re-reading Bob Baer’s memoir See No Evil and was struck by his assertion that there was significant contact between the Pasdaran and the PFLP-GC in the aftermath of the Vincennes shootdown, during the runup to Lockerbie. This struck me as interesting, given the latest piece out of Asharq al-Awsat assesses linkages between the guys in Lebanon identifying themselves as al-Qa’eda and PFLP-GC – they assert that this has a Syrian driver, but it makes me wonder. Paper damned thin, but it’s one of those things that makes my gut tingle.
“We declared war on terror, it’s not even a noun, so, good luck. After we defeat it, I’m sure we’ll take on that bastard ennui.” – Jon Stewart.
I thought that they had buried the whole idea in Security Council of giving to the USA right to attack Iran after Iran told them like kids that they will use the oil weapon.
Russia and China oppose sanctions,
I don’t know about Russia but China buys oil from Iran.
– Let your prophets run and sell the suckers!
Have we learned nothing from the WMD debacle? Where are the tough questions for this admin about their belief in Iran nukes? Where is the new emboldened press? And why don’t Americans put their new-found skepticism of Bushie to good use?
US said to be urging Japan to halt Iranian oil development
By :
Date : 23 March 2006 1350 hrs (SST)
URL : http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/199376/1/.html
TOKYO : Senior US officials have urged Japan to halt development of a massive oil field with Iran amid concern that revenue from the project could fuel the Islamic state’s nuclear drive, a report said.
Washington had asked its close ally, which is heavily reliant on Middle Eastern oil, at least to halt the two-billion-dollar Azadegan project, the Sankei Shimbun said, quoting anonymous sources close to the US government.
The demands were made informally by US officials including Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick and Undersecretary of State for Arms Control Robert Joseph, the conservative daily said.
The US embassy told AFP Japan was aware of US opposition to investment in Iran but declined to comment on whether Washington has pressured Tokyo to stop the Azadegan project.
“We have discussed our views on this and related matters and Japan knows our position on this matter,” a US embassy spokesman said.
But a Japanese foreign ministry spokeswoman said Japan “is holding no concrete talks with the United States” on the future of the project.
“The Azadegan oil development is a very important project for us in terms of stable energy supply. We will cope with the matter squarely as nuclear non-proliferation and stable supply of crude oil are both important,” she said.
Japan has walked a tightrope on the Iranian crisis, supporting US and European calls for Tehran to give up its nuclear program while trying not to jeopardize its close commercial ties with the Islamic regime.
Japan defied the United States in 2004 by signing the contract to develop Azadegan, considered one of the world’s biggest untapped oil reserves.
bit more
Halliburton wins Iran gas contract despite sanctions
U.S. firm seals deal through subsidiary company
Tender for drilling South Pars phases 9 and 10 is worth some $310 million
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
TEHRAN: Iran said Monday that U.S. oil giant Halliburton had won a major contract to drill for gas, despite U.S. sanctions against foreign investment in the country’s energy industry. “Halliburton and Oriental Kish [an Iranian company] are the final winners of the tender for drilling South Pars phases 9 and 10,” Pars Oil and Gas Company managing director Akbar Torkan said, according to state television. An unidentified Pars company board member said the deal for the gas fields in the Gulf off the south coast of Iran was worth about $310 million. He said Halliburton had not directly signed the contract but that it had offered its services via Oriental Kish. Under a law introduced in 1996, the United States threatens sanctions on both American and foreign companies investing more than $40 million in Iran’s petroleum industry. Halliburton, once chaired by US Vice President Dick Cheney, has come under investigation in the United States for its dealings with Iran through a Cayman Islands subsidiary…
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=3&article_id=11695
Halliburton Sold Iranian Oil Company Key Nuclear Reactor Components, Sources Say
2005/8/6 13:25:28
By Jason Leopold
….Nasseri was interrogated by Iranian authorities in late July for allegedly providing Halliburton with Iran’s nuclear secrets and accepting as much as $1 million in bribes from Halliburton, Iranian government officials said. During the first round of interrogations in the judiciary, a huge network of oil mafia has been exposed, according to the IPS report.
It’s unclear whether Halliburton was privy to information regarding Iran’s nuclear activites. Halliburton sources said the company sold centrifuges and detonators to be used specifically for a nuclear reactor and oil and natural gas drilling parts for well projects to Oriental Oil Kish…
http://agonist.org/story/2005/8/11/8134/52915
…Halliburton sold centrifuges is incorrect, at least if they’re meaning centrifuges for the uranium enrichment as opposed to some other purpose – just doesn’t seem consistent with what the company does. Some sort of component that would have a role in the initiation chain for a nuclear device, that I can believe – it is consistent with what the company’s done previously (and been convicted of), but it’ll also mean wading into the dual use swamp…
On a related note, if I had a buck for every time I’ve seen some vastly different component referred to as a “detonator” for a nuclear weapon, I’d have enough for a pretty good lunch.
“We declared war on terror, it’s not even a noun, so, good luck. After we defeat it, I’m sure we’ll take on that bastard ennui.” – Jon Stewart.
Point being that it becomes more difficult for the US to pressure other nations effectively on trade with [insert current boogeyman here] when the Vice President’s old company doesn’t seem to have any ethical concerns about it.
…seems to be related only to Halliburton, or even the oil business. Every time I re-read Bob Baer’s biography my head damned near explodes, again. Doesn’t much seem to matter what administration or industry’s involved, big thing’s just the size of the cash pile – S2D2.
“We declared war on terror, it’s not even a noun, so, good luck. After we defeat it, I’m sure we’ll take on that bastard ennui.” – Jon Stewart.
Tehran reportedly is gearing up for uranium enrichment. A split in the Security Council may impede efforts to halt the program.
By Alissa J. Rubin and Maggie Farley, LA Times Staff Writers
March 25, 2006
VIENNA — With efforts to halt its nuclear program at an impasse, Iran is moving faster than expected and is just days from making the first steps toward enriching uranium, said diplomats who have been briefed on the program.
If engineers encounter no major technical problems, Iran could manufacture enough highly enriched uranium to build a bomb within three years, much more quickly than the common estimate of five to 10 years, the diplomats said.
Iran insists that it is interested only in producing electricity, which requires low-grade enrichment of uranium.
New information about Iran’s program came from diplomats representing countries on the United Nations Security Council. They were briefed by senior staff of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which maintains monitors in Iran. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because the briefing was private.
Even as Iran apparently moves forward, diplomatic efforts to persuade it to halt its nuclear work appeared to be faltering in the face of distrust among powerful Security Council members and disagreements over the best strategy.
“We’re getting conflicting signals from the United States; it now appears they want to escalate the situation,” said a senior diplomat in Vienna. “The Russians see that as a slippery slope.”
March 25, 2006
By REUTERS
Filed at 6:27 a.m. ET
TEHRAN (Reuters) – An earthquake of magnitude 6.0 and a series of aftershocks struck the southern Iranian province of Hormuzgan on Saturday, causing minor damage, officials said.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
“The earthquake, with a magnitude of 6.0, was centered near the rural area of Fin in Hormuzgan province,” Farhad Jabari, head of Hormuzgan’s Red Crescent rescue service told Reuters.
Before leaving for the quake-hit area, Jabari said by telephone he did not think the first quake at 10.58 a.m. (0728 GMT) had done much damage but feared a third aftershock at about 1.30 p.m. (1000 GMT) gave more grounds for concern.
The official IRNA news agency said two early aftershocks had measured 3.8 and 4.8. Jabari said the third aftershock had felt stronger than the original quake.
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