The leaders of IRAN: are they as crazy as it seems nowadays?

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove

Actually the Pakistanis got most of their help from the west. I don't recall his name, but a Pakistani scientist residing in Europe managed to get himself employed in positions where he had access to critical information needed to make atomic weapons. He returned to Pakistan with the data and Pakistan soom had its own bomb.

Which was built exactly to the same specifications as a Chinese design. Coincidence?

Are you thinking of Khan? He takes a lot of credit that doesn't rightfully belong to him, and in exchange the government blames him for a lot of stuff that doesn't rightfully belong to him. Right now he's being held in luxurious detention for his "crimes" which are largely supplying N. Korea with designs and machinery (at least). It's very hard to believe that the government of Pakistan was in the dark about it, as they received money and missle technology in exchange.

[VetLegion]

BTW., doesn anyone know where has Israel tested their nuclear weaponry, given the small size of its territory?

[Colonâ„¢]

They haven't, or relied on the info of other country's tests?

[Dinner]

Originally posted by lord of the mark

So they think that IF Israel had a govt in position to do such a thing then Israel WOULD attack on the restart of enrichment, but WOULDNT attack a few weeks after enrichement had begun? I guess I dont understand that, unless they think they will have a bomb before the Israeli election - and are willing to risk Olmert attacking before the election.

Supposedly the Iranians learned from Saddam's mistake of only having one nuclear facility (which was easily bombed) so they've spread out their nuclear facilities all over the country so that it is much more difficult to knock out the whole program. They've also buried many of the facilities deep underground so that even bunker busters might not be able to reach them.

I doubt nothing short of a Gulf War 1 style extended bombing campaign could end their nuclear ambitions and that's not going to happen. The most realistic choice is extended sanctions which hurt the economy for so long that new leadership comes in and decides to trade the nukes for an end to the isolation. Even so Iran's only meaningful export is oil and that's not something the industrialized countries can easily just say they don't want.

[Proteus_MST]

Originally posted by Colon
They haven't, or relied on the info of other country's tests?

Or maybe they performed them in other countries, for example the USA (AFAIK GB did the same, using test sites in australia and USA for their own tests)

[germanos]

Originally posted by VetLegion
BTW., doesn anyone know where has Israel tested their nuclear weaponry, given the small size of its territory?

Supposedly they tested in South-Africa.

S-A is the only country so far to have given up their nukes
(well, there were some former soviet republics as well)

[Colonâ„¢]

Originally posted by Proteus_MST


Or maybe they performed them in other countries, for example the USA (AFAIK GB did the same, using test sites in australia and USA for their own tests)

I didn't think the US have been too happy about Israel's nuke programme.

[Whoha]

Originally posted by VetLegion
BTW., doesn anyone know where has Israel tested their nuclear weaponry, given the small size of its territory?

they supposedly worked with the South Africans to build the bomb, and there were 1 or 2 "unexplained" nuclear blasts in the pacific.

[Vince278]

Originally posted by Whoha
they supposedly worked with the South Africans to build the bomb, and there were 1 or 2 "unexplained" nuclear blasts in the pacific.

I remember hearing about two in the late 70's. One was in the South Atlantic and was presumed to be South Africa. The other was near New Caledonia and presumed to be France.

Its possible the Israeli nukes weren't tested. You really don't need to test to know it will work or the size of the boom. A test may be reassuring, and can serve as a demonstration of power, but the big powers have gotten by just fine after the test ban.