Breakthrough with North Korea?

[GePap]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
I read lots of things.

Next step is being able to understand them.

BUt nice to see you have started down that path

[Drake Tungsten]

Next step is being able to understand them.

Hopefully we can take that step together, buddy.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

Next step is being able to understand them.

Hopefully we can take that step together, buddy.

Oh, I am sure everyone else can just feel the love.

[Drake Tungsten]

We may have an answer to my question...

North Korea is helping Iran to prepare an underground nuclear test similar to the one Pyongyang carried out last year.

Under the terms of a new understanding between the two countries, the North Koreans have agreed to share all the data and information they received from their successful test last October with Teheran's nuclear scientists.

North Korea provoked an international outcry when it successfully fired a bomb at a secret underground location and Western intelligence officials are convinced that Iran is working on its own weapons programme.

A senior European defence official told The Daily Telegraph that North Korea had invited a team of Iranian nuclear scientists to study the results of last October's underground test to assist Teheran's preparations to conduct its own — possibly by the end of this year.

There were unconfirmed reports at the time of the Korean firing that an Iranian team was present. Iranian military advisers regularly visit North Korea to participate in missile tests.

Now the long-standing military co-operation between the countries has been extended to nuclear issues.

As a result, senior western military officials are deeply concerned that the North Koreans' technical superiority will allow the Iranians to accelerate development of their own nuclear weapon.

"The Iranians are working closely with the North Koreans to study the results of last year's North Korean nuclear bomb test," said the European defence official.

"We have identified increased activity at all of Iran's nuclear facilities since the turn of the year," he said.

"All the indications are that the Iranians are working hard to prepare for their own underground nuclear test."

The disclosure of the nuclear co-operation between North Korea and Iran comes as Teheran seems set on a collision course with the West over its nuclear programme, although it insists it is entirely peaceful.

Both countries were named in President George W Bush's famous "axis of evil" State of the Union speech in 2002.

The United Nations Security Council has unanimously authorised the imposition of "smart" sanctions against Iran.

This is because of its refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment programme, which most Western intelligence agencies believe is part of a clandestine nuclear weapons programme.

France expressed concern yesterday over an Iranian decision to bar 38 UN nuclear inspectors from Iran, claiming that Teheran appeared to be singling out westerners from the inspection team.

Intelligence estimates vary about how long it could take Teheran to produce a nuclear warhead. But defence officials monitoring the growing co-operation between North Korea and Iran believe the Iranians could be in a position to test fire a low-grade device — less than half a kiloton — within 12 months.

The precise location of the Iranian test site is unknown, but is likely to be located in a mountainous region where it is difficult for spy satellites to pick up any unusual activity.

Teheran successfully concealed the existence of several key nuclear sites — including the controversial Natanz uranium enrichment complex — until their locations were disclosed by Iranian dissidents three years ago.

Western intelligence agencies have reported an increase in the number of North Korean and Iranian scientists travelling between the two countries.

The increased co-operation on nuclear issues began last November when a team of Iranian nuclear scientists met their North Korean counterparts to study the technical and political implications of Pyongyang's nuclear test.

The Iranians are reported to have been encouraged by the fact that no punitive action was taken against North Korea, despite the international outcry that greeted the underground firing.

This has persuaded the Iranian regime to press ahead with its own nuclear programme with the aim of testing a low-grade device, which would be difficult for international inspectors to detect.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=Q3ZRUQZQTLKJTQFIQMGSFFWAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2007/01/24/wiran24.xml

It's the Telegraph, so you should probably take the more outlandish claims with a grain of salt. Still, this seems like a plausible outcome of the Iranian-North Korean meeting last week. Certainly more plausible than North Korea and Iran suddenly deciding to give in to weak Western pressure on their nuclear weapons programs...

[DanS]

Indeed, I would take it with a grain of salt. If it were a US paper quoting US intelligence officials, then I would put more weight in it, if only because the US intelligence community is allowed to lie to the US media only indirectly.

[Drake Tungsten]

If it were a US paper quoting US intelligence officials, then I would put more weight in it

I don't know if I would. The US intelligence community seems just as incompetent as their European counterparts and they have a reason to imagine the worst about Iran.

[Drake Tungsten]

Troops Authorized to Kill Iranian Operatives in Iraq

The Bush administration has authorized the U.S. military to kill or capture Iranian operatives inside Iraq as part of an aggressive new strategy to weaken Tehran's influence across the Middle East and compel it to give up its nuclear program, according to government and counterterrorism officials with direct knowledge of the effort.

For more than a year, U.S. forces in Iraq have secretly detained dozens of suspected Iranian agents, holding them for three to four days at a time. The "catch and release" policy was designed to avoid escalating tensions with Iran and yet intimidate its emissaries. U.S. forces collected DNA samples from some of the Iranians without their knowledge, subjected others to retina scans, and fingerprinted and photographed all of them before letting them go.

Last summer, however, senior administration officials decided that a more confrontational approach was necessary, as Iran's regional influence grew and U.S. efforts to isolate Tehran appeared to be failing. The country's nuclear work was advancing, U.S. allies were resisting robust sanctions against the Tehran government, and Iran was aggravating sectarian violence in Iraq.

"There were no costs for the Iranians," said one senior administration official. "They are hurting our mission in Iraq, and we were bending over backwards not to fight back."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/25/AR2007012502199_pf.html

A welcome change in strategy, but way too late. We should have started playing hardball with the Iranians in Iraq a long time ago...

[Kuciwalker]

They weren't authorized to beforehand? Jeez.

[Drake Tungsten]

Just another in a long line of incompetent strategic decisions...

[Drake Tungsten]

Man, this is not the kind of **** I want to hear...

LONDON (AP) — Iran is two to three years away from having the capacity to build a nuclear weapon, a leading security think tank said Wednesday.
But the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies said domestic opposition to outspoken President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could still help put the brakes on its nuclear development efforts.

"There are signs that political and economic pressure is having an impact in Tehran," said John Chipman, the institute's chief executive, speaking at the launch of the its annual publication, The Military Balance.

Although Chipman said Iran could be as little as two years away from a bomb, other authorities say it could take Tehran significantly longer to reach that point.

Both John Negroponte, the head of national intelligence for the U.S., and Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, have said Iran is perhaps four years from the capacity to produce a nuclear weapon.

While Iran could conceivably build a bomb in two years, a three-year time frame was more likely, said Mark Fitzpatrick, a non-proliferation expert at the institute. He said estimates floated by U.S. intelligence were conservative — a likely result of its chastening experience in Iraq.

"The CIA is being extra cautious these days," he said.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-01-31-iran_x.htm?csp=34

[TCO]

I say we stop paying. Blackmail lessens us. Pull the troops out of SK. SK is rich and able to make it's own decisions. We are not the policeman of the world. Let's stop getting maneuvered into taking care of enerything. Let a little **** happen.

[TCO]

v

A welcome change in strategy, but way too late. We should have started playing hardball with the Iranians in Iraq a long time ago...

Here's a sneaky idea. Pay the Kurds to start stirring **** up in neighboring countries (secretly) instead of discouraging them from adventuring. You know, you **** my sister, I **** your mother.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Funny I heard that plan actually being talked about. A cease and desist threat to Iran to stop formenting problems in Iraq else covert operations in ernest against Iran (who has more than enough internal issues of their own).

[TCO]

Don't tell them. Just do it. We've done way too much talking and not enough ****ing. Need to change people's thinking on us. THey should think about, maybe we will put a shiv in their back with no warning...

[Lancer]

TCO, I think...I think I luv you.