Iran has no nuke program, U.S. intel says

[Theben]

Originally posted by uberloz

Holy smoke! Is that from a NY Times poll?

No, an NIE report.

[Lorizael]

Originally posted by Lorizael
Did you know that all Iranian persons want Israel to be wiped off the map?

Also, all American persons love Bush and fully support continued, indefinite occupation of Iraq!

[Spec]

Originally posted by Lorizael


Also, all American persons love Bush and fully support continued, indefinite occupation of Iraq!

QFT!

Spec.

[Sirotnikov]

Originally posted by MOBIUS
How many countries has the Iranian military brazenly attacked in the same manner as the Israelis for example. Over any period: Last 5 years, last 10, last 25, last 50?

Let's talk casualties instead.
How many were killed in all of the Israeli-Arab wars? Probably around 70,000 people, including Israelis.

How many were killed in wars in which Iran participated? About a cool 1,000,000 no?

Given Israel's aggressive tendencies - including threatening to attack Iran, might we not think that it is the Israelis who would be more likely to actually use nukes?

It gets interesting around 5mins

BTW Siro, have you guys finished persecuting poor old Mordechai Vanunu yet?

Oh Moby, you know our hands are full. But I bet we could find an agent or two to persecute you

Don't date blond women anytime soon

[Sandman]

Now would be a good time for Iran and the US to exchange ambassadors.

[uberloz]

Originally posted by Sandman
Now would be a good time for Iran and the US to exchange ambassadors.

That's a great idea!

Wal-Mart has this great exchange policy where you don't even need your receipt!

Maybe we can exchange them for something good this time!

[Sirotnikov]

To be honest, all these conflicting "intelligence" reports year after year have proven one thing to me...intelligence agencies suck at gathering intelligence!

actually they are good at that

they suck at analyzing intelligence

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Sirotnikov

If teh Nazis ever come to power again, Iran will pwn them

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Sandman
Now would be a good time for Iran and the US to exchange ambassadors.

Why?

[Sandman]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
Why?

Why not? It's normal.

[Wezil]

Originally posted by Sandman
Now would be a good time for Iran and the US to exchange ambassadors.

Canada and Iran have been trying unsuccessfully to do this. We won't accept their nominations and they kicked our ambassador out.

[PLATO]

It is good to know that Bush's policy of constant pressure has been successful in limiting Iranian Nuclear Weapons persuits. This report details with "high confidence" that a nuclear weapons program was something Iran was working on. That, along with the Iranian government's threats to "wipe Israel from the face of the Earth", continued Iranian attempts to enrich fissile material, and Iranian government support of terrorist organizations should be cause for great pause among all the nations of the world.

Fortunately, the heavy pressure that has been applied seems to have had some positive effects. Kudos to the Bush policy in this regard...certainly anyone with any reasonableness will see this as a great success.

Hopefully this sucess will not now cause some to wish for relaxation of the pressure that is clearly yielding results. That would definately seem counter productive at this point.

If the Iranians would stop their support of terrorism, acknowledge Israel's right to exist, and open all theiur nuclear facilities to the IAEA then it might be time to reign in the pressure and exchange ambassadors. Until then, I say keep going with what is clearly working.

[uberloz]

Originally posted by PLATO
It is good to know that Bush's policy of constant pressure has been successful in limiting Iranian Nuclear Weapons persuits. This report details with "high confidence" that a nuclear weapons program was something Iran was working on.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only person here thinking along similar lines.

Iran ceasing to seek a nuclear weapon seems to coincide very closely with the fall of Saddam.

Is it too much of a stretch to attribute that stoppage to the very real threat posed to Iran by the U.S. troops across their border in Iraq?

Ahmadinijhad talks a lot of **** right now because he believes America is quagmired in Iraq ( I believe otherwise, but that's for a different thread ), he wasn't talking this much **** in 2003.

I can't continue to criticize ( I was going to say "our" intelligence agencies but I really should say every intelligence agency ) enough!

It seem to me that they are changing their intelligence reports constantly as a way to cover all the bases.

Now if someone say, "Why didn't you warn us about problem X?" They can say , "We did warn you in 200x?" and their answer to earlier or later contradictary reports will inevitably be, "Oh we learned 'X' factor since then."

They are trying to have it both ways and that's just bs! How is any President; now or future; supposed to take these butt holes seriously when they can't do their jobs!

They are a bunch of incompetent hypocrits that are ultimately responsible for all the war rhetoric about Iraq from the Democrats in the 1990's and leading up to; and into; the Bush administrations decision to go to war in 2003.

They should all be replaced.

sorry about the rant, I feel better now.

[Ramo]

All in all it changes little.

And if anything, it only increases the need for international pressure and sanctions (which the report says are working), because it's not hopeless and a confrontation is very much avoidable.

Yes. Economic sanctions are effective. Reasonable people already agree with this sort of policy. Because Iran does not constitute an imminent nuclear threat. The people who want to bomb Iran are crazy. They are totally disconnected from reality, and have been ignoring all evidence to the contrary (note, for instance, that the the NIE was written a year ago, and was only just declassified). It's also worth pointing out that the IAEA has been saying much the same thing as the NIE regarding Iran's nuclear ambitions for years, but they seem to be instantly dismissed and ignored by the establishment (and not in small part because its head is an Arab).

It is pretty amusing how the right's opinion on world events work. Iran being on the verge of creating nukes - that vindicates Bush; Iran's nuclear program primarily focusing on civilian uses - that vindicates Bush. It's amazing how that's supposed to work.

Let's get in our way-back machine and see what was going on at the time. '97 - Khatami is elected President, the world rejoices, diplomacy with Iran tarts to look up. 9/11 - Iran has common enemies with us in the Taleban and provide heavy support to the Karzai gov't (to this day, Karzai considers Iran a strong ally). Invasion of Iraq - we take out Iran's primarily enemy in the region, and put a bunch of Iranian clients in power. Contemporaneously with these good vibes, Iran suspends its nuclear weapons program because the regime isn't viable with the economic sanctions against it and sends out an offer for a comprehensive peace through the Swiss where everything would be on the table (Hezbollah, Hamas, nukes, Iraq, etc., etc.). We dismiss it out of hand (according to Powell's Chief of Staff, Powell could only trust Cheney with going with one peace effort - and he deemed NK to be the more important one). This helps to kill the reformist agenda, and allows hardliners to consolidate power (i.e. the election of Ahmedinejad). In the following three years, the Admin hypes Iran's nuclear threat, and tries to tactically bomb suspected sites. This was narrowly averted (according to folks like Hersh) by all the Generals in the Pentagon telling them that it was a really, really dumb thing to do. Undeterred, the Admin tries to get broader support for such an operation. The Intel community tells the Admin that the IAEA was right, and that their policy is really dumb. Still undeterred, the Admin and its allies press on in selling a military confrontation (and during the British navy crisis, it was Blair's turn to narrowly avert it).

[Cort Haus]

diplomacy with Iran tarts to look up

Iranian tarts