Wednesday, January 25, 2012

1/25/2012 Contrary to Widespread Claims, There Is NO EVIDENCE that Iran Is Building a Nuclear Weapon

Source: Washington's Blog
Date: 1/25/2012

Iran Is NOT Building a Nuclear Bomb

Earlier this month, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said:
Are they [the Iranians] trying to develop a nuclear weapon? No. But we know that they’re trying to develop a nuclear capability. And that’s what concerns us.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper confirmed in a Senate hearing – following the release of the classified National Intelligence Estimate in 2011 – that he has a “high level of confidence” that Iran “has not made a decision as of this point to restart its nuclear weapons program.”
Mohamed ElBaradei – who spent more than a decade as the director of the IAEA – said that he had not “seen a shred of evidence” that Iran was pursuing the bomb.
Six former ambassadors to Iran within the last decade say that there is no evidence that Iran is building nuclear weapons, and that Iran is complying with international law.
The International Atomic Energy Agency states:
All nuclear material in the facility remains under the Agency’s containment and surveillance.
In other words, all nuclear fuel is accounted for and is being controlled and monitored by the international agency tasked with nuclear non-proliferation.
What about Iran’s enriching uranium to 20%? The IAEA considers 20 percent enriched uranium to be low-enriched uranium and “a fully adequate isotopic barrier” to weaponization. In other words, 20% is well within the legal guidelines for developing a program of nuclear energy.

Indeed, under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran is acting in a wholly legal fashion. As the six former ambassadors cited above note:
In terms of international law, the position of Europe and the United States may be less assured than is generally believed.
***
Most experts, even in Israel, view Iran as striving to become a “threshold country”, technically able to produce a nuclear weapon but abstaining from doing so for now. Again, nothing in international law forbids this ambition. Several other countries are close to, or have already reached, such a threshold, with a commitment not to acquire nuclear weapons. Nobody seems to bother them.
Nuclear physicist Yousaf Butt – former fellow in the Committee on International Security and Arms Control at the National Academy of Sciences, scientific consultant for the Federation of American Scientists, and frequent contributor to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists – points out:
Iran is not doing anything that violates its legal right to develop nuclear technology. Under the NPT, it is not illegal for a member state to have a nuclear weapons capability — or a “nuclear option.” If a nation has a fully developed civilian nuclear sector — which the NPT actually encourages — it, by default, already has a fairly solid nuclear weapons capability. For example, like Iran, Argentina, Brazil, and Japan also maintain a “nuclear option” — they, too, could break out of the NPT and make a nuclear device in a few months, if not less. And like Iran, Argentina and Brazil also do not permit full “Additional Protocol” IAEA inspections.
The real legal red line, specified in the IAEA’s “Comprehensive Safeguards Agreements,” is the diversion of nuclear materials to a weapons program. However, multiple experts and official reports have affirmed over the years that they have no evidence that any such program exists.
But didn’t the latest IAEA report say that Iran was trying to build a bomb?
Not really. The latest IAEA report states that Iran’s research program into nuclear weapons:
Was stopped rather abruptly pursuant to a ‘halt order’ instruction issued in late 2003.
While there are some allegations about documents found on a laptop, those documents apparently came from a terrorist group with zero credibility.
In any event, the current accusations against Iran by hawks pushing for an attack cannot be taken in a vacuum:
  • The people pushing for war against Iran are the same neocons who pushed for war against Iraq based on false statements that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. See this, this and this
  • The U.S. has been claiming for more than 30 years that Iran was on the verge of nuclear capability (and the U.S. apparently helped fund the Iranian nuclear program)
  • The CIA admits that it hired Iranians in the 1950′s to pose as Communists and stage bombings in Iran in order to turn the country against its democratically-elected prime minister
  • Pulitzer-prize winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh says that the Bush administration (and especially Dick Cheney) helped to fund terrorist groups within Iran (see confirming articles here and here)
  • The New York Times, Washington Post and others are reporting, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, former national security adviser Fran Townsend and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey – who all said that the terrorists were going to get us if we didn’t jettison the liberties granted under the Bill of Rights – are now supporting terrorists in Iran
  • The war against Iran has already begun. See this, this and this

But Didn’t Iran Threaten to Wipe Israel Off the Map?

It has been widely report that Iran’s president threatened to “wipe Israel off the map”. However, numerous experts in Iranian language and culture say that this was a mistranslation.
I speak no Farsi, know nothing about Iranian culture or idioms, and don’t like Iran’s president or hardline Mullahs. So I can’t weigh in one way or the other.
However, Iran has not attacked another country in hundreds of years. (In the Iran-Iraq war, Iraq was the initial aggressor.) As such, it is unlikely to start one now.

There’s a Simple Solution to the Escalating Tensions

There is a simple solution to the escalating rumors of war. Specifically, a fuel swap would end the tensions. As Butt writes:
[A commentator] proposes a fuel swap to resolve the nuclear standoff: Iran would curtail its enrichment in exchange for foreign-supplied 20 percent enriched uranium fuel plates for its research reactor. In fact, in 2010, just such a deal was brokered by Turkey and Brazil but the United States could not take “yes” for an answer. Though Iran has just accepted an offer of new talks brokered by Turkey, new sanctions passed by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama have made it even more unlikely that the two sides can reach an agreement.

Even If Iran Were Trying to Build a Bomb, An Attack Would Only Accelerate the Process

Even if Iran were trying to build a bomb, American military and intelligence chiefs say that attacking Iran would only speed up its development of nuclear weapons, empower its hardliners, and undermine the chance for democratic reform.

No comments:

Post a Comment

ShareThis

Radiation News Archive

Older Radiation News

DateSourceHeadline
4/29/2011Japan TimesTepco, and state, responsible: Kan No player exempt from nuclear crisis redress burden, as government promoted atomic power
4/29/2011Japan TimesTohoku bullet trains fully resume
4/29/201109:15 -0400Zero HedgeTEPCO Releases Video Of Spent Fuel Rod Pool At Reactor 4
4/29/2011 06:59AM JSTJapan TodayMitsubishi Heavy develops forklift with radiation-proof cabin
4/29/2011 06:14AM JSTJapan TodayJapan to launch nuclear accident investigation panel in mid-May: Kan
4/28/2011Truth Frequency NewsUS Government Takes Down HAARP Website to Conceal Evidence of US Weather Modification and Earthquake Inducing Warfare
4/28/2011Russia TodayVIDEO: Fukushima - gross miscarriage of radiation science
4/28/2011EX-SKF Blog#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: A Rare Ground-Level Video Footage
4/28/2011IAEA.orgFukushima Nuclear Accident Update Log
4/28/2011NIKKEI.comJapan Nuclear Operator Postpones Plan To Flood Reactor Vessel
4/28/2011EX-SKF BlogChubu Electric Wants to Restart Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant in July
4/28/2011Washington's BlogStorms Knock Out 3 Nuclear Reactors in Alabama ... No Leak, But a Reminder of Nuclear Vulnerability
4/28/2011Kyodo NewsFOCUS: Chinese journalists change image of Japan after covering March disaster
4/28/2011 11:33AM EDTReutersJapanese to mark long holiday with volunteer work, not travel
4/28/2011The Japan TimesTepco woman took three times radiation limit
4/28/2011The Japan TimesFukushima city removing schools' topsoil
4/27/2011 03:50 PM JSTJapan TodayBig tank may be put under nuclear plant to store tainted water
4/27/2011Prisonplanet.comEyewitness in Illinois Reports High Radiation Levels on Forsythia Bush
4/26/2011Fairewinds AssociatesVIDEO: Gundersen Postulates Unit 3 Explosion May Have Been Prompt Criticality in Fuel Pool
4/26/2011EX-SKF Blog#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Contamination Map (Survey Map) by TEPCO
4/26/2011EX-SKF Blog#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool May Be Leaking
4/26/2011Washington's BlogIs a Rogue Computer Virus Shutting Down Nuclear Plants Worldwide?
4/25/2011Washington's BlogSomething Odd Is Happening at Reactor Number 4
4/24/2011 03:20 PM JSTJapan TodayVets to enter evacuation zone to deal with abandoned animals
4/24/2011 02:21 PM JSTJapan TodayGov't to launch massive 2-day search for quake bodies
4/24/2011 06:20 AM JSTJapan TodayWorkers locked in battle at nuclear plant; exposure to radiation rising
4/23/2011Japan TodayIs U.S. military relief effort Operation Tomodachi really about friendship?
4/23/2011ReutersChina, S. Korea rebuff Japan on import restrictions after quake
4/23/2011Lewis Whitefield HixsonHi-res photographic proof reactor core exploded at unit 3
4/23/2011Propheticseer.comVIDEO: Radioactive America! What the Mainstream media is NOT TELLING YOU!
4/23/2011EX-SKF Blog#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: "Radiation Contamination Map" of the Plant Exists, But TEPCO Hasn't Released It to Public
4/23/2011EX-SKF Blog#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Control Over the Independent Press Getting Tighter
4/23/2011EX-SKF Blog#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Unintended "Water Entombment" of Reactor 1
4/22/2011ReutersJapan earmarks first $50 billion for post-quake rebuild
4/22/2011PressTVJapan's radiation 20,000 times limit
4/22/2011Next Big FutureChina’s nuclear plans could resume by August
4/22/2011 10:06 AM JSTJapan TodayGov't seals off no-go zone around nuclear plant
4/22/2011 07:00 AM JSTJapan TodayAomori business groups ask TEPCO, others to resume building nuclear plants
4/21/2011BloombergTepco to Build Wall for Nuclear Plant After Fukushima Disaster
4/21/2011BloombergTepco Must End ‘Whack-a-Mole,’ Cover Fukushima Reactors as Typhoons Loom
4/21/2011Lucas Whitefield HixsonEPA RADnet Reports Show Plutonium in US since March 18th
4/21/2011The Intel HubDr. Steven Wing And Arnie Gundersen Discuss Global Radiation Exposure and Consequences
4/21/2011Alexander Higgins BlogJapan Nuclear Radiation Detected In Drinking Water In 20 US Cities
4/21/2011Scientific AmericanThe Japan nuclear crisis at Fukushima: A video summary
4/21/2011Wired ScienceOp-Ed: Psychiatric Disorder Could Complicate Japan Quake Recovery
4/21/2011Washington's Blog"The Risk of a Nuclear Catastrophe ... Could Total Trillions of Dollars and Even BANKRUPT A COUNTRY"
4/21/2011The Japan TimesKan to make 20-km no-entry zone binding Holdout households face ouster; some evacuees may get short visits
4/21/2011Japan TodayCo-op sells banned spinach to consumers in eastern Japan
4/21/2011The Japan TimesCarrier returns to Yokosuka as concerns ease
4/21/2011Japan TodayToshiba's U.S. partner withdraws from Texas nuclear power project
4/21/2011The Japan Times21 mini FM stations helping survivors
4/21/2011Washington's BlogIt's Not Just Alternative Energy Versus Fossil Fuels or Nuclear - Energy Has to Become DECENTRALIZED
4/20/2011ZeroHedgeTEPCO Releases First Robot-Captured Video From Inside Reactors 2 And 3
4/20/2011The Japan TimesPneumonia cases rise in Tohoku
4/19/2011 09:46 PMENENEWSJUST IN: Unpublished radiation forecast showed much larger Cesium-137 cloud over North America (VIDEO)
4/20/2011 09:40 AM JSTJapan TodayNuclear plant workers at risk of depression, death from overwork: doctor
4/20/2011 07:15 AM JSTJapan TodayGov't may hike power charges to help cover damages payments
4/20/2011 07:10 AM JSTJapan TodayTsukuba demanded evacuees show radiation certificates
4/20/2011 (Kyodo Time)Japan TimesPowder to remove radiation developed
4/19/2011CRYPTOMEFukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Photos 10
4/19/2011Washington's BlogFDA Refuses to Test Fish for Radioactivity ... Government Pretends Radioactive Fish Is Safe
4/19/2011NHK World (English)TEPCO to check if plutonium leaked to seabed
4/19/2011BloombergAreva to Deliver Water-Treatment Unit to Tepco's Crippled Fukushima Plant
4/19/2011NHK World (English)Death toll in Japan disaster exceeds 14,000
4/19/2011Japan TodayTEPCO starts moving highly radioactive water to storage facility
4/19/2011ReutersWRAPUP 1-With much at stake, Japan voices confidence in US debt after S&P move
4/19/2011BloombergTepco Robots Find High Radiation Levels in Reactor Buildings
4/18/2011Associated PressRadiation near Japan reactors too high for workers
4/18/2011ReutersJapan "eyes sales tax rise" to pay for post-quake rebuild
4/18/2011The Intel HubUS Nuclear Plant Without Power After Being Hit By Tornado
4/18/2011Washington's BlogNuclear Overseers Are "Fake" Agencies Funded and Controlled by the Nuclear Power Industry
4/16/2011BloombergNoda Says Quake, Tsunami Reconstruction Will Help Japan's Economy Recover
4/16/2011Truth Frequency News(VIDEO) What the Japan Earthquake Sounded Like Under the Water
4/15/2011ReutersCalls grow for Japan PM to quit in wake of quake
4/15/2011Japan TodayTEPCO to pay Y1 mil in provisional damages to 50,000 households
4/15/2011Global Security NewswireJapan Plant Fuel Melted Partway Through Reactors: Report
4/15/2011The Intel HubDr. Mark Sircus: Running For Our Lives
4/15/2011Scientific AmericanDose Detectives: Device Analyzes Radiation Exposure through Teeth and Nails [Slide Show]
4/14/2011Washington's BlogU.S. Providing Inadequate Radiation Readings to the Public
4/14/2011Washington's BlogWhat Foods Are Highest in Antioxidants? Some Inexpensive Foods Are Higher In Antioxidants than the Newest Pricey "Superfoods"
4/14/2011Associated PressJapanese risk radiation to rescue stranded dogs
4/14/2011Truth Frequency News(VIDEO) 400,000 to develop cancer in 200 km radius of Fukushima
4/14/2011Press TVJapan hit by more nuclear crisis
4/14/2011Japan TodayWorkers struggle to remove highly toxic water at nuclear plant
4/14/2011The American DreamMuch Of Northern Japan Uninhabitable Due To Nuclear Radiation?
4/14/2011Sofia News AgencyJapan Mulls to Move Capital over Disaster Worries
4/13/2011Fairewinds AssociatesFukushima Accident Severity Level Raised to '7': Gundersen Discusses Lack of US Radiation Monitoring Data
4/13/2011The Intel HubRecord Levels of Fukushima Japan Nuclear Radiation Detected In Pacific Ocean Will Be Carried Toward US
4/13/2011Zero HedgeTEPCO Confirms Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool Is Now An Uncontrolled, Open Air Fission Process
4/13/2011Washington's BlogNo, Japan's Nuclear Reactors Are Not "Stable"
4/12/2011Washington's BlogA U.S. Nuclear Accident Could Be a Lot Worse than Japan
4/12/2011 (4/13/2011 Kyodo)Kyodo NewsWorkers start removing toxic water in level 7-rated nuke crisis
4/12/2011PrisonPlanet.comFukushima Introduces Deadly Strontium Into Environment
4/12/2011Zero HedgeFukushima Vs Chernobyl - Compare And Contrast
4/12/2011 11:16pm EDTReutersTEPCO wary of Fukushima radiation leak exceeding Chernobyl
4/11/2011CRYPTOMEFukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Photos 6
4/11/2011Russia TodayRadioactive Japanese cars detained in Russia’s Far East
4/11/2011 3:50 PMEnergy NewsJapan raises Fukushima to Level 7, same as Chernobyl
4/11/2011Russia TodayRadiation caught on tape: RT talks to Fukushima zone stalker
4/11/2011The Intel HubJapan Nuclear Radiation In Hawaii Milk At LEAST 600% Above Federal Drinking Water Limits
4/11/2011 10:02AM BSTThe TelegraphJapan earthquake: Fukushima nuclear plant evacuated following aftershock
4/9/2011ForbesRadiation Detected In Drinking Water In 13 More US Cities, Cesium-137 In Vermont Milk
4/9/2011The IndependentJapan to pump radioactive water into sea until Sunday
4/8/2011Washington's BlogJapan's Nuclear Meltdown, the Economic Meltdown, and the Gulf Oil Meltdown All Happened for the SAME REASON
4/8/2011BloombergSony, Nikon Plants Knocked Out by Aftershock, Delaying Recovery
4/8/2011PrisonPlanet.comInside report from Fukushima nuclear reactor evacuation zone
4/8/2011Alexander Higgins BlogJapan Nuclear Radiation Found In Food Being Bought In California Stores
4/7/2011ZeroHedgeWater Leak Found At Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant
4/7/2011Washington's BlogSouth Koreans Wear Masks Out of Fear of Radiation from Japan
4/7/2011PrisonPlanet.comOnagawa Nuclear Plant Loses Power After Earthquake
4/7/2011The Intel Hub“Blinding”Blue Light/ Flash Seen During Earthquake In Japan, Nuclear Plant Loses Power
4/7/2011Natural NewsFukushima dumping of radioactive water into Pacific Ocean violates international law
4/6/2011Alexander Higgins BlogTrue Horrors Of Japan Nuclear Disaster Revealed In Confidential Leaked Government Document
4/6/2011Truth Frequency NewsGreat, now our oceans are sewers…
4/6/2011The Intel HubFukushima Daiichi Radioactive Seawater Model, Spent Fuel Rods DID Explode Into Atmosphere
4/6/2011Japan TodayTEPCO to inject nitrogen into No. 1 reactor to prevent explosion
4/5/2011 14:02Activist PostAmerica and EU Agree: Raise Radiation Levels for Food
4/5/2011 14:02Financial TimesTepco seals leak at nuclear plant
4/5/2011The New York TimesU.S. Sees Array of New Threats at Japan’s Nuclear Plant
4/5/2011The Economic TimesImported food items from Japan banned due to radiation fears
4/5/2011 5:58 AMBusiness InsiderJapan Finds Toxic Fish, As Ocean Radiation Soars To 7.5 Million Times Legal Limit
4/5/2011Kyodo News11,500 TONS of radioctive water dumped in to ocean by TEPCO
4/4/2011Prisonplanet.comUNBELIEVABLE: Fukushima Workers Trying To Plug Radiation Leaks With Bits Of Newspaper, Garbage Bags, Diaper Like Material
4/4/2011IMVAEnd of Week Three
4/3/2011The Intel HubRainwater in California Measured 181 Times The Acceptable Limit For Drinking Water
4/2/2011Washington's BlogUpdate on Japan's Nuclear Crisis
4/2/2011Bearishtrader's Trading BlogValuable Information for Dietary Protection From Radioactivity
3/28/2011Activist PostEPA to Help Mainstream Media Obscure The Truth About Radiation Exposure to Americans
3/17/2011RogueGovernment.comJapanese Nuclear Disaster Being Used To Justify The Elimination Of Nuclear Power To Ensure Supremacy Of Space Based Weapons
3/15/2011UK Mail OnlineAmerica on radiation alert: Japan faces world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl as experts warn fallout may reach U.S.
3/14/2011Bearishtrader's Trading BlogJapan Earthquake Causes Fukashima Nuclear Reactor Explosion: Potassium Iodide Recommended by Some
3/11/2011The Intel HubMassive 8.9 Magnitude Earthquake Rocks Japan: Tsunami Warning In 20 Countries
3/11/2011BloombergJapanese Quake Forces Evacuation Near Nuclear Reactor; Oil Refinery Burns