posted on April 15, 2006 09:40:42 AM new
We'll be needing Rumsfeld's experience and knowledge...real soon it appears.
Iran issues stark military warning to United States
AP
Apr 15 4:42 AM US/Eastern
Iran said it could defeat any American military action over its controversial nuclear drive, in one of the Islamic regime's boldest challenges yet to the United States.
"You can start a war but it won't be you who finishes it," said General Yahya Rahim Safavi, the head of the Revolutionary Guards and among the regime's most powerful figures.
"The Americans know better than anyone that their troops in the region and in Iraq are vulnerable. I would advise them not to commit such a strategic error," he told reporters on the sidelines of a pro-Palestinian conference in Tehran.
These Hama's and Palestinian supporters I've said AREN'T on American's side.....they're going to have to be choosing if 'they're with us or against us now.'
The United States accuses Iran of using an atomic energy drive as a mask for weapons development. Last weekend US news reports said President George W. Bush's administration was refining plans for preventive strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.
"I would advise them to first get out of their quagmire in Iraq before getting into an even bigger one," General Safavi said with a grin.
"We have American forces in the region under total surveillance. For the past two years, we have been ready for any scenario, whether sanctions or an attack."
Iran announced this week it had successfully enriched uranium to make nuclear fuel, despite a UN Security Council demand for the sensitive work to be halted by April 28.
The Islamic regime says it only wants to generate atomic energy, but enrichment can be extended to make the fissile core of a nuclear warhead -- something the United States is convinced that "axis of evil" member Iran wants to acquire.
At a Friday prayer sermon in Tehran, senior cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Janati simply branded the US as a "decaying power" lacking the "stamina" to block Iran's ambitions.
He OBVIOUSLY doesn't know THIS President.
And hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told AFP that a US push for tough United Nations sanctions was of "no importance."
"She is free to say whatever she wants," the president replied when asked to respond to comments by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice highlighting part of the UN charter that provides for sanctions backed up by the threat of military action.
"We give no importance to her comments," he said with a broad smile.
On Thursday, Rice said that faced with Iran's intransigence, the United States "will look at the full range of options available to the United Nations."
"There is no doubt that Iran continues to defy the will of the international community," Rice said, after Iran also dismissed a personal appeal from the UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief must give a report at the end of April on Iranian compliance with the Security Council demand. In Tehran he said that after three years of investigations Iran's activities were "still hazy and not very clear."
Although the United States has been prodding the council to take a tough stand against the Islamic republic, including possible sanctions, it has run into opposition from veto-wielding members Russia and China.
Although I've also read that Russia and China DID tell Tehran they expected them to back off this program.
Representatives of the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany are to meet in Moscow Tuesday to discuss the crisis.
In seeking to deter international action, Iran has been playing up its oil wealth, its military might in strategic Gulf waters and its influence across the region -- such as in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.
At the Tehran conference, Iran continued to thumb its nose at the United States and Israel.
"The Zionist regime is an injustice and by its very nature a permanent threat," Ahmadinejad told the gathering of regime officials, visiting Palestinian militant leaders and foreign sympathizers.
"Whether you like it or not, the Zionist regime is on the road to being eliminated," said Ahmadinejad, whose regime does not recognise Israel and who drew international condemnation last year when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map."
Unfazed by his critics, the hardliner went on to repeat his controversial stance on the Holocaust.
"If there is serious doubt over the Holocaust, there is no doubt over the catastrophe and Holocaust being faced by the Palestinians," said the president, who had previously dismissed as a "myth" the killing of an estimated six million Jews by the Nazis and their allies during World War II.
"I tell the governments who support Zionism to ... let the migrants (Jews) return to their countries of origin. If you think you owe them something, give them some of your land," he said.
Iran's turbaned supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also accused the United States of seeking to place the entire region under Israeli control.
"The plots by the American government against Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon aimed at governing the Middle East with the control of the Zionist regime will not succeed," Khamenei said.
There was no immediate reaction from Washington, but French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy severely condemned Ahmadinejad for his latest remarks on Israel.
"As I have had occasion to do before, when the Iranian president made similar statements, I condemn these inacceptable remarks in the strongest possible terms," Douste-Blazy said in a statement.
"Israel's right to exist and the reality of the Holocaust should not be disputed," he added.
----------------
Then I also saw mention/report of oil that was being sold to Syria, illegally. Just like saddam was doing when we first went into Iraq.
This could be WWIII....if these NUT cases don't quit this garbage.
posted on April 15, 2006 10:00:26 AM newIran defies U.N. nuke curbs
By Ali Akbar Dareini
ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 12, 2006
TEHRAN -- Iran's president said yesterday that his country "has joined the club of nuclear countries" by successfully enriching uranium for the first time -- a key process in what Iran maintains is a peaceful energy program.
The announcement from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was certain to heighten international tensions surrounding Iran's nuclear program. The U.N. Security Council has demanded that Iran stop all enrichment by April 28 because of suspicions the program is designed to make nuclear weapons.
Yea....that oh-so-strong U.N. Sure...we can count on them alright. NOT.
The White House, which is pressing for U.N. sanctions against Iran, said the enrichment claims "show that Iran is moving in the wrong direction."
"Defiant statements and actions only further isolate the regime from the rest of the world," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
But Mr. Ahmadinejad warned the West that trying to force it to abandon uranium enrichment would "cause an everlasting hatred in the hearts of Iranians."
Does he REALLY think they don't already? How stupid can he be?
He announced the breakthrough at a nationally televised ceremony clearly aimed at drumming up domestic support for the nuclear program, addressing an audience that included top military commanders and clerics in an ornate hall in one of Iran's holiest cities, Mashhad. Before he spoke, screens on the stage showed footage of nuclear facilities and scientists at work.
"At this historic moment, with the blessings of God Almighty and the efforts made by our scientists, I declare here that the laboratory-scale nuclear fuel cycle has been completed and young scientists produced enriched uranium needed to the degree for nuclear power plants Sunday," Mr. Ahmadinejad said.
"I formally declare that Iran has joined the club of nuclear countries," he said. The crowd broke into cheers of "Allahu akbar," or "God is great."
As part of the ceremony, costumed dancers performed on the stage, holding aloft vials of raw uranium and chanting "Allahu akbar."
Uranium enrichment can produce either fuel for a nuclear energy reactor -- which Iran says it seeks -- or the material needed for an atomic warhead.
Yesterday's announcement does not mean Iran is immediately capable of doing either. So far it has succeeded only in getting a series of 164 centrifuges to work in the enrichment process; thousands of centrifuges are needed for a workable program. Most estimates say Iran is still years away from having enough fuel for a bomb.
But successfully carrying out the highly complicated and delicate process even on a small scale would represent a breakthrough, and Iran's nuclear chief said the program would be expanded to 3,000 centrifuges by the end of the year.
The timing of yesterday's announcement suggested Iran wanted to present a fait accompli to the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, who arrives in Iran today for talks aimed at resolving the standoff with the West.
Mr. ElBaradei's agency is scheduled to report to the U.N. Security Council on April 28 on whether Iran has met the council's demand for a full halt to uranium enrichment. If Tehran fails to comply, the United States and Europe are pressing for sanctions against Iran, a step Russia and China have opposed.
China yesterday urged a diplomatic solution to the Iranian question.
"We still believe that negotiations and a diplomatic solution are the best way out of it," Wang Guangya, China's ambassador to the United Nations, said in New York in comments carried by the official Xinhua news agency.
It was not immediately clear if Mr. Wang, who is also the current president of the Security Council, was speaking in direct reaction to Iran's announcement.
Meanwhile, former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani, a powerful member of Iran's ruling clerical regime, said yesterday's nuclear announcement means Mr. ElBaradei "faces new circumstances."
Mr. Ahmadinejad said Iran wanted to operate its nuclear program under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and within its rights and the regulations of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. He said the West "has to respect Iran's right for nuclear energy."
In Vienna, officials of the IAEA, whose inspectors are now in Iran, declined to comment on the announcement.
But a diplomat familiar with Tehran's enrichment program said it appeared to be accurate. He demanded anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss information restricted to the agency.
Speaking before the president, Iran's nuclear chief -- Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh -- told the audience that Iran has produced 110 tons of uranium gas, the feedstock that is pumped into centrifuges for enrichment.
The amount is nearly twice the 60 tons that Iran said last year that it had produced -- an amount that former U.N. nuclear inspector David Albright said would be enough to produce up to 20 nuclear bombs if Iran developed the capacity.
Mr. Aghazadeh also said a heavy water nuclear reactor, under construction near Arak in central Iran, will be completed by early 2009. The U.S. fears that the spent fuel from a heavy-water reactor can be reprocessed to extract plutonium for use in a bomb.
posted on April 17, 2006 08:34:01 AM new
ROFLMAO!!!!
Linda, you just love extremist rhetoric. This is just another stupid attempt at stirring the pot. It is nothing more than a means of rallying extremist Muslims, and is no different than George Bush trying to rally his base to gain support.
The danger with Iran vs. the USA is strictly confined to two extremist ultra conservative governments, led by two dangerously insane leaders. Neither have the sensibility to to handle the problem diplomatically. It is like two bullies battling it out on a school yard.
Of course, the problem with Iran and North Korea should have been handled 3 years ago instead of attacking a country that was no threat to this country. Resources were wasted, American lives were lost, and now this government has put their fist into a hornets nest in the Middle East, going as far as creating an insurgency that wasn't in Iraq to begin with. It is the classic Boy who Cried Wolf scenario. Most Americans don't trust the Bush Administration to handle Iran properly, and why should they? The Bushies screwed up Iraq.
posted on April 17, 2006 04:54:41 PM new
Ron - because the general consensus is that human losses would be too heavy. Our troop forces are too depleted and the terrain of Iran is not one that proves friendly to invasion.
It's one thing to go into mountainous terrain in Afganistan looking for small bands of militants, it's another to attempt to take on an organized military in a mountainous region which is their home turf.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
People put their hand on the bible, and swear to uphold the constitution. They do not put their hand on the constitution, and swear to uphold the bible.
posted on April 17, 2006 05:46:13 PM new
Actually fenix we would be better off fighting their army than some isurgents. That way we wouldn't have the libs hand tieing the military and they could do what they do best and kick ass.
posted on April 17, 2006 07:52:09 PM new
Oh rusty....continues to REFUSE to 'see' the truth.
tsk tsk tsk
The Europeans have been trying to get Iran to stop with developing it's NW program. Now more of the world has stepped in and make their disapproval known.
I take it you believe Iran, who has stated they want to/plan on wiping Israel off the face of the earth, WHEN they get a full blown NW program going, should be allowed to continue on that route?
I also take it then that you support their newly elected NUT CASE, Hama's terrorist leader should be allowed to tell the world what they will do...whether the worlds approves or NOT?
I'd believe you would. Anything that's against the US's best interest...you're FOR.
posted on April 17, 2006 07:58:06 PM new
We don't have to use troops to invade.
We can do just as clinton did in dec. 1998....just bomb their NW sites. We could handle that just fine.
And this is a time the world is going to have to decide whether all terrorists nations are going to be allowed to develop/have NW or not.
I personally don't care if we have to stand alone....imo, IF all this continuing 'offer a carrot' 'use a big stick' doesn't work....I don't see that we have any other choice.
IF we don't take action as Iran continues with it's NW program....we will regret it for a million years.
Iran's crazy leader would then have controlling power over all countries. They can threaten to murder millions of our people/and the people of other countries IF they don't go along with whatever they're demanding at that time.
I hope we are strong enough a country to stop them.
While the democratic party complains about everything THIS President does to protect our Nation:
What would a Democrat president have done at that point? Apparently, the answer is: Sit back and wait for the next terrorist attack.
Ann Coulter
How stupid can he be? 