At least we have a little assurance that Bush will not let Iran get out of control. Even if it takes blowing the living hell out of these Nuke sites:
Iran has drawn up designs for a deep underground tunnel with remote-controlled heat and pressure sensors as part of what Western intelligence officials believe are preparations for a secret atomic test.
The plans, which American and British intelligence conclude are genuine after studying them on a laptop computer smuggled out of Iran by a defector, appear to be the latest evidence that Teheran is conducting a clandestine nuclear weapons programme.
The existence of the sophisticated sketches for a 400-metre long subterranean test shaft was made public last week in The Washington Post. The welter of documents and disclosures provides what Western governments believe is an overwhelming circumstantial case that Iran is seeking an “Islamic bomb”.
Washington and London won International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) support last weekend for Iran to be reported to the United Nations Security Council, after the clerical regime resumed banned centrifuge research work at its Natanz uranium-enrichment plant.
Publicly, even American hawks such as Vice-President Dick Cheney are backing the diplomatic track to resolve the showdown over Iran’s nuclear programme, which Teheran claims is for peaceful energy purposes. But the Sunday Telegraph has learnt from a senior Pentagon adviser that, as the crisis deepened in recent months, military strategists have been updating plans for “last-resort” military strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. The raids would be ordered if President George W Bush is advised that they are the only remaining option to prevent the Islamic republic from acquiring atomic weapons.
[…]The Pentagon adviser told the this newspaper: “We will have reached the point of no return in the next couple of years. If diplomacy hasn’t worked by then, Iran will be a long way down the line to acquiring a nuclear weapon. We’re talking about choosing the least bad of a series of bad options. President Bush will also be nearing the end of his term and have to decide if he trusts this issue to another administration or wants to use the B2s.” In a separate interview, Richard Perle, a senior defence official at the time of the Iraq war and who maintains close links to the military, said that 12 B2 bombers, each carrying dozens of precision-guided weapons, could deliver a serious blow to Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“If the President were faced with the choice between Iran crossing the line to become a nuclear weapon state and using force to destroy or significantly delay that prospect, then I believe he would use force,” Mr Perle said. “That decision will be made at the last moment but there is certainly strong contingency planning for that. I think the decision-making elite in Washington would back Mr Bush if that was seen to be his only choice.”
The article goes into the British hopes that the UN will help defuse this issue by getting tough with Iran. I mean we saw how much it helped with Saddam over 13 years, why shouldn’t they hold out hope….sigh.
I also find it quite disconcerting that these leaks continue. For god’s sake, the Telegraph put up a picture showing possible target sites. I know it’s information that may not be too difficult to surmise but why even put this kind of stuff out there? To make sure the strikes fail? Can no one keep their freakin yaps shut?
Other’s Blogging:
- Discarded Lies
- The City Troll
- Neocon Express
I also find it quite disconcerting that these leaks continue. For god’s sake, the Telegraph put up a picture showing possible target sites. I know it’s information that may not be too difficult to surmise but why even put this kind of stuff out there? To make sure the strikes fail? Can no one keep their freakin yaps shut?
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I get this feeling that the fact that we are at war, hasn’t quite sunk in yet.