The Iranian Threat Growing
Two interesting articles about Iran:
Traces of highly enriched uranium found in a nuclear waste facility in Iran and,
according to the Telegraph Iran is working on taking over Al Qaeda.
From the first article I link to above:
International Atomic Energy experts have found unexplained plutonium and highly enriched uranium traces in a nuclear waste facility in Iran and have asked Tehran for an explanation, an IAEA report said Tuesday.The report, prepared for next week’s meeting of the 35-nation IAEA, also faulted Tehran for not cooperating with the agency’s attempts to investigate suspicious aspects of Iran’s nuclear program that have lead to fears it might be interested in developing nuclear arms.
And it said it could not confirm Iranian claims that its nuclear activities were exclusively nonmilitary unless Tehran increased its openness.
“The agency will remain unable to make further progress in its efforts to verify the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran,” without additional cooperation by Tehran, said the report, by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei.
[...]
Both highly enriched uranium and plutonium can be used to make the fissile core of nuclear warheads, and Iran is under intense international pressure to freeze activities that can produce such substances.
From the second:
Iran is seeking to take control of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qa’eda terror network by encouraging it to promote officials known to be friendly to Teheran, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.According to recent reports received by Western intelligence agencies, the Iranians are training senior al-Qa’eda operatives in Teheran to take over the organisation when bin Laden is no longer leader.
[...]
Western intelligence officials now believe that Iran is trying to cultivate a new generation of al-Qa’eda leaders who will be prepared to work closely with Teheran when they eventually take control.Recent intelligence reports from Iran suggest the Iranians are particularly keen to promote Saif-al-Adel, a notorious al-Qa’eda operative who is wanted in the United States for his alleged role in training several of the September 11 hijackers.
The West truly has to unite on this issue: it has to make sure that Iran stops actively supporting, recruiting and training terrorists and that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons. No matter what Russia, China et al. might think of it. Diplomacy is always the first approach, but if necessary other options must be considered as well.
21 Responses to “The Iranian Threat Growing”
I’m not completely sold on the idea I am about to put forth but in the spirit of devil’s advocate….
Maybe Iran taking over Al Qaeda is actually a good thing in some ways. One of the nastiest part of idealogical terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda is that they are impossible to negotiate with. They are impervious to conventional carrots and sticks. Once you put a (somewhat) rational state actor like Iran in the mix, then they just might start being more responsive to conventional diplomacy.
Now, if that would actually offset the strengthening of Al Qaeda because of extra support from Tehran….. *shrug*
To me the best devil’s advocate idea is to say that an Iranian controlled Iraq would be terrible for the region and perhaps the Shiites getting blown up by Al Qaeda in Iraq will turn away from Iran. It’s also confusing because suppossedly Ahmedinejad is a devout believer in the Hidden Imam and all this other Shiite mythology about the end of the world. Either Al Qaeda’s gone soft and doesn’t have any religious backing at all or both sides use their religious rhetoric to play the masses for fools and nothing else.
The US trained, armed and funded Bin Laden. Reagan armed Iran. We funded and supplied Iraq. We declared Iran ‘axis of evil’ and proved with our actions toward Iraq and N.Korea that the only safety is in having the bomb. We smashed an anti-Iranian state and handed it over to Shia fundamentalists, supportive of both Hezbollah and Iran. Now we’re worried about the monsters we created… Way to go.
Mikey:
You’re a good man. definitely a Republican. You live in faith based reality, the reality of truth. Now some might say that Con Coughlin was wrong in the past about his claims of Saddam’s ties to the terrorists or that Iraqi WMD was smuggled to Syria or at least that he was never able to support these things. But people like you and me know it’s true, we just know it! So it is. And it’s obvious that Al Qaida is controlled by Iran because that makes everything simple. Only traitors and appeasers want to live in a complicated world. We know we’re good and they’re evil and they’re everyone we don’t like. We have an empire we make the facts.
Most European’s don’t understand that there is a higher reality, the reality of God in which al worldly vanities are hallucinations and only the vision of people like you and me matters because Jesus loves us.
To all: do not respond to ‘dittohead’ the troll.
ditto is just comic relief. His wit is on par with the former commenter Tommy. Irans HEU program is still in the stalled mode. This info has nothing to do with the HEU program until we hear more.
I find this Telegraph report dubious. Al Qaeda’s basic ideology is fundamentalist Sunni Islam. They would never accede to Shi’ite Iranian control. On occaisional missions they might work with Iran, but they would never give their leadership up to Iran. What, all the murders of Iraqi Shi’ites was for nothing?
Elrod..thank you, I was just going to post that.
OBL and the Taliban are enemies of Iran (executing Iranian diplomats when they overan Kabul). Of course anything is possible, but this would be the last thing I would believe. Hezzbollah, yes, Iran backs them. AQ would much more likely be getting their funding from Saudi Arabia and other places with Sunni/Wahabbi back grounds.
This report is the usual tripe from the “we want to attack Iran group”.
Elrod points out the obvious “Al Qaeda’s basic ideology is fundamentalist Sunni Islam. They would never accede to Shi’ite Iranian control.”
But the goal is to assert this rediculious meme, and repeat it often enough that someone believes it.
Fox news and now our own TMV ME meddlers are sucking this up like it’s ambrosia.
I also can’t see Al Qaeda as an arm of Iran, maybe cooperation but with the attacks on Shiites in Iraq and the mosque bombing even that is a stretch.
To add to the last three comments. The Iranians helped the US with intell and such prior to the Afghan War. The Iranians were active in Afghanistan arming the Northern Alliance and fighting the Taliban before we arrived. The Iranians are a threat, but not the EVIL DEMONS that the neocon pro-war crowd would like us to believe. Iran and Sryia are meddling in Iraq and Lebanon. But what do you call the US presence in Iraq?
The Iranians are a threat, but not the EVIL DEMONS that the neocon pro-war crowd would like us to believe.
Well it is not surprising that tensions have heightened between the US and Syria and Iran, once they realized they were the subjects of the “Axis of Evil” speech, LOL! No other president has simply declared an enemy too evil to deal with and just tried to pretend they didn’t exist. I find it astounding that the US thought they could remove Sadaam and rebuild Iraq into a stable country without their interference. Mind-boggling ineptitude.
What “other” options? There are really no viable military options for this situation….other than a full scale war (air, ground, sea, special forces, etc). And the U.S. isn’t prepared for that.
Most experts and retired military leaders agree that airstrikes would not accomplish the mission of taking out Iranian nuclear research sites…and it would likely only lead to a worst situation….negative consequences that the U.S. would not be able to control.
GreenDreams:
The US trained, armed and funded Bin Laden.
Haven’t you all realized yet, that the USA in general, and the Neo-cons in particular are the sourse of all the evils of the world?
The worst disaster the world has faced to date is the US-engineered fall of the Soviet Union. If the USA couldn’t have seen that they were arming future terrorists back in the 80s, when they were funding evil extremists in order to subvert the benevolent liberation of Afghanistan by the USSR, then they deserve whatever they get. 20/20 hindsight works both ways, you know – just turn around and it becomes 20/20 foresight, which should have been used. If that 20/20 foresight had been applied, the USA would have known better than to resist the kindly presence of the USSR in Afghanistan.
The folks who so hate the USA are right- the entire country sould sell themselves into slavery, give up everything that they have worked for, and hand it over to the more enlightened of the world – Islamic mullahs, Socialst power-brokers, European intellectuals, and Third World Dictators. Then the lion will finally lie down with the lamb, and there will be peace on Earth. And most importantly, those evil Americans will get what they deserve.
Right?
Bookman
(sbe gur pyhr-punyyratrq: lrf, guvf jnf fnepnfz)
How about the west develops new energy technologies so we don’t even have to deal with the middle east? We could’ve Brazil’d them folks by now, but NOOOOOOOOOO. w e didn’t *smh*
I agree 110%
But Bush is owned and controlled by the oil industry…. an industry that he was once in himself. In fact, many of the folks in the Bush Cabinet are or were connected to the oil industry.
It’s a serious conflict of interest IMO. There has been no serious push to develop alternative energy such as hydrogen and to build the infrastructure to support hydrogen powered vehicles. It’s also still difficult for people to make their homes energy efficient….because there are not enough businesses to help people do it and not enough materials to do it…so costs are high. Often the cost is so high that there is no incentive for people to upgrade their homes…..the cost of doing so doesn’t justify it.
This IMO is the great technological and political challenge of our time… and should therefore be the Manhattan Project or the New Deal of our time…. BUT you don’t see that kind of urgency on the part of the government.
When Dems take the Congress in January, this has to be one of the things they focus on… if not, I will be highly disappointed.
It’s not just an environmental issue, but it’s a national security issue.
Angry Independent- I could not agree more. This has frustrated me as well. No American lives should be sacrificed for oil interests, when we have known there was an energy crisis since the ’70′s and done nothing but drive SUV gas guzzlers and buy ourselves minimansions.
I read somewhere that 83% of campaign contributions from the oil companies go to Republicans. They also get heavy contributions from defense contractors, which explains why we so often seek a military solution to something that technology would solve. Just think how far we’d have come in developing alternative fuel sources if the money spent on the war and reconstruction had been invested there instead.
People get so caught up in patriotism that they lose sight of what is really going on. And no, I don’t hate America or blame America, I love America, but want us to do better. I blame shortsighted politicians who continuously put their own futures ahead of our collective futures.
The last 2 posts are why I am hoping Al Gore runs in ’08.
We need someone with the vision, and stones to push that forward.
Michael, don’t you know there is no threat from Iran, it’s all a Zionist Neocon lie. ahmadinejad just wants nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and his threat to wipe Israel off the map was taken out of context.
Iran has granted safe haven for many al qaeda. People stop burying your heads in the sand.
I love lunacy, keep posting Laura, it makes me laugh.