Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog

The top U.S. military official said Sunday that Iran has sufficient fissile material for a nuclear weapon, declaring it would be a “very, very bad outcome” should Tehran move forward with a bomb.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, offered the assessment when questioned in a broadcast interview about a recent report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog on the state of Iran’s uranium enrichment program, which can create nuclear fuel and may be sufficiently advanced to produce the core of warheads.

Mullen was asked if Iran now had enough fissile material to make a bomb. He responded, “We think they do, quite frankly. And Iran having a nuclear weapon I’ve believed for a long time is a very, very bad outcome for the region and for the world.”

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran has processed the 2,222 pounds (1,010 kilograms) of low-enriched uranium. But the report left unclear whether Iran is now capable, even if it wanted, of further processing that material into a sufficient quantity of highly enriched uranium to arm one weapon.

Most probably correct.

Blocked by Russia and China, the United States and Europe have fiddled the past two years while the centrifuges at Natanz spun.

Next, Iran will throw out the IAEA inspectors and formally announce that their secret nuclear weapons program has created a weapon to protect itself from Israel.

What will the Obama Administration and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton do?

Talk to the Iranian Mullahs and sue for peace?

Iran has now built up a stockpile of enough enriched uranium for one nuclear bomb, United Nations officials acknowledged on Thursday.

In a development that comes as the Obama administration is drawing up its policy on negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear programme, UN officials said Iran had produced more nuclear material than previously thought.

They said Iran had now accumulated more than one tonne of low enriched uranium hexafluoride at a facility in Natanz. If such a quantity were further enriched it could produce more than 20kg of fissile material – enough for a bomb.

“It appears that Iran has walked right up to the threshold of having enough low enriched uranium to provide enough raw material for a single bomb,” said Peter Zimmerman, a former chief scientist of the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency

The new figures come in a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, released on Thursday.

This revealed that Iran’s production of low enriched uranium had previously been underestimated.

Iran has been stalling in negotiations for years and the United Nations hs been ineffective in stopping Iran from pursuing their nuclear ambitions.

Bush punted the ball to Obama.

Now, Obama wants to talk with Iran – as worthless as the United Nations. More appeasement of the Mullahs.

Flap wonders how long Israel plans to wait before bombing Iranian nuclear facilities?

Previous:

Kum Ba Yah Ahmadinejad

Just 11% of U.S. voters think America should apologize to Iran for “crimes” against the Islamic country – one of the prerequisites demanded by the Iranian president before he will agree to meet with President Barack Obama.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 73% oppose such an apology.

Obama in an interview last week with al-Arabiya, a 24-hour Arabic language satellite network, offered to end nearly 30 years of bad relations with Iran if the Middle Eastern nation is ready to “unclench its fist.” Ahmadinejad responded by demanding an apology for U.S. “crimes” against Iran and calling for major changes in U.S. policies toward his country.

Other interesting results of the poll:

• 52 per cent of American votes view Iran as an ENEMY of the United States.

• 56 per cent believe Iran should be required to stop developing its nuclear weapons capabilities before a meeting is allowed between the presidents of the two countries – a precondition.

• 36 per cent believe relations between the two countries will get worse over the coming year, while 33% think they will get better.

• 77 per cent of American voters say Iran’s nuclear program is for weapons development.

Because, APPEASEMENT never is because there are always consequences. Ask Bill Clinton.

Pre-Super Bowl interviews with Matt Lauer on NBC are one thing. Dealing with terrorist states who want to “wipe Israel off the map” is quite another.

Previous:

The Day By Day Archive

Officials of Barack Obama’s administration have drafted a letter to Iran from the president aimed at unfreezing US-Iranian relations and opening the way for face-to-face talks, the Guardian has learned.

The US state department has been working on drafts of the letter since Obama was elected on 4 November last year. It is in reply to a lengthy letter of congratulations sent by the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on 6 November.

It would be intended to allay the ­suspicions of Iran’s leaders and pave the way for Obama to engage them directly, a break with past policy.

State department officials have composed at least three drafts of the letter, which gives assurances that Washington does not want to overthrow the Islamic regime, but merely seeks a change in its behaviour. The letter would be addressed to the Iranian people and sent directly to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, or released as an open letter.

Sounds like APPEASEMENT to Flap.

But, this is par for the course, since Obama has sold out Poland and the Czech Republic by appeasing Russia over a missile defense plan.

Don’t think this will play so well in Israel – and it isn’t.

Israeli election front-runner Benjamin Netanyahu told a session of the World Economic Forum on Thursday that preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons ranks far above the global economy among the challenges facing leaders of the 21st century.

No, the Bush Administration was unable to convince the world community and the United Nations in particular of the seriousness of Iran’s nuclear program. So, here you go – Iran is approaching BREAKOUT CAPABILITY.

Iran will have enough enriched uranium to make a single nuclear weapon later this year, the prestigious International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) predicts.

The think tank’s Mark Fitzpatrick made the announcement at today’s launch of its annual global review of military powers.

“During 2009, Iran will probably reach the point at which it has produced the amount of low-enriched uranium needed to make a nuclear bomb,” he said.

“But being able to enrich uranium is not the same as having a nuclear weapon.”

However, the survey reports doubts over US Intelligence estimates that Iran halted its work on nuclear weapons six years ago.

Nothing really NEW here. Everyone knows that Iran is advancing their ballistic missile capability in developing longer range missiles which is the delivery mechanism for a nuclear device AND they continue to enrich uranium, the building material for a nuclear bomb.

But, China and Russia block tougher sanctions in the United Nations Security Council and the Europeans talk but do little else.

It will be up to Israel and the United States to either block Iran or appease them.

So far appeasement seems to be winning out.

Previous:

The Iran Nuclear Watch Archive

Missile Defense Watch: U.S. Missile Defense Agency Rolls Out the Airborne Laser (ABL) Aircraft