One International Crisis, Coming Up

Looks like Joe “Nostradamus” Biden’s prediction of an international crisis if Obama is elected may come true even sooner than he thought: Top Iran officials recommend preemptive strike against Israel.

Senior Tehran officials are recommending a preemptive strike against Israel to prevent an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear reactors, a senior Islamic Republic official told foreign diplomats two weeks ago in London.

(Hat tip:Chas)

Iran Sets Preconditions for US Meeting

Barack Obama may intend to meet with Iran without preconditions (yes, he did say it, no matter how he tries to deny it now), but Iran isn’t granting Obama the same courtesy: Iran’s Vice President Sets Two Preconditions for Talks with US.

They’re very simple conditions, really. Just remove all US forces from the Middle East, and abandon Israel to the wolves.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Vice President for Media Affairs Mehdi Kalhor said on Saturday that Iran has set two preconditions for holding talks with the United States of America.

In an exclusive interview with the Islamic Republic News Agency, he said as long as U.S. forces have not left the Middle East region and continues its support for the Zionist regime, talks between Iran and U.S. is off the agenda.

It is the Americans who are in dire need of reestablishing ties with Iran, he underlined.

Iran is not obliged to reestablish ties with the U.S., he said. “If they take our advice, grounds for such talks would be well prepared,” he said.

(Hat tip:Chas)

US Shelves Iran Diplomatic Outpost

Last weekend the Bush administration quietly abandoned plans to send diplomats to Iran.

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration has shelved plans to set up a diplomatic outpost in Iran, in part over fears it could affect the U.S. presidential race or be interpreted as political meddling, The Associated Press has learned.

The proposal to send U.S. diplomats to Tehran for the first time in three decades attracted great attention when it was first floated seriously over the summer but has now been placed on indefinite hold as November’s election nears and Iran continues to defy demands to halt suspect nuclear activities, officials told the AP.

(Hat tip:Charlie)

Bayefsky: Focus, People

We seem to have forgotten something: Focus, People.

Since the time of Hitler, civilization has never been so close to the brink of total catastrophe.  This American election will decide whether civilization as we know it will survive.  As much as economic questions are currently front and center, with blame to go all round, this is not an election primarily about corporate greed, or individuals living beyond their means, or government neglect of economic oversight. Nor is it about whether we should have gone into Iraq where, like it or not, American boots on the ground have begun to create an emerging democracy. This election is about whether there will be a nuclear holocaust.

Alarmist? I sure hope so. Isn’t it about time that we got to the point about the stakes in this election? How many more pundits do we have to watch talking about the minutae — a candidate’s look, an accent, a stumble, a slogan? We have four weeks to talk about the thing that matters most: a nuclear-armed Iran, and which candidate will prevent it.

(Hat tip:The LGF Cult Leader)

David Kay Advises Waiting Until Nuclear Attack

Former head of the Iraq Survey Group David Kay says Iran is 2 to 5 years from nuclear weapons.

But he also says we should not even think about a military strike until after one of our cities is nuked.

“My personal guess is they are two to five years away from having a sufficient amount of fissile material and weapon design work to put them in a place where you believe they have the capability of putting a warhead on the end of a missile,” Kay said.

Kay said there is “virtually no possibility” Iran will give up its uranium enrichment program, which can be used to fuel civilian reactors for domestic energy use as well as make fissile material for warheads.

He dismissed the notion that a U.S. or Israeli military strike on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure would be effective or useful. He said it would only delay the development of a weapon by one to two years at the most, and would unite Iran’s people more firmly behind its leaders.

Kay would only advocate a military attack “if I found the Iranians had transferred a nuclear weapon to a third party, a terrorist organization or another state,” or if it used a nuclear weapon in an attack.

A reminder: it’s been four months since Mohamed ElBaradei said on Al-Arabiya television that Iran could have a nuclear weapon within 6 months.

(Hat tip:Chuckles our #1 Contributor)

ElBaradei: Idiot

oday’s jaw-dropping example of United Nations idiocy comes from the head of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, who declared that his agency is powerless to do anything about nuclear proliferators who don’t tell the truth.

He actually seems surprised to discover that nations like Iran and Saddam-era Iraq would try to hide their nuclear programs. Say it ain’t so, Mohamed!

Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the crux of the problem was that some countries under investigation, the latest being Syria, had failed to ratify an agency protocol permitting short-notice IAEA visits to sites not declared to be nuclear to ensure no bomb-related work was going on at secret locations.

“Our legal authority is very limited. With Iraq, we have discovered that unless we have the Additional Protocol in place, we will not really be able to discover undeclared activities,” he said on the sidelines of the agency’s annual 145-nation General Conference in Vienna.

“Our experience is that any proliferator will not really go for declared diverted activities (that would quickly reveal them as violators of the Non-Proliferation Treaty), they will go for completely clandestine undeclared activities,” he said.

(Hat tip:Chas)

Biden to Israel: Get Used to Iranian Nukes

srael’s Army Radio is reporting that Obama’s running mate Joe Biden told Israeli officials they would have to learn to stop worrying, and love the Iranian bomb.

Security officials expressed concern Monday over statements reportedly made by US Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Biden regarding Iran’s nuclear program.

Army Radio reported that the Delaware senator was heard saying in closed conversations with Jerusalem officials three years ago that he was firmly opposed to an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Biden, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, reportedly claimed that Israel would likely have to come to terms with a nuclear Iran. He reportedly expressed doubt over the effectiveness of economic sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic and said he was against the opening of an additional military and diplomatic front, saying that the US had more pressing problems, such as North Korea and Iraq.

Change!

(Hat tip:Nacy@LGF)

RoP Kills 59 in Pakistan

Suicide bombers struck at a weapons complex in Pakistan that some think may be engaged in nuclear weapons development: Suicide bombing at Pakistan arms complex kills 59.

WAH, Pakistan – Twin Taliban suicide bombings at Pakistan’s largest weapons complex killed at least 59 people Thursday, heightening the turmoil following Pervez Musharraf’s ouster as president.

The bombers struck two different gates of the government weapons complex just as workers were leaving. The complex, comprising 12 factories, is located in Wah, a garrison city 20 miles west of the capital, Islamabad.

Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said the perimeter is guarded by a dedicated paramilitary force. Experts have suggested that facilities related to Pakistan’s secretive nuclear weapons program are located in the Wah area, possibly including a uranium enrichment plant. Abbas insisted the complex attacked on Thursday was producing only conventional weapons.

And just to make things even more interesting, the Islamist ruling coalition that drove Pervez Musharraf out of power is now collapsing.

The ruling coalition, made up of traditional rivals who were united primarily in their determination to force Musharraf from office, meanwhile appeared to be veering toward collapse. The two main parties have been unable to bridge key differences such as whether judges fired by Musharraf should be quickly reinstated and who should succeed him as president.

Pakistanis have urged the civilian government to stop bickering and turn quickly to tackling the country’s problems from an economic downturn to extremist violence in the volatile northwest, where fighting between security forces and Islamic militants has escalated in recent weeks.

(Hat tip:Charles the washed up musician)

Russia Threatens to Use Nukes Against Poland

Barack Obama has vowed to cut funding of missile defense systems, and recently pledged to eliminate nuclear weapons from the world because, according to him, we just don’t need them any more:

CHICAGO – Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Tuesday called for ridding the world of nuclear weapons, arguing that U.S. policy is still focused on the defunct Soviet Union instead of combatting the nuclear threat from rogue nations and terrorists.

Today, following the US-Polish agreement on missile defense, Russia is threatening to use nuclear weapons against Poland.

MOSCOW – A top Russian general said Friday that Poland’s agreement to accept a U.S. missile interceptor base exposes the ex-communist nation to attack, possibly by nuclear weapons, the Interfax news agency reported. …

“Poland, by deploying (the system) is exposing itself to a strike — 100 percent,” Nogovitsyn, the deputy chief of staff, was quoted as saying.

He added, in clear reference to the agreement, that Russia’s military doctrine sanctions the use of nuclear weapons “against the allies of countries having nuclear weapons if they in some way help them.” Nogovitsyn that would include elements of strategic deterrence systems, he said, according to Interfax.

(Hat tip: Charles “Stalin” Johnson @ LGF)