It’s Not the Centrifuges —- It’s the Warhead

iran-nuclearNovember 24, 2014 is a looming deadline for Iran, Israel, the United States and the world over its nuclear weapons program. Just days ago, the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] released a report summarized by its conclusion:

The Agency is not in a position to provide credible assurances about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities. Iran has not provided any explanations that enable the Agency to clarify the outstanding practical measures, nor has it proposed any new practical measures in the next step of the Framework for cooperation.

Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, leading the international negotiations, has described the back and forth as “a forest of distrust.” At the same time, she declares, “Our bottom line is unambiguous … Iran will not, shall not obtain a nuclear weapon.”

In the background, media revelations recently disclosed secret correspondence between the Obama White House to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — kept even from congressional leaders and America’s closest allies, including Israel. Washington is struggling to enlist Tehran in the faltering campaign against the Islamic State. This process has juggled agreed numbers of centrifuges — a limit of 4,000 … or is it 10,000 … or is it something in between? Centrifuges are a critical component because each vertical cylinder slowly but steadily distills uranium into a highly enriched weapon-ready state.

However, as the world ponders Iran’s dash to enrich more kilograms of uranium, the underlying concern is not so much about the enrichment process itself, but the end product: a nuclear warhead. Iran has been developing its warhead for some sixteen years. That design is nearly perfected.

Compare the process to gunpowder. To use gunpowder, you need load it into a cartridge, load the cartridge and a bullet into a rifle, and then find a marksman. Iran has nearly mastered all those steps — but in nuclear terms.

Four technological achievements are key to completing Tehran’s nuclear weapon:

1) accretion of enough nuclear materials, highly enriched to weapons-grade or 90 percent; 2) machining that material into metal for a spheroid warhead so it can fit into a missile nosecone; 3) developing a trigger mechanism to initiate the atomic explosion at a precise moment during missile reentry; and, of course, 4) a reliable delivery system.

Start with the nuclear material. Experts estimate that a single bomb would require approximately 25 kilograms of Highly Enriched Uranium, or HEU, with a U-235 concentration of at least 90 percent. Much of Iran’s nuclear enrichment remains at 3.5 and 20 percent levels. But the numbers are deceiving. Enriching to 3.5 percent is 75 percent of the task of reaching weapons-grade. Once Iran has reached 20 percent, it has gone 90 percent of the distance. Indeed, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani delivered a 2005 speech in his capacity as National Security Advisor in which he declared, “a country that possesses fuel cycle technology can enrich uranium —and the country that can enrich uranium to about 3.5 percent will also have the capability to enrich it to about 90 percent.” Today, Iran possesses enough nuclear material for a fast “break-out” that would finish the job, creating enough for five or ten bombs, in about six weeks.

Second, that HEU must be metalized and shaped into a dense spheroid compact enough to fit into a missile nosecone. Iran has mastered the metallurgical techniques using other high-density metals such as tungsten, which have been test-detonated in a special chamber to measure their explosive character.

Third, the spheroid must be detonated. Iran’s warhead design employs a R265 shock generator hemisphere drilled with 5mm boreholes that are filled with PETN—pentaerythritol tetranitrate, an organic high explosive favored by terrorists. When triggered with precision, the PETN array can cause a massive synchronized implosion. That will fire an internal exploding bridgewire which will in turn actuate an embedded neutron initiator to detonate the atomic reaction—and the mushroom cloud. This sequence of devices has been assembled and tested. Iran has some 500 exploding bridgewires.

Fourth, the warhead must be delivered. The Shabab-3 missile nosecone is large enough to accommodate the warhead. The outer radius of the R265 shock generator-encased warhead is 550 millimeters, less than the estimated payload chamber diameter of about 600 millimeters. Most of all, the Iranian military has selected the Shabab-3 not only because it possesses a range of 1200 kilometers, but because it can be detonated in an airburst some 600 meters off the ground on re-entry. The height of 600 meters was used in the Nagasaki explosion. Such a weapon cannot be crashed into the ground. It must be detonated while still airborne. Iran has a small fleet of Shahab-3 missiles.

Hence, Iran’s metronomic accretion of nuclear material is not just an ambiguous physics undertaking that should worry the West. It is part and parcel of a nuclear attack plan that the international community is determined to address.

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  • Matthew Johnston

    The best way to stop an Iranian deal is for the old boy to die, that’s what i have been dragging it out for. He can’t live forever, not the best scholar or smartest names were similar and that was the first time around the regime is more on the nose now with the public. God willing will be rid of this Iranian matter and regime soon.

    • Bamaguje

      The best way to stop Iran’s nuclear program is to bomb their nuclear facilities as well as regime change to dethrone the Mullahs.
      Obama has no inclination for either action. The Mullahs know this, which is why they are intransigent.
      Negotiations only work when they are backed up by a credible threat of force.

      • Pete

        Regime change would have been less bloody is Barack Insane Obama has supported the Persian spring.

      • 2wotvet

        Because regime change in Middle Eastern countries always works! Look at the pro-American, pro-Israel, prosperous and secular countries that Iraq and Afghanistan have become after we implemented regime change there!

        • JayWye

          Iran is quite different than those nations.
          it’s people had a lot of freedom under the Shah,became westernized. (I had a couple of Iranian friends)
          Not radicals like Libya,or tribesmen like the Afghans,not sectarian(factionalized) like Iraq.(helped along with Iranian interference)

    • swemson

      Interesting article…

      Sounds like we have a whole bunch of potential targets in Iran. I bet their “small fleet of Shabab-3 missiles isn’t hidden deep underground in heavily fortified bunkers…

      Better yet, we know that their leaders aren’t either…

      Sounds to me likes it’s getting to be time to light em up!

      fs

      • JayWye

        Iran has dug a lot of deep tunnels and bunkers (in granite) to protect it’s missiles and nuclear sites. Similar to NORAD at Cheyanne Mountain. they observed and LEARNED from the US attacks on Saddam’s bunkers.(using GBU-28 “deep throat” bunker-busters.)
        Iran’s deep tunnels aren’t threatened by GBU-28. some of them would take a couple of B-61 nukes to destroy each of them.

  • Gamal

    The last sentence “The International Community is Determined to address” is wrong. The International community is not going to do anything but what they’ve been doing which is talk and make concessions.

    • Hi there

      As I finished reading the article, I thought the same thing as you did. Who is “determined to address”? No one as far as I could tell.

  • Sheik Yerbouti

    This has been a slow-motion wreck waiting to happen. Obama has only made it amazingly easy for nukes to become yesterday’s news in the middle east. The fact that Iran is skirting the 90s should be enough to justify substantial razing of the facilities. But, it doesn’t happen. Where are the planet’s balls?

  • MattBracken

    We’re going to find out, sooner or later,
    If Abdullah will pray, to a glowing crater.
    The USA might not counter-strike Mecca and other holy sites, but I have no doubt that the Israelis, Russians or Indians would. Then we’ll see if the world’s “perfected” religion can succeed and continue after going from The Five Pillars of Islam to The Three Pillars of Islam. And somehow, I don’t think “we used to believe Allah was the greatest” is going to be as catchy as Allahu Akbar.

    • RMThoughts

      Great point, Mutual Assured Destruction is the path to equilibrium.

      • MattBracken

        Sorry, no. MAD worked with the Soviets because they loved their children, and were just mouthing the party line to stay out of gulags. Not so with the Islamists. They don’t believe that infidels could destroy Mecca, that our bombs and rockets would blow up in flight or turn around. It’s impossible (now) for them to conceive of Mecca obliterated, so MAD won’t work with them.

        And in fact, numerous polls across the Arab world say that they would gladly take 100 million Arab Muslim deaths, as long as every Jew in Israel died, and Israel was wiped out. Nope, MAD won’t work. If ISIS gets a WMD, they’ll use it, even if it’s smuggled into Tel Aviv. At that point, it’s Sampson Option time, and Mecca and other unholy sites will be destroyed.

        • SCREW SOCIALISM

          Muslims love their Mecca more than they love their children.

          Mecca Assured Destruction might be a deterrent.

          Tancredo: If They Nuke Us, Bomb Mecca

          http://www.foxnews.com/story/2005/07/18/tancredo-if-nuke-us-bomb-mecca/

          • MattBracken

            The problem with Mecca MAD is they don’t believe we COULD destroy Mecca. They would not believe it, until it was a crater, so it has no threat value.

          • SCREW SOCIALISM

            I wonder if people have died in Mecca – even during the hajj?

            http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-207155/Hajj-stampede-death-toll-reaches-244.html

            Mecca is imperfect, and not immune to the laws of nuclear physics.

          • MattBracken

            They won’t believe it until they see the crater.

          • WhiteHunter

            Thanks for the link to the Tom Tancredo story from 2005; I missed it at the time. I always thought Tancredo was fabulous, and could never understand why he only got in the very low single digits in the primaries–look at the lousy candidates we got instead!

            He was the kind of Republican we needed more of then, and still need lots more of today. He would have been exactly the right kind of President.

        • JayWye

          to be brief; MAD only works with RATIONAL players,and Iran’s mullah leadership are not rational. they are fanatics and have a martyrdom belief.

          and don’t forget that to Iran,the US is the “Great Satan”,while Israel is only the “lesser Satan”.
          I doubt Israel woud be Iran’s first nuclear target.

          it reminds me of the old Russian joke,about who to deal with first when the USSR invaded Western Europe,the Germans or the Americans. The Russian General screamed at the soldier “The AMERICANS,always the Americans. Business before pleasure.”
          (from Clancy’s Red Storm Rising)

      • SCREW SOCIALISM

        I prefer Mecca Assured Destruction – in retaliation – for starters.

        Bomb the well where the mahdi is sleeping with the fishes.

        • WhiteHunter

          Agreed; I don’t think it should be “mutual” assured destruction, just THEIR assured destruction.

  • montana83

    Shahab 3 missile range is 1,800 to 1,900 km. That easily reaches Israel from virtually anywhere in Iran

    A 1,200 km range missile would be a stretch as the missile would have to be launched at the westernmost part of Iran and leave no room for error.
    Tel Aviv to Tehran is 1,650km or so. Closest point in Iran to Tel Aviv is 1,100 km or so.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahab-3

    • RMThoughts

      Do you think Israeli missiles can reach Iran? MAD kept us out of nuclear war for decades, maybe it will work for Israel.

      • SCREW SOCIALISM

        tehran, qom and mecca and medina are all smaller than Israel.

      • JayWye

        MAD only works with RATIONAL players,and Iran’s mullah leadership are not rational. they are fanatics and have a martyrdom belief.

    • SCREW SOCIALISM

      Israel has the Iron Dome and subs with nukes for a second strike.

    • JayWye

      If Iran launches at Israel,it wil be a “saturation attack” firing dozens of IRBMs,along with having Hezbollah and Hamas firing their shorter-ranged missiles,to overwhelm Israel’s missile defenses. all they need is for ONE nuke to make it through to Tel Aviv.
      also,detonating at only 600 feet AGL wil throw up a LOT of fallout. US missiles detonate at around 5000 ft,I believe,unless they’re set for ground-burst or below-ground detonation.(B-61 bunker-busters)

      also,Iran doesn’t care if a few IRBMs fall short,as long as one makes it to Tel Aviv.

  • wildjew

    Is Iran / Islam the instrument of God’s judgment if the world continues on this path? Is the West (American) breaking God’s everlasting covenant? What is the everlasting covenant? When did God make it and with whom?

    Isa 24:1 Behold, the LORD lays the earth waste, devastates it, distorts its surface and scatters its inhabitants….

    Isa 24:5 The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the +++everlasting covenant++++.

    Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left.

  • RMThoughts

    The Iran bomb scare, play it again Sam, or should we say Bibi.

    • JayWye

      Weapons-Grade Stupid.

      “better to be safe than sorry.”
      after all,we’re talking about possibly the US being nuked.Not just Israel.

    • SCREW SOCIALISM

      Like the paranoia of passenger plane hijackings prior to 9/11.

      • RMThoughts

        And all those Iranians flying the planes.

        • SCREW SOCIALISM

          15 of the 19 hijackers of 9/11 were Saudis.

          None from Fascist Iran, but I do wish Fascist Iran what it declares it wishes for America.

          • JayWye

            ISTR that evidence was found showing that Iran had assisted the 9-11 hijackers.

            Also,Iraq had a passenger jet fuselage set up solely for “anti-hijacking training”,except that nobody in Iraq would ever try to hijack under Saddam. I suspect that fuselage was to train hijackers. Saddam gave terrorists safe harbor,aid and support.

          • kasandra

            The fuselage was at Salman Pak and was clearly visible in overhead imagery even from commercial satellites. Some claim it was for training Iraqi forces to storm hijacked airliners but it was at a base used to train foreign terrorists so who knows?

          • RMThoughts

            Why is Iran any more Facist than Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Monarchies who support ISIS and they want evil to America.

          • kasandra

            Uh, because the Iranian regime pledges “Death to the U.S.” and the Saudis don’t.

          • RMThoughts

            amnazing, we are actively fighting the Saudi ISIS and they are our buddies.

          • SCREW SOCIALISM

            I hope the Saudis and ISIS go to war with each other.

          • RMThoughts

            ISIS is the Saudi Jihadist Army. Iran runs with the Shiites.

          • SCREW SOCIALISM

            You think that ISIS likes the King and princes of Saudi Arabia? – setup by the Brits?

  • tagalog

    Iran can get ICBMs from Russia. So delivery is not a big problem. This commentary does not say much about the triggering of a nuclear device.

    Is there any interpretation of the testing of the explosive capacity of Iran’s testing of the explosive characteristics of tungsten, etc.?

    Why do they need 20% refined U-235? Is that necessary for them to make nuclear powerplants?

    If we are in a quandary about Iran’s nuclear plans, why not just destroy their nuclear facilities? It’s not like they’ve taken any steps to reassure the rest of the world that they’re not about to make nuclear bombs. We could join with Israel and help re-cement the strained bonds we have with that nation, and Israel has past experience with impeding nuclear aspirations in the region.

    • kasandra

      I’ve tried to make this argument before but I believe that Obama wants Iran to have nuclear weapons to preclude the U.S. (and Israel) from having “escalation dominance” over Iran so that neither can dictate to it. How many times has he lectured that “no nation should be able to dictate to another.” By Iran having nuclear weapons, the U.S. loses the ability to dictate to Iran the resolution of future crises. They even don’t have to have ICBMs. They can place a missile in an ersatz shipping container and sail it to within 1200 km. of large U.S. coastal cities. For what it’s worth, Russia, at military trade shows, has already shown missile launchers disguised as shipping containers (see, for example, https://medium.com/war-is-boring/missiles-in-a-box-and-more-at-russias-bizarro-arms-show-ef345d4cf39c).

      • JayWye

        IMO,Iran is not building nuclear weapons just for deterrence. (that’s a lame excuse the anti-war folks like to blab about)
        They plan to USE them.

        • kasandra

          Yes, I am aware of their EMP-related tests. It would be a form of asymmetric warfare as we are far more reliant on computer chips than they are. A successful EMP attack would result in U.S. deaths but not nearly as many as a nuclear exchange making U.S. retaliation problematic.

          • JayWye

            have you read One Second After by William Forstchen?
            it’s a book about the aftermath of a successful EMP attack on the US,,fiction,but based largely on a report from the US Commission on EMP. It’s a very good read,very enlightening (and frightening) about what would happen after an EMP attack.
            That report estimated that up to 90% of the US population would die in the first year after an EMP attack. (from disease and starvation) That would mean the END of the US.

          • kasandra

            I haven’t read that. Sounds dreadful.

          • ConcernedCitizen999

            This is the one video you have to see if you want to understand EMP.

            The most FRIGHTENING dramatization of what would happen if Iran attacks the US with an EMP weapon.

            EMP: A Terrorist’s Dream – 1:24 minutes
            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFZo5PqvEak&feature=related

          • GoingTactical

            I have. EVERY US politician should be required to read it.

    • JayWye

      the 20% MEU is for Iran’s small medical isotope reactors. the powerplants use 3.5% LEU.
      BUT,they’ve made FAR more 20% than they need for those reactors. Enough to make several nuclear bombs….

      also,Iran is building a heavy-water reactor,that can make weapons-grade plutonium,which makes for smaller,more powerful warheads.

    • Bamaguje

      Iran just signed another deal with Russia to build more nuclear power plants. Iran is rich in oil & gas… What do they need nuclear power plants for?
      It’s far cheaper to build and operate gas power plants than nuclear ones.

      Yet Mullah Iran endured punitive economic sanctions for years for nuclear facilities she doesn’t need.
      All of which implies that Iran’s nuclear program isn’t about electricity, but about nuclear weapons.

      • René Martin

        Saudi Arabia signed a deal with China to built 16 nuclear reactors. Saudi Arabia has much more oil than Iran and less than a third of its population. What do they need nuclear power plants for?

        • Bamaguje

          Iran and Saudi Arabia are the topmost Islamist powers – Shiite and Sunni respectively.
          Since Iran is going nuclear, it’s no surprise Saudi Arabia would follow suit, particularly as the U.S. (Bush, Obama) refused to take out Iran’s nuclear facilities.
          A Sunni-Shia nuclear arms race is therefore in the works – Mutually assured Islamist destruction.

          • René Martin

            Saudi Arabia ordered the reactors last year. Having nuclear energy does not equal an arms race.

  • JayWye

    Iran’s first use of a nuclear bomb may not be over Israel,but the US,a HEMP attack. A HEMP attack on the US would set us back to 19th century living conditions we are NOT prepared for,and many millions would die from starvation and disease in the first year. It could mean the end of the US. Iran has been testing SCUD launches from containerships,with HIGH altitude detonations characteristic of an EMP attack,and not usable for attacks with conventional warheads . This type of attack is not needed for Israel,Iran’s IRBMs already can reach Israel. But with the US crippled or destroyed,Iran is free to do as they please,without any other Western nation able or willing to interfere with them.

    Then there’s the other major nuke option;the “Test Baker” scenario.
    But that would only affect NYC or the DC area,not the entire nation as would an EMP attack.

    also,Iran would have to risk their single nuke IRBM against Israel’s missile defenses. It might not get through them,wasting their sole nuclear bomb. Iran gets FAR more results with an EMP attack against the US,with little if any risk to their sole nuke. It’s virtually guaranteed to reach it’s target unopposed. Then they scuttle the container ship right after launch,leaving no trace,no clues as to where the nuke came from. The Atlantic or Canada’s Hudson Bay are not closely monitored and defended against short-ranged missile launches,there’s NOTHING to stop an EMP missile once launched. After all,it’s never going to enter US airspace,no reentry at all,it detonates in space,where no ABM defenses can reach it in time.

    • kasandra

      What makes you think they’d only have a single nuclear armed IRBM?

      • JayWye

        I’m not so sure they would wait to obtain enough HEU for several warheads. I think that once they get enough for the first bomb,they’ll make one and use it right away,before the US or Israel can do anything to stop them.
        I believe they may be working from already-tested plans from Pakistan. (the IAEA had caught them with such plans)
        No need to test their nuke and wake up the US and Israel. Or they may test one in North Korea,so the US thinks the NKs did another test.

        • kasandra

          I think they’d have to have more than one in order to contemplate an attack on Israel as they’d have to target more than just Tel Aviv to avoid a devastating response. They’d have to launch a counter-force attack requiring several missiles and warheads, as well, and allocate more than one warhead per target given Israel’s Arrow ABM system.

  • 11bravo

    The president is just posing with these negotiations. He does not care if Iran goes nuclear. He does not care if Iran helps-or not-with the war on terror. He is only pushing Iran’s goals out to when he is out of office. Iran will just be another country that “has every right” to possess WMD’s. The west’s near monopoly on the technology is just yet another piece of clear evidence of the white man’s imperialism. Our chickens again, are almost home, and we deserve it.
    Besides the fact that I (as well as a huge bi-partisan portion of my fellow citizens) do not believe a word that comes out of our presidents mouth.
    Pretty sad really.

    • SCREW SOCIALISM

      I finally lost all respect for obama when the father of the bergdahl deserter barked some muslim prayer in the Rose Garden.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBrp0VDUvjA

      Watch the smile on Obamas face.

      • SCREW SOCIALISM
      • 11bravo

        I live in the Chicago suburbs. We have known about Obama, and all the rest of the Chicago commies for years.
        We can’t believe the nation fell for this guy.

      • Well Done

        That America allowed such a greasy, non-American non-Christian subversive creep to get into the White House proves that McCarthy was right. But, even then, the left controlled much of the conversation; the word “McCarthyism” was invented to try to shame people who were concerned about the future of Western Civilization. Note that Obama, Jarrett, and many other administration officials do not originate from Western culture.

  • RMThoughts

    Does the IAEA have access to Israel’s nuclear facilities? No? Then why isn’t it complaining about that? Iran has the right under the treaty it signed to nuclear power for electricity and medical reasons. End of story. The US, in particular doesn’t want it to have such nuclear ability because sometime in the future it may turn its nuclear experience and industry to weapons. Oh, you mean like Israel did? Until American hypocrisy is called and all parties in the Levant and area are treated equally then Western criticism is nothing but hot air!

    • SCREW SOCIALISM

      If IslamofFascist irans nuclear program was as benign it you claim, it would be open, above board…

      but its buried deep underground, under mountains, in multiple locations, hidden until opponents of the ayatollah regime leaked their locations.

      And Fascist irans weekly rallies calling for death to America undermine any claim to a peaceful nuclear program.

    • JayWye

      DUH,Israel is NOT a signatory to the NPT,never was. They had their first nukes before the NPT was created. Thus the IAEA has no jurisdiction over Israel’s nuclear facilities.

      • JayWye

        also,under the NPT (that Iran signed),Iran is bound to notify the IAEa BEFORE they begin construction of any nuclear facility,so that monitoring equipment may be properly installed. Iran constructed it’s centrifuges and several nuclear facilities IN SECRET,without IAEA’s knowledge,so they are violations of the NPT. the IAEA only found out about them when Iranian dissidents revealed their existence. AFTER they had started operation.
        And if Iran made some secret sites,they could have made more sites that are still secret.(and not monitored)
        Iran has made a lot more centrifuges than they can account for,according to the IAEA.

    • cree

      The problem is; we are willing to treat all parties equally, as long as we’re sure they will do the same; and we are not sure.

      Unless some real wacko lunatic becomes head of the U.S. or Israel, it is very, very remote that either would ever first strike any other nation with nuclear weapons. With certain muslim nations (Iran especially), they are arguably very likely to use a first strike. It is that that has been the whole dilemma for about a decade and a half.

      The only threats the U.S. and Israel have made towards Iran is to take out their nuclear weapons capability. Why? Because Iran has threatened Israel’s existence. They’ve also threatened the U.S. Iran’s probability to use nuclear weapons ranks very high on most of the world’s radar. Not so with the U.S. and Israel. That makes things real unequal. Waiting to find out if Iran’s nuclear weapons threat is going to be real or not is WW3 dangerous.

      • Well Done

        That’s just the problem; Obama IS a real wacko lunatic. How else could he pussyfoot around Iran as if them working with nuclear material is no big deal?

        • cree

          You do have valid point. What Obama is allowing to happen as with our enemies is allowing the unpredictable. Dangerous idiot.

  • Erudite Mavin

    Yesterday Russia Signs Deal to Build Nuclear Reactors In Iran.

    The enemy, Russia and Iran are joined at the hip in more ways than one.

    http://www.ibtimes.com/russia-signs-deal-build-nuclear-reactors-iran-1722196

    • SCREW SOCIALISM

      A modern day repeat of the Socialist SHlTler/Socialist Stalin non-aggression pact of 1939.

      Allies, thieves, sharing the plunder.

  • sydchaden

    What “international community”? China and Russia both favor the Iranian nuclear development. The Europeans are tripping over each other, in their eagerness to sell anything to Iran that it may wish to buy. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, who, like Israel, are threatened by an Iranian nuclear capability, offer the only Muslim opposition to the Iranian program.

    Obama is the star actor in a charade, in which it is pretended that Iran does not possess nuclear weapon technology. Iran and North Korea have collaborated on their nuclear and missile programs for years. The nuclear tests in North Korea can be viewed as Iranian tests, as well as North Korean.

    The “talks” never mention the North Korean collaboration or tests. Obama prefers to ignore those, because acknowledging them would amount to admitting that he has not carried out his commitment to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapon capability. Saudi Arabia knows that, and, when Obama refused the Saudi demand for action against Iran, Saudi Arabia took steps to acquire its own nuclear weapon capability. Of course, Israel knows it, too.

    The “talks” between the US and Iran only concern the refining of uranium. When the “talks” began, years ago, the US position was that Iran could not refine uranium at all. Russia was agreeable to that, then, and offered to be the provider of uranium to Iran for its nuclear reactors. But, after years of Obama’s “diplomacy”, Iran has all of the centrifuges that it needs to make nuclear weapon material, and US relations with Russia have been “reset” to Cold War status. And so, the US is now attempting to get Iranian agreement to limit Iranian refinement of uranium to a level below “weapon grade”. If Iran agrees, Obama will claim that he has successfully prevented Iran from attaining nuclear weapon capability.

    Actually, the only thing that Obama has successfully done has been to prevent overt Israeli military action against Iran. Obama’s sole success may result in Iranian domination of the MIddle East, and a nuclear attack on Israel. But, liberal American Jews have supported Obama. It isn’t clear if that is due to the “stupidity” that the Democratic brain trust attributes to the American people, or, if it is simply due to the compulsion of liberal American Jews to vote Democratic, regardless of the consequences.

  • WhiteHunter

    Things are going exactly according to Obama’s plan. He and Kerry “negotiate” with and make unilateral concessions to a belligerent, fanatical islamic theocracy that curses us and threatens us and Israel with nuclear obliteration almost daily.

    If the ayatollahs bother to test their new warhead in the desert (rather than just immediately using it against Tel Aviv or Haifa, without bothering to waste one on a test), Obama and Kerry will insist that they’ve been caught by surprise, and had no way of foreseeing the event. (Not surprising, since Obama is known to skip at least 2/3 of his intelligence briefings, and always claims the first he hears of anything is when he reads about it in the WaPo the next day.)

    Then Obama will draw another “red line,” with stern but hollow “warnings” that “any FURTHER development of Iran’s nuclear program will be unacceptable.”

    The ayatollahs will laugh, issue more threats and fatwas against the Great and Little Satans, and more smirking assurances that their bomb program is “for peaceful purposes, to generate electricity” in a “nation” that sits on an ocean of free crude oil.

    Then–one hopes–Benjamin Netanyahu will at the last minute do what everyone has long known needs to be done and should have been done years ago, and go ahead, without asking anybody’s permission, to eliminate the threat. No doubt to the curses of Obama for the “Israeli aggression” and the shrieking fulminations of the Eurocowards and the collection of dictators, cannibals, and terrorists at the U.N.

  • SoCalMike

    If the US ever suffers a crippling EMP attack, I fervently hope one of the agents assigned to Obama’s security detail uses his service pistol on Obama.
    He has been back channeling and French kissing Iran since he came into office in 2008.
    It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see how his policies of geopolitical kitty licking can lead to such a disaster.

  • watsa46

    The US will accept at face value whatever Iran accept to volunteer. this obvious madness.

    So be IT.

  • roger

    The IAEA is absolutely useless, you might as well send a bunch of kindergarten teachers to Iran.

    • Hi there

      What do you have against kindergarten teachers?

      • claspur

        Roger should have said, ‘a bunch of UNers’, huh? ;o)