INTERVIEW - U.S. steps up questions on Iran nuclear programme

[seemslikeadream]

http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-09-23T074539Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-268953-1.xml&archived=False

By Mark Trevelyan, Security Correspondent

OXFORD, England (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte said it was a "major question" whether Iran was running a secret military programme but stopped short of accusing Tehran outright.

His comments came late on Friday as major powers at the United Nations sought to narrow their differences over sanctions against Iran, which Washington believes wants to develop nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian atomic energy programme.

"We believe that Iran practises denial and deception. So they devote a lot of effort, we believe, to keeping us in the dark about what their real intentions are," Negroponte told Reuters and the International Herald Tribune in an interview.

"So there's always more work and effort that is needed to try and understand what they are doing in the nuclear area, like for example, a major question: do they have a secret military programme, or is the only activity that they've got the activity that has been declared to the United Nations?

"That's a very, very important question," the director of national intelligence added in the interview on the sidelines of a conference run by think-tank Oxford Analytica.

Iran runs a civilian nuclear programme including enrichment of uranium. But it would require a parallel military programme if it were to develop a nuclear warhead -- an ambition which it strongly denies

[Webster Green]

1. Negroponte = pure evil

Fucking war criminal

[ixion]

2. "We believe that Iran practises denial and deception."

takes one to know one, you reptillian thug. :grr:

[Blue State Bandit]

3. An open tech question, possible policy angle

Is it not passable to trace post reacted nuclear material thru signatures left by specific processes of refinement, origination of raw material, method of deployment (designs unique characteristic effecting it's ultimate aftermath), or other tell tail signatures left by a nuclear blast?

I ask this because I have an idea on how to deal with the growing conflict over Mid-East/So.West Asian countries "quest" for nuclear power. It's a bit tricky, and admittedly incomplete, and, includes a single harsh term. But I believe, if we do take the House, and at least narrow the Senate to one short or split with Cheney as the tiebreaker, we would gain the ability to publicly strong arm the executive branch in a manner that the world would clearly see as "the people" fighting back without ceding an inch on national security. Worded and executed properly, this could possibly give fence sitters pause while garnering respect with a sign of benevolent strength coupled with humility( a bit of a hi-wire act I admit).

We offer Iran the carrot of accepting their right to build a power plant, but they must provide for inspection all of their materials. They may only have one facility, and it must include a sizable IAEA management team with a strong US presence, in all aspects of the operation, from procurement and fabrication of parts and fuel, to the generation and distribution out of facility to it's first sub-stations and waste disposal. With such access, we could monitor any identifiable signatures produced,or even demand to introduce marker isotopes into the fuel.

We already know how they plan to build their bomb, if they even want to after this, so that is another way to ID any misuse of the material.

If we could reasonably determine that we could trace the signature of any nuclear attack on the US or our interests in a reasonable time period (a few weeks tops), we make this offer with the stipulation that if we find out that they provided for, or conducted an attack on us, we would be duty bound to nuke them out of existence. I realize that it is harsh, but if we can regain our "honest broker" status, and we can make them understand that such a big carrot necessitates a big stick, it might just work.

Then we should set out to attempt to place NPP's in a neutral, unpopulated central local (SW Iraq) as a hub to supply Iran Syria Jordan Saudi Arabia and Egypt, that way, the materials can be better controlled.

It's an idea?