Time: Iranian Bombshell? US readying new intelligence briefing for UN

[Rose Siding]

Bush Administration officials are readying a new intelligence briefing for council members on Tehran's weapons programs.
By ELAINE SHANNON
SUBSCRIBE TO TIMEPRINTE-MAILMORE BY AUTHOR
Posted Sunday, Mar. 05, 2006
As the U.N. security Council prepares to debate Iran's nuclear ambitions—perhaps as early as next week—Bush Administration officials are readying a new intelligence briefing for council members on Tehran's weapons programs. It will rely mainly on circumstantial evidence, much of it from documents found on a laptop purportedly purloined from an Iranian nuclear engineer and obtained by the CIA in 2004. U.S. officials insist the material is strong but concede they have no smoking gun.

They do, however, have diagrams that they believe show components of a nuclear bomb. According to a Western diplomat familiar with the U.S. intel brief, a Farsi-language PowerPoint presentation on the laptop has "catchy graphics," including diagrams of a hollow metallic sphere 2 ft. in diameter and weighing about 440 lbs. Other documents show a sphere-shaped array of tiny detonators. No file specifically refers to a nuclear bomb, but U.S. officials say the design of the sphere—an outer shell studded with small chemical-explosive charges meant to detonate inward, which would squeeze an inner core of material into a critical mass—is akin to that of classic devices like Fat Man, the atom bomb dropped on Nagasaki during World War II. "Because of the size and weight and the power source going into it and height-of-burst requirements," says the diplomat, Western experts have concluded that the design "is only intended to contain a nuclear weapon. There's no other munition which would work." A report issued last week by Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), says Iranian officials have dismissed a number of the laptop documents as fabricated.

Intelligence of this kind helped secure the backing of Russia and China in last month's IAEA vote to refer Iran to the Security Council. Western officials hope the new briefing will win council support for further action; most of them see no viable alternative to U.N. efforts to try to gain Iran's compliance. As a Western diplomat puts it, "There's a military option—but not a military solution."

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1169860,00.html

[Mikimouse]

1. I have to wonder if Colin Powell will come back to do the...

presentation to the UN general assembly. after all, it worked so well last time. Who cares that it was all lies?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. What is the reason for the militarily buildups around the world?? Why

none other than the great trendsetter that sets the ultimate example.... is it good to have lunatics arming themselves to the teeth?? No more good than it is having them think that they must in order to survive.

[RC]

3. Most likely a compressor for to blow up

weather balloons. :sarcasm:

Ain't we heard a version this story before about Iraq?

[Toots]

4. "Fixing" more intelligence to fit their policies

LIES and more LIES is all that ever comes from this Cabal. Why do they believe the world should find them credible when they have never been to date?

[Pirate Smile]

5. NYT Editoral today - Iran's Best Friend (George W Bush)

Iran's Best Friend

Published: March 5, 2006

At the rate that President Bush is going, Iran will be a global superpower before too long. For all of the axis-of-evil rhetoric that has come out of the White House, the reality is that the Bush administration has done more to empower Iran than its most ambitious ayatollah could have dared to imagine. Tehran will be able to look back at the Bush years as a golden era full of boosts from America, its unlikely ally.

-snip-
Washington has now become dangerously dependent on the good will and constructive behavior of Shiite fundamentalist parties that Iran sheltered, aided and armed during the years that Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq. In recent weeks, neither good will nor constructive behavior has been particularly evident, and if Iran chooses to stir up further trouble to deflect diplomatic pressures on its nuclear program, it could easily do so.

-snip-
Fast-forward to Thursday's nuclear deal with India, in which President Bush agreed to share civilian nuclear technology with India despite its nuclear weapons programs and its refusal to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

-snip-
The India deal is exactly the wrong message to send right now, just days before Washington and its European allies will be asking the International Atomic Energy Agency to refer Iran's case to the United Nations Security Council for further action. Iran's hopes of preventing this depend on convincing the rest of the world that the West is guilty of a double standard on nuclear issues. Mr. Bush might as well have tied a pretty red bow around his India nuclear deal and mailed it as a gift to Tehran.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x194867

[IndianaGreen]

6. Another pack of lies delivered by war criminal John Bolton

The US has as much credibility as Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan! Not only I won't believe anything the US government has to say about WMDs, but even in the event it were true that Iran had nukes, I wouldn't care either!

Thanks to our dictator Bush, acquiring atomic weapons are now a legitimate self-defense measure by countries fearful of US invasion.

[madrchsod]

7. nothing will happen at the un. since bush violated

both our law and the international treaty the un will do nothing. what will happen is that gasoline prices will become so high in the usa that there will be a massive downturn in the economy but this would happen just in time for the november elections..so nothing is going to happen until after november.

[Old and In the Way]

8. Laptop evidence?

BS. I believe nothing this administration says anymore. OK to sell nuclear components to India and our Port control to the UAE...but our evidence of Iran's plans for a nuke is a PowerPoint presentation?

Impeach these clowns.

[intheozone]

9. What countries make up the Security Council now days?

Is India and Pakistan on the council. If so, we know why the chimp paid them a visit and caved on India's nuclear program and the Iran/India pipeline. Buying votes with nuclear technology?

I HATE this administration and every last thing it has done and will do before we bring it down! :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[High Plains]

10. Ha Ha Ha. Like anybody is going to believe anything the US

says.

[Starfury]

11. Looks like a "slam dunk!" n/t