Comments on: Making NIE

By: Yankev

Yankev — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 16:58:55 +0000

David Foster points out:
“The report, at least in its unclassified version, does not deal at all with the question of why an oil-rich country would devote such a huge chunk of money to nuclear power if its intentions were purely peaceable.”

Caroline Glick points out that the peaceful program, just like the military program, is being carried out by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Yeah, every country puts paramilitary forces in charge of its utility programs.

By the way, David, in connection with your observation about the German civilian aviation program: the NRA was formed by former US army officers after the civil war for the expressed purpose of easing the transition from citizen to soldier. NRA instructors have had major roles in designing training programs for the US in the use of anti-aircraft weapons and artillery, as well as rifle and pistol.

By: Gary Rosen

Gary Rosen — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 06:39:31 +0000

” “The source is no longer functioning.” What does that mean?”

Somebody got “craned”.

By: Michael Lonie

Michael Lonie — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 04:26:02 +0000

Quite so CHSW, and that bomb did not need testing. It was so simple that the “test” was dropping it on the target itself. It was only the later plutonium bomb that had to be tested in New Mexico before we could be sure it would work. By extension, Iran’s “test” of a Uranium bomb could be when it falls on Tel Aviv.

In 2005 the intel pros were “highly confident” that Iran had a nuke weapons program going on. In 2007 they are “highly confident” that this program had stopped in 2003. If it stopped in 2003 why didn’t the intel services pick up evidence of that halt in 2005?

If the Iranian nuke program was not for weapons, it would not have had to be covert and secret. That was the whole idea of the Nonproliferation Treaty, so that such nuke programs for peaceful uses could be open and helped by existing nuclear powers. The fact that Iran’s progam was and is secret is a glaring piece of evidence that it is a weapons program.

Where is the Bureau of Weights and Measures Field Operations Division when you really need it?

By: chsw

chsw — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 03:35:33 +0000

There is a remarkable lack of scientific knowledge in this NIE. The first atomic bomb – the Hiroshima bomb – consisted simply of fissile uranium with a very simple trigger mechanism. As long as Iran keeps those centrifuges refining Iran’s uranium, then the potential for this type of bomb is there. In other words, the thousands of centrifuges, in and of themselves, constitute a weapons program.

chsw

By: david foster

david foster — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 23:46:01 +0000

The report, at least in its unclassified version, does not deal at all with the question of why an oil-rich country would devote such a huge chunk of money to nuclear power if its intentions were purely peaceable. From a strictly economic point of view, it would make much more sense to invest in petroleum-fed process plants for making plastics, chemicals, gasoline, etc.

During the 1930s, Germany had a large “non-military” aviation program, encompassing airline expansion as well as the encouragement of gliding as a sport. A glider pilot can be trained as a military pilot more rapidly than a random individual off the street, and an airline pilot much more rapidly so. Just like reactor-grade fuel can be enriched to weapons-grade, using the same centrifuges and expertise that produced it in the first place, much more rapidly than the weapons-grade fuel could be produced from a standing start.

By: Yankev

Yankev — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 21:53:31 +0000

Meryl, according to a story on today’s Melanie Phillips Diary, many of the people who worked on the new NIE are not even intelligence agents, but recent transplants from the Department of State, with no special training or expertise in intelligence matters.