Kochavi: Iran has uranium for 4 nuclear bombs (Head of IDF Intelligence)

Jerusalem Post ^ | February 2, 2012 | Yaakov Katz

[C19fan]

ran has created a stockpile of enriched uranium that could be used to manufacture four nuclear weapons, head of the IDF's Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi said on Thursday.

Speaking at the Herzliya Conference, Kochavi said that once Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made the decision to go to the so-called "breakout stage" and begin enriching uranium to military-grade levels, it would take the Iranians a year to make a crude device and another year or two to manufacture a nuclear warhead that can be installed on a ballistic missile.

[Old Sarge]

[bgill]

Time to check on the preps.

[Strategerist]

Seems plausible but I would guess it would take longer than 1-2 years after the first crude device to get something small enough for a missile warhead.

[Capt. Tom]

Seems plausible but I would guess it would take longer than 1-2 years after the first crude device to get something small enough for a missile warhead.

They can also work on airplane, boat, or vehicle methods to deliver the atomic bombs to Israel. - tom

[ducttape45]

Please, with all the help they are getting from Russia, China and North Korea they don’t HAVE to create a warhead, one is just given to them.

[gandalftb]

Not likely.

The Iranians are only stock-piling at 20% enrichment, weapons grade is beyond that.

Over and over again, some official, usually Israeli, tries to scare the world with Iranian nuke possibilities. Yes the Iranians could do this and that, yadda yadda.

They have not decided to go beyond 20%, doing so causes emissions that we can detect.

The stock-pile grows, that if further enriched to 90%+, could fuel about 2 bombs a year and they have enough 20% for one right now.

They aren’t building bombs yet, but they will and we will know when they go past 20%. And there will be another “crisis”.

Then Iran will build a bomb, and we won’t know until they light it off, and there will be another “crisis”.

And another “crisis”, hand-ringing, I-told-you-so’s from the Israelis, on and on.

The Iranians are crazy, but they are not stupid. Using a nuke to attack someone gets their mullahs and Republican Guards exterminated. They know this.

Iraq and Afghanistan on Iran’s borders now have new governments courtesy of America. Iran had a ring-side seat, they were paying attention.

Their purpose is to aggravate Israeli and American leaders so that Iran can claim Muslim leadership. Next Iran will sell nukes worldwide to further that leadership.

Containment, containment, containment. Israel is not going to attack them and Israel is not going to goad us into doing so.

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

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[M Kehoe]

Good evening.

Things could go hot very quickly, if the Persians miscalculate...even with 0bama...

Then again, there's these prophecy things in the Bible...(Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth). All of it gives me a bad feeling...

5.56mm

[SJackson]

Wouldn’t be the first time our enemies miscalculated. Perceived Obama weakness makes it more likely. If he thinks action will lead to a second term, and Americans tend to support a President during war, at least early on, the mullahs will have a serious problem. And polls, that’s what Obama/Axelrod go by, seem to support an Iran strike. Probably on the theory that it’s a Libya/bin Ladin style operation. Which it will not be, that fight may come to our shores.

[PghBaldy]

They have been actively working on this since the mid-1980s, if not before, IIRC. Funny thing is, the 2000s, it always seems to be just around the corner (6 months, a year, two years). Ironically, I wonder if the Revolution has led to many of the problems in development of a bomb- estrangement from the international community, exodus of learned Iranians etc.

[familyop]

"They have not decided to go beyond 20%, doing so causes emissions that we can detect."

That's incorrect. Our Air Force cannot detect emissions from stored and concealed enriched uranium from the air. We can't even accurately detect to determine types of small shots that are done in certain kinds of man-made caves.

[familyop]

"Time to check on the preps."

I would also suggest energy self-sufficiency for all who can do it, along with a steel trash can or two with alternating layers of conductors and insulation with a ground attached to each of the cans (for backup gadgets--vehicle computers, inverters, controllers, parts and the like).

There are many in both political parties, who are afraid that defense actions could cause upward fluctuations in oil (e.g., freight fuel) and downward dollar trends in this so-called economy. Many political folks are afraid that defense actions would sooner threaten their government-derived incomes with layoffs of government social/regulatory employees, inflation, slower services revenues, etc. Those market trends are going to happen anyway, and waiting too long for defense measures could allow our enemies to cause disasters.

[gandalftb]

“That’s incorrect. Our Air Force cannot detect emissions from stored and concealed enriched uranium from the air.”

I didn’t refer to the Air Force. When Uranium 235 tries to become lead, it gives off gamma rays, very high energy and able to pass through our planet.

They can be by underground detector facilities that we maintain around the planet that compare spectroscopic peaking with each other. Triangulating gives locations and time charting tells us when the emissions begin at a particular location.

Great info here:

http://www.princeton.edu/~aglaser/lecture2007_detection.pdf

[familyop]

Thanks. Gamma rays can be blocked for concealment, though. Here’s another piece in regards to detection (with the partnership between Iran and N. Korea in mind).

Isotopes hint at North Korean nuclear test(fusion boost test in 2010?)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2842845/posts