Worse even, the image below is a mockup display of a P800 on not a military vessel, but a commercial-profile vessel.
Ironically, recent reports (last week) refer to the deployment of 'blimps'.
Posted on 01/29/2014 9:06:46 PM PST by logi_cal869
Iran now has all the technical infrastructure to produce nuclear weapons should it make the political decision to do, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper wrote in a report to a Senate intelligence committee published Wednesday. However, he added, it could not break out to the bomb without being detected.
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In the “US Intelligence Worldwide Threat Assessment,” delivered to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Clapper reported that Tehran has made significant advances recently in its nuclear program to the point where it could produce and deliver nuclear bombs should it be so inclined.
“Tehran has made technical progress in a number of areas — including uranium enrichment, nuclear reactors, and ballistic missiles — from which it could draw if it decided to build missile-deliverable nuclear weapons,” Clapper wrote. “These technical advancements strengthen our assessment that Iran has the scientific, technical, and industrial capacity to eventually produce nuclear weapons. This makes the central issue its political will to do so.”
In the past year alone, the report states, Iran has enhanced its centrifuge designs, increased the number of centrifuges, and amassed a larger quantity of low-enriched uranium hexafluoride. These advancements have placed Iran in a better position to produce weapons-grade uranium.
“Despite this progress, we assess that Iran would not be able to divert safeguarded material and produce enough WGU [weapons grade uranium] for a weapon before such activity would be discovered,” he wrote. Director of National Intelligence (DNI), James Clapper (photo credit: AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
Director of National Intelligence (DNI), James Clapper (photo credit: AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
He said the increased supervision and other “transparency” to which Iran has agreed under the new interim deal, reached with the world powers in Geneva in November and finalized last week, could offer earlier warning of a breakout to the bomb. Should Iran cooperate with the interim deal, halt enrichment, and “provide transparency,” then “This transparency would provide earlier warning of a breakout using these facilities.”
Clapper told the Senate committee that the interim deal will have an impact on Iran’s nuclear weapons program’s progress and “gets at the key thing we’re interested in and most concerned about,” namely, Iran’s 20 percent enriched uranium.
Iran had also worked hard to advance its program at the Arak heavy water facility, wrote Clapper. Its ballistic missiles, he noted, of which it has “the largest inventory in the Middle East,” are “inherently capable of delivering WMD.” And its space program gives it the means to develop longer-range missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles.
“We do not know if Iran will eventually decide to build nuclear weapons,” Clapper wrote. But he noted that Iran’s overarching “strategic goals” were leading it to pursue the capability to do so.
The national intelligence director reiterated that imposing additional sanctions against Iran would be “counterproductive” and would “jeopardize the [interim] agreement.” He advised that additional sanctions against the Islamic Republic should only be kept “in reserve.”
The report was released a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the interim nuclear agreement only set back the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program by six weeks.
“This agreement merely set Iran back six weeks — no more — according to our assessments, in relation to its previous position, so that the test, as to denying Iran the ability to manufacture nuclear weapons, has been and remains the permanent agreement, if such [a deal] can indeed be achieved,” Netanyahu said at a conference of the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.
Last Wednesday, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused the Obama administration of mischaracterizing the terms of an interim nuclear deal. “We did not agree to dismantle anything,” Zarif told CNN.
Zarif repeated that “we are not dismantling any centrifuges, we’re not dismantling any equipment, we’re simply not producing, not enriching [uranium] over 5%.”
The six-month deal freezes key aspects of Iran’s nuclear program, while allowing limited enrichment to continue, in exchange for some economic sanctions relief. It went into effect on January 20.
The next round of international nuclear negotiations with Iran is expected to be held in New York next month, according to officials involved in the planning.
Israel has threatened to attack Iran should it not back off from its alleged pursuit of a military nuclear capability.
On Tuesday, UN nuclear inspectors arrived in Tehran to visit Iran’s Gachin uranium mine for the first time in several years, Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said. The visit was part of the framework of a separate deal between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency in November.
Read more: Iran can now build and deliver nukes, US intel reports | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-now-has-nuclear-breakout-capability-us-intel-reports/#ixzz2rr4g4eeN Follow us: @timesofisrael on Twitter | timesofisrael on Facebook
I’d be more inclined to take comfort in that if the Iranian leadership didn’t believe in martyrdom and madhis.
It is very hard to threaten suicide bombers.
I’m worried too. MAD worked with the Soviets because they were reasonably sane by our standards. Different political views, but still fundamentally sane. Not so with radical Islam. They believe it is their Allah-assigned duty to destroy Israel and they will be rewarded. No thought, no concern for earthly consequences. So while having a counter-strike capability is necessary (to ultimately stop them once weapons start flying) it will not deter them. I believe nothing will. That is why missile defense is vitally important - it will be needed. It will be used.
World War III...coming soon to a nation near you!
Exactly. They believe the world needs to be washed in blood for order to be established. How can you possibly negotiate with someone like that?
we have become dangerously weakened. WE should have taken these fanatics word years ago when they threatened to destroy Israel and wipe out the great satan.
When we had MAD with the soviets we knew they had tens of millions killed last century and didn’t seem to have a taste for nuclear war. But these fanatics in IRan are not influenced by those concerns.
When the Hero of Benghazi ran he said he would sit down and talk to them, but they are giving nothing in return. Meanwhile the clock ticks as they build up their capabilities.
My one objection to going into Iraq is that we should have gone into Iran instead.
You do understand that the mullahs view a nuclear war differently than the old Soviets (who were primarily concerned with the defense of the Motherland)?
To the mullahs nuclear war is a religious obligation. Massive blood must be spilled to bring the 12th Iman out of the well, ushering in the end of the human race which will reside in Paradise thereafter.
The mullahs do not care how many Iranians die, as those deaths would be viewed as martyrs sent to Paradise. Ayatollah Khomeini laid the foundations for that religious point of view on nuclear war Iranian deaths.
The mullahs see their citizens as cannon fodder - to be used and disposed of in any effective manner to achieve the religious end result. Any one who is not in the mullahs sect is the enemy and a means to an end, just ask the thousands of children who rode motorbikes through mine fields, clearing them one child's life at a time.
To the pact at hand: it only applies to the civilian or public side of the Iranian nuclear program - the military is free to proceed uninspected and unimpeded. And just what Obama agreed to in the secret part of the pact, no one - other than the immediate signatories - knows.
The Gulf Arab nations are the Iranian target.
They want the twin prizes of wealth and Mecca
At the time it was mentioned I believe the axis of evil was actually Syria, Iran, and North Korea. It’s been known for decades that Syria is a puppet state of Iran anyway. In my opinion the Iranians will just continue outsourcing their nuclear program to North Korea. The North Koreans are known to cooperate with Iran on missiles and nukes. That way the program continues and IAEA inspectors would never find anything in Iran.
That’s not the basis for my comment. I don’t care where they hide stuff, they should have been subjected to “regime” change. Soon we will have NK to deal with.
In the last 10 years, the whole balance of power has shifted, some away from us because we don’t have the will to turn off the TV.
Just curious: What part of missile defense stops a missile launched from a tanker 500 miles offshore?
Moslems only make treaties when they are weak, and aborogate them as soon as they again have the advantage.
Us? As far as I know nothing. We used to have radars watching the oceans looking for Soviet submarine launched ICBMs. Don't know if they are still operating. I haven't heard of any deployments of defensive batteries (Patriot, Hawk, THAAD, or Aegis/BMD ships) to coastal areas where we'd get a shot at it, even if we saw it coming.
That hasn't been a priority (I guess) - more worried about countering the developing threat of ICBM launches out of NK or Iran. But with the ongoing proliferation of better and better short and medium range ballistic missiles, and unstable states developing deliverable WMD warheads... Yeah, I think closing the border and watching the oceans again are going to have to become priorities. Along with deploying systems that'd have a shot at something if it was detected.
“You do understand that the mullahs view a nuclear war differently than the old Soviets (who were primarily concerned with the defense of the Motherland)?”
in actuality, I agree with the points you made. however, since I personally can’t do much about it, I have the luxury of saying just as Obama can look right in the camera and lie to us in order to get some to believe him, it’s possible Iranian leaders like their positions of power and talk the talk they do to keep their citizens in line.
The use Palestinian thugs for that job.
The mullahs are True Believers - a Shiite sect - and they truly do believe every word.
Is the country truly worth saving any more?
Thanks logi_cal869.
Worse even, the image below is a mockup display of a P800 on not a military vessel, but a commercial-profile vessel.
Ironically, recent reports (last week) refer to the deployment of 'blimps'.
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