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According to a RAND report, the United States and the world have blown the chance to prevent an Iranian nuclear weapon.  Half a year ago, US air strikes and a no-fly zone might have prevented a nuclear bomb in the hands of the martyrdom ideology of Khomeinist Iran.  That window has now slammed shut.  In about 8 weeks, the RAND report concludes, Iran will have the nuclear material for its first bomb. RAND Corporation's Gregory S. Jones believes that Iran has produced almost 40 kilograms of uranium enriched near 20% percent.  Jones suggests that air strikes can no longer stop Ahmadinejad's...

The Iranian nuclear threat is much ado about nothing, says reporter Seymour Hersh. Writing in the latest issue of the New Yorker, the professional left-wing cynic ignores numerous signs that the Islamic Republic is dead set on achieving nuclear-weapons capability and claims there is “a large body of evidence … suggesting that the United States could be in danger of repeating a mistake similar to the one made with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq eight years ago - allowing anxieties about the policies of a tyrannical regime to distort our estimations of the state’s military capacities and intentions.” For Mr. Hersh, it’s...

The Spring Revolution By Ari Bussel Not much information is allowed out of Syria, other than pronunciations that “foreign elements are at work and must be quashed, while anyone peacefully protesting is protected.” Syria is launching an independent investigation as to the events unfolding, mimicking the UN inquiry. The results of both could not be further apart, teaching that the best defense is a good offense. Yesterday, a headline in an Israeli newspaper quoted a Syrian protestor calling for Israel to conquer Syria. The End of Days, a Syrian revolutionary looking for salvation from Israel? Clearly, no Arab is afraid...

"Hollywood remake of Red Dawn spends $1m to change villains from Chinese to North Koreans... so as not to offend Beijing" Hollywood film-makers have changed the villains in a re-make of the film Red Dawn to avoid offending China and spoiling its chances of success at the box office. The original action film starring Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen featured Russian troops invading America. In the remake Chinese troops lead the invasion - but bosses at MGM studio are to spend more than $1 million on digital special effects to make it appear the invaders are from North Korea.

India's policy on Iran has been to maintain seemingly healthy but low-key relations, while conforming with UN Security Council Resolutions pertaining to Iran's nuclear development program... A senior Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) official notified PolCouns on April 15 that Iranian President Ahmadinejad will visit India on April 29. The official said she was providing the Embassy with this information prior to the MEA informing even other agencies within the Indian government, and before the information was to become public. She noted that Prime Minister Singh had rejected previous requests either to visit Tehran or for Ahmadinejad to visit India,...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Israel is a regime born out of “several hundred years of plotting” to provide the West with a stronghold in the Middle East. “Many Western colonialists who aimed to gain domination over Muslim nations … but failed to gain long-term and permanent control, effectively established a base in the region” through creating the Israeli regime, ISNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying on Tuesday. The West is using Israel to “constantly sow discord among nations in the region in order to keep its grip over it,” he added. The remarks were made during a meeting with a...

Strategic Logic on the Korean Peninsula Headed Toward War 12/7/10 By Victor Cha, Senior Adviser and Korea Chair, CSIS There is a real possibility of war on the Korean Peninsula. The cause is not a second North Korean invasion of the South like in June 1950, which was successfully deterred by U.S. and South Korean forces. The danger stems from two combustible trends: A North Korea which mistakenly believes it is invulnerable to retaliation due to its nascent nuclear capabilities, and a South Korea that feels increasingly compelled to react with military force to the string of ever more brash...

China Joins the Axis of Evil Pyongyang's nuclear program would have been impossible without Beijing. BY BRET STEPHENS Last month, U.S. nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker paid his fourth visit to North Korea, where he was granted a tour of some of the hermit kingdom's nuclear facilities. Think WikiLeaks is bad? Compared to what the former director of the Los Alamos lab saw, it's nothing. Mr. Hecker was given a tour of a construction site where Pyongyang intends to build a 100-megawatt reactor. Next he was taken to a uranium enrichment facility. "The first look through the windows of the observation...

A bizarre plot by North Korea to attack the G20 summit using balloons filled with biological or chemical weapons emerged last night. The claim that ageing tyrant Kim Jong-Il will attempt to disrupt the gathering -- attended by David Cameron and other world leaders -- has been taken seriously by Western diplomats. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has asked China, North Korea's chief ally, to rein in Kim. And security is now at red alert for the conference in the South Korean capital Seoul. Kim Jong-Un, Kim's third son and expected successor, is thought to have been ordered to...

Iranian president makes comments on Israel, capitalism and the death penalty whilst on visit to New York for UN General Assembly. NEW YORK – Stating that Iran would never recognize the “Zionist regime,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke his mind freely on Monday and Tuesday while in New York for the United Nations General Assembly meetings, commenting on capitalism, the Holocaust and a potential war that “knows no limits” to various audiences. Ahmadinejad is to address the General Assembly on Thursday, but spoke to other audiences in the days leading up to his speech. Speaking before a group of Muslim...

A powerful Afghan insurgent leader and a man identified as Osama Bin Laden's financial adviser purchased ground-to-air missiles from North Korea in 2005, according to an uncorroborated U.S. intelligence report released by Wikileaks on Sunday. "On 19 November 2005, Hezb-Islami party leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar [sic] and Dr. Amin [no last name], Osama Bin Ladin's financial advisor, both flew to North Korea departing from Iran," the undated report said. "While in North Korea, the two confirmed a deal with the North Korean government for remote controlled rockets for use against American and coalition aircraft," said the report, whose origin could not...

In June 2009, the North Korean government congratulated Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his re-election. The de facto head of state, Kim Yong-Nam, said that he “sincerely wished [Ahmadinejad] success in his responsible work to frustrate pressure and interference of outsiders and build [an] independent and prosperous Iran." Kim also said that Ahmadinejad's electoral victory demonstrated the people’s support of the Iranian president and expressed his hope that Iran would succeed in countering foreign interference in its domestic affairs.[1] Nuclear: According to Kim Chong Ryong, North Korea’s ambassador to Tehran, Pyongyang supports Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear technology and recognizes...

SATIRE — Conference realignment has been the buzz word of the college football offseason and a huge source of confusion for most sports fans. To sum up the recent changes: Colorado left the Big 12 for the Pac-10, making the Pac-10 actually the Pac-11 and reducing the Big 12 down to the Big 11. Then the Big Ten (which really had 11 teams) added Nebraska making the Big Ten effectively the Big Twelve and leaving the conference formerly known as the Big 12 with just ten teams. Then Utah joined the Pac-11 to make it the Pac-12 and we thought...

Western intelligence sources said the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad has overseen the accumulation of a huge missile arsenal along the border with Lebanon. The sources said the arsenal included Scud C and Scud D missiles, with ranges of 550 and 700 kilometers, respectively. "The Scuds are kept just inside Syrian territory to avoid an Israeli attack," an intelligence source said. The sources said the Syrian military has been training the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah to operate the Scuds. They said some of the Scud missile infrastructure has been transferred to Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley. "If the Syrians want to, they...

<p>VIENNA — Iran has amassed more than two tons of enriched uranium, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday in a report that heightened Western concerns about the country preparing to produce a nuclear weapon.</p> <p>Two tons of uranium would suffice for two nuclear warheads, although Iran says it does not want weapons and is only pursuing civilian nuclear energy.</p>

International efforts to avert a full-blown crisis on the Korean peninsula were given greater urgency today after a leaked UN report claimed that North Korea is defying UN sanctions and using front companies to export nuclear and missile technology to Iran, Syria and Burma. The report, by a panel that monitors sanctions imposed after Pyongyang conducted nuclear weapons tests in 2006 and 2009, said the regime was using shell companies and overseas criminal networks to export the technology. The revelations came just hours before the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, arrived in South Korea for a three-day visit certain to be...

North Korean spokesmen reacted furiously last week to claims by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman that Pyongyang is supplying weapons technology to Iran and Syria. Representatives of the regime of Kim Jong-Il described Lieberman as an “imbecile.” The official Korean Central News Agency in a memorable phrase accused the foreign minister in an official statement of “faking up sheer lies.” The indignant denials notwithstanding, recent studies indicate that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, as North Korea is officially known, is indeed playing a crucial but little remarked upon role in facilitating the arming of the Iran-led regional axis, including in...

China, Iran and North Korea have established a strategic alliance that focuses on missile and nuclear development, according to a new report. The report said that Beijing, Pyongyang and Teheran were helping each other in missile and nuclear programs. The report, titled "China, Iran and North Korea: A Triangular Strategic Alliance," by Israel's GLORIA Center said China and North Korea were the key suppliers of Scud-based ballistic missiles to Iran's military, the target of Western sanctions. "This flurry of activities underscored the growing proliferation threats posed by DPRK [North Korea] assistance to Iran's missile capabilities, which has also led to...

SEOUL, South Korea – An explosion from a torpedo likely sank a South Korean warship that went down near the tense border with North Korea last month, the South's defense minister said Sunday amid growing speculation Pyongyang may be behind the blast. Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said the most likely cause of the disaster was a torpedo exploding near the ship, with the force of the underwater blast ripping the vessel apart. Investigators who examined salvaged wreckage separately announced Sunday that a close-range, external explosion likely sank it. "Basically, I think the bubble jet effect caused by a heavy torpedo...

South Korea on Saturday raised the front half of a warship that exploded and sank a month ago near a contested sea border with North Korea, finding clues that support growing suspicions Pyongyang attacked the vessel. The 1,200-tonne corvette Cheonan sank in what military officials said was a torpedo attack. Forty-six South Korean sailors were killed in what could be one of the deadliest strikes by Pyongyang on its rival since the end of the Korean War. The North denies involvement. South Korea's president on Friday gave the clearest signal yet Seoul had no plan to launch a revenge attack,...