Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration is weighing options for sharp new cuts to the U.S. nuclear force, including a reduction of up to 80 percent in the number of deployed weapons, The Associated Press has learned. Even the most modest option now under consideration would be an historic and politically bold disarmament step in a presidential election year, although the plan is in line with President Barack Obama's 2009 pledge to pursue the elimination of nuclear weapons. No final decision has been made, but the administration is considering at least three options for lower total numbers of deployed strategic...

A U.S. envoy will hold talks with North Korea on its nuclear program in Beijing next week, the first such negotiations since the death of the nation's longtime leader Kim Jong Il. Glyn Davies, the U.S. envoy on North Korea, will meet Feb. 23 with North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters Monday. It will be the third round of bilateral talks since last summer, aimed at restarting six-nation aid-for-disarmament negotiations on North Korea's nuclear program. The reclusive nation pulled out of the multi-nation talks in 2009. But it will be...

NEW DELHI –The wife of an Israeli diplomat in New Delhi and her driver were injured on Monday when the car they were traveling in was bombed, officials said. A second attempted bombing was defused outside the Israeli embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia, at about the same time. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately blamed Iran, which has vowed revenge for the recent assassinations of several scientists involved in Iran’s nuclear program. Hezbollah, which receives funding and strong support from Iran, also had promised to avenge the assassination of one...

Iran's leader issued a new threat to the West yesterday – warning that his country would soon unveil ‘big new nuclear achievements’. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did not elaborate on the announcement – but insisted Iran would never give up its uranium enrichment process. Western powers, including Britain and the United States, suspect the country’s nuclear programme is aimed at producing atomic weapons.

Anxieties are mounting as nuclear weapons make their way into unstable regions. In a SPIEGEL ONLINE interview, US disarmament expert Richard Burt discusses the growing risk of their use, why allowing Iran to get the bomb could trigger a Sunni-Shiite arms race and how an attack could make citizens demand a police state. [...] The problem with Iran is not that there is necessarily going to be an Israeli-Iranian nuclear conflict. In fact, I think the Israelis would probably deter the Iranians from using nuclear weapons. But the danger is that once Iran acquires these weapons, there's the potential for...

Saudia Arabia would move quickly to acquire nuclear weapons if Iran successfully tests an atomic bomb, according to a report. Citing an unidentified Saudi Arabian source, the Times newspaper in the U.K. (which operates behind a paywall) said that the kingdom would seek to buy ready-made warheads and also begin its own program to enrich weapons-grade uranium. The paper suggested that Pakistan was the country most likely to supply Saudi Arabia with weapons, saying Western officials were convinced there was an understanding between the countries to do so if the security situation in the Persian Gulf gets worse. Pakistan and...

-excerpt- Diplomats said the measures, which were adopted in Brussels by the EU's 27 foreign ministers, include an immediate embargo on new contracts for crude oil and petroleum products, while existing contracts will be allowed to run until July.

Oh, dear. Still another Iranian nuclear scientist has met with a fatal accident. Accidents will happen, especially in the Middle East and to Iran's nuclear scientists. What a pity. And just as the mullahs are getting closer and closer to having a nuke of their own to play with. First a lowly computer worm named Stuxnet (who deserves a Medal of Freedom) injected its mathematical self into all those centrifuges the Iranians are counting on to produce their nuclear fuel. Now their top nuclear scientists seem to be disappearing one by one in a different kind of chain reaction.

Yukiya Amano says Iran has failed to clarify its atomic development activities to the satisfaction of the United Nations nuclear watchdog body -- and now it's his job to warn the world about its possible military intentions. Amano, chief of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency, said Thursday in an interview with the German-language Financial Times Deutschland an IAEA delegation will press Iran for "full cooperation" in meetings with officials in Tehran. "What we know suggests the development of nuclear weapons," FTD quoted the IAEA chief as saying "We want to check over everything that could have a military...

"Don't do it." That is the message American officials, from President Obama on down, are delivering to their Israeli counterparts in the hope of dissuading the Jewish state from taking a fateful step: attacking Iran to prevent the mullahs' imminent acquisition of nuclear weapons. This week, the nation's top military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin E. Dempsey, will visit Israel to convey the same message in person. If recent reports of other U.S. demarches are any guide, the general will deliver an insistent warning that Israel must give sanctions more time to work and refrain from...

Others point, however, to evidence that the Israelis are concealing key military movements from our intelligence assets as an indicator that they are going for it and want to keep us from interfering. At a minimum, Jerusalem would have to worry that an American administration that is holding secret negotiations with Tehran in Turkey at the level of Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns would seek to curry favor with the mullahs by compromising any information it obtains about Israel's intentions.

Russia has given Iran its bear hug and warns Israel and the West that an attack on Tehran would be considered an attack on Moscow. The threat heightens the prospect of World War III in the event of a military strike on Iran. “Iran is our neighbor,” Russia's outgoing ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, told reporters in Brussels. “And if Iran is involved in any military action, it’s a direct threat to our security.”

Iran's response to the assassination of a nuclear scientist in Iran Wednesday will be harsh and reach beyond borders, a website aligned with the regime in Tehran quoted a senior security source as saying Thursday. Those who gave the order for the assassination, the source was quoted by "RajaNews" as saying, "will never feel safe," adding that Iran has a cross-border, cross-regional strategy for striking back. He said that the West and Israel were behind the attacks in Iran. RELATED:Japan vows 'concrete' steps to cut Iran oil reliance Iran to UN: Condemn nuclear scientist killing Analysis: Delaying tactics The official...

Iran has begun enriching uranium deep inside a mountain and sentenced an American to death for spying, angering the West and undermining hopes that diplomacy could avert further sanctions or war. The start of enrichment at the Fordow bunker near the Shi'ite Muslim holy city of Qom was confirmed on Monday by an Iranian official in Tehran and by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran says its nuclear program is purely non-military but the West believes it is designed to produce nuclear weapons. The Islamic Republic's decision to carry out enrichment work deep underground could eventually make it much...

Diplomats on Monday confirmed a report that Iran has begun uranium enrichment at an underground bunker and said the news is particularly worrying because the site is being used to make material that can be upgraded more quickly for use in a nuclear weapon than the nation's main enriched stockpile.

Iran has begun uranium enrichment at a new underground site well protected from possible airstrikes, a leading hardline newspaper reported Sunday. The announcement came as another newspaper quoted a senior commander in the country's powerful Revolutionary Guard as saying that Tehran's leadership has decided to order the closure of the strategic Strait of Hormuz if the country's oil exports are blocked. Iran is under U.N. sanctions for refusing to stop uranium enrichment -- which can produce both nuclear fuel and fissile warhead material -- and other suspected activities that the international community fears could be used to make atomic arms....

President Obama’s recent decision to drastically cut future military spending puts the United States in a weakened position vis-a-vis despot regimes and terrorist organizations who are always looking for gratuitous opportunities to attack U.S. interests, according to Congressman Allen West. West says that “there is a sense of weakness that we are conveying, and there is a window of opportunity that people like Iran are seeing.” According to a recent Wall Street Journal report, Obama’s proposed cuts to the military budget “could shrink by over 30%” in the next decade- The Administration projects outlays at 2.7% of GDP in 2021,...

DES MOINES, Iowa – Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul’s views on Israel and Iran have been greatly misunderstood, his son Senator Rand Paul said in a conversation with The Jerusalem Post just hours before Iowans voted in the first caucuses for the GOP nomination Tuesday night. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who like his father espouses libertarian views, said his father’s positions on the threat of a nuclear Iran are in line with those of Mossad head Tamir Pardo and other prominent Israeli figures, who he suggested has questioned the wisdom of using a military option against Iran. Pardo was quoted...

Republican Rick Santorum says that if he's elected president, he would bomb Iran's nuclear facilities unless they were opened for international arms inspectors. Santorum says President Barack Obama hasn't done enough to prevent the Iranian government from building a nuclear weapon and has risked turning the U.S. into a "paper tiger."

Not much is known about the heir apparent. On December 19th, North Korean state news agencies reported that Kim Jong Il had died. This event has catapulted Kim Jong Un into the seat of power and into the role of “dear leader”.So what do we really know about Kim Jong Un? According to the Washington Post, he loves Michael Jordan. Other than that? Not much. Most people assume he was born in 1983 or 1984, however, his mere existence was a moderately guarded secret until 2009 when he was named as the eventual successor to his father. As a child,...

DAVENPORT, Iowa – Newt Gingrich saw the enemy Monday, and his name was Ron Paul. Without speaking Paul’s name, Gingrich took dead aim at the Texas congressman who’s crept up in state polls as he’s started to tumble, and is looking increasingly likely to run strong in the caucuses. Focusing on their foreign policy differences, Gingrich painted Paul as unprepared for the presidency and a threat to American safety. “I will stand apart from some of our candidates and believe we need a strong defense, we need a fairly modernized intelligence community,” Gingrich said during a five-minute opening statement. “I...

NEW YORK — In an historic hearing in the federal courthouse in Manhattan on Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge George Daniels said he planned to issue a ruling in the coming days declaring that Iran shares in the responsibility for the 9/11 terror attacks. “The extensive record submitted to this court, including fact witnesses and expert testimony, is satisfactory to this court,” Judge Daniels said. The court “accepts as true” the various allegations of the plaintiffs and their experts, he declared, and “will issue an order” in the coming days that Iran bears legal responsibility for providing “material support” to...

The Syrian regime, which has endured nine months of civil unrest spurred by the Arab Spring as it swept across the Middle East, has armed its medium-range missile arsenal with chemical warheads. According to a report published by the Sabah daily Sunday, Damascus armed 600 one-ton chemical warheads to use in the event of a foreign military intervention. Furthermore, President Bashar al-Assad ordered the deployment of 21 missile launchers along its border with Turkey. Syria’s medium-range missiles that can be equipped with chemical warheads have a range of up to 1,300 kilometers and would include the southern and central provinces...

The first clear pictures of Iran’s nuclear site near Isfahan have been published and analyzed following an explosion at or near the site on Nov. 28, and they provide another piece of the puzzle. But what happened there remains a mystery. -excerpt- ISIS analysts who looked at the images from Isfahan said there had been a dramatic change in the landscape around a tunnel leading down to a storage facility on the periphery of the uranium conversion site. Several structures above that storage facility, which had been there for 15 years and stood intact as recently as August, are gone....

AN IRANIAN nuclear facility has been hit by a huge explosion, the second such blast in a month, prompting speculation that Tehran's military and atomic sites are under attack. Satellite imagery seen by The Times confirmed that a blast that rocked the city of Isfahan on Monday struck the uranium enrichment facility there, despite denials by Tehran. The images clearly showed billowing smoke and destruction, negating Iranian claims yesterday that no such explosion had taken place. Israeli intelligence officials told The Times that there was "no doubt" that the blast struck the nuclear facilities at Isfahan and that it was...

November 21, 2011: South Korean intelligence has revealed that there are several hundred North Korean scientists, engineers and technicians working in Iran's nuclear weapons program. The North Koreans work at ten locations, and are regularly rotated back to North Korea and replaced. Such a North Korean presence has long been known, but was believed to be for the ballistic missile program. Now, there are accusations of extensive North Korean help with Iran's nuclear weapons program. Earlier this month, the UN IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) issued a report that accused Iran of having a nuclear weapons program. The report provided...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States plans to sanction Iran's petrochemical industry, sources familiar with the matter said on Friday, seeking to raise pressure on Tehran after fresh allegations it may be pursuing nuclear weapons. The sources said Washington wanted to send a strong signal after the U.N. nuclear watchdog issued a November 8 report saying Iran appeared to have worked on designing an atomic bomb and may still be secretly carrying out related research. The sources, who said the sanctions could be unveiled as early as Monday, said the Washington wanted to find a way to bar foreign companies...

-excerpt- Iranians have never regarded clerics​—​except perhaps the most accomplished scholars​—​as ever being above sin. They are lawyers who, as the great poet Hafez famously remarked, “don’t practice in private what they preach in public.” excerpt- Khamenei’s nuclear fatwa was not to be taken seriously. It was meant partly for Western consumption. More important, it reflected the surreal Islam-vs.-the-West theater that is a never-ending spectacle in the Islamic Republic. America unleashed the atom bomb in war; the Islamic Republic wouldn’t do such a thing. The West is overflowing with homosexuals; in Iran, as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad informed the students of...

SEOUL, Nov. 13 (Yonhap) -- Hundreds of North Korean nuclear and missile experts have been collaborating with their Iranian counterparts in more than 10 locations across the Islamic state, a diplomatic source said Sunday. The revelation lends credence to long-held suspicions that North Korea was helping Iran with a secret nuclear and missile program. It also represents a new security challenge to the international community as it seeks to curb the nuclear ambitions of Pyongyang and Tehran, and thwart trading of nuclear and missile technology. North Korea has long been suspected of being behind nuclear and missile proliferation in Iran,...

The International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to release a report about Iran’s nuclear program this week. Many nuclear experts and diplomats expect the worst. Israel is getting sketchy, and rumored plans of military operations against the Shiite state are increasing—operations vehemently opposed by Russia. Iran’s recent foiled plot to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador on U.S. soil exemplifies Iranian defiance against the United States and our ally Saudi Arabia. Their continued influence in Iraq sparks grave concerns among many Iraqi citizens. The Arab Spring uprisings induced by Iranian proxies haunts many Middle Eastern nations. The list of reasons to engage...

Ron Paul, the outspoken libertarian congressman and Republican presidential candidate from Texas, disagreed with his fellow GOP hopefuls on the issue of Iranian nuclear weapons at the CBS/National Journal debate on Saturday. While Paul refused to rule out the possibility of war with Iran, he insisted a war would not be worthwhile and that the president should go to Congress before launching any military action. “The only way you would do that is you would have to go to the Congress,” he said. “We as commander in chief aren’t making the decision to go to war. The old fashioned way,...

This week the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency released a 15-page report which essentially amounts to a “smoking gun” that Iran is working to build nuclear weapons. All of this comes as no surprise to sober Americans, Israelis and other Westerners. Only fringe politicos have been in denial as to Iran’s sinister intentions for its nuclear program. Nevertheless, those in the West who have denied the true nature of Iran’s nuclear program have served the Ayatollahs’ purpose as “Useful Idiots” for years.

Israel will launch military action to prevent Iran developing a nuclear weapon as soon as Christmas, intelligence chiefs have warned. A report by a UN watchdog into Iran’s nuclear ambitions ‘completely discredits’ the Islamic nation’s protestations of innocence, according to Foreign Secretary William Hague. The International Atomic Energy Agency found that Iran is developing a nuclear test facility, nuclear detonators and computer modelling for a nuclear warhead that would fit on an existing missile. Sources say the understanding at the top of the British Government is that Israel will attempt to strike against the nuclear sites ‘sooner rather than later’...

-Excerpt- The IAEA’s findings are not only an indictment of Iran, however. They also reveal the fundamental corruption of Mohamed ElBaradei, the Egyptian diplomat who was the IAEA’s director general from December 1997 to November 2009. While his job was to administer a technocratic agency, ElBaradei repeatedly intervened to distort the inspectors’ findings. Rather than confront the Islamic Republic on its cheating, he coached Iranian officials on their public diplomacy. He also repeatedly ignored mounting evidence of secret Iranian facilities until these were publicly exposed by other means. -excerpt- The IAEA report should also embarrass Thomas Fingar, Vann H. Van...

President Bush's recent visit to China caused numerous political pundits and investment experts to declare that the Chinese economy will soon surpass our own. They cited the Chinese economy's rapid growth, increasing foreign investment and large workforce, willing to do the jobs of Americans at a fraction of the labor cost. China's government and economy, however, are still communist and state-controlled. While the pundits and experts like to look only at the green, they would be wise to see China for the red nation it remains. China will not become the next economic superpower, because free market competition and a...

Some pretty distressing news is hitting the airwaves. Tensions have continued to rise due to Iran's nuclear program. Leaked information has indicated that Israel is considering a strike on Iran, and so is the United States and United Kingdom. For all of this news, some could be disinformation meant to confuse the Iranian clerics. However, there may be some grains of truth to the idea that Iran is nearing a nuclear weapon. However, there is even worse information coming from multiple sources. Unfortunately, according to both Israeli and Iranian defection sources, the Islamic Republic may already have nuclear arms. Both...

Instead of moving nuclear material in armored, well-defended convoys, the [Pakistani government] prefers to move material by subterfuge, in civilian-style vehicles without noticeable defenses, in the regular flow of traffic…according to a senior U.S. intelligence official, the Pakistanis have begun using this low-security method to transfer not merely the “de-mated” component nuclear parts but “mated” nuclear weapons. Western nuclear experts have feared that Pakistan is building small, “tactical” nuclear weapons for quick deployment on the battlefield. In fact, not only is Pakistan building these devices, it is also now moving them over roads. What this means, in essence, is this:...

The Washington Post and the New York Times have nothing on this, so let’s take a look overseas to see what our government might be planning, shall we? The Guardian reports that the UK has begun preparing to support the US in a strike on Iran, thanks to a new IAEA report that concludes — very much belatedly — that Tehran has been working all along to develop nuclear weapons: Britain’s armed forces are stepping up their contingency planning for potential military action against Iran amid mounting concern about Tehran’s nuclear enrichment programme, the Guardian has learned.The Ministry of Defence...

Naomi Watts and Valerie Plame Wilson are teaming up – again – but this time it’s about more than whitewashing history via the big screen. Watts portrayed the former CIA operative in ‘Fair Game,’ the 2010 feature on Wilson’s famous outing by a member of the Bush administration. Now, the two women are joining forces to compel the Obama administration to “cut nuclear weapons instead of education and other priorities.” Their new Public Service Announcement asks citizens to sign a Global Zero pledge found at CutNukes.org. Global Zero is an international movement for the elimination of nuclear weapons. Here’s some...

Herman Cain said this on PBS NewsHour last night, regarding his assertion of a growing military threat from China (VIDEO):And secondly, we already have superiority in terms of our military capability, and I plan to get away from making cutting our defense a priority and make investing in our military capability a priority, going back to my statement: peace through strength and clarity. So yes they’re a military threat. They’ve indicated that they’re trying to develop nuclear capability and they want to develop more aircraft carriers like we have. So yes, we have to consider them a military threat. Immediately,...

Atomic agency report uncovers Iranian nuclear experiments experts claim could only be used for development of warhead A report by the UN's nuclear watchdog due to be circulated around the world next week will provide fresh evidence of a possible Iranian nuclear weapons programme, bringing the Middle East a step closer to a devastating new conflict, say diplomats. The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is the latest of a series of quarterly bulletins on Iran's activities, but this one will contain an unprecedented level of detail on research and experiments carried out in Iran in recent years,...

'The Guardian' reports UK defense establishment believes US may accelerate plans for targeted strikes against Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities; UK military chief visited Israel 'secretly' this week. The British military is accelerating planning for its part in a potential US attack against Iran's nuclear facilities, The Guardian reported on Wednesday. According to the report, the UK Ministry of Defense believes the US may speed up plans for targeted missile strikes of certain Iranian nuclear targets. The Guardian quoted British officials as saying the UK would assist the US militarily if such a mission were to take place. British military officials...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly trying to rally support for an attack on Iran, according to government sources. Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman are said to be among those backing a pre-emptive strike to neutralize Iran's nuclear ambitions, Sky News reports. A "narrow majority" of ministers currently oppose the move, which could lead to retaliation. In response to reports of an effort to gain cabin approval on Netanyahu's proposal, Lieberman said: "Iran poses the most dangerous threat to world order." Lieberman added that Israel's military options should not be a matter for public discussion.

If the Islamic Republic of Iran has one trait that worries me, it is overconfidence. After all, wars in the Middle East are caused not by oil or water, but rather by one side fundamentally underestimating the capacity of its adversary to respond. That was the case, for example, with the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War​. After that conflict, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah commented that had he known how Israel would have reacted, he never would have launched the cross border operation to kidnap the Israelis in the first place. Sometimes that overconfidence can have a silver-lining, however. Last week, former Iranian...

In his speech on defense and foreign policy at South Carolina’s Citadel Military Academy on October 7, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney said: “I will begin reversing the Obama-era missile defense cuts and prioritize the full deployment of a multilayered national ballistic-missile defense system.” If conservatives hold him to this promise, it will be a significant step towards fulfilling the goal of making nuclear weapons “impotent and obsolete” that Ronald Reagan laid out in his famous March 1983 “Star Wars” speech. The key word that Romney pronounced, which heartened missile-defense advocates and almost certainly disturbs the opponents of such defensive...

IRAN may be just six months away from developing a nuclear bomb, despite international attempts to thwart the program through sanctions and cyber attacks. Two years after an underground installation in the city of Qmo was revealed in a joint press conference by US President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and former British prime minister Gordon Brown, Iran has significantly advanced its uranium enrichment program at the site. The latest report from the International Atomic Energy Agency concludes that Iran has not only boosted production but upgraded the level of enrichment from 3.5 per cent to almost 20 per...

Pakistan has told the US it risks losing an ally if it continues to accuse the country of playing a double game in the war against al-Qaeda, escalating the crisis in relations between the two countries. Hina Rabbani Khar, the Pakistani foreign minister, was responding to comments by Admiral Mike Mullen, the US joint chiefs of staff, who said Pakistan military's spy agency, ISI, was closely tied to the Haqqani network, the most violent and effective faction allied with the Taliban in Afghanistan. It is the most serious allegation levelled by the US against Pakistan since they began an alliance...

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's nuclear chief on Monday proposed to allow the U.N. nuclear watchdog "full supervision" of its nuclear activities for five years provided that sanctions against Tehran are lifted, but the official did not give details of his offer. The United Nations has imposed four rounds of Security Council sanctions over Tehran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment, a technology that can be used to produce nuclear fuel or materials for an atomic bomb. Iran's nuclear program is already subject to routine IAEA inspections. IAEA cameras monitor Iran's nuclear activities. including its contentious uranium enrichment sites. Vice President Fereidoun...

More than seventeen years after a Clinton administration State Department spokesperson told USA Today that Iran’s nuclear program had none of the characteristics of a peaceful energy program and all of the hallmarks of a weapons program, the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has released a statement indicating that they are “increasingly concerned” about intelligence that shows that Iran is in fact working on nuclear weapons.

Moammar Qaddafi’s rule might be crumbling, but the colonel refuses to quit. On the evening of August 23, Qaddafi loyalists launched Scuds at the rebel-run town of Misrata. The missile strikes will be a footnote to the last days of the Transitional National Council’s struggle to unseat Qaddafi, but Western policymakers should not ignore them, for reasons that have less to do with Libya and far more with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Both Pres. George W. Bush and Pres. Barack Obama declared that they would not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons. “The free world cannot allow Iran to...