Japan Nukes West Coast of America

I guess this is their response to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

For our friends on the left coast you have time to flee to one of those red states you hate so much and here is a little more information for you.

Exposure from x-rays or gamma rays is measured in units of roentgens. For example:

* Total body exposure of 100 roentgens (or 1 Gy) causes radiation sickness.
* Total body exposure of 400 roentgens (or 4 Gy) causes radiation sickness and death in half the individuals. Without medical treatment, nearly everyone who receives more than this amount of radiation will die within 30 days.
* 100,000 rads causes almost immediate unconsciousness and death within an hour

Enjoy the weather!

THE JERUSALEM OFFENSIVE

John Bolton spells it out here....

Legions of senior American officials have descended on Jerusalem recently, but the most important of them has been Defense Secretary Robert Gates. His central objective was to dissuade Israel from carrying out military strikes against
Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities. Under the guise of counseling “patience,” Mr. Gates again conveyed President Barack Obama’s emphatic thumbs down on military
force.

He is right, of course.

Emperor Obama wants to win the plaudits of the Arab Nations and so ensuring Israel backs away from defanging Iran is a key strategic objective in this region. Bolton goes on to add...

Relations between the U.S. and Israel are more strained now than at any time
since the 1956 Suez Canal crisis. Mr. Gates’s message for Israel not to act on
Iran, and the U.S. pressure he brought to bear, highlight the weight of Israel’s
lonely burden. Striking Iran’s nuclear program will not be precipitous or poorly
thought out. Israel’s attack, if it happens, will have followed enormously
difficult deliberation over terrible imponderables, and years of patiently
waiting on innumerable failed diplomatic efforts. Absent Israeli action, prepare
for a nuclear Iran.

It seems to me that Israel has around 12 months or less to attack Iranian nuclear sites before that option is permanently removed from the menu by the Mullahs finally gaining nukes. At that point, everything changes, with other Arab states then seeking to get nukes themselves lest they become serfs to a belligerent Islamic and atomic Iranian Republic.

I'm not sure how Netanyahu deals with this. Under Obama, the US is no friend of Israel. Under Ahmadinejad, Iran is a rogue and dangerous State seeking the means to wipe Israel off the map. The question must be one of WHEN Israel strikes rather than IF Israel strikes. But if a second holocaust is to be avoided, strike it must.

And The 2008 Nobel Peace Prize Goes To . . . .

This comes as no great surprise and we can expect more like it from Soviet dictator Russian president Vladimir Paranoid and his ilk. And it shouldn't be long before the Koslings and the Leftisphere jump onboard.

Russia Issues Nuclear Threat
Russia's nuclear weapons chief threatened Monday to target a planned US missile defence shield in central Europe if Washington fails to take into account Moscow's worries, the Interfax news agency reported.

General Nikolai Solovtsov, head of strategic missile forces, said that such a decision could be taken if the US shield is seen to "undermine the Russian nuclear deterrent capability."

In that case, "I do not exclude... the missile defence shield sites in Poland and the Czech Republic being chosen as targets for some of our intercontinental ballistic missiles," Solovtsov said, according to Interfax.

Washington says the plans to install radar in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor rockets in Poland would guard against theoretical missile strikes from "rogue" nations such as Iran, without denting Russia's massive nuclear offensive arsenal.

But Moscow claims the United States is exaggerating the threat from Iran and describes the shield as the thin end of a wedge aimed at changing the current balance of military power.

On Saturday, the Russian chief of staff, General Yury Baluyevsky, warned that the launch of US interceptor missiles could accidentally trigger a Russian retaliatory strike.

And the resulting vaporization of Leningrad, Moscow and Stalingrad would be considered an 'accidental' response.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk denounced the comments as "unacceptable" and said that "no declaration of this kind will influence Polish-American negotiations."

Solovtsov, speaking hours after state television showed images of a ballistic missile being test fired from a submerged submarine at a target on the other side of Russia, said the United States was untrustworthy.

"If the Americans signed a treaty with us that they would only deploy 10 anti-missile rockets in Poland and one radar in the Czech Republic and will never put anything else there, then we could deal with this," he said.

"However they won't sign, they just tell us verbally, 'We won't threaten you'."

"They already cheated Russia once," he said, referring to NATO expansion into former Soviet-dominated territory after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. "Verbally they already told us that when we re-unite Germany there won't be one NATO soldier there. Now where are they?"

East-West relations are increasingly strained as Russia and NATO countries argue over how to ensure security in the post-Cold War landscape.

Russia froze compliance last week with the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, which imposes strict limits on deployment of troops around the country.

The Foreign Ministry offered reassurance that Russia had "no current plans to accumulate massive armaments on our neighbours' borders."

However the decision was criticised by NATO, the United States and other Western powers.

Kameraden! Nobody forced your former slave-states to join or ally with NATO. They did so out of appreciation for your 50 years of kindness and generosity.

And in remembrance of your reassurances from 1943 on that the Soviet army had simply . . . liberated them.

Via Spacewars.com

H/T The NoisyRoom

Also at A Tangled Web

Iran: U.N. Decisions Worthless

I have to admit that for once I agree with the hairy munchkin, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Most anything coming from the United Nations is worthless.

Iran says U.N. decisions on atomic plans worthless

Iran will not abandon its atomic goals because of U.N. sanction resolutions that are "just a pile of papers", President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday.

The Security Council has imposed two sets of limited sanctions because of Iran's failure to heed a demand to halt nuclear work the West believes is aimed at building atomic bombs. Tehran denies any such military plans.

"Some people tell us Iran's case is at the (U.N.) Security Council but we tell them those (decisions by the Council) are just a pile of papers. They don't have any value for us," Iran's ISNA news agency reported Ahmadinejad as saying.

Elsewhere, speaking of this utterly useless outfit, Weasel Zippers notes today is United Nations Day.

It would be nice if they celebrated by leaving the United States.

Repeating the Obvious

It appears Iran is going at full speed to get nukes, and most people just don't seem to care.

It's climate change, stupid!

The mind boggles at the naivete.

'Time running out for Iran strike'

"For significant sanctions to be effective the world needs to at the same time threaten the use of military force," he said. "Iran needs to be made to understand that if the sanctions won't work, the world is prepared to use military force to stop the nuclear program."

He said Iran was preparing for the possibility of war, but that deep down the Islamic leadership did not believe that either the United States or Israel were in a position of strength that would enable them to launch such a complicated military operation. Iran, he said, was purchasing Russian air defense systems and was fortifying its nuclear facilities and moving key elements to underground bunkers in preparation for the possibility that its assessments were wrong and it would in the end be attacked.

"The Iranians are working around the clock on improving military capabilities and they are also moving centrifuges to underground facilities," he said.

Kuperwasser said that a real threat of military action - backed up by credible threats by world leaders as well as the deployment of a large military force to the region - could have the right effect in deterring Iranian leaders from continuing with their nuclear program.

A credible military threat combined with economic leverage had a chance at preventing the need for a future clash with a nuclear Iran and perhaps could also make it unnecessary to deal today with an Iran that is close to nuclearization, he said.

Obviously, the Democrats, due to the Islamic-Leftist convergence, have no use for taking on Iran, which may well leave it up to Israel to act unilaterally. I have to believe President Bush, despite low poll numbers, will use common sense and order strikes on these facilities. His legacy may already be tarnished enough, but he cannot leave office with a nuclear Iran threatening the rest of the civilized world.

Fear Not, It's For Peaceful Purposes...

As we've been repeatedly told, "climate change" is the "gravest" crisis facing mankind, so today we report that some frantic digging around a nuclear plant in Iran is strictly for peaceful purposes, as those madcap Iranians are simply looking to reduce their carbon footprint.

They mean us no harm, and we shall not question thier motives. Why? Becasue the left says so. So what if they plan to nuke us? It's all Bush's fault anyway.

See, turning a blind eye to ugly reality is so easy. Maybe I should become a Democrat. Then I can ignore the real world, spout cliches, and feel better about myself knowing that I care.

Tunneling Near Iranian Nuclear Site Stirs Worry

The sudden flurry of digging seen in recent satellite photos of a mountainside in central Iran might have passed for ordinary road tunneling. But the site is the back yard of Iran's most ambitious and controversial nuclear facility, leading U.S. officials and independent experts to reach another conclusion: It appears to be the start of a major tunnel complex inside the mountain.

The question is, why? Worries have been stoked by the presence nearby of fortified buildings where uranium is being processed. Those structures in turn are now being connected by roads to Iran's nuclear site at Natanz, where the country recently started production of enriched uranium in defiance of international protests.

As a result, photos of the site are being studied by governments, intelligence agencies and nuclear experts, all asking the same question: Is Iran attempting to thwart future military strikes against its nuclear facility by placing key parts of it in underground bunkers?

Maybe we should just listen to the armchair generals at the New York Times and flee Iraq as soon as possible. Then the Iranians would join hands with us in a peaceful chorus of Kumbaya.

No 'Time Out' for Iran Nukes

Shocking how they never keep their word.

A senior Iranian official on Wednesday ruled out a nuclear "Time out" Proposal under which Iran would stop uranium enrichment expansion in return for a halt to further UN Sanctions, an Iranian news agency reported.

A senior diplomat said last month world powers were debating the idea of offering Iran a pause to end the row over its atomic plans, which the West says is aimed at building nuclear bombs, a charge Tehran denies.

National Nuclear Day in Iran

Little Mahmoud is feeling his oats.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced Monday that his country was now capable of producing nuclear fuel on an "industrial scale" in an expansion of the uranium enrichment program that the United Nations has demanded it halt.

The announcement suggests Iran has succeeded in operating a larger number of centrifuges at its Natanz enrichment facility in central Iran. The country has said its goal is to install and start working with 3,000 centrifuges.

But Ahmadinejad did not specify how many centrifuges were now operational as he spoke at a ceremony at the facility, marking the one-year anniversary of Iran's first success in enriching small amounts of uranium.

"With great honor, I declare that as of today our dear country has joined the nuclear club of nations and can produce nuclear fuel on an industrial scale," Ahmadinejad said. The move expands a key nuclear process that the United Nations has demanded the country halt.

Meanwhile, this report at Hot Air say the 3,000 centrifuges are already installed. If so, that's extremely troubling news.

However, since deception is always part of the game, check out Psychopath vs. Psychopath at Pat Dollard, a most interesting account (hat tip: Fight4TheRight).

According to a buzz in the intelligence community, Russia is gearing up to betray Iran. According to sources in Moscow, Putin has quietly decided that he has milked the Iran nuke game for all the political and financial advantage it was worth, and now intends to singlehandedly bring it all back from the brink. He is absolutely not going to allow a cabal of Islamic lunatics to build a Bomb on the Motherland's southern border. How is Russia going to betray Iran and stop them from getting The Bomb? Well since the Iranian bomb was actually coming to them from Russia, Russia has the power to ultimately stop the process. Maybe not frever, but for a long time. And I hope the implications of what I've just said haven't escaped you: all along, we didn't need to worry about Iran "developing" a bomb, we needed to worry about Russia "giving" them one. Somehow, the truth of all this has been kept from the spotlight. At least, if the Moscow Rumor Mill is to be believed, they are not going to go through with it. And the shit that hits the fan between Iran and Russia should be very interesting indeed.

Read the rest.

More thoughts over at The Sandbox.

Iran Warns of More Kidnappings

Hey, they've gotten everything they wanted and more out of doing it already, why not continue?

Buoyant Teheran warns of further kidnappings

Hardliners in the Iranian regime have warned that the seizure of British naval personnel demonstrates that they can make trouble for the West whenever they want to and do so with impunity.

The bullish reaction from Teheran will reinforce the fears of western diplomats and military officials that more kidnap attempts may be planned.

The British handling of the crisis has been regarded with some concern in Washington, and a Pentagon defence official told The Sunday Telegraph: "The fear now is that this could be the first of many. If the Brits don't change their rules of engagement, the Iranians could take more hostages almost at will.

Via Jihad Watch. Meanwhile, they have a big celebration planned tomorrow.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit the Natanz nuclear facility in Iran and announce the beginning of operation of 160 additional centrifugues, Israel Radio reported on Sunday.

Natanz is one of many nuclear facilities Iran is building, mostly with Russian aid.

Also at Strata-Sphere.

UPDATE: Lawhawk has an Iran roundup. Also check out Kharnival of the Humiliations at Forward Movement.

Former FBI Agent Missing in Iran

Of course, details are sketchy, no name is given, and don't expect the Iranians to be cooperative.

The United States asked Iran on Monday to provide information about a former FBI agent believed to have gone missing several weeks ago while on private business there, U.S. officials said.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the family and employer of the man reported him missing and the State Department sent an official inquiry on Monday to Iran via Swiss diplomats, who act as a go-between with Tehran because the two countries do not have diplomatic relations.

Can't Nancy Pelosi just pop over after she's finished sucking up to the chinless opthamologist?

Relations are very tense between the United States and Iran, particularly over its nuclear program. The two nations have not had diplomatic ties for nearly 30 years.

The missing man, described by officials as middle-aged, is believed to have been visiting Kish, an Iranian resort island and free-trade zone in the Gulf. He is not believed to be of Iranian descent and his wife lives in the United States.

Speaking of the Iranian nuclear program, the latest is they'll be ready to go by 2009, according to The Blotter.

A spokesperson for the United Nation's International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA, declined to comment citing the "extreme sensitivity" of the situation with Iran.

Yeah, they don't want to upset their bosses in Tehran.

Not that I have must trust in this report, but the time is soon at hand to take out their program, despite the strenuous objection of Democrat foreign policy honcho Rosie O'Donnell.

The United States will be ready to launch a missile attack on Iran's nuclear facilities as soon as early this month, perhaps "from 4 a.m. until 4 p.m. on April 6," according to reports in the Russian media on Saturday.

According to Russian intelligence sources, the reports said, the US has devised a plan to attack several targets in Iran, and an assault could be carried out by launching missiles from fighter jets and warships stationed in the Persian Gulf.

When they start giving specific times and dates like your cable provider, time to perk up and take things seriously.

Others blogging on the latest nuke story include LGF, Hot Air, and Sister Toldjah.

Nuclear Nightmare

We may often view Pervez Musharraf suspiciously, but when you think about it, he may be all that stands between Iran, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban getting nukes. Check out Front Page and The First Nuclear Terrorist Power

An Islamist insurgency is afoot in Pakistan, posing a dire threat of overthrowing Musharraf.

And this may happen sooner rather than later.

If the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is created, it means Islamists get their hands on Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. This, in turn, means that such weapons will then be passed to the new regime’s allies – which will include, among others, the Iranian mullahs, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Read the rest of this disturbing story.

Iran's Path to Ruin

Robert Haddick explains why Iran is headed toward a path of economic ruin and chaos.

The Iranian people will regret their country's nuclear program.

Instead of bringing them security or status, Iran's nuclear program will only bring Iran economic ruin, internal chaos, and possibly death on a massive scale.

Iran's nuclear program is stimulating a response from actors that have the ability to inflict great harm on Iran. Some of these actors will not be nation-states, but rather will be self-organizing non-state terror groups, operating on their own. There will be several paths of misery for Iran. The only question is from which path this misery will arrive.

Read it all. Haddick also blogs at Westhawk.

Meanwhile, the BBC continues to stir the pot by once again revealing our secret plans to take out the Iranian nuke sites, while the Financial Times says Iran is almost ready to enrich uranium.

And not one to be outdone by his former insane bloggers, the Silky Pony reveals that Israel is the biggest threat, not Iran.

There are other emerging fissures, as well. The aggressively photogenic John Edwards was cruising along, detailing his litany of liberal causes last week until, during question time, he invoked the "I" word -- Israel. Perhaps the greatest short-term threat to world peace, Edwards remarked, was the possibility that Israel would bomb Iran's nuclear facilities. As a chill descended on the gathering, the Edwards event was brought to a polite close.

A real heavyweight, that Breck Girl.

UPDATE: The Washington Times has a report saying Iran has serious cash woes hampering their nuke efforts.

Bad Deal With North Korea

According to John Podhoretz, the deal negotiated with North Korea is a putrid payoff. Of course, we have reason to be skeptical, because you cannot take the North Koreans seriously when it comes to believing anything they say.

FOR decades, intelligence agencies have assured the world that Kim Jong Il, the dictator of North Korea, is a psychopathic lunatic with a massive collection of pornography and a habit of kidnapping people from Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea to serve his whims.

He has made decisions about where to spend his government's money in a time of government-made famine that has caused the deaths of at least 1 million of his countrymen and women. He has built giant skyscrapers that are so structurally unsound they cannot be inhabited.

Psychopathic monster he almost certainly is. Almost everyone who has spent time in North Korea reports that it is, without question, the most horrifying place on this planet - a world in which the totalitarian fantasy imagined by Madeline L'Engle in the great 1962 children's book "A Wrinkle in Time" has been made flesh and bone.

But a lunatic Kim is not. He is a master geopolitician. Though we don't yet know the terms of the tentative deal announced yesterday under which North Korea has supposedly agreed to end its nuclear program, chances are very good that once again Kim has forced the world's powers - including the United States - to pay him a massive bribe that will help him maintain his stranglehold on power.

Since 1985, North Korea has used its reputation for insanity to manipulate not only the United States, but even the Evil Empire to its West. In that year, the Soviet Union agreed to provide the North Koreans with light nuclear reactors if the Norks agreed to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Showing stunning sangfroid against the ruthless bunch in Moscow, Kim's father signed the treaty and then simply refused to abide by any of its provisions. He spent five years refusing to allow a single inspector into the country, and when he did finally allow their entry in 1990, he deceived them and lied to them.

Read the rest. Also check out Claudia Rosett's Creepy Kim's Criminal Cash.

For years, the North Korean state has been raking in money from the illicit, international sale of drugs, ranging from heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines to fake Viagra. A North Korean defector testified to Congress in 2003 that the mass production and sale of narcotics was official state policy. In the tightly controlled North Korean state, factories turning out fake pharmaceuticals are part of Kim's plan. Some of these drugs have been peddled out of North Korean embassies by official staff.

According to congressional research reports, this has resulted in more than 50 verifiable drug busts in more than 20 countries, most of them since Kim Jong Il took over from his late father in 1994. North Korea's illicit activities also include gun-running, illegal fishing, a dash of alleged insurance fraud and the counterfeiting of cigarettes and U.S. currency.

EU Report: Too Late to Stop Iran Nuke

Perhaps they would like to try some more dialogue.

Iran will be able to develop enough weapons-grade material for a nuclear bomb and there is little that can be done to prevent it, an internal European Union document has concluded.

In an admission of the international community’s failure to hold back Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the document – compiled by the staff of Javier Solana, EU foreign policy chief – says the atomic programme has been delayed only by technical limitations rather than diplomatic pressure. “Attempts to engage the Iranian administration in a negotiating process have not so far succeeded,” it states.

Iran Nuke Scientist Whacked by Mossad?

Now this could be interesting. The first I've seen of it, but certainly it's a promising development (h/t Shiplord Kirel and So?). Still, take with a huge grain of salt. An Iranian scientist dies under unusual circumstances just as the hairy little munchkin is about to make his big announcement? It's just too easy to blame Israel and Mossad. So let's see where this goes.

A PRIZE-WINNING Iranian nuclear scientist has died in mysterious circumstances, according to Radio Farda, which is funded by the US State Department and broadcasts to Iran.

An intelligence source suggested that Ardeshire Hassanpour, 44, a nuclear physicist, had been assassinated by Mossad, the Israeli security service.

Hassanpour worked at a plant in Isfahan where uranium hexafluoride gas is produced. The gas is needed to enrich uranium in another plant at Natanz which has become the focus of concerns that Iran may be developing nuclear weapons.

According to Radio Farda, Iranian reports of Hassanpour’s death emerged on January 21 after a delay of six days, giving the cause as “gas poisoning”. The Iranian reports did not say how or where Hassanpour was poisoned but his death was said to have been announced at a conference on nuclear safety.

Rheva Bhalla of Stratfor, the US intelligence company, claimed on Friday that Hassanpour had been targeted by Mossad and that there was “very strong intelligence” to suggest that he had been assassinated by the Israelis, who have repeatedly threatened to prevent Iran acquiring the bomb.

Iran Nuke Plans in Chaos?

There seems to be a new story every day as to how far along the Iranians are on their nuclear development.

Iran's efforts to produce highly enriched uranium, the material used to make nuclear bombs, are in chaos and the country is still years from mastering the required technology.

Iran's uranium enrichment programme has been plagued by constant technical problems, lack of access to outside technology and knowhow, and a failure to master the complex production-engineering processes involved. The country denies developing weapons, saying its pursuit of uranium enrichment is for energy purposes.

Jules Crittenden has more.

Meanwhile, Iranian officials deny earlier reports of 3,000 centrifuges being installed. OK, it's probably 2,999, and when we take out their nuke plants, the John Kerrys of the world will say we rushed to war needlessly, as there weren't really 3,000 centrifuges.

An Iranian nuclear agency official has denied claims made by a top lawmaker that the Islamic Republic had begun installing 3,000 centrifuges at an uranium enrichment plant, Iran's state-run news agency reported late Saturday.

Hossein Simorgh, spokesman of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization public relations department, said "no new centrifuges have been installed in Natanz," referring to the nuclear facility in central Iran, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Earlier Saturday, lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi said Iran was currently installing the 3,000 centrifuges, underlining that the country would continue to develop its disputed nuclear program despite U.N. sanctions.

It was not immediately clear why the two officials made contradicting statements.

It's called smoke and mirrors. In another stunning development, friends of the Massachusetts junior senator denounce U.S. policy toward Iran.

North Korea Denies Cooperation With Iran

No reason to doubt what they say, right?

North Korea on Saturday dismissed speculation it was helping Iran develop its atomic programs, insisting it was behaving as a responsible nuclear state.

"In a bid to mislead public opinion, some Western media recently spread the rumor that the DPRK is cooperating with Iran in nuclear development," the North's KCNA news agency quoted an unnamed Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.

The DPRK is the official name of the communist state.

"Their assertion is nothing but a sheer lie and fabrication intended to tarnish the image of the DPRK by charging it with nuclear proliferation."

It's high time they both got hit hard. Enough games.