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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (12139)	10/13/2003 7:15:45 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793782

Well, then, I guess we could always make our couples get married. And drive the Right wing into total open revolt. This is another example of "Fiat Law" by the Supremes this year in the Texas case, that is going to cause a lot of problems. They went too far for the country. This is an issue that time is going to take care of. We need to wait for the old farts like me to die off. The younger people are more tolerant.

To: Lane3 who wrote (12139)	10/13/2003 7:35:18 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793782

The "LA Times" will beat the East Coast press on stories now and then. Or have a fresher angle. Money quote:The IAEA decision last month to set a deadline surprised Iranian officials and strengthened the arguments of some hard-liners that Iran should not try to placate the agency, according to Western intelligence officials monitoring the situation in Tehran. If they pull out, we will be forced to take action. For those of you who say, "Why Iran and not Korea?" Because we can get away with taking action in Iran without a major war, silly! _____________________________________ Iran Pressured on Nuclear Program By Douglas Frantz Times Staff Writer 2:32 PM PDT, October 13, 2003 ISTANBUL, Turkey -- International pressure on Iran to prove it is not developing nuclear weapons increased today as the chief of the U.N. atomic watchdog agency said he would visit Tehran this week and Russia postponed plans to help start up a nuclear reactor in Iran. Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and senior officials of his organization will visit Tehran in an attempt to persuade Iran's leaders to meet an Oct. 31 deadline to suspend its nuclear enrichment program and permit intensive inspections of its nuclear sites. "Time is indeed running out," ElBaradei said in a statement released today, adding that Iran has not provided a full accounting of its nuclear activities. The IAEA imposed the deadline last month in response to suspicions that Iran's civilian nuclear program is concealing efforts to build a weapon. Concerns have grown in recent weeks after inspectors found traces of weapons-grade uranium at two sites in Iran. Officials in Tehran said the uranium came on contaminated equipment purchased abroad. They insisted that Iran's nuclear program is devoted solely to generating electricity and have resisted what they regard as U.S.-inspired pressure from the IAEA. "We will not allow anyone to deprive us of our legitimate right to use the nuclear technology, particularly enrichment, for providing fuel for our plants," Iran's foreign minister, Kamal Kharrazi, was quoted as saying last week by the Islamic Republic News Agency. Russia is building Iran's first nuclear reactor near the Persian Gulf port of Bushehr. U.S. officials fear that the reactor could produce fissile material for an atomic weapon, and they have been pressuring the Russians to withdraw from the project. Today, the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry said it was postponing plans to start the reactor for a year until 2005. The ministry said the delay was caused by technical problems and had nothing to do with U.S. concerns over Moscow's assistance to Iran. "We are putting off the start-up of the first reactor of the Bushehr plant because much of the technical equipment has not been supplied in time," a ministry official told Reuters. While several installations are suspected of playing a role in Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program, U.S. officials said that they are most concerned about the potential for diverting low-enriched uranium from Bushehr to the weapons program, where it could be further enriched to manufacture an atomic bomb. "You could not stop the program entirely, but if Bushehr never came online, you would not get the low-enriched uranium to divert to weapons," said a senior Bush administration official. The German magazine Der Spiegel reported in its editions this week that Israel has identified several hidden nuclear weapons installations in Iran and is developing plans to destroy them if necessary. An Iranian opposition group said today that it plans to release information Tuesday about secret nuclear facilities inside Iran. The group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, has provided accurate information in the past. A spokesman for the group in Paris declined to provide any details. Iranian officials are debating whether to comply with the Oct. 31 deadline and whether to sign an agreement that would give inspectors the right to conduct more intrusive inspections of its nuclear installations and suspected nuclear facilities. Press accounts from Tehran indicate that some hard-liners are arguing that Iran should withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, a step that its leaders have so far rejected. The IAEA decision last month to set a deadline surprised Iranian officials and strengthened the arguments of some hard-liners that Iran should not try to placate the agency, according to Western intelligence officials monitoring the situation in Tehran. Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran's representative at the IAEA, walked out of the agency's board meeting before the deadline decision was made. He was summoned back to Tehran the next day and there has been a push from hard-liners to stop any cooperation with the U.N. agency, one of the intelligence officials said. The IAEA has demanded that Iran provide all information on unresolved questions by Oct. 31, including the origins of the equipment that tested positive for weapons-grade uranium. A second phase to verify the accuracy of the information would take time beyond the deadline, according to agency officials. If Iran fails to satisfy the agency, the issue could be referred to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose sanctions. The IAEA's board of governors from 35 countries is scheduled to meet Nov. 20 to determine whether Iran has complied with the demands. latimes.com