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Politics : The Truth About Islam -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (4732)	2/20/2007 11:36:52 AM
From: FJB	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 20106

A good example of why the burka should be outlawed.

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (4732)	2/20/2007 11:41:07 AM
From: FJB	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 20106

US 'Iran attack plans' revealed US contingency plans for air strikes on Iran extend beyond nuclear sites and include most of the country's military infrastructure, the BBC has learned. It is understood that any such attack - if ordered - would target Iranian air bases, naval bases, missile facilities and command-and-control centres. The US insists it is not planning to attack, and is trying to persuade Tehran to stop uranium enrichment. The UN has urged Iran to stop the programme or face economic sanctions. But diplomatic sources have told the BBC that as a fallback plan, senior officials at Central Command in Florida have already selected their target sets inside Iran. That list includes Iran's uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. Facilities at Isfahan, Arak and Bushehr are also on the target list, the sources say. Two triggers BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says the trigger for such an attack reportedly includes any confirmation that Iran was developing a nuclear weapon - which it denies. Alternatively, our correspondent adds, a high-casualty attack on US forces in neighbouring Iraq could also trigger a bombing campaign if it were traced directly back to Tehran. Long range B2 stealth bombers would drop so-called "bunker-busting" bombs in an effort to penetrate the Natanz site, which is buried some 25m (27 yards) underground. The BBC's Tehran correspondent Frances Harrison says the news that there are now two possible triggers for an attack is a concern to Iranians. Authorities insist there is no cause for alarm but ordinary people are now becoming a little worried, she says. Deadline Earlier this month US officers in Iraq said they had evidence Iran was providing weapons to Iraqi Shia militias. However the most senior US military officer later cast doubt on this, saying that they only had proof that weapons "made in Iran" were being used in Iraq. Gen Peter Pace, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said he did not know that the Iranian government "clearly knows or is complicit" in this. At the time, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the accusations were "excuses to prolong the stay" of US forces in Iraq. Middle East analysts have recently voiced their fears of catastrophic consequences for any such US attack on Iran. Britain's previous ambassador to Tehran, Sir Richard Dalton, told the BBC it would backfire badly by probably encouraging the Iranian government to develop a nuclear weapon in the long term. Last year Iran resumed uranium enrichment - a process that can make fuel for power stations or, if greatly enriched, material for a nuclear bomb. Tehran insists its programme is for civil use only, but Western countries suspect Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons. The UN Security Council has called on Iran to suspend its enrichment of uranium by 21 February. If it does not, and if the International Atomic Energy Agency confirms this, the resolution says that further economic sanctions will be considered. Story from BBC NEWS: news.bbc.co.uk

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (4732)	2/20/2007 11:41:44 AM
From: FJB	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 20106

Iran nears industrial N-fuel production By Daniel Dombey in London Published: February 19 2007 18:59 \| Last updated: February 19 2007 18:59 Iran has mastered crucial nuclear technology since August and could be as little as six months away from being able to enrich uranium on an industrial scale, the United Nations’ chief nuclear watchdog warned on Monday. In an interview with the Financial Times, Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Tehran was overwhelmingly likely to miss a UN deadline on Wednesday to suspend enrichment, which can produce both nuclear fuel and weapons grade material. The IAEA chief will meet Ali Larijani, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, on Tuesday; a day later he will issue governments with a report on Iran’s compliance with the UN’s demands. Mr ElBaradei said Iran had now acquired important technical know-how from running its pilot nuclear programme, and that there there was no going back. “You cannot bomb knowledge,” he said. Since August last year Iran has been using centrifuges at a pilot plant in the town of Natanz to enrich uranium. Although Tehran insists its purposes are purely peaceful, it has refused to halt the process. Both the US and Israel have warned that Iran might reach a “point of no return” in its nuclear programme by mastering the technology of uranium enrichment. Mr ElBaradei added that US and British intelligence estimates said that Iran was still five to 10 years away from developing a nuclear bomb and warned against “hype” over Tehran’s nuclear progress. He argued that even if the concern that Tehran might acquire technical knowledge about uranium enrichment was “relevant six months ago, it is not relevant today because Iran has been running these centrifuges for at least six months”. The UN inspector added, however, that “there’s a big difference between acquiring the knowledge for enrichment and developing a bomb”. He said Iran could install an industrial scale capacity of 3,000 centrifuges – enough to begin producing fissile material for a bomb – within months. “It could be six months, it could be a year,” he said, emphasising his desire for negotiations to convince Iran to hold back. “The ideal situation is to make sure that there is no industrial capacity, that there is full inspection [of Iran’s nuclear facilities].” He added that Iran had already installed a “cascade” of 164 centrifuges in the subterranean facility designed to produce enriched uranium on an industrial scale, and that Iran’s experiments with two further 164-centrifuge cascades in the pilot programme were functioning. In a sign of additional international pressure, Russia was reported by Reuters on Monday as delaying the building of Iran’s first nuclear power plant. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007