That's a Stretch

Iran's nuclear ambitions, which they claim are going to be used for peaceful purposes, may lead towards Iran obtaining the means and materials to build nuclear weapons.

Oh really? This is a surprise to who exactly? Maybe the folks at the IAEA or the UN, but certainly not anyone who's been paying attention to what Iran has been actually saying or doing.

The International Atomic Energy Agency says it has evidence that suggests links between Iran's ostensibly peaceful nuclear program and its military work on high explosives and missiles, according to a report from the agency that was released to member countries on Tuesday and will be debated on Thursday.

Today, Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said any decision taken by the West would have no effect in Iran's decisions, according to the Iranian news agency IRNA, quoting the president during a visit to Bushehr province. And today, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, said some cameras monitoring Iran's nuclear facilities may be removed if Iran is reported to the security council, according to The Associated Press.

Mr. Larijani reiterated Iran would stop implementing the Additional Protocol of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which gives U.N. inspectors greater access to nuclear sites, if Tehran's case goes to the top world body, the agency said.The report will be debated by the 35 countries that make up the international agency's board when it meets in emergency session on Thursday to decide whether Iran should be reported to the United Nations Security Council for its nuclear activities.

The four-page report, which officials say was based at least in part on intelligence provided by the United States, refers to a secretive Iranian entity called the Green Salt Project, which worked on uranium processing, high explosives and a missile warhead design.

The combination suggests a "military-nuclear dimension," the report said, that if true would undercut Iran's claims that its nuclear program is solely aimed at producing electrical power.

We've been here before, haven't we. The US and other nations believed Iraq had WMD and nuclear weapons ambitions and cultivated, developed, and provided intel to that effect. Are we seeing the same story all over again?

It's curious that the folks who claim that the Administration lied over Iraq are now clamoring for action on Iran, based on what is essentially the same kind of intel. They're trying to portray the Administration's reaction to Iran's actions as less than acceptable and the US should take a greater role.

The US course of action on Iran is shaped by the way we're dealing with Iraq. We're still in Iraq, which provides a significant difference - we've got substantial forces already in battle ready condition sufficiently close to Iran to take meaningful ground action should it come to that. However, on the diplomatic front, we've got changed circumstances because there are those nations still smarting from the US acting without UN action/'approval' and being pushed aside. Never mind the fact that the UN was co-opted by Iraq via the OFF/UNSCAM program. And then there are the domestic concerns about enlarging the problems in the Middle East even though one maxim about problem solving is that the best way to solve intractable problems is to make them larger. Iran is supporting the terrorist insurgents in Iraq, and cultivating the extremists in parts of the country in hopes of drawing US blood via their proxies.

Iran, along with Syria, have been warned on this point. And the President has made it explicitly clear that the US has no problem with the Iranian people - it's the mullahs who have to go.

The Iranian government is defying the world with its nuclear ambitions, and the nations of the world must not permit the Iranian regime to gain nuclear weapons. America will continue to rally the world to confront these threats.

Tonight, let me speak directly to the citizens of Iran: America respects you, and we respect your country. We respect your right to choose your own future and win your own freedom. And our nation hopes one day to be the closest of friends with a free and democratic Iran.

There are signs that Iran has tried to follow Saddam's route, trying to co-opt the IAEA, which is the very organization that is tasked with nuclear nonproliferation. They've gotten the runaround thus far, and every day passes is another day Iran pushes closer to its nuclear goals.