Iran Air Strikes Growing in Probability

..and of course, "Freedom" knows it first hand because he's seen them.

..and of course, "Freedom" knows it first hand because he's seen them.

I have to agree with asherman. I have heard for many years about Israel's nukes, but don't know any hard evidence.

Have you personally seen an American nuke? How did you recognize it? Perhaps no one really has them after all.

Thank you F4F for the citations, do you know of anything with greater credibility?

Absurdist argument.

Can any of you, liberal or conservative, cite any hard evidence that Israel has a nuclear arsenal? Show me.

Britain had bought the heavy water from Norsk Hydro in Norway for its nuclear weapons programm, but found it was surplus to requirements and decided to sell. An arrangement was indeed made witha Norwegian company Noratom, but crucially the papers show that Noraton was not the true buyer; the firm agreed to broker a deal with Israel in return for a 2 percent commission. Israel paid the top price £1m to avoid having to give guarantees that the material would not be used to make nuclear weapons, but the papers leave no doubt that Britain knew all along that Israel wanted the heavy water "to produce plutonium". Kelly discovered tha a charade was played out with with British and Israeli delegations sitting in adjacent rooms while Noraton ferried contracts between them to maintain the fiction that Britain had not done the deal with Israel.

The transaction was signed off for the Foreign Office by Donald Cape, whose job it was to make sure we (i.e. Britain) didnt export materials that would help other countries get the atom bomb. He felt it would be "overzealous" to demand safeguards to prevent Israel using the chemical in weapons production..(March 1959 letter shows)...that the Foreign office knew Israel had pulled out of a deal to buy uranium from South Africa when Pretoria asked for safeguards to prevent it being used for making nuclear weapons. It also knew the CIA was warning that "the Israelis must be expected to try and establish a nuclear weapons progammee". Just three weeks later however, Britain started shipping heavy water directt to Israel; the first shipment left in June 1959 and the second in June 1960.

.... Moreover whatever the perception of the Iranian nuclear industry is in the US, the simple fact is that the Iranians have been scrupulous in staying within the letter of the NPT.

Take the case of Iran. Iran is an NPT party. It has a safeguards agreement in force. It has signed the Additional Protocol, but continues to delay the early ratification to which it committed last fall. It claimed it would act as if the Protocol were in force, pending ratification, although the March 30, 2004 IAEA Note indicates that Iran continues to try to circumscribe access. It remains for the IAEA to say whether Iran's performance has improved since - we are doubtful.

It is clear now that for 18 years, while portraying itself as in full compliance with the NPT, Iran violated safeguards, engaged in deception and denial, and conducted undeclared, clandestine experiments in all sensitive aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle. Iran's pattern of deception and denial continued even after the commencement of investigations by the IAEA; we believe it continues to this day. Iran grudgingly admits to facets of its sprawling secret nuclear program only when confronted with evidence that disproves its previous denials. In at least one instance, it delayed an inspection until it could "sanitize" the facility in order to conceal evidence of its unsafeguarded enrichment activities from the IAEA.

Last year I spoke based on U.S. information. This year the IAEA has confirmed these facts. The conclusion is inescapable: Iran is continuing to dissemble and deceive. In the two years since Iran's clandestine program first came to light, and six months after the IAEA Director General confirmed Iran's "breaches of its obligations to comply" with its safeguards agreement, cooperation only comes grudgingly and in response to having been caught. As the IAEA has confirmed, many troubling questions about Iran's nuclear activities remain unanswered.

Legitimate peaceful nuclear activities do not require denial and deception. The NPT regime contemplates the possibility of providing nuclear assistance to those who abide by their Treaty commitments and seek assistance for genuinely peaceful purposes. No country with peaceful nuclear intentions needs to engage in the duplicity and dishonesty that characterize Iran's relationship with the IAEA. Iran still claims that it has no interest in nuclear weapons. At the Second Preparatory Committee, in 2003, we heard several statements from Iranian representatives that Iran's nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes. Evidently, we were to believe that Iran's covert, nuclear program was peaceful - contrary to ample evidence of military involvement and weapons intentions. The United States believes that the facts, taken as a whole, show that Iran intended to develop nuclear weapons, and that this intent coupled with the clandestine activities reported by the IAEA lead to the conclusion that Iran has violated Article II as well as Article III of the Treaty. How long will the international community accept Iran's dissembling and deceit regarding these violations of core obligations?

You might suspect Iran is up to no good. I might suspect Iran is up to no good. But calling someone a liar when they say they are behaving honorably does not constitute proof that they are indeed up to no good. The simple fact is there is no evidence, no proof at all that Iran has a clandestine weapons programme, and I can say that with certainty because if there was, you can be sure the United States and Israel would be shouting it from the highest mountain top.

The United States is playing a familiar game here. They have no evidence and so demand proof of a negative which of course cannot be provided. Let me see now where have I heard similar arguments in relation to weapons of mass destruction...in a country in the middle east, begins with I...neighbouring Iran....