John Bolton: Israel must attack Iran within the week

[Einzige]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100817/wl ... 0817120240

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Israel has "eight days" to launch a military strike against Iran's Bushehr nuclear facility and stop Tehran from acquiring a functioning atomic plant, a former US envoy to the UN has said.

Iran is to bring online its first nuclear power reactor, built with Russia's help, on August 21, when a shipment of nuclear fuel will be loaded into the plant's core.
At that point, John Bolton warned Monday, it will be too late for Israel to launch a military strike against the facility because any attack would spread radiation and affect Iranian civilians.

"Once that uranium, once those fuel rods are very close to the reactor, certainly once they're in the reactor, attacking it means a release of radiation, no question about it," Bolton told Fox Business Network.

"So if Israel is going to do anything against Bushehr it has to move in the next eight days."

Absent an Israeli strike, Bolton said, "Iran will achieve something that no other opponent of Israel, no other enemy of the United States in the Middle East really has and that is a functioning nuclear reactor."

I'm getting quite sick of these Israel Firsters permitting Israel to drag us into war.

[Shroom Man 777]

Clearly Iran must attack Israel in less then eight days then. Like seven. Or six, just to be sure. Hell, better safe then sorry, Iran must attack Israel yesterday.

That is an awesome man America sent to the UN. Man, John Bolton, what a fuck.

[Sarevok]

It reads as if Israel is a part of America and has its own Senators....

[Patrick Degan]

It reads as if Israel is a part of America and has its own Senators....

For all practical purposes, that's pretty much how it is. And they're just working busy as beavers to dump us right into the Middle Eastern war that will likely finally break this country financially.

[Temujin]

Of course this idiot is so knowledgeable of such things, yet doesn't even realize that Israel couldn't pull this shit off if they wanted to. Put away the pom poms John, America's mini me isn't going to get you "your way" and drag us into another war of aggression.

Talk About Iran Attack Seems Very Overheated
by Mark HosenballAugust 16, 2010

An article in The Atlantic reports that Iran may be nearing the "point of no return" in its pursuit of an atomic bomb. Therefore, says author Jeffrey Goldberg, there is a "better than 50 percent chance" Israel will launch an attack against Iranian nuclear sites by "next July." The Times of London suggests that some key arrangements for such an attack are already in place. According to the paper, Saudi Arabia has already told the Israelis they can overfly Saudi airspace in any assault against Iran's nuclear infrastructure. Moreover, The Times quotes a "U.S. defense source" saying that Saudi overflight permission has been endorsed by the U.S. State Department.

But U.S. and European national-security and counterproliferation officials tell Declassified that speculation about a possible Israeli attack on Iran—and alleged signals from Washington offering direct or indirect support for such an operation—are premature and exaggerated, if not untrue. Two U.S. officials, who asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive information, said suggestions that the Obama administration has endorsed alleged Saudi plans to allow Israeli attackers to overfly Saudi territory are false. A European official described recent reports about these and other alleged preparations for an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities as "rumors" similar to other speculation that has surfaced, then died, then resurfaced on several occasions over recent years.

U.S. officials say that American government experts believe the Iranians are still encountering serious technical problems with the equipment they’re using to enrich uranium for possible use in a bomb. The New York Times has reported on several occasions that the U.S. and its allies have mounted secret efforts to slow down the Iranian nuclear program by tinkering with materiel the mullahs buy from foreign suppliers, and by long-distance monkeying with electrical power and computer systems the Iranians use in their nuclear program. In a story entitled "Operation Sabotage," Eli Lake reported in The New Republic (subscription required) that what one U.S. Jewish leader described as "black ops stuff to screw up the Iranian program” had long been central to American policy on Iranian nukes.

As Declassified has reported over the last year in stories like this one, this one, and this one, U.S. intelligence agencies have been working on an update to a controversial 2007 National Intelligence Estimate which concluded that Tehran "halted its nuclear weapons program" in 2003 and "had not restarted" it as of mid-2007. The long-delayed update is expected to move U.S. agencies closer to the view of allied intelligence services, with an assessment that Iran may well have resumed "research" on nuclear weapons—theoretical work on how to design and construct a bomb—but that Tehran is not engaged in "development" of an actual weapon.

Two U.S. officials, who are familiar with the most up-to-date government reporting and analysis on the issue, say that U.S. agencies appear confident that while bomb-related research may well be moving forward, Iranian leaders still have made no decision to start building an atomic bomb. In an interview with ABC News in June, CIA Director Leon Panetta summed up the current U.S. assessment of Iranian leaders' nuclear weapons policy: "I think they continue to work on designs in that area. There is a continuing debate right now as to whether or nor they ought to proceed with the bomb." U.S. officials say there has been no significant change in this analysis.

U.S. officials say hysterical headlines last week about a move by Russia to start loading fuel into a civilian Iranian reactor, which officials believe has nothing to do clandestine Iranian efforts related to nuclear weapons, have helped to fuel speculation about imminent Israeli moves against Iran—or, alternatively, about Israeli efforts to somehow goad the Obama administration into launching an attack. But the officials say the United States and many of its allies still believe that Iran is at least a year away from the "point of no return" in its efforts to design and actually assemble a bomb. For the moment, the officials say, this means that current talk about a forthcoming attack on Iran is greatly overheated.

[Simon_Jester]

Of course this idiot is so knowledgeable of such things, yet doesn't even realize that Israel couldn't pull this shit off if they wanted to. Put away the pom poms John, America's mini me isn't going to get you "your way" and drag us into another war of aggression.

Israel isn't America's mini-me. Mini-me is loyal, if nothing else. Israel isn't loyal to the US. It tend to kick sand in our faces and dare us to do anything about it... and we don't.

[Iosef Cross]

Let Iran have their little nukes. Pakistan also has nukes and is perhaps much more unstable than Iran.

Israel shouldn't fear an Iranian nuclear attack: If they do anything, the rest of the world would destroy Iran.

[Sarevok]

Let Iran have their little nukes. Pakistan also has nukes and is perhaps much more unstable than Iran.

Israel shouldn't fear an Iranian nuclear attack: If they do anything, the rest of the world would destroy Iran.

Its not about nukes. Israel does not want anyone to become powerful enough challenge it. I bet if Iran invested in something defensive like a working ABM system; Israel would decry it as end of the world.

[Mr Bean]

Israel shouldn't fear an Iranian nuclear attack: If they do anything, the rest of the world would destroy Iran.

That's not going to do the ash covered survivors of Israel much good if Iran is destroyed in turn when Israel is gone. And even then Israel is small. It would take no more than a dozen devices to service Israel's five most populated cities and then turn that country into a humanitarian nightmare.

Of course for an exact number of devices to destroy Israel we could ask Stuart but it does not much matter how many it exactly, Isreal is worried that Iran might use their nukes and no matter how bright Iran glows after the US is done with it will help Isreal not a inch. Besides to say the world is foolish... will Russia waste nukes on Iran or simply sit back and say go ahead America, you spend the money and the nukes to bomb them. You think France or Britian will use any of their own devices? Or India and Pakistan? Chinese nukes hitting Iran? Please...

However Bolton is a fool, the fact he is a well know fool makes it no better. This is man who makes Archie Bunker like a well thought out and erudite statesman. He is as diplomatic as he is liberal. He is a warmonger, a chicken hawk, From speaking to those who had to serve under him in the Bush years, he is a slave driving taskmaster who demands every privilege for himself while demeaning his own people and fawning of those above him.
He is in short, a living breathing stereotype of the Ass-kissing suckup who profits of the work of others and exists only to impend any and all progress. His policy is in essence to pick a fight with the regions best and largest military while we occupy the two countries next to Iran which both have large populations that do not like America. Large populations which have made our occupations hell and which Iran is well placed to make a nightmare more than Iraq and A-Stan already are. At a time when these wars have caused desertions to jump to levels not seen since Vietnam and that is WITH an all volunteer army and you want to pick a fight with one of the ten best militaries in the world? Without allies except perhaps for Britian and South Korea? Both of whom might have their entire governments sacked if they went to war with us against Iran?

Bolton has and always will be a man in his own world, with his own facts and his own numbers.

[Zixinus]

Thing is, that Israel seems convinced that this is somehow an attack on them. I have been debating an Israeli friend, and he insists that Iran cannot be trusted with this technology and would use it against Israel. He points out that Israel, even if it has nukes, would not use them as it is a democracy with checks and balances while Iran is not, and that Iran has funded terrorist attacks.

Personally, I think that's horseshit. Unless there is evidence that Iran is seriously developing nukes with full intention of destroying Israel, people are worrying about nothing.

[Samuel]

Thing is, that Israel seems convinced that this is somehow an attack on them. I have been debating an Israeli friend, and he insists that Iran cannot be trusted with this technology and would use it against Israel. He points out that Israel, even if it has nukes, would not use them as it is a democracy with checks and balances while Iran is not, and that Iran has funded terrorist attacks.

The Soviet Union wasn't a democracy and they also sponsered terrorists in Western Europe. At the same time they didn't use their nukes because to do so would get them all killed. He needs to show Irans leadership is irrational.

[Zixinus]

The Soviet Union wasn't a democracy and they also sponsered terrorists in Western Europe. At the same time they didn't use their nukes because to do so would get them all killed. He needs to show Irans leadership is irrational.

This is an Israeli we are talking about. To him, the Arabs are irrational.

[Psychic_Sandwich]

Iranians aren't Arabs.

Anyway, I was under the impression that this is one of the Iranian nuclear sites that we can be absolutely sure can't be used to create a bomb and is genuinely a purely civilian reactor. The Russians, I understand, are supposed to be keeping an eye on the fuel they provide.

[Zixinus]

And I doubt that Russia would profit from a nuclear war. There is the issue of fuel purity. What's fine for a nuclear plant or even a nuclear-powered ship may not be enough to go BOOM.

[Kanastrous]

It seems worth considering the proposition that a guy with nukes who is plumb certain that if he dies for having used those nukes in the service of his God's wishes he'll get the heavenly virgin party is basically a different problem than an officially atheist guy who figures that when he gets nuked in return, he just...dies.

I don't know about you but between the two I'd be more worried about the fellow who fervently believes that using his nukes will get him to heaven.

[eviljedi73]

The funniest thing is the fuel is sitting in a swimming pool fifty feet from the reactor vessel and has been since it was delivered there months ago. The chance to bomb that plant came and went a year ago. (if the goal was to knock out the plant without the radioactive side effects)

[Uraniun235]

Even if it's true that both the civilian and military leadership of Iran believed that a nuclear attack on Israel would be righteous, I doubt that someone wouldn't speak up and remind them that if they commit national murder-suicide, they wouldn't be able to oppose the other infidels of the world. Their allegedly fervent belief can still be (and very likely already is) bent toward their own interest in self-preservation.

[Pelranius]

What happens if the Israelis using whatever fucked up logic bomb Bushehr in the next week and kill some Russian nationals?

I hope Bibi isn't afraid of Tu-160s.

[PhilosopherOfSorts]

What happens if the Israelis using whatever fucked up logic bomb Bushehr in the next week and kill some Russian nationals?

I hope Bibi isn't afraid of Tu-160s.

I hope the Israealis have asked themselves that same question, and are afraid of Tu-160s. It'd be one more reason for them not to do anything stupid.

[Ritterin Sophia]

I hope the Israealis have asked themselves that same question, and are afraid of Tu-160s. It'd be one more reason for them not to do anything stupid.

Let's be honest with ourselves, as much as I would like to see the US drop Israel like a bad habit, you and I both know the US isn't going to abandon them to a Russian attack.

[Pelranius]

It depends on how the scale of Russian retribution and the number of Russian casualties at Bushehr. If the Russians sink an Israeli warship, we probably won't do much more than flubble about it.

[Uraniun235]

Clearly Iran must attack Israel in less then eight days then. Like seven. Or six, just to be sure. Hell, better safe then sorry, Iran must attack Israel yesterday.

That is an awesome man America sent to the UN. Man, John Bolton, what a fuck.

He's not quite mustache-twirlingly evil; if he were, he'd argue that Israel should attack after the reactor was online, to assure the release of radiation and the complication of cleanup for the Iranians, as well as waste/destroy the precious fuel.

[Gil Hamilton]

Out of curiousity, does the US have any obligation whatsoever to attack Iran if Iran attacks Israel? We've got a big Israeli lobby, but is there actually a treaty that says that if Iran declares war on Israel and bombs her, that we are obliged to declare war on Iran?

[MKSheppard]

He's not quite mustache-twirlingly evil; if he were, he'd argue that Israel should attack after the reactor was online, to assure the release of radiation and the complication of cleanup for the Iranians, as well as waste/destroy the precious fuel.

Actually, I've seen that argument done, but for a different reason.

1.) This way you're sure all Russian nationals are no longer on site -- right now, a lot of Russian nationals are on site finishing the reactor up and starting the fueling process. Once it's fueled; the russians get paid, and every russian goes home.

2.) Any radiation release can then be blamed on the reactor being attacked so theoretically israel could use subcritical 100-200 ton nukes to hit the place and blame all radiation on the reactor being breached.

[Pelranius]

He's not quite mustache-twirlingly evil; if he were, he'd argue that Israel should attack after the reactor was online, to assure the release of radiation and the complication of cleanup for the Iranians, as well as waste/destroy the precious fuel.

Actually, I've seen that argument done, but for a different reason.

1.) This way you're sure all Russian nationals are no longer on site -- right now, a lot of Russian nationals are on site finishing the reactor up and starting the fueling process. Once it's fueled; the russians get paid, and every russian goes home.

2.) Any radiation release can then be blamed on the reactor being attacked so theoretically israel could use subcritical 100-200 ton nukes to hit the place and blame all radiation on the reactor being breached.

I thought the Russians were going to stay on afterward and help the Iranians maintain the reactor and run operations.