2011 – in the world of religion and politics, we have seen banning of Muslim “Hijab” in France, Congressional Hearings on “Radicalization of Muslims in America” and various similar acts across the globe; but what I keep coming back to in my mind are the lives lost on account of the Blasphemy Laws in Pakistan. […]
Since last week’s release of the latest IAEA report on Iran’s nuke program, I have seen a schism between those who believe the report is noteworthy and those who think it is simply more of the same from the Agency. I fall firmly into the former camp. As I noted in my previous post, the […]
The Republican presidential candidates didn’t exactly cover themselves with glory last night, which is perhaps not surprising, given that President Obama’s handling of foreign policy seems generally unassailable (even if he has not always explained and promoted his policies as well as he might, as some critics have complained). Gingrich and Romney expressed a position […]
Mark Hibbs, the former long-time Europe correspondent for Nucleonics Week and all-round specialist on global nuclear commerce, comments today on the IAEA’s Iran report. He notes that the agency has been unable to ferret out the line of command connecting Iran’s nuclear weapons program with the country’s political leadership, and speculates that the program may […]
Further to the point I made in yesterday’s post regarding the changed tone in the most recent Iran safeguards report, Reuters has run a piece today which expands a bit on the Amano versus ElBaradei contrast regarding Iran. Describing the differences in style between the two IAEA DGs, Fredrik Dahl and Sylvia Westall write that […]
I’d like to add my two Rial to the din of commentary on the just-released IAEA report on Iranian nuclear activities. There are a number of reasons why this report is notable, despite the fact that it uses much information that has been obtained previously and that most of the reported weapons development work took […]
The highly anticipated report released today consists of two parts: a main body about implementation of safeguards and UN resolutions, and an annex, “Possible Military Dimensions to Iran’s Nuclear Program.” It is the annex that’s getting all the attention in the press, and rightly so, inasmuch as it is surely the most trenchant and alarming […]
http://isis-online.org/uploads/isis-reports/documents/IAEA_Iran_8Nov2011.pdf
The report discussed in my previous post is now expected to be released on Wednesday, but from stories and commentary that have appeared today and yesterday in The Washington Post, The Guardian, The New York Times, and the Financial Times, it already is clear what some of the main points will be. Much of what […]
Iran is back in the news again: bungled attempt to kill Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the US on American territory, IAEA’s upcoming report which is expected to detail how the Islamic Republic is working toward a nuclear weapon’s program, President Ahmadinejad’s growing feud with the Supreme Leader, and of course Iran’s support for the Bashir […]
Guest Post: Dominik P. Jankowski The last year has revealed to the Europeans three important truths about the American defense posture. First, spending on the military in the United States has reached such heights—almost $700 billion—that it has become too large for deficit-cutters to ignore. Therefore, reductions in defense expenditures are inevitable. The only remaining […]
In the coming days, everybody seriously concerned about Iran’s nuclear weapons program will be watching with bated breath the IAEA’s Iran landing page for the agency’s impending report on the Tehran’s efforts to design and build an atomic bomb. President Obama evidently has been briefed on the report and already has in effect commented on […]
See Greg Thielmann’s excellent analysis at: http://armscontrolnow.org/2011/10/24/iranian-ballistic-missile-developments-non-barking-dog-and-dead-monkey/#more-2485
Three House Committees and one Senate Committee are spotlighting ATF’s Fast and Furious. Representative Lamar Smith (R-Texas) sent a letter to President Obama more than a month ago asking him to appoint a Special Counsel to investigate Eric Holder for perjury. What no one seems to understand is that any US Attorney with jurisdiction in a district where a ‘gun walker’ crime transpired has the statutory authority to empanel a grand jury and open an investigation into more than just perjury…think violation of the Export Control Act. You don’t need a ‘designer prosecutor’ to investigate high profile officials. No one in Washington is going to go out of the way to tell you about this. Read all about it here..
It looks like, despite all the denying on the part of the Syrian government, its stonewalling of the IAEA inspectors, and, of course, the tap dance by Pakistani nuke weapons program grandfather Dr. Khan himself, the IAEA has come up with new allegations that a previously unknown complex in Al-Hasakah, near the Iraqi border, “appears […]