President Obama must have had something other in mind then
leaks when he vowed to make government more transparent.
"another cable shows that a 2009 claim by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Iran was months away from achieving military nuclear capability was dismissed by the Americans as a ploy.
According to German weekly Der Spiegel, which also received advance information from WIkiLeaks, a State Department official says in a classified cable that Netanyahu informed the United States of Iran's nuclear advancement in November 2009, but that the prime minister's estimate was likely unfounded and intended to pressure Washington into action against the Islamic Republic."
(Wikileak)
"After delays, an official launch ceremony of Iran's first nuclear power plant,
Bushehr I reactor was held on 21 August 2010, and the plant is expected to go on line ... by the end of 2010."
(Wikipedia)
"The
nuclear program of Iran was launched in the 1950s with the help of the United States as part of the
Atoms for Peace program."
(Wikpedia) I had no idea.
"Ahmadinejad has been a vocal supporter of
Iran's nuclear program, and has insisted that it is for peaceful purposes. He has repeatedly emphasized that building a
nuclear bomb is not the policy of his government. He has said that such a policy is "illegal and against our religion."
[101][102] He also added at a January 2006 conference in Tehran that a nation with "culture, logic and civilization" would not need nuclear weapons, and that countries that seek nuclear weapons are those which want to solve all problems by the use of force.
[103] In a 2008 interview Ahmadinejad elaborated that countries striving to obtain nuclear weapons are politically backward nations and those who possess them and continually make new generations of such bombs are "even more backward".
(Wikpedia)
"Despite Ahmadinejad's vocal support for the program, the office of the Iranian president is not directly responsible for nuclear policy. It is instead set by the
Supreme National Security Council. The council includes two representatives appointed by the
Supreme Leader, military officials, and members of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government, and reports directly to Supreme Leader
Ali Khamenei, who issued a
fatwa against nuclear weapons in 2005.
[112] Khamenei has criticized Ahmadinejad's "personalization" of the nuclear issue."
(Wikpedia)
I do wonder if Iran is close to having
nuclear power available for military purposes? My Tea Party contact dismisses this as nonsense and stresses their right to nuclear power as a sovereign power and believes the
Iranian president Ahmadinejad enjoys goading others and does not believe him to be as ignorant as he may sound.
Did you know that as Major of Teheran, Ahmadinejad worked to improve the traffic system and focused on charity such a as the distribution of free soup to the poor?
.."after returning from his 2005 speech to the
UN General Assembly, Ahmadinejad stated he had "felt a halo over his head" during his speech and that a hidden presence had mesmerized the unblinking audience of foreign leaders, foreign ministers, and ambassadors." Wow, the Iraninan president, a mystic and/or religious fanatic?
This is where one might want to resort to prayer, and plead to the higher powers to interject and save us from rogues gaining access to nuclear destruction.
For an interesting interview with
Julian Assange check out this
link.
4 months earlier, August 3. 2010 on Democracy Now,
another interesting interview.
Interpole, usually involved with international affairs has put out a warrant because supposedly not of the leaks, but the charges of rape against Julian. While I take accusations of rape very seriously, this one smells suspicious.
Since Amazon took down the Wikileak site, you can follow the developments on
twitter or facebook.
Der Spiegel offers a highly organized means of studying the documents and seems to still function.
