IAEA's Amano helps beat war drums against Iran

Who, really, is the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, and why is he so supportive of the U.S. and Israeli governments' accusations that Iran's nuclear program is aiming for the bomb? Amano's position is in marked contrast to the previous IAEA director general, Mohammed ElBaradei. ElBaradei was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for confronting false U.S. and U.K. claims that Iraq had a covert nuclear weapons development program in the lead up to the 2003 invasion, as well as his skepticism toward U.S. and Israeli claims of nuclear proliferation in Iran. A Wikileaks cable revealed coordination between the U.S. government and Amano on Iran policy. Robert Parry, an investigative journalist who broke many of the Iran-Contra scandal stories of the 1980s, now warns we may be "Slip-Sliding to War with Iran," despite the lessons that should have been learned from our recent debacle in Iraq -- a very deadly and expensive war that was based on false accusations about secret WMD (weapons of mass destruction) development, including nuclear weaponry.

In a Christmas Eve article entitled "America's Debt to Bradley Manning," Robert Parry reports that the Wikileaks revelations about Amano's close ties to U.S. and even Israeli schemes towards Iran may be just the information needed to avert another false war over non-existent WMDs.

Reports of explosions at Iranian nuclear and missile facilities -- covert attacks, or accidents?

The Washington Post reported on November 12th that an explosion at an Iranian missile base near Tehran killed 17 elite Republican Guards, including a general specializing in long-range missile research. While Iran claimed the explosion was an accident, it comes amidst a string of assassinations, and explosions at other Iranian military bases or energy facilities, that some Iranian officials blame on sabotage orchestrated by "enemies of the Iranian nation," including the U.S. A November 28th Washington Post article published "before and after" photos showing the missile base had been largely destroyed by the blast. 

In a December 3rd article entitled "All eyes on Israel after second Iranian blast," The Australian has reported that smoke clouds billowed above Isfahan, location of an Iranian nuclear facility that converts uranium "yellowcake" into uranium hexafluoride so that it can be enriched. The Iranian regime claims the uranium will be enriched to low levels for use as fuel in atomic reactors, while the U.S. and Israeli governments have alleged the uranium could be enriched to high levels for nuclear weapons manufacture. The article quotes high ranking Israeli officials, who do not deny involvement, and reports that while an Iranian regime spokesman claimed the explosion took place at an unrelated nearby facility, a U.S. official affirmed it was in fact at the nuclear facility.

When "cyber war" goes nuclear

Giving a whole new meaning to "nuclear war," Public Radio International's The World has reported that the U.S. military now recognizes "cyber war" as the "new fifth domain of war between states, after air, land, sea and outer space." It reported "the humanitarian consequences of a cyber attack could include damage to infrastructure like power grids and toxic waste facilities," which could, of course, include atomic reactors and high-level radioactive waste storage pools. Bennett Ramberg warned more than 25 years ago that reactors and radioactive waste could be targeted during war, in his book Nuclear Power Plants as Weapons for the Enemy: An Unrecognized Military Peril. The Stuxnet computer worm, targeted at the Iranian uranium enrichment facilities, is rumored to have been launched by the U.S. and/or Israeli militaries, although no radioactivity releases to the environment from the resulting damage were reported.

IAEA report suggests Iran could be working to get the Bomb

A new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency suggests that there is "credible" evidence that Iran's nuclear activities are designed to build a nuclear bomb but stops short of stating that Iran is on the verge of becoming a nuclear weapons state. The IAEA sourced intelligence from 10 countries. Although the report contains virtually nothing new and reinforces existing fears that Iran's nuclear activities do not have so-called "peaceful" intentions, the report also marks the first time all the data have been composited into one document. The report concludes: “The information indicates that Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear device." Read more.

Update on November 10, 2011 by admin

The New York Times has also reported on this story.

From Hiroshima to Fukushima: Secrecy and Censorship around Japan's Atomic Tragedies

Amy Goodman, author and host of Democracy Now!To commemorate the 66th anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as to reflect on the ongoing Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, Amy Goodman (host of the Pacifica Radio Network's Democracy Now!, as well as an author of numerous books) published a column in the Guardian on the secrecy and censorship common to the radioactive disasters of 1945 and 2011. She concludes by quoting 82 year old Sumiteru Taniguchi, director of the Nagasaki Council of A-Bomb Sufferers, who had this to say in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe:

"Nuclear power and mankind cannot coexist. We survivors of the atomic bomb have said this all along. And yet, the use of nuclear power was camouflaged as 'peaceful' and continued to progress. You never know when there's going to be a natural disaster. You can never say that there will never be a nuclear accident."