Any other time, I would not give two flips about something like this; but seeing the news that I saw last night. Um, I am a bit inclined to be a bit worried.
Last Night the New York Times reported the following:
TEHRAN — Thirty-six years after construction began under the shah, Iran finally opened its first nuclear power plant at a ceremony on Saturday.
Attended by senior officials from Iran and Russia, which helped build the plant, the ceremony marked the beginning of the transfer of low-enriched uranium fuel rods from a storage site into the plant. Officials of both countries said that Saturday’s events signified the opening, not the startup, of the plant near Bushehr, in southern Iran.
The plant itself is not controversial, because the Russians plan to provide fuel for it and to remove spent fuel that could be used to make weapons. But the opening was sure to upset United States diplomats, who had encouraged Russia to delay it as a way to add to economic sanctions imposed on Iran because of its refusal to cease enrichment of uranium at its other nuclear facilities. Although Iran denies that it is using its civilian nuclear program to mask a plan to build a bomb, many Western countries are dubious.
Which is not exactly true. If this news source can be trusted; Haartz is reporting the following:
Iran will continue to enrich its own uranium, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told the country’s semi-official Fars news agency on Saturday, hours after Russian nuclear fuel began to be inserted into Iran’s first nuclear reactor.
Iranian and Russian engineers began the weeklong operation to load uranium fuel into the Bushehr nuclear power plant, a major milestone as Tehran forges ahead with its atomic program despite U.N. sanctions.
Last week, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters the United States felt that the fact that the Bushehr reactor would operate solely on Russian fuel proved that “underscores that Iran does not need its own enrichment capability if its intentions, as it states, are for a peaceful nuclear program.”
Gibbs added that the Bushehr plant proved “to the world that, if the Iranians are sincere in a peaceful program, their needs can be met without undertaking its own enrichment program, which call into question its motives.
Having made that point; I want to direct your attention to this little gem, which popped into my RSS this morning.
This comes via AP, which comes to me via the Daily Caller:
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Sunday inaugurated the country’s first domestically-built, long-range, unmanned bomber aircraft, calling it an “ambassador of death” to Iran’s enemies.
Speaking to a group of officials Ahmadinejad said, “The jet, as well as being an ambassador of death for the enemies of humanity, has a main message of peace and friendship.”
The goal of the aircraft is to “keep the enemy paralyzed in its bases,” he said, adding that the jet is for deterrence and defensive purposes.
The president championed the country’s military self-sufficiency program, and said it will continue “until the enemies of humanity lose hope of ever attacking the Iranian nation.”
The 4-meter-long unmanned plane, dubbed the Karrar or striker in Farsi, was inaugurated on the national day for the country’s defense industry in a ceremony aired live on state TV.
No details were provided on the craft’s capabilities.
Iran has been producing its own light, unmanned surveillance aircraft since the late 1980s.
The ceremony came a day after Iran began to fuel its first nuclear power reactor, with the help of Russia, amid international concerns over the possibility of a military dimension to its nuclear program.
Iran insists it is only interested in generating electricity.
Call me overly paranoid, But I don’t quite believe that Iran is just using that plant for generating electricity. I mean, a plant opens one day; and nobody is quite sure what fuel that they will be using. The next very next day, Iran debuts a unmanned drone, which can drop a bomb? Sorry, but I find that just a bit unnerving. Hopefully, someone at the State Department will see the story and go, “um, Barry?” and let the President know about this. However, I do not expect that the President will be inclined to do anything about it. I mean, after all, we did just get out of Iraq; and we are still very busy with Afghanistan as well.
It could very well be, that this drone is to basically taunt and a feeble attempt to put fear into Israel. However, I am inclined to believe that it will have just the opposite effect. Either way, this should be an interesting story to follow.
I just hope that the President, his Administration and our State Department are taking this as seriously, as they should be.
Further more, I do not expect the liberal media to get into any sort of huff about this either; as they do not see the threat of Iran, like those of us, who know what idiot leader of that Country is capable of; plainly, the man is crazy and is a Jew hater and there is no telling what he might use that drone for. If I were Israel, I would be preparing for war. Because it is quite obvious that this is what Iran wants.
Update: Now a Memeorandum Thread.
Remember all those liberals and lefties huffily denouncing this blog’s attempts to make sense of Sarah Palin’s bizarre stories about the pregnancy and birth of her alleged fifth child? I was nuts, crazy, vile, disgusting, etc etc to indulge in what Dave Weigel, with no working knowledge of the story, calls “nonsense.” You may also recall that the liberal media didn’t touch this with a barge-pole – and still hasn’t (apart from a NYT puff-piece that I found utterly credulous at the time). Newsweek has even put its entire reputation behind the details of the story as outlined in Going Rogue, without doing any independent reporting on the subject.
this story, look no further. It has nothing to do with the facts, and everything to do with their politics. Notice the core modus operandi of the political operative, not the journalist. When dealing with a story: first ask yourself not if it is true but whether the outcome benefits your side. Second, write things in defense of this that you cannot possibly know. Palin a “wonderful mother”? How on earth did Klein know that?