UN Nuclear Watchdog Discovers Iran Wants Nukes

Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has finally noticed Iran's Manhattan Project.
According to REUTERS:

LONDON, June 17 (Reuters) - Iran wants the ability to build nuclear weapons to gain the reputation of a major power in the Middle East, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said in a BBC interview broadcast on Wednesday.

Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Iran sees nuclear weapons as an “insurance policy” against perceived threats from neighbouring countries or the United States.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election has cast doubt on Western powers’ hopes of a new dialogue with Iran over its nuclear programme, which Iran says is for producing electricity only, not atomic bombs.

“My gut feeling is that Iran definitely would like to have the technology ... that would enable it to have nuclear weapons if they decided to do so,” ElBaradei told the BBC. “It wants to send a message to its neighbours, it wants to send a message to the rest of the world: yes, don’t mess with us, we can have nuclear weapons if we want it.”

Hat tip to Little Green Footballs.

U.S. to join anti-Israel U.N. Human Rights Council

The Obama Administration is reversing a Bush Administration decision to shun the anti-Israel U.N. Human Rights Council. The U.S. will participate in May elections for a seat on the 47-member council. The stated purpose is to reform the body from within. Current members are such well know human rights advocates as China, Cuba, Indonesia, Russia and Saudi Arabia. The Council has a history of ingnoring human rights and condemming Israel. According to a jta.org article,

Since its creation in 2006 to replace the widely discredited U.N. Commission on Human Rights, the council has passed 32 resolutions; 26 have been critical of Israel, according to UN Watch. More than half of the council’s members fall short of basic democracy standards, according to Freedom House, a democracy watchdog group. And in the past two years the council has moved to eliminate its country-specific special experts investigating human rights abuses in Darfur, Congo, Cuba, Belarus and Liberia.

The Anti-Defamation League has expressed concern about the Obama administration's decision. There is little chance of reforming this organization. The U.S. has only one vote on this council and most of the members are Israel haters or current human rights abusers.

Obama is ready for 'direct diplomacy' with Iran (video)

During his White House presser he called Iran's actions 'unhelpful'. Is that the strongest language he could come up with? I would suggest he use the term 'intolerable'. He, also, said that Iran getting a nuclear weapon would be 'destabilizing'. No kidding, Barack. Keep talking like that and you will have Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shaking in his boots. He will surely give up in his desire to destroy Israel and America now. I think it is time for Obama to bring back prepared remarks and a teleprompter when making foreign policy statements.

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Al Qaeda gets the plague-40 dead

We always knew Al Qaeda was a plague. Now they appear to have the plague. Reportedly forty operatives in Algeria are dead and Al Qaeda has abandoned a training camp in the mountains of Tizi Ouzou province in eastern Algeria. According the the Washington Times, this is no accident. They are reporting an experiment with unconventional weapons went awry. Many will claim this is proof there is a God. We should all consider what it means for the future of the war on terrorism. The next major attack on American soil may be a biological or other unconventional attack. Will President Obama do everything in his power to prevent this? He won't use waterboarding even if it would save thousands of American lives. His administration will consider it torture. Waterboarding does not cause physical injury or death if properly executed. Hopefully, he can sweet talk the information from the terrorist operatives in time to prevent the next attack.

Black Death 'kills al-Qaeda operatives in Algeria'
The Black Death has reportedly killed at least 40 al-Qaeda operatives in North Africa.


Last Updated: 3:33PM GMT 19 Jan 2009

The disease, which struck Europe in the Middle Ages killing more than 25 million people, has swept through a training camp for insurgents in Algeria.

The arrival of the plague was discovered when security forces found the body of a dead terrorist by a roadside, the Sun reports.

The victim belonged to the large al-Qaeda network AQLIM (al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb).Excerpted from telegraph.co.uk