FOR YEARS, THE U.S. AND ITS ERSTWHILE PARTNERS have been wringing their hands over the inevitable Manhattan Project that Iran was pursuing. Tehran’s nuclear ambition was insatiable and weapons-grade uranium was said to be imminent. Today, there appears to be evidence it is true.
A report released by the International Atomic Energy Agency (the U.N. watchdog) was leaked on Tuesday which said IAEA inspectors found 83.7% enriched uranium in the Islamic State’s Fordo underground nuclear site near the holy Shiite city of Qom, 55 miles southwest of Tehran. Weapons grade is 90%. The report did not specify the number of particles found, but confirmed Iran is not stockpiling uranium enriched beyond 60% purity, used for a nuclear power plant to produce electricity.
Naturally, Iran denies any desire to create weapons-grade uranium, saying the 83.7% particles may have formed accidentally during ‘cascade configuration,’ which caused “unintended fluctuations” in enrichment levels. So far, the IAEA buys the explanation, but if configuring ‘a cascade’ can generate enrichment to 83.7%, it sounds as though the mullahs are onto something hot.
Yet on Sunday, C.I.A. Director William Burns told CBS News‘ “Face the Nation”that Iran is “not resuming” its nuclear weapons program. For decades, Tehran has denied trying to use uranium for anything other than peaceful purposes, so the admission by Burns was novel coming from Langley.
In 2018, 45th President Donald Trump withdrew from a hastily negotiated and poorly drafted nuclear treaty with Iran. That treaty had been made between then-Secretary of State John Kerry, under the Barack Obama administration, and Iranian diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif, during 2015 Iran nuclear talks in Vienna.
Since then, Biden waived sanctions against Iran, but has been unwilling or unable to renegotiate a sensible treaty with the Supreme Leader, despite overtures from the Islamic government to do so. The spooky question is begged as to whose interests are advanced by this leak, as well as from Burns’ admission.
On Monday, reports that the Covid pandemic originated from a lab leak at the Wuhan virology lab were bandied about by the Dept. of Energy as if it was news. Recently the F.B.I., too, reached this conclusion. It isn’t. But at least it’s not repeating the World Health Organization’s and others’ propaganda that a lab leak was “highly unlikely.” The roughly 83.7% with an IQ higher than Biden’s have known the virus came from the Wuhan lab for years. Some have further suggested it wasn’t a lab leak, but an intentional weapon released by the C.C.P., presumably to cause economic turmoil throughout the world (which it certainly did in spades.)
Yet others have been quick to claim the Pentagon and C.I.A. were behind the viral pandemic by funding the gain-of-function research that produced it. Until a vigorous investigation is concluded and more data released to the public, it is hard to tell what is really true, but I would not be surprised to learn that the C.C.P. weaponized the virus, engineered illegally using Pentagon funds and/or other U.S. taxpayer money, and either intentionally or accidentally released it, causing a worldwide disaster. U.S. and allied intelligence probably figured it out and realized they shouldn’t let this good opportunity go to waste in tyrannizing, locking down, and controlling their populations. And, as luck would have it, it was election time in the U.S.
No one pays attention to Syria anymore, but earlier this month, Russia claimed a chemical attack blamed on Syria in Douma (slightly northeast of Damascus) in 2018 was a political hit piece by a chemical weapons watchdog, Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, to rationalize continued military aggression by the West against the Syrian government. Syria has been blamed for such attacks with some regularity for years, but accusations are, at best, below the fold, or at worst, buried in the classified section these days. It’s Ukraine all the time now.
The one-year anniversary of the Russian incursion into Ukraine was marked by the regime in Washington, D.C. by announcing another $2 billion arms package for conventional weapons for the corrupt nation, along with more sanctions targeting Russia. For now, Joey Biden won’t send them F-16 fighter jets, but may do so later.
And finally, on Monday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited Ukraine with a promise of $10 billion from U.S. taxpayers to fund the government in Kyiv for government services and pensions for…Ukrainians.
Lucky for the world, the IAEA has publicly released a report on nuclear safety in Ukraine. The gist of the 52-page report (here) is that they’re on the case. Whew! The Military Industrial Complex is alive and well.
sua sponte 