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2007-05-25 Syria-Lebanon-Iran
US working to sabotage Iran's Manhattan Project
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Posted by Jackal 2007-05-25 00:25|| || Front Page|| [11129 views ]  Top

#1 I certainly hope so, but it'd be better to have some Rods from God in reserve, and if that does not do the trick, some bottled alpha. beta, gamma particles too.
Posted by twobyfour 2007-05-25 01:24||   2007-05-25 01:24|| Front Page Top

#2 Just like MSM to spread the news. Suprised names and addresses of operatives weren't given...yeesh.
Posted by Black Bart Ebbang5005 2007-05-25 01:51||   2007-05-25 01:51|| Front Page Top

#3 Not surprising at all. Look at the second half of the first sentence:

in spite of covert efforts by U.S. and other allied intelligence agencies to actively sabotage the country's nuclear program.

The message is that once again, the US and its allies are powerless and inept. Why can't we all just be friends?

I will never again hear "CBS News" without thinking "See B.S."
Posted by Bobby 2007-05-25 07:13||   2007-05-25 07:13|| Front Page Top

#4 CBS isn't the villain here. Well, they are, but it's irrelevant. Either there is someone inside State/CIA/whoever who is committing clear treason and should be revealed and hanged publicly, or CBS is being used as a patsy to spread stories the CIA (or whoever) wants spread for some reason. We'll probably never know which, because even if it is treason, those in authority don't have the ability/will to do the right thing about it.
Posted by Glenmore">Glenmore  2007-05-25 07:23||   2007-05-25 07:23|| Front Page Top

#5 Given that this is coming out the day after ABC revealed we have a program to destabilize Dinnerjacket's regime, it might also be part of a series of authorized leaks intended to get him looking over both shoulders. You never know what you're looking at in a hall of mirrors.
Posted by Nimble Spemble 2007-05-25 08:05||   2007-05-25 08:05|| Front Page Top

#6 The message I take from CBS is this: "It's just not faaaaaiiirrrr that Iran can't have nuclear power and the whole rest of the world can."
(make sure you get just the right nasal whine when you say "fair".)
Posted by eLarson 2007-05-25 10:53||   2007-05-25 10:53|| Front Page Top

#7 This is no Manhattan project. It does not have any noble aspirations. These iranian islamists are wanting to have nukes for three reasons: to be used against the big satan (US) and allies), to be used against the little satan (Israel), and to be jingoistic in the mideast (be big cheese in islamoworld). CBS is a bunch of nutjobs if they are thinking of "fair" and Iran in the same sentence.
Posted by JohnQC 2007-05-25 11:50||   2007-05-25 11:50|| Front Page Top

#8 Errrrm, methinks calls for public executions for treason are somewhat excessive here...

Breaking the article down

1) Iranians are paranoid as hell about sabotage anyway.

2) This paranoia is helping us to slow them down in any case.


As for me, I have to say that I find this whole strategy highly dodgy. The rumours are that much of their tech is based on flawed blueprints leaked by the CIA, (Democrat haters will be glad to know that you can blame Clinton for this one) where the flaws were found and corrected. My guess is that it was probably disgruntled Russian tech that fixed it, probably in revenge for Ronny's trans-Siberian pipe coup.

Not even going to mention the non-defective stuff that gets made in the West. Admittedly clamped down on since AQ khan, but still happens and you cant blame it all on Eu-ROP...
Posted by Admiral Allan Ackbar 2007-05-25 12:08||   2007-05-25 12:08|| Front Page Top

#9 Crainial Bull Shit is nothing more than a den of liberal, America and Bush hating nutjobs.
Posted by DarthVader">DarthVader  2007-05-25 13:42||   2007-05-25 13:42|| Front Page Top

#10 This strikes me as a plant. In intelligence work, your biggest successes are created by really thinking things through first. It was described to me like this:

Write up 'plan A'", then when you have finished that, write up every possible reason you can think of why 'plan A' might not work. Then write up 'plan B', 'plan C', and so on, for the same mission, the same way. Let me know when you get to 'plan Z'.

"Why is that?"

So you can start work on 'plan AA'.

Now, the next guy, when he finishes his 'plan A', he should give it to you. Your job is to write up every flaw you can find in that plan.

Then pass 'plan A' to the third guy. His job will be to figure out, as if he was a bad guy, what he could do to screw up or neutralize the plan. Assume both that he stumbles on part of the plan, and that he discovers the entire plan.

Now, the fourth guy...
Posted by Anonymoose 2007-05-25 13:45||   2007-05-25 13:45|| Front Page Top

#11 If they're following AQ Kahn's plans, their bombs probably will work about as well as little Kimmie's. I'm not even sure that pakiland's nukes would work if they were fired. Nukes are VERY fickle little beasties. I think it's unfair that we haven't shown them how they REALLY work - by dropping one on Qom.
Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot  2007-05-25 13:57|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]  2007-05-25 13:57|| Front Page Top

#12 Aw, come on - the current administration isn't exactly known for being competent on intelligence issues. I say it's info being leaked by traitors. It's a much simpler explanation than Bush has plans within plans.
Posted by gromky 2007-05-25 14:57||   2007-05-25 14:57|| Front Page Top

#13 Sources in several countries involved told CBS News that the intelligence operatives involved include former Russian nuclear scientists and Iranians living abroad. Operatives have sold Iran components with flaws that are difficult to detect, making them unstable or unusable.

However unreliable Russians may be, you can always rely upon being able to buy them. We really need to give Iran a "delivery" of highly unstable isotopes. Preferrably well-confined and at critical mass.

According to diplomats, getting the Iranians to believe that components may have been tampered with can be as effective in delaying the program as the real thing. But the diplomats also warn that with enough money and time, Iran's nuclear ambitions cannot be derailed by sabotage alone.

Yet, can these "diplomats" possibly bring themselves to recommend military action against Iran?

But, nooooooooooooooooooo! [/Belushi]

Given that this is coming out the day after ABC revealed we have a program to destabilize Dinnerjacket's regime, it might also be part of a series of authorized leaks intended to get him looking over both shoulders. You never know what you're looking at in a hall of mirrors.

Everything considered, this is probably a good thing. The more paranoid Iran becomes, the more their forward progress is interfered with. Spending time cross-checking plans and testing equipment is a real time dump. Now, magnify this by a huge factor because most Iranians don't know their ass from a hot rock isotope. Even if they have Russians helping them validate the plans and gear, how do they know whether those individuals are reliable? A "hall of mirrors", indeed.

All of this reminds me very little of the Soviet's space shuttle, "Buran". According to legend, in the 1980’s the Russians came to town with the intent of getting all documentation on America’s space shuttle. NASA being a civilian agency, many of the plans are available through the GAO. Of course, critical plans for the propulsion, avonics and guidance are all classified, but that didn’t stop the Russians. The story has it that the Soviets were fed intentionally altered plans bearing slight changes in wing dihedrals and other such vital but extremely difficult to verify properties.

Please note how Buran was an almost carbon copy scaled-down replica of our space shuttle. Also note how all its only mission was a single release during atmospheric flight for a dry landing. Given Russia’s history of disinformation, it was supremely ironic to see them spend billions of sorely needed rubles on a program that had no hope of succeeding.

Let’s all hope that a similar situation confronts Iran today. There have already been rumors of crippling contamination in their gasification of uranium hexafluoride. This in turn fouls the centrifuges. The centrifuges themselves are balky and failure prone as well. They must be spun up in vacuo to supersonic velocities, much like an ultrafuge. Bad bearings, poor rotor balancing and other simple component issues can all cause catastrophic point failures. Having ill-educated Iranian technicians attempting to run such delicate equipment is like hiring a gorilla to be a watchmaker.

Compound all of this preparatory groundwork by a factor of 1,000 when it comes to assembling a nuclear device. Implosion lensing is a fine art, the shaping and physical density of each lens subassembly have to meet very precise tolerances and must match its siblings to near perfection. Then there are issues surrounding the exact timing of kryton switching and fast discharge capacitors required to detonate the lenses. Being a few milliseconds off in synchronization can fatally distort the implosion envelope and prevent arrival at critical mass. This may well have been responsible for North Korea’s dud test. Even with perfect lensing, slight imbalances of isotope families in the device’s core can prohibitively attenuate the resulting neutron flux and prevent proper nuclear fission.

Finally there is the issue of “one point safe”. Given the Muslim propensity for red wire – blue wire difficulties, the notion of them being able to obtain rigidly controlled and reliable fusing for a nuclear device is almost hilarious. One point safe means that anything other than an intentional and authorized triggering of the bomb’s implosion has one in a million chances of succeeding. In many respects nuclear devices in the hands of head-banging Muslims presents more of a danger to them than to us.

Unfortunately, the near-psychotic nature of Islam’s followers still makes them a danger at all times. None of the above difficulties can be relied upon to permanently obstruct Iran’s progress. It remains a towering feat of willful ignorance in how the global community is capable of persuading itself that means other than military intervention can have a deterring effect on Iran. Only catastrophic disassembly of their nuclear apparatus will do.
Posted by Zenster">Zenster  2007-05-25 15:12||   2007-05-25 15:12|| Front Page Top

#14 Coding tags, why do they hate us?
Posted by Zenster">Zenster  2007-05-25 15:15||   2007-05-25 15:15|| Front Page Top

#15 I think that these leaks are a way to express how we have tried everything, and they still proceed to attempt to build nuclear weapons, therefore..... and then the attacks on Iran commence.
Posted by wxjames 2007-05-25 15:18||   2007-05-25 15:18|| Front Page Top

#16 plant, IMHO
Posted by Frank G">Frank G  2007-05-25 17:28||   2007-05-25 17:28|| Front Page Top

#17 hey must be spun up in vacuo to supersonic velocities, much like an ultrafuge. Bad bearings, poor rotor balancing and other simple component issues can all cause catastrophic point failures.

So an earthquake would work wonders....
Paging.. Haliburton Earthquake Division...
Posted by 3dc 2007-05-25 21:06||   2007-05-25 21:06|| Front Page Top

#18 So an earthquake would work wonders....

Only if the gas centrifuges are operating at the time. Fortunately, we have stealth technology on our side. We must merely be sure to launch our attack during operating hours. Good thing it's likely that the centrifuges are operated around the clock. It only remains to ensure that the mullahs are decapped after the strike on Natanz et al.
Posted by Zenster">Zenster  2007-05-25 22:03||   2007-05-25 22:03|| Front Page Top

23:54 Barbara Skolaut
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