Jan 25 2010

Note to Tel Aviv: buy lead underwear, and dig a deep hole to hide in

Category: Uncategorizedharmonicminer @ 11:42 am

Iran able to produce nuclear bomb this year?

Iran is serious about developing a nuclear bomb and has the ability to produce a primitive, truck-sized version of the bomb this year, the German magaziner Der Spiegel reported on Monday.

An intelligence dossier obtained by Der Spiegel shows that there is a secret military branch of Iran’s nuclear research program that answers to Tehran’s ministry of defense, according to the report.

Officials who have read this document – which is currently under review by the U.S., Germany and Israel – claim that it shows that their nuclear program aimed at producing a bomb is well advanced.
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The officials said to Der Spiegel that the truck-sized bomb which they are capable of producing will have to be compressed to a size that would fit into a nuclear warhead for the strategic threat potential they desire.

Der Spiegel also wrote that Israel and the West were alarmed by the dossier’s revelations, as Iran could reach the compressed level of a nuclear bomb between 2012 and 2014.

Tehran has consistently denied that it is enriching uranium for weapons, claiming it is exclusively dedicated to the peaceful use of nuclear technology.

Jihad is taking a very scary turn.  If I lived in Israel, I’d take about a ten-year overseas vacation…  just to see what the shakeout is. 


Jan 25 2010

Earmarks galore

Category: Uncategorizedharmonicminer @ 11:35 am

Crush of earmarks in defense bill gives yet another lesson in horse-trading

Journalists talk about congressional earmarks in terms of lobbyists’ shenanigans, or legislators helping themselves and their pals.

But pause for a moment and consider that there are 97 pages listing nearly 1,000 congressional earmarks in the 543-page report by the House-Senate conferees on the $626 billion defense appropriations bill signed by President Obama this month.

They cover every category from procurement to operations and maintenance to research and development, with the last group alone spanning more than 77 of those pages. Who is to say what kind of impact these separate transfers of what may be $5 billion will have on our defense posture — and on our intelligence operations, since that money is also in the bill?

Wait… didn’t Obama say he would not tolerate “pork barrel” and “earmark” legislation?