Iranian Nukes In 2009, IAEA: What Nukes? (Plus: Iran Systematically Persecuting Baha'i. Again)
Iran could have nuclear weapons by 2009, the Head of Military Intelligence's Research Division, Brig. -Gen. Yossi Baidatz told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday. "Iran's conservative sect is gaining power. The Iranian regime is faced with internal issues, but there is no threat to its existence or stability. Assuming it faces no difficulties, the worst case scenario is Iran obtaining nuclear arms by 2009."
(1) Well that's a shock. The most sophisticated liberal foreign policy experts have been telling people for years that Iranian moderates are winning and that the conservative regime is hollow. These are the same people who insisted that Arafat could be moderated and that empowering Fatah would work. Wonder how they blew that call.
(2) People have now taken to wondering out loud whether ElBaradei and the IAEA are in Iran's pockets, getting back at the Bush administration, or just spineless. Or all three.
(3) Iran is enthusiastically renewing its two-decade old campaign of persecution against the Baha'i. The campaign in its current manifestation stretches back to a 1991 government directive: widespread cultural and economic strangulation. This is - again - being met with near total silence on the part of the international community. The Baha'i in Israel own a gigantic and spectacular temple in the center of Haifa (and one that Hezbollah wanted to blow up). And yet somehow it's always the Jewish State that's viciously demonized as a religious supremicist apartheid regime. Weird, that. (h/t: PS) [Photo]
References:
* Top IDF Intel officer: Iran could have nuclear weapons by 2009 [JPost]
* Smug Liberal Sophistication Untroubled By Undeniable Evidence That Hardliners Are Winning In Iran [MR]
* Analysis: Why are the IAEA and ElBaradei protecting Iran? [JPost]
* "Murder with Impunity" [Weekly Standard]
* Baha'i World Center, Haifa, Israel [Flickr]
* Haifa's Baha'i temple - a tempting target for Hizbullah? [JPost]
Previously:
* Iran: Israeli Self-Defense is a Cause for War
* Purdue Nuclear Strategy Expert: Bomb Iran Now
* Iran, Much of the World Kind of Anti-Semitic
