I’ve Moved!
November 20, 2008
So I’m sure that most people have noticed that the site has been offline for a few days. There’s a reason for that, which I will get to shortly. But first, let me just say this:
In fact, I am blogging at a new site I have just finished setting up: kennethhynek.net. A full explanation for the reasons behind the move can be found here
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That said, this is not the end of Time Immortal. My wife Grace has expressed interest in taking over blogging at this domain, and I am working to make sure that she gets set up here as soon as possible.
Also, my profound apologies for the modification to the site face; the move was not as seamless as I would have hoped, and many of the image files for this theme, and in the gallery, were corrupted during the course of their evacuation from my previous web host’s servers. Until such time as I have repaired them, I’ve put a clean-looking template in place of the previous one.
Update: for the purposes of further traffic shaping, new posts from kennethhynek.net will be excerpted below. Full articles can be read at the new blog.
Can. We. Please. Swat. Them. Now?
June 14, 2007
Iran has become a “master of uranium enrichment” and will “never suspend its program”, according to one of Iran’s U.N. envoys.
As Bones McCoy remarked: “Oh, joy.”
The comments, from Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, Iran’s chief representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency, touched on the focus of the meeting of the IAEA’S 35-country board in its fourth day Thursday - Iran’s refusal to heed Council demands to suspend programs that could be used for nuclear weapons and increase co-operation with an IAEA probe of its activities.
Reflecting the deadlock, Soltanieh’s American counterpart, Gregory Schulte, insisted Iran had no room for manoeuvre on Council demands to freeze both enrichment and construction of a nuclear reactor that will be able to produce plutonium once it is completed sometime in the next decade.
Like enriched uranium, plutonium can be used for the fissile core of nuclear warheads. Iran denies such aims. It says it wants to develop enrichment to generate nuclear power and asserts it is building the Arak reactor for research and medical purposes and not for its plutonium capabilities.
Its defiance of Security Council demands to mothball both programs - and increase cooperation with IAEA inspectors trying to shed light on activities that could be used to make weapons - have led to two sets of sanctions. And a recent IAEA report prepared for the board meeting confirmed that Iran was expanding its activities and continuing to stonewall the IAEA in its attempts to gain more information on past programs that could be used to develop weapons. That set the stage for a new round of Security Council-imposed penalties.
Soltanieh, in comments both inside and outside the meeting, repeated his country’s stance; nothing will deter Iran from developing its enrichment program.
Then perhaps it is time to upgrade from attempts at deterrence to what could politely be termed “active interdiction”?
As has been covered before, Iran’s burgeoning nuclear material enrichment program makes no sense as a purely civilian effort — 50,000 centrifuges is a ridiculously large number, and can really only be justified in one of two ways: either the Iranians are planning to install a reactor every twelve blocks, or they’re rushing toward the capability to engage in an active, rapid build-up of nuclear arms.
And a nuclear-armed Iran would be…”catastrophic”, I think would be the best word for it. Especially when the leaders of the nation have repeatedly expressed a desire to commit acts of genocide against Israel. One can also not forget that it was an ayatollah who provided the chilling soundbite about the fact that the ‘Israel question’ would be ‘forever settled’ the moment the Arab world obtains nuclear weapons.
