Clipmarks | Nuclear weapons Clips

Bush Setting Up America For War With Iran

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 12:36:12 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Senior American intelligence and defence officials believe that President George W Bush and his inner circle are taking steps to place America on the path to war with Iran, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

Pentagon planners have developed a list of up to 2,000 bombing targets in Iran, amid growing fears among serving officers that diplomatic efforts to slow Iran's nuclear weapons programme are doomed to fail.

Pentagon and CIA officers say they believe that the White House has begun a carefully calibrated programme of escalation that could lead to a military showdown with Iran.

Now it has emerged that Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, who has been pushing for a diplomatic solution, is prepared to settle her differences with Vice-President Dick Cheney and sanction military action.

Tags: don't, say, i, didn't, clip, it

Is the Search for Aliens a Good Idea?

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 03:21:14 GMT

clipped by: Kore7
clipper's remarks:

One thing is clear from our searches for ET - there is nobody transmitting strong interstellar beacons in our local vicinity. If "they" are out there, they are keeping quiet, prompting the question that they might know something we don't.

Listening for transmissions from space is rational; intentionally announcing our presence to unknown civilizations borders on irresponsible. On Earth, radio technology and nuclear weapons were invented within only 50 years of each other. Any civilization with the capability to receive and understand our beacons will likely have figured out worse.

Humans are bad enough at co-existing as it is without near constant war. Could you imagine being forced to enter foreign policy negotiations with another species like our own? It would be calamitous.

Clip Source: comment.independent.co.uk

Meet the neighbours: Is the search for aliens such a good idea?

The fact is, and this should have been obvious to all, that we do not know what any extraterrestrials might be like - and hoping that they might be friendly, evolved enough to be wise and beyond violence, is an assumption upon which we could be betting our entire existence.

The late Carl Sagan, the American astronomer who died a decade ago, also worried about so-called "First Contact". He recommended that we, the newest children in a strange and uncertain cosmos, should listen quietly for a long time, patiently learning about the universe and comparing notes. He said there is no chance that two galactic civilisations will interact at the same level. In any confrontation, one will always dominate the other.

it's likely that any creature we contact will also have had to claw its way up its own evolutionary ladder and may possibly be every bit as nasty as we are - or worse.

Tags: alien, aliens, planet, radio, space, war, civilization, science, politics, humans

Barack Obama on Iraq - 2002

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 18:14:33 GMT

clipped by: jmk432
clipper's remarks: I love this quote! And it was in 2002!

Clip Source: en.wikisource.org

Barack Obama's Iraq Speech

Delivered on 26 October 2002.

That’s what I’m opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics.

Now let me be clear – I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied UN resolutions, thwarted UN inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity.

He’s a bad guy. The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him.

But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.

I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the middle east, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda.

I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars.

Tags: barack, obama, iraq

Atlas of the Real World

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:08:51 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Land area

The Atlas of the Real World uses software to depict the nations of the world, not by their physical size, but by their demographic importance on a range of subjects. Here, we select a series of travel- and news-related maps.

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Wealth in the year 1

The size of each territory shows the GDP, adjusted for local purchasing power, of the equivalent territory in 1 AD. The Americas appear small, partly because fewer people lived there in year 1 AD.

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Wealth in the year 1900

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Projected wealth in the year 2015

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Housing prices

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

HIV prevalence

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Alcohol consumption

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Nuclear weapons

2002

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Armed forces at war 1945-2004

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

War deaths 1945-2002

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Increase in emissions of carbon dioxide

Between 1980 and 2000, nearly three-quarters of all territories saw an increase in carbon dioxide emissions, with China, the United States and India leading the way.

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Decrease in emissions of carbon dioxide

1980 and 2000

7 Worst Killer Plagues in History

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 02:43:04 GMT

clipped by: CrazyRedHead
clipper's remarks: Warning: graphic photos at site.

Clip Source: www.oddee.com

Smallpox (430 BC? - 1979):
Killed more than 300 million people worldwide in the 20th century alone, and most of the native inhabitants of the Americas

Spanish Flu (1918 - 1919):
Killed 50 to 100 million people worldwide in less than 2 years

In 1918 and 1919, the Spanish Flu pandemic killed more people than Hitler, nuclear weapons and all the terrorists of history combined.

Black Death (1340 - 1771):
Killed 75 million people worldwide

Malaria (1600 - today):
Kills about 2 million people per year

AIDS (1981 - today):
Killed 25 million people worldwide

Cholera (1817 - today):
8 pandemics

Typhus (430 BC? - today):
Killed 3 million people between 1918 and 1922 alone, and most of Napoleon's soldiers on Russia

Typhus is any one of several similar diseases caused by louse-borne bacteria.

Following the development of a vaccine during World War II epidemics occur only in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and parts of Africa.

Tags: health, history, medicine, disease, epidemics

World War III Cancelled

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 16:35:32 GMT

clipped by: Elisabeth Eaves
clipper's remarks: So it turns out that Iran stopped developing nuclear weapons in 2003, according to the new National Intelligence Estimate. It's easy to distrust the U.S. intelligence community, which not only made mistakes on Al-Qaeda and Iraq, but also told us in 2005 that Tehran was determined to build nukes. But there's at least one thing we can all be relieved about today: Imminent open warfare between the U.S. and Iran is almost certainly off the table.

Clip Source: www.slate.com

If there was ever a possibility that President George W. Bush would drop bombs on Iran, the chances have now shrunk to nearly zero.

In one of the most dramatic National Intelligence Estimates ever, the 16 agencies of the U.S. intelligence community concluded today "with high confidence" that Iran "halted its nuclear weapons" four years ago, in the fall of 2003.

The NIE, which was released this afternoon, also judges "with moderate confidence" that Iran won't be "technically capable" of producing enough materials for an atom bomb—much less the bomb itself—until 2010-15 or possibly later.

Tags: iran, nuclear weapons, intelligence

White House Intensifying Plans to Attack Iran

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 13:53:41 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

In his latest article in the New Yorker magazine, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reports there has been a significant increase in the tempo of planning for war with Iran inside the Bush administration. Hersh says the White House recently requested the Joint Chiefs of Staff redraw longstanding plans for a possible attack. Hersh also reports the Bush administration's rationale for bombing Iran has shifted from Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program to Iran's role in Iraq.

The Bush administration is approaching its last year in the White House. As the clock ticks towards 2008, speculation grows over whether President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney will indeed launch a widely feared attack on Iran.

Tags: iran, iraq war, united states, bush administration, seymour hersh

BIG Surprise? More Bush LIES for WAR with Iran

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 12:32:58 GMT

clipped by: righthand
clipper's remarks: Damp squib really. Who is surprised by the Bush lies any more? The Swiftboaters? Even those dumbshixs must be copping on that the emperor has no clothes and that they bought the most GIGANTIC pup of all time!

Clip Source: www.rte.ie

Iran

US overstated Iran nuclear threat

Tuesday, 4 Dec

The National Intelligence Estimate also said that Washington had consistently overstated the threat posed by Iran

The Bush administration had been insisting that the purpose of Iran's nuclear programme was to develop nuclear weapons, but the new assessment concludes that Tehran is not likely to have enough highly enriched uranium to build a bomb until 2015

The intellegence report has raised fresh questions about the White House's battered credibility five years after the US drive to invade Iraq based on dire, but false, warnings

Bush warned of the threat of a nuclear armed Iian and wrongly claimed that Tehran had openly proclaimed its desire for one

The NIE, the consensus view of all 16 US intelligence agencies, said it was unclear whether Iran sought nuclear arms and that halting its still-dormant program suggested greater susceptibility to global pressure than had been thought

Iranian government welcomed a US intelligence report

Mahmoud

Tags: bush, lies, iran, nuclear, war, ni

Guess who was a Director of company that sold nuclear reactors to N. Korea?

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 02:04:58 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: If you guessed Donald Rumsfeld, you're right!

If this is old news that you all knew about, i'm sorry for posting. I just learned this...my goodness, this world never ceases to amaze me!!!

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

The two faces of Rumsfeld

2000: director of a company which wins $200m contract to sell nuclear reactors to North Korea
2002: declares North Korea a terrorist state, part of the axis of evil and a target for regime change

The two faces of Rumsfeld

Randeep Ramesh
Friday May 9, 2003
The Guardian

Donald Rumsfeld confused Iraq with Afghanistan yesterday. Photo: Reuters

Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, sat on the board of a company which three years ago sold two light water nuclear reactors to North Korea - a country he now regards as part of the "axis of evil" and which has been targeted for regime change by Washington because of its efforts to build nuclear weapons.

Tags: rumsfeld, north korea, politics, nuclear, bush administration

Don't Let Them Trick Us Into Another War

Sat, 06 Jan 2007 17:44:09 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks: "Before 1979, the US government strongly supported The Iranian nuclear programmes."

Clip Source: www.informationclearinghouse.info

Don't Let Them Trick Us Into Another War

Yes, Iran does need fuel.

"The Bush administration has alternately said that Iran has a secret nuclear weapons program or wants one. Without being able to prove those claims, the White House has made its case by implication, beginning with the point that Iran has ample oil reserves for its energy needs.

Ford's team commended Iran's decision to build a massive nuclear energy industry, noting in a declassified 1975 strategy paper that Tehran needed to "prepare against the time -- about 15 years in the future -- when Iranian oil production is expected to decline sharply."

Estimates of Iran's oil reserves were smaller then than they are now, but energy experts and U.S. intelligence estimates continue to project that Iran will need an alternative energy source in the coming decades. Iran's population has more than doubled since the 1970s, and its energy demands have increased even more."

"Lacking direct evidence, Bush administration officials argue that Iran's nuclear program must be a cover for bomb-making. Vice President Cheney recently said, "They're already sitting on an awful lot of oil and gas. Nobody can figure why they need nuclear as well to generate energy."

Yet Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and outgoing Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz held key national security posts when the Ford administration made the opposite argument 30 years ago."

01/05/07 - 2 Minute video:

Tags: iran, war

USA: Lies In, Truth Out in rush to more WAR

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:55:44 GMT

clipped by: righthand
clipper's remarks: "States do not pursue weapons systems as ends in themselves; and states are hardwired to ensure their own survival. It is to that end that they acquire weapons systems, to protect, enhance or advance their own strategic position and even up the odds against more powerful rivals.

As everything from the Cold War to the current deal with North Korea demonstrate, the only way to avoid nuclear conflict is to address the concerns and fears on both sides that might spark such a conflict.

Weapons systems are dangerous, but not as dangerous as the conflicts that might result in them being used. And we should also get used to the idea that the globalization of technology on the current strategic landscape makes nuclear weapons likely to become the norm among states — after all, the existing eight nuclear weapons states have no intention of relinquishing theirs, so why would any states that anticipate being in conflict with any of them refrain from pursuing those weapons when the opportun

Clip Source: tonykaron.com

The very same crew of neocons and liberal hawks and the Israeli political establishment and its allies in Washington, are goading America to attack Iran.

First, there is no evidence that Iran is actually building a nuclear weapon

Second, even if Iran did possess nuclear weapons, the idea that it would use them to initiate a conflict in which Tehran would certainly be destroyed is based on tabloid-style alarmism about the nature of the regime in Tehran

hus the recent rebuke to Bush by both Karzai and Maliki on the question of Iran’s role in their countries.

In a remarkably shallow treatment of complaints about the New York Times coverage of the issue, its public editor concedes simply that the Times should have told readers of its previous coverage to provide “context”

The idea that the use of EFPs in Iraq is automatically a fingerprint of Iran is ridiculous.

the secret war between Washington and Tehran

Iraq and Afghanistan fear;

being caught in the crossfire between the U.S. and Iran

McCain

Ima

Tags: usa, wmd, lies, truth, media, bias, iran, nuclear

Chomsky - Options On The Table

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 06:04:07 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks: "There are many non-military measures to "contain" Iran, including a de-escalation of rhetoric and hysteria all around, and agreeing to negotiations in earnest for the first time — if indeed all options are on the table."

Clip Source: www.informationclearinghouse.info

Options on the table

By Noam Chomsky

" -- - In Washington a remarkable and ominous campaign is under way to "contain Iran," which turns out to mean "containing Iranian influence," in a confrontation that Washington Post correspondent Robin Wright calls "Cold War II."

The sabre-rattling rhetoric about "containing Iran" has escalated to the point where both political parties and practically the whole US Press corps accept it as legitimate and, in fact, honourable, that "all options are on the table," to quote the leading presidential candidates — possibly even nuclear weapons. "All options on the table" means that Washington is threatening war. The UN Charter outlaws "the threat or use of force." The United States, which has chosen to become an outlaw state, disregards international laws and norms. We're allowed to threaten anybody we want — and to attack anybody we want.

Iran resists US or Israeli domination of the Middle East but scarcely poses a military threat.

Tags: chomsky, bush, neoconservatism, iran, nuclear war

Bush: "Begone Facts, Begone"

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 00:12:19 GMT

clipped by: AtlLiberal
clipper's remarks: How much evidence do we need to realize this man is nuts?

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Bush Says Iran Still a Danger Despite Report on Weapons

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 — President Bush said today that a new intelligence finding that Iran halted its nuclear weapons work in 2003 had not altered his sense that Iran remained a danger.

The world needed to view the report as “a warning signal,” not grounds for reassurance, he said, and the United States would not renounce the option of a military response.

“I have said Iran is dangerous,” Bush said a day after the release of the National Intelligence Estimate, representing the consensus of all 16 American spy agencies, “and the N.I.E. doesn’t do anything to change my opinion about the danger Iran poses to the world — quite the contrary.”

The report was welcomed by Iran today, which said it confirmed Tehran’s frequent protestations that its nuclear program has a purely civilian aim.

Tags: bush, politics, iran, war

Cheney Orders Media To Sell Attack On Iran

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 08:23:44 GMT

clipped by: raven714
clipper's remarks: MORE; The issuance of orders for Neo-Con mass media arms to push for an assault on Iran also puts the U.S. on red alert for a terror attack, whether real or manufactured, which Dick Cheney has already promised will immediately be blamed on Iran no matter who the real culprits are.

On August 1st, 2005 the American Conservative reported that Cheney had tasked the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with drawing up a contingency plan to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States. The plan involved a massive air strike on Iran which included the use of nuclear weapons.

The publication reported that, "The response is not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the United States," meaning that any such attack will immediately be blamed on Iran and any evidence to the contrary will be buried.

The London Times reported on Sunday that the Pentagon had finalized plans for a 3 day blitz designed t

Clip Source: www.prisonplanet.com

Dick Cheney has ordered top Neo-Con media outlets, including Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, to unleash a PR blitz to sell a war with Iran from today, according to Barnett Rubin, the highly respected Afghanistan expert at New York University.

President Bush met directly with talk radio idealogues at the White House last year to push the Neo-Con agenda. Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Neal Boortz and Michael Medved (pictured below) amongst others all attended and received their talking points straight from the President's mouth.

Considering the history of the sordid "fake news" scandal, where millions of dollars were used to create pre-packaged government press releases disguised as news, along with the Armstrong Williams farce, it should surprise no one that such "instructions" are now being handed out to prepare the public for another military invasion.

Tags: dick, cheney, george, bush

They are going to start WWIII

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 21:18:20 GMT

clipped by: ekorstanje
clipper's remarks: Don't follow the orders!

Clip Source: www.amconmag.com

Deep Background

In Washington it is hardly a secret that the same people in and around the administration who brought you Iraq are preparing to do the same for Iran. The Pentagon, acting under instructions from Vice President Dick Cheney’s office, has tasked the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with drawing up a contingency plan to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States. The plan includes a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons. Within Iran there are more than 450 major strategic targets, including numerous suspected nuclear-weapons-program development sites. Many of the targets are hardened or are deep underground and could not be taken out by conventional weapons, hence the nuclear option. As in the case of Iraq, the response is not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the United States. Several senior Air Force officers involved in the planning are reportedly appalled at the implications of what they are doing—that Iran is being set up for an unprovoked nuclear attack—but no one is prepared to damage his career by posing any objections.

Tags: iran, war

Clipmarks | Nuclear weapons Clips

Bush Setting Up America For War With Iran

Is the Search for Aliens a Good Idea?

Meet the neighbours: Is the search for aliens such a good idea?

Barack Obama on Iraq - 2002

Barack Obama's Iraq Speech

Atlas of the Real World

Land area

International immigrants

Tourist destinations

Net incoming tourism

Aircraft travel

Rail travel

Mopeds and motorcycles

Wealth in the year 1

Wealth in the year 1900

Projected wealth in the year 2015

Housing prices

HIV prevalence

Alcohol consumption

Nuclear weapons

Armed forces at war 1945-2004

War deaths 1945-2002

Increase in emissions of carbon dioxide

Decrease in emissions of carbon dioxide

7 Worst Killer Plagues in History

AIDS (1981 - today): Killed 25 million people worldwide

Typhus (430 BC? - today): Killed 3 million people between 1918 and 1922 alone, and most of Napoleon's soldiers on Russia

World War III Cancelled

White House Intensifying Plans to Attack Iran

BIG Surprise? More Bush LIES for WAR with Iran

US overstated Iran nuclear threat

Guess who was a Director of company that sold nuclear reactors to N. Korea?

Don't Let Them Trick Us Into Another War

USA: Lies In, Truth Out in rush to more WAR

Chomsky - Options On The Table

Bush: "Begone Facts, Begone"

Cheney Orders Media To Sell Attack On Iran

They are going to start WWIII

AIDS (1981 - today):
Killed 25 million people worldwide

Typhus (430 BC? - today):
Killed 3 million people between 1918 and 1922 alone, and most of Napoleon's soldiers on Russia