Monthly Archives: August 2008

Iranian Missile Launch Sparks Fear

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Iran launched a dummy satellite into space prompting fears that the same technology used for the launch could easily be used to deliver nuclear or chemical warheads:

Iran said it had sent a rocket carrying a dummy satellite into space on Sunday, triggering fresh concern in Washington that the technology could be diverted to ballistic missiles.

The launch is likely to further exacerbate tensions with the West over its nuclear drive, which Iran’s arch-foe Washington and its allies claim is a cover for atomic weapons ambitions.

“The Safir (Ambassador) rocket was successfully launched. All its systems…are Iranian-made,” Reza Taghipour, head of Iran’s space agency, told state television, adding that a “test satellite was put into orbit.”

“We have paved the way for placing a satellite in space in future,” state television said, showing images of the pre-dawn rocket launch which was attended by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Western governments, already concerned over Iran’s nuclear activities, have warned that the technology used in the Islamic republic’s space programme could be diverted to military use, claims denied by Tehran.

“The Iranian development and testing of rockets is troubling and raises further questions about their intentions,” White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

“This action and dual use possibilities for their ballistic missile program are inconsistent with their UN Security Council obligations.”

A top Iranian official told AFP that state media reports that the country’s first domestically-built satellite, called Omid or Hope, had been launched were not correct.

A defence ministry statement carried by the official news agency IRNA had said the rocket, “built by Iranian experts” was launched with Omid. But the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the media was mistaken.

Iran’s Arabic-language state television broadcast footage of the rocket heading into space and graphics showing a satellite separating from a rocket.

Iranian waffling on the issue just works to cause more concern, but despite the unnamed official’s denial the Mullahs have announced the launch using their various mouthpieces. Clearly they want the public at large to know they have ballistic missile capability. G.S.G.F. points us to the article from the Pro-Islamist Communist sympathizing cyber tabloid PressTV:

Iran successfully launches its first homemade satellite carrier, Safir 1, opening a new chapter in the country’s scientific achievements.

The launch of the new rocket from Iranian soil will pave the way for the country to send a lightweight telecommunications satellite, Omid (meaning ‘hope’ in Persian), into orbit in the near future.

The domestically manufactured Omid satellite will pass over the country six times a day for research purposes.

The launch of Safir 1 was aimed at improving the country’s space industries. Safir 1 tested remote sensing, Satellite telemetry, and geographic information system (GIS) technology as well as remote and ground station data processing.

Fars News Agency is also carrying reports of the launch, as well as a report on how the technology will improve the lives of the Iranian people.

Iranian ballistic missile technology won’t improve our lives though, China Confidential is reporting that Iran will be enriching uranium by 2009 and that its ally Syria has a huge stockpile of chemical weapons. Both countries continue to arm Hezbollah and as of now there is no area of Israel outside of the reach of Iranian proxy armies.

Ballistic missiles capable of achieving orbit could clearly cause havoc well outside of Israel. If that doesn’t scare you just think about this: The launch coincided with the birthday of Shiite end time messiah The Mahdi. I guess they’re paving the way for his glorious return.

Lefty Australian Student Wishes Death on Australian Soldier

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Boilerplate I know but an apt illustration of the reality of leftism:

RICHARD SHARPE: No soldier loves war. We are far too close to it to be caught up in the idea of romantic heroism. We do what we do because there are some real bad people out there. There are also good people who need our help.

We are not saints. There will always be someone who spoils it for the rest. Most of what we do we do for each other. The bigger picture really only snaps into focus in an instant and gets just as quickly buried under the minutiae of operational life. Those brief moments though, the kid smiling as you drive past, seeing a school open for the first time in years, watching the women walking to the markets safe from murder and rape, help you understand why it is sometimes necessary to inflict violence in order to prevent it.

You also gain an understanding of why it is the free western democracies on which this burden falls, not out of an imperialist drive to subjugate lesser peoples, but to give them the chance to strive for the way of life that people like you take for granted.

PETER JONES: Well Richard Sharpe,

I can only hope that you are blown up by a roadside bomb.

At least the kid’s honest about what he (and all lefties) wants. The whole story is in the comments of this post. Check out all of Peter’s comments, he doesn’t get any classier and he links to an Alternet conspiracy theorist video to “prove” Iraq war supporters are “cowards” if they don’t fight themselves.

h/t Anorak

Russian Invasion of Georgia Threatens Security of Regions Radioactive Materials

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Abkhazia has already “lost” two kilograms of enriched Uranium in the early 90s. Now the chaos caused by the Russian invasion has stoked fears that this is the perfect opportunity for terror organizations to purchase more radioactive materials:

When the breakaway region of Abkhazia split from Georgia in 1993, the world’s only known case of enriched uranium going missing was reported after up to 2kg of the potentially devastating material was stolen from a laboratory.

There are now fears that the organised criminal gangs that are rife in the region could exploit the confusion of the current conflict to loot other stocks.

Security services are worried that terrorist organisations such as al-Qa’eda could purchase weapons grade uranium and mix it with a detonator as basic as fertiliser to make a deadly device. While an estimated 15kg of uranium is needed to make a nuclear bomb just a small amount is needed for an unconventional device.

“There is no fear of a nuclear bomb coming out of this region but the bigger danger is that a small amount of uranium combined with conventional explosive terrorists could make a dirty bomb that would make an area the size of the City’s Square Mile unusable for 30 or 40 years,” said a security source. “The economic impact would be catastrophic.”

Between half a kg and 2kg of uranium-235 was taken from a physics institute in Abkhazia’s principal town Sukhumi after scientists fled during fighting but was not discovered as missing until four years later in 1997.

But it is not the only incident in the region. A smuggler attempted to sell up to 3kg of uranium in South Ossetia three years ago with a price tag of $1 million per 100 grams. While not enough to make a nuclear device it could contribute to a dirty bomb. The Russian smuggler, from North Ossetia, never had the chance to sell the entire stock after he was arrested by Georgian security forces. The uranium was found to be 90 per cent pure, which is weapons grade standard.

So Georgia stopped Ossetians from selling dirty bomb materials before, but the left here wants us to believe we should be rooting for Russia. I think it’s time for a civil war here.

Video of Russians Looting Georgia

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Did our troops do this lefties?

Russia has denied that it will be pulling out of disputed Georgian territory, proving their intentions. How this compares to the American liberation of Iraq is anybodies guess, but as Z.A.C. has pointed out Communist Party USA and ANSWER sponsors he Marxist-Leninist World Worker’s Party have already endorsed the acts of Russian aggression and shifted the blame onto the United States.

Ethnic Georgians Enslaved by Russian Forces

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And the myth of American and Russian moral equivalence dies before the left could use it to justify their cowardice. From the AP:

TSKHINVALI, Georgia – Russian troops and their armed allies forced Georgian men to clean the streets of South Ossetia’s bombed-out capital Saturday, avenging Georgia’s attack on the breakaway province a week ago.

Three teams of ethnic Georgian men in their 40s and 50s were seen hauling debris from the streets of Tskhinvali. When approached, one of them confirmed he was being forced to work.

“Labor even turns monkeys into humans,” said a Russian officer, who along with armed Ossetians escorted one group of about two dozen Georgians through the streets of the capital.

The Russian officer threatened to arrest an Associated Press photographer if he took pictures, and would not give his name.

It appeared to be the first sign of abuse of Georgians in the Russian-controlled province.

Remember when American forces enslaved Iraqi civilians? No. Oh, right because we’re civilized. Russia is truly an evil empire.