security threat

With so much attention being paid to the U.S.’s efforts in Iraq, there is one issue of national security that is dangerously close to slipping past the radar.

Iran plans to start setting up thousands of uranium enriching centrifuges this year even as it negotiates with Russia on scrapping such domestic activity, a possible pathway to nuclear arms, the U.N. atomic watchdog said Monday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, in a confidential report made available to The Associated Press, also suggested that unless Iran drastically increased its cooperation with an IAEA probe, the agency would not be able to establish whether past clandestine activities were focused on making nuclear arms.

Historically, Iran has been a hard one to make and keep friends, especially with the U.S.

With Middle East distemperment with the U.S. growing almost daily, Iran’s possession of nuclear capabilities should be considered the single largest threat of national security today.

The finding was essentially an admission that the agency cannot establish whether Iran is hiding aspects of its nuclear program that it is obligated to report to the agency under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Also disturbing was evidence showing Iran’s intention to embark on full-scale uranium enrichment, despite intense international pressure to scrap all such activities domestically.

Most of us remember the threat to push the button on both North America and Asia that would have destroyed both the U.S. and Russia in the late ’70s and early ’80s that would likely have set off a World War III and killed millions of people once the first few war heads landed.

Iranian officials deny all allegations that they are developing nuclear energy for hostile purposes. They claim they only want them to supplement their energy needs, but with those capabilities comes temptation and a bidding war is launched between the enemies of all allied countries. If that’s not the biggest threat to national security, then we don’t know what is.

– The Clanton Advertiser