It was obvious that Iran made a mistake when they announced that they defeated the United States on “debate” if their nuclear program was for peace or more demonic purposes. They then retracted that statement by accusing the United States of spying on them. Well, no duh! President Bush wants Iran to explain to the world why they had a nuclear weapons program.

From the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush on Tuesday called on Iran to explain why it had a secretive nuclear weapons program, and warned that any such efforts must not be allowed to flourish “for the sake of world peace.”

“Iran is dangerous,” Bush said after an Oval Office meeting with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. “We believe Iran had a secret military weapons program, and Iran must explain to the world why they had such a program.”

Bush’s comments came after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that it was “a step forward” that U.S. intelligence agencies had concluded that Tehran stopped developing its nuclear weapons program four years ago.

Ahmadinejad told reporters that an “entirely different” situation between the United States and Iran could be created if more steps like the intelligence report followed.

“We consider this measure by the U.S. government a positive step. It is a step forward,” Ahmadinejad said.

“If one or two other steps are taken, the issues we have in front of us will be entirely different and will lose their complexity, and the way will be open for the resolution of basic issues in the region and in dealings between the two sides,” he said.

Iran has said its nuclear program is peaceful, but until last week, the United States and Western allies had countered that Iran was hiding plans for a bomb.

“Iran has an obligation to explain to the IAEA why they hid this program from them,” Bush said, referring to the nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency.

“Iran is dangerous, and they’ll be even more dangerous if they learn how to enrich uranium,” Bush said. “So I look forward to working with the president,” Bush said, referring to Napolitano, the Italian leader, “to explain our strategy and to figure out ways we can work together to prevent this from happening for the sake of world peace.”

Huckabee: 20%
Giuliani: 17%
Romney: 13%
McCain: 13%
Thompson: 10%
Paul: 7%

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows a new national leader in the race for the Republican Presidential Nomination. While enjoying an amazing surge, Mike Huckabee has earned support from 20% of Likely Republican Primary Voters nationwide. Three points back, at 17%, is Rudy Giuliani. That’s the lowest level of support ever recorded for Giuliani in the tracking poll and represents a seven-point decline over the past week. Huckabee has gained eight points during the same time frame (see recent daily numbers).

After the attack War against Huckabee he still has managed to overtake Rudy in the national daily polls. Will this lead continue into the Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire Primary?

The Associated Press reporting:

TEHRAN, Iran - A new U.S. intelligence review concluding Iran stopped developing an atomic weapons program in 2003 is a “declaration of victory” for Iran’s nuclear program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday.

The U.S. intelligence report released Monday concluded that Iran had stopped its weapons program in late 2003 and shown no signs since of resuming it, representing a sharp turnaround from a previous intelligence assessment in 2005.

“This is a declaration of victory for the Iranian nation against the world powers over the nuclear issue,” Ahmadinejad told thousands of people during a visit to Ilam province in western Iran.

“This was a final shot to those who, in the past several years, spread a sense of threat and concern in the world through lies of nuclear weapons … Thanks to your resistance, a fatal shot was fired at the dreams of ill-wishers and the truthfulness of the Iranian nation was once again proved by the ill-wishers themselves,” Ahmadinejad said, drawing celebratory whistles from the crowd.

Yea… okay Mr President. The same guys you are accusing of spreading “a sense of threat and concern in the world through lies of nuclear weapons” is the same government that gives you your so-called vindication. We love the spin though!

Iran has touted the new U.S. intelligence report as vindication of its claims that its nuclear program is peaceful and Iranian officials insist that Washington should take a less hawkish stance and drop attempts to impose new sanctions in light of the report’s surprise conclusions.

Just like the liberal media before it, Iran is totally glossing over the fact that there was a Nuclear Weapons program in 2003. That that program was halted because of pressures from the United States and coalition forces (See Iraq War). And, that by now the Iranians have probably restarted their weapons program and we’ll hear about it in the next intelligence report due in 2013.

Rice explains new US view on Iran nukes

Also from the Associated Press:

Rice said Tuesday it would be a “big mistake” to ease any diplomatic pressure on Iran despite the new U.S. findings.

“It doesn’t mean you should take the pressure off,” she said en route to Ethiopia to see African leaders. “It puts a premium on diplomatic efforts.

“I continue to see Iran as a dangerous power in international politics,” Rice told reporters traveling with her. “At this moment, it doesn’t appear to have an active weaponization program. That frankly is good news. But if it causes people to say, ‘Oh, well, then we don’t need to worry about what the Iranians are doing,’ I think we will have made a big mistake.”

Since 2003 Iran “elected” Ahmadinejad and his religious nutjob views into office. The rhetoric against Israel increased dramatically. Including various times when he said that Israel would be forced into the sea, or wiped off the face of the earth (depending on the translation). There should be caution over Iran and what’s going on with it’s civilian nuclear plant.

The article continues.

Rice said it may take some time for U.S. allies to understand the administration’s new conclusions on Iran, but she said there should be great concern still about the Islamic republic’s continuing preprocessing and enrichment of uranium, which Tehran insists is only for civilian energy production. Such an enrichment program also could lead to nuclear weapons production.

“We need to do everything we can to stop them from being able to perfect this enrichment and reprocessing program,” she said.

The U.S. secretary of state urged nations such as China and Russia not to harden their stance against a new round of sanctions, arguing that the fact that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 because of international pressure shows that diplomacy works.

“We know that pressure has worked in the past and it caused them to do something very important,” Rice said. “Now let’s use our collective efforts to cause them to take the next important step,” she added, referring to a potential halt to its enrichment of uranium.

Rice said she wants officials from other countries to try to understand the nuance of the new U.S. intelligence assessment.

“People need the opportunity to absorb what they’ve heard,” she said. “We have been completely transparent about what the intelligence assessment says. And people need a chance to read it. When they do that and when they read it in its detail and nuance, they will be able to see the points that I have made.”

President Bush: “Come Clean” Iran!

Continuing on the Associated Press tour:

Two days after a new intelligence report said that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program four years ago, Bush demanded that Tehran detail its previous program to develop nuclear weapons “which the Iranian regime has yet to acknowledge.”

“The Iranians have a strategic choice to make,” he said. “They can come clean with the international community about the scope of their nuclear activities, and fully accept the long-standing offer to suspend their enrichment program and come to the table and negotiate, or they can continue on a path of isolation.”

The administration is worried that the new National Intelligence Estimate — representing a consensus of all U.S. spy agencies — weakens its leverage over Iran and its ability to build global pressure on Tehran to stop its uranium enrichment program.

Bush, arriving here on a campaign fundraising trip, said he had consulted with members of his national security team, who gave him a report about what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley have learned in talks during the past several days with their counterparts in Britain, Germany, France and Russia.

“These countries understand that the Iranian nuclear issue is a problem, and continues to be a problem and must be addressed,” Bush said.

Backing the U.S. intelligence community, Bush said he appreciated its work in helping people to understand past and present activities in Iran and helping the administration develop a sound policy.

“It is clear from the latest NIE that the Iranian government has more to explain about its nuclear intentions and past actions,” Bush said.

I agree. The fact is they were developing a nuclear weapons program. Now they need to answer why.

Right before Thanksgiving the Chinese Government wouldn’t allow the USS Kitty Hawk to dock on the shores of Hong Kong. It’s only been a nearly 50 year tradition for the ship and its crew to meet up with family members in Hong Kong for some R&R. Now Red China says that the reason the American ship was turned away cause it gave them “grave concern” when the ship changed course to avoid an oncoming storm.

From the AP:

BEIJING (AP) - China said Tuesday it expressed “grave concern” over the USS Kitty Hawk’s passage through the politically sensitive Taiwan Strait on its return to Japan.

The U.S. aircraft carrier had been barred by China from entering Hong Kong for a Thanksgiving port call.

Mainland Chinese authorities reversed their decision, but by then the ships were too far out to sea and did not turn back.

“U.S. officials informed China at that time that it took the route because of a storm,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a briefing. “China expressed grave concern to the U.S. and requested the U.S. to take prudent moves in this highly sensitive area.”

Hmm.. from USA Today.

A
North Korean official has warned that the communist nation could fire a
nuclear-tipped missile unless the US acts to resolve its standoff with
Pyongyang, the South Korean Yonhap news agency has reported.

“We hope the situation will be resolved before an unfortunate
incident of us firing a nuclear missile comes,” the unnamed official
said on Monday, according to a Yonhap report from Beijing.

“That depends on how the US will act.”

Of course, what North Korea wants is bilateral talks with the United States.

Update: Some reports are covering this story without the first two paragraphs. Hmmm.

According to Drudge’s sources the nuclear testing by North Korea wasn’t nuclear at all.

GERTZ: U.S. doubts Korean test was nuclear; Readings fall short of atomic explosion… MORE…

U.S. intelligence agencies say, based on preliminary indications, that North Korea did not produce its first nuclear blast yesterday, WASHINGTON TIMES star reporter Bill Gertz is set to report in Tuesday editions.

U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that seismic readings show that the conventional high explosives used to create a chain reaction in a plutonium-based device went off, but that the blast’s readings were shy of a typical nuclear detonation.

The underground explosion, which Pyongyang dubbed a historic nuclear test, is thought to have been the equivalent of several hundred tons of TNT, far short of the several thousand tons of TNT, or kilotons, that are signs of a nuclear blast, the official said. Developing…

Original story from WashingtonTimes

CONFIRMED

(AP) North Korea said Monday it has performed its
first-ever nuclear weapons test. The country’s official Korean Central
News Agency said the test was performed successfully and there was no
radioactive leakage from the site.

Here we go again…

North Korea Plans to launch a nuclear test, from NYtimes:

(WASHINGTON, Oct. 3) North Korea announced Tuesday that it intended to conduct its first nuclear test, prompting warnings from Tokyo to Washington that an underground explosion would lead to a sharp response and could undermine the security balance in Asia.

What if North Korea tests a nuclear bomb?

(CSMonitor) “At a minimum, a test would be a clarifying moment,” says Jonathan Pollack, director of the Strategic Research Department at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I.

In addition, a test would hold geopolitical ramifications for the northeast Asian region, experts say, and for international efforts to keep the proliferation genie in its bottle. “The political effects of a nuclear test would be at least as consequential - and destabilizing - as any technological leap it might provide the North Korean nuclear program,” says Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington.

A test would shake up northeast Asia, sending shock waves through South Korea and possibly inciting a regional arms race - causing Japan and even South Korea to consider it a necessity to reverse course and develop their own nuclear deterrents. That, experts say, would very likely mean that the international nonproliferation regime is dead. (More)

“Happy Birthday Puti!”

(JPost)North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has sent a birthday greeting to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Saturday, amid mounting tensions over a possible nuclear weapons test by the reclusive communist country.

In a brief message, Kim extended congratulations to Putin on his 54th birthday and wished him success in accomplishing Russia’s socio-economic development, KCNA said.

Japan wants North Korea to halt the tests… or they can continue to test and they will ask the Anti-Security Council to slap the North Koreans on the wrist.

(news1130) Japan sees a possible nuclear test by North Korea as “a grave threat to the peace and security of Northeast Asia and the world” and welcomed the statement, a Japanese Foreign Ministry statement said.

“If North Korea conducts a nuclear weapons test, despite the concerns expressed by international society, the Security Council must adopt a resolution outlining severely punitive measures,” the ministry said.

Blowing up a coal mine…

(BEIJING) North Korea is ‘more or less ready’ to conduct a nuclear test deep inside an abandoned coal mine but might hold off it can win concessions from the United States, a Chinese source briefed by Pyongyang said on Friday.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a device would be detonated about 2,000 metres (6,500 feet) inside a mine near the border with China in the north of the country.

I watched this last night. The message needs to spread.

Glenn Beck seems to be the only guy on TV who has a highlighter and is taking notes. On tonight’s “Real Story” segment Glenn quoted President Bush’s speech from Tuesday. In the speech the President linked together the war on terror and the war in Iraq using Osama Bin Laden’s own words.

These terrorists hope to drive America and our coalition out of Afghanistan, so they can restore the safe haven they lost when coalition forces drove them out five years ago. But they’ve made clear that the most important front in their struggle against America is Iraq — the nation bin Laden has declared the “capital of the Caliphate.” Hear the words of bin Laden: “I now address… the whole… Islamic nation: Listen and understand… The most… serious issue today for the whole world is this Third World War… [that] is raging in [Iraq].” He calls it “a war of destiny between infidelity and Islam.” He says, “The whole world is watching this war,” and that it will end in “victory and glory or misery and humiliation.” For al Qaeda, Iraq is not a distraction from their war on America — it is the central battlefield where the outcome of this struggle will be decided.

The reason we need to stay in Iraq and defeat the enemy from Bin Laden’s mouth. They want to establish a world government based on Islam and Iraq is going to be the caliphate’s Washington.