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Departments International Issues Leon Panetta is lying about Iran's nuclear 'weapons' "Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta told ABC's 'This Week' television program that the agency thinks Iran has enough low-enriched uranium now for two weapons, but that Tehran would have to further enrich the material first." Notice, folks, I am NOT a magician, have nothing up my sleeves, have no espionage credentials, nothing except Wikipedia. But I know this: that without highly-enriched uranium (i.e., 85% or greater U-235 content), it is not possible to have a nuclear weapon capable of missile delivery. Remember "Fat Man" and "Little Boy," the Nagasaki and Hiroshima nuclear bombs? Fat Man weighed 10,200 lbs. - over 5 tons - and was so large that modifications had to be made to the largest bomber of the day in order to deliver it. The same was true of Little Boy - which weighed 8,800 lbs. (4.4 tons). Ballistic missiles cannot deliver so heavy a bomb, so the uranium has to be highly enriched to make a much smaller package - something that weighs only a few hundred pounds instead of these huge weights. I assure you that there will never, ever be a plane allowed to load in Iran, much less leave the runway, with a 5 ton nuclear weapon on it in our satellite- and drone-rich world. The Iranian air force is antiquated and useless for delivery of nuclear weapons. For Leon Panetta to say Iran has enough low-enriched uranium for two weapons means that Iran has perhaps 100 to 200 lbs. of uranium that is at least 80% U-238 and only 20% U-235 (more likely, 95% U-238 and only 5% U-235). That's a very long way from 15% U-238 and 85% U-235, i.e., weapons-grade uranium. Panetta therefore is merely stating that Iran has nuclear fuel that is low-enriched and usable only in an electric power reactor, that Iran has power plant fuel with far too low U-235 content to be weapons-usable. And since he is talking about a couple of hundred pounds of uranium at the most, it appears that Iran doesn't have enough uranium even to fuel a moderate-sized electric power reactor. Iran is not only "two years" away from nuclear weapons, it is years away from having enough low-enriched uranium for a nuclear power plant and more years away from having nuclear weapons if it chose to go that route. That is consistent with the National Intelligence Estimate for 2010, which concluded that Iran does not appear to have an active nuclear weapons program. The magic here is that by leaving out critical details, Panetta gives the impression that Iran's Non-Proliferation Treaty-compliant nuclear program, which is monitored by international inspectors, is on a track to highly-enriching its nuclear plant fuel for bombs. This is cynical manipulation of public ignorance on a major issue. Leon Panetta needs to be fired and retired for lying to the American public. And think about this: there's a frightening possibility that Israel will start a war over Iran's "virtual" nuclear program - a program that exists only in the fantasies of warmongers within the Obama administration such as Panetta. Don't get me started on Hillary Clinton. |
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