lily
03-20-2008, 10:35 PM
Cripes, is it that time of the month already? Seems once a month, whether we need it or not, Bush has got to do his saber rattling........only thing now is......he's talking in "shorthand" and has to have an interpreter. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/20/AR2008032002284.html?hpid=topnews)
Bush Vows to Prevent Iran From Acquiring Nuclear Arms
President Says Tehran Wants to 'Destroy People;' Cannot Be Trusted to Enrich
By William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 20, 2008; 6:04 PM
President Bush said the Iranian government has "declared they want to have a
nuclear weapon to destroy people" and vowed that the United States would be
"firm" in preventing Tehran's acquisition of such arms.
In interviews yesterday to mark the Iranian new year, Bush said Iran has a
right to build civilian nuclear power plants but that the government cannot
be trusted to enrich uranium, according to White House transcripts released
today. Different types of enriched uranium can be used as fuel for nuclear
reactors or as fissile material for atomic bombs.
"The Iranians should have a civilian nuclear power program. It's in their
right to have it," Bush told Radio Farda, a U.S.-funded radio station that
broadcasts to Iran in Farsi, the Iranian language.
"The problem is the government cannot be trusted to enrich uranium because
one, they've hidden programs in the past and they may be hiding one now, who
knows; and secondly, they've declared they want to have a nuclear weapon to
destroy people -- some in the Middle East," Bush said. "And that's
unacceptable to the United States, and it's unacceptable to the world."
Washington has long suspected that Iran wants to use its civilian nuclear
power program as cover for an effort to build nuclear weapons. But the
Iranian government has not publicly declared a desire to obtain such
weapons. In fact, Iranian leaders have said the opposite, repeatedly
insisting that they do not want nuclear arms and asserting that their
nuclear program is intended only to generate electricity.
Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, a global security
foundation specializing in nuclear policy, called Bush's statement
"uninformed" and "troubling."
"Iran has never said it wanted a nuclear weapon for any reason," he said.
"It's just not true."
Asked to explain Bush's comment, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said
he spoke in "shorthand," combining Iranian threats against Israel with
concerns about Iran's nuclear program.
"The president was referring to the Iranian regime's previous statements
regarding their desire to wipe Israel off the map," Johndroe said. "The
president shorthanded his answer with regard to Iran's previously secret
nuclear weapons program and their current enrichment and ballistic missile
testing."
In an October 2005 speech to a conference on a "World without Zionism,"
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted by a state-run Iranian news
agency as agreeing with a statement by Iran's late spiritual leader,
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, that "Israel must be wiped off the map." Iran's
foreign minister later said the comment had been incorrectly translated from
Farsi and that Ahmadinejad was "talking about the [Israeli] regime," which
Iran does not recognize and wants to see collapse.
According to Farsi-speaking commentators including Juan Cole, a professor of
Middle Eastern history at the University of Michigan, Ahmadinejad's exact
quote was, "The Imam said that this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish
from the page of time." Cole has written that Ahmadinejad was not calling
for the "Nazi-style extermination of a people," but was expressing the wish
that the Israeli government would disappear just as the shah of Iran's
regime had collapsed in 1979.
In December, a U.S. intelligence review concluded that Iran stopped work on
a suspected nuclear weapons program four years earlier, reversing a previous
assessment that Iran was determined to acquire nuclear arms.
Bush Vows to Prevent Iran From Acquiring Nuclear Arms
President Says Tehran Wants to 'Destroy People;' Cannot Be Trusted to Enrich
By William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 20, 2008; 6:04 PM
President Bush said the Iranian government has "declared they want to have a
nuclear weapon to destroy people" and vowed that the United States would be
"firm" in preventing Tehran's acquisition of such arms.
In interviews yesterday to mark the Iranian new year, Bush said Iran has a
right to build civilian nuclear power plants but that the government cannot
be trusted to enrich uranium, according to White House transcripts released
today. Different types of enriched uranium can be used as fuel for nuclear
reactors or as fissile material for atomic bombs.
"The Iranians should have a civilian nuclear power program. It's in their
right to have it," Bush told Radio Farda, a U.S.-funded radio station that
broadcasts to Iran in Farsi, the Iranian language.
"The problem is the government cannot be trusted to enrich uranium because
one, they've hidden programs in the past and they may be hiding one now, who
knows; and secondly, they've declared they want to have a nuclear weapon to
destroy people -- some in the Middle East," Bush said. "And that's
unacceptable to the United States, and it's unacceptable to the world."
Washington has long suspected that Iran wants to use its civilian nuclear
power program as cover for an effort to build nuclear weapons. But the
Iranian government has not publicly declared a desire to obtain such
weapons. In fact, Iranian leaders have said the opposite, repeatedly
insisting that they do not want nuclear arms and asserting that their
nuclear program is intended only to generate electricity.
Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, a global security
foundation specializing in nuclear policy, called Bush's statement
"uninformed" and "troubling."
"Iran has never said it wanted a nuclear weapon for any reason," he said.
"It's just not true."
Asked to explain Bush's comment, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said
he spoke in "shorthand," combining Iranian threats against Israel with
concerns about Iran's nuclear program.
"The president was referring to the Iranian regime's previous statements
regarding their desire to wipe Israel off the map," Johndroe said. "The
president shorthanded his answer with regard to Iran's previously secret
nuclear weapons program and their current enrichment and ballistic missile
testing."
In an October 2005 speech to a conference on a "World without Zionism,"
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted by a state-run Iranian news
agency as agreeing with a statement by Iran's late spiritual leader,
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, that "Israel must be wiped off the map." Iran's
foreign minister later said the comment had been incorrectly translated from
Farsi and that Ahmadinejad was "talking about the [Israeli] regime," which
Iran does not recognize and wants to see collapse.
According to Farsi-speaking commentators including Juan Cole, a professor of
Middle Eastern history at the University of Michigan, Ahmadinejad's exact
quote was, "The Imam said that this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish
from the page of time." Cole has written that Ahmadinejad was not calling
for the "Nazi-style extermination of a people," but was expressing the wish
that the Israeli government would disappear just as the shah of Iran's
regime had collapsed in 1979.
In December, a U.S. intelligence review concluded that Iran stopped work on
a suspected nuclear weapons program four years earlier, reversing a previous
assessment that Iran was determined to acquire nuclear arms.