Littledragon
Above The Law
yudansha said:
Oh no I knew that..
Global Security Institute
- Thread starter kickingbird
- Start date
Oh no I knew that..
kickingbird
candle lighter
well gee, isn't that what freedom is all about? which reminds me, our local elections are tomorrow ... let's see if the sales tax passes so our beloved city can replace a crumbling bridge before it falls down or if it doesn't pass, we just have to wait until it falls down ... after all, the snots who live in the ritzy part of town don't use the bridge - just the trucks that bring them their "stuff" in the shopping mall. Well at least we get to vote about it ... lol ... and yes, I will vote! Oh yes, I saw a rainbow this morning! Does that make me an hopeless idealist? ... hhmmm, probably just means it rained and the sunlight was filtering through the moisture in the atmosphere and refracted to form a rainbow - odd name - kind of like wrapping up a rainstorm with a bow kickingbird
candle lighter
By the way, for those of you seriously interested in doing something positive, a good book is The Sovereignty Revolution by Alan Cranston. You can read about it on the GSI site. It is an excellent read.
yudansha
TheGreatOne
Everything comes at a price... here's the beginning...
Canada to spend $24.4 million to help scrap Russian nuclear subs
OTTAWA (CP) - Canada has agreed to spend $24.4 million to help Russia scrap three Cold-War-vintage nuclear submarines, Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew announced Wednesday.
The agreement says Canada will eventually help dismantle 12 of the Victor-class subs, at a cost of more than $100 million. Russia has 56 retired submarines awaiting disposal in the Barents Sea region, Foreign Affairs said.
The Canadian contribution is part of a $20-billion program to help dispose of Russian nuclear weapons and materials, which was announced at the Kananaskis, Alta., G-8 summit meeting two years ago.
"Spent nuclear fuel in Russian submarine reactors presents an international security risk and an environmental threat to the Arctic and Barents Sea," Mr. Pettigrew said. "Funding this initiative is a key element of our international security agenda."
Canada joins Britain, Norway, Japan, Germany and the U.S. in funding Russian nuclear submarine dismantling.
Canada plans to contribute up to $1 billion to the G-8 program over 10 years.
At the end of the Cold War, Russia was left with nearly 200 nuclear submarines rusting at the dockside. The Victor-class boats were the workhorses of the Soviet-era sub fleet.
Scrapping decommissioned nuclear subs is a long and costly process. The vessels have to be guarded, moved to a defuelling facility and stripped of their radioactive fuel. That material has to be safely disposed of, along with radioactive equipment such as the reactor itself.
© The Canadian Press, 2004
Canada to spend $24.4 million to help scrap Russian nuclear subs
OTTAWA (CP) - Canada has agreed to spend $24.4 million to help Russia scrap three Cold-War-vintage nuclear submarines, Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew announced Wednesday.
The agreement says Canada will eventually help dismantle 12 of the Victor-class subs, at a cost of more than $100 million. Russia has 56 retired submarines awaiting disposal in the Barents Sea region, Foreign Affairs said.
The Canadian contribution is part of a $20-billion program to help dispose of Russian nuclear weapons and materials, which was announced at the Kananaskis, Alta., G-8 summit meeting two years ago.
"Spent nuclear fuel in Russian submarine reactors presents an international security risk and an environmental threat to the Arctic and Barents Sea," Mr. Pettigrew said. "Funding this initiative is a key element of our international security agenda."
Canada joins Britain, Norway, Japan, Germany and the U.S. in funding Russian nuclear submarine dismantling.
Canada plans to contribute up to $1 billion to the G-8 program over 10 years.
At the end of the Cold War, Russia was left with nearly 200 nuclear submarines rusting at the dockside. The Victor-class boats were the workhorses of the Soviet-era sub fleet.
Scrapping decommissioned nuclear subs is a long and costly process. The vessels have to be guarded, moved to a defuelling facility and stripped of their radioactive fuel. That material has to be safely disposed of, along with radioactive equipment such as the reactor itself.
© The Canadian Press, 2004
Littledragon
Above The Law
kickingbird said:
Thanks. I will check it out.
kickingbird
candle lighter
Thanks for the news Yudansha. I've been watching the Discovery Times cable channel a lot lately. They have some very good reporting and documentaries, like Children of Terror about kids in Pakistan and other wars including Bosnia. They also have docs like Reporters at War - about a whole range of reporters from WW2 through modern times, the things they actually saw but were not allowed to report - but those images and notes were included in the doc. Very informative and definitely something one does not see on the evening news. I'm not sure where this channel is carried, but in the US cable system is it "Discovery Times".
kickingbird
candle lighter
Thanks Yudansha ... yes, I am passionate about such things - such things are what may make or break the destiny of the Human Race. It is one race we do not want to lose. I do watch a lot of documentary stuff on tv; however, I did enjoy watching Belly of the Beast tonight on network.
... yes, I am passionate about such things - such things are what may make or break the destiny of the Human Race. It is one race we do not want to lose. I do watch a lot of documentary stuff on tv; however, I did enjoy watching Belly of the Beast tonight on network.
yudansha
TheGreatOne
You're welcome, kickingbird :=)
... I still don't think that this 'race' will be 'won' ... IF (a HUGE 'if') then there will be some new technology ... try looking into laser equipment that the military is using right now - that stuff goes from Earth straight into space ... now THAT will be a major problem in the future...
... I still don't think that this 'race' will be 'won' ... IF (a HUGE 'if') then there will be some new technology ... try looking into laser equipment that the military is using right now - that stuff goes from Earth straight into space ... now THAT will be a major problem in the future...
yudansha
TheGreatOne
Maybe this will get them thinking also...
Hiroshima mayor blasts U.S. nuclear policy on 59th anniversary of bombing
HIROSHIMA, Japan (AP) - The mayor of Hiroshima marked the anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb attack Friday by lashing out at the United States for its pursuit of next-generation nuclear weapons and called for a global ban on all nuclear arms by 2020.
Denouncing U.S. President George W. Bush's administration for its "egocentric" view of the world, Tadatoshi Akiba said the United States has turned its back on other countries.
"Ignoring the United Nations and international law, the United States has resumed research to make nuclear weapons smaller and more 'usable,"' he said at the 59th annual ceremony in the western city's Peace Memorial Park.
In June, the U.S. Senate approved spending for the Bush administration's research into - but not development of - new nuclear "bunker-buster" and "mini-nuke" warheads.
The nuclear bunker-buster would be designed to hit targets deep underground, such as subterranean military command centres that are beyond the reach of conventional arms. The mini-nukes would have the explosive power of less than 5,000 tons of TNT - one-fourth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Supporters of the new weapons said they would cause less damage and fewer deaths in the area around a target.
The United States has had a self-imposed ban on nuclear testing since 1992.
But Akiba said the world needs to dismantle and ban all weapons like the U.S. atomic bomb that killed or injured 160,000 people Aug. 6, 1945.
He called on countries to attend a nuclear non-proliferation meeting, to be held in May 2005 in New York City, and sign a treaty that would eventually abolish nuclear arms by 2020.
He also branded North Korea's development of nuclear weapons a "worthless policy of 'nuclear insurance."' Japan, the United States and four other countries have been engaged in recent talks to put pressure on North Korea to scrap its weapons program.
Before Akiba spoke, a bell pealed at 8:15 a.m. local time - marking the time when the U.S. A-bomb levelled the city, 687 kilometres southwest of Tokyo. Tens of thousands of survivors, residents, visitors and officials from around the world remembered the bombing victims by observing a minute of silence.
Afterward, 1,000 doves were released.
In brief remarks, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi reaffirmed Japan's policy banning production, possession and transport of nuclear weapons within its borders.
Hiroshima city added to a list - encased in a stone cenotaph - 5,142 names of those who have died from cancer and other long-term ailments over the last year, raising the toll to 237,062, city official Niroaki Narukawa said.
Among those added in recent years were seven U.S. prisoners of war who perished in the explosion.
Some of those Americans were from the crews of three aircraft - two B-24 bombers and a Helldiver dive bomber - shot down near Hiroshima on July 28, 1945 after a raid on Japanese warships in nearby Kure. Others were prisoners who had been killed elsewhere in grisly experiments the Japanese military apparently wanted to hide.
One American, U.S. army air force Cpl. John Long, was newly incorporated earlier this year into a memorial hall in the peace park, which opened in 2002 and displays photographs and biographical notes about 9,000 bomb victims.
Ceremonies will be held Saturday on the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, on the southernmost main island Kyushu. About 70,000 people were killed by an atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki from a U.S. aircraft, three days after the one that hit Hiroshima.
On Aug. 15, 1945, Japan's surrender ended the Second World War.
© The Canadian Press, 2004
Hiroshima mayor blasts U.S. nuclear policy on 59th anniversary of bombing
HIROSHIMA, Japan (AP) - The mayor of Hiroshima marked the anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb attack Friday by lashing out at the United States for its pursuit of next-generation nuclear weapons and called for a global ban on all nuclear arms by 2020.
Denouncing U.S. President George W. Bush's administration for its "egocentric" view of the world, Tadatoshi Akiba said the United States has turned its back on other countries.
"Ignoring the United Nations and international law, the United States has resumed research to make nuclear weapons smaller and more 'usable,"' he said at the 59th annual ceremony in the western city's Peace Memorial Park.
In June, the U.S. Senate approved spending for the Bush administration's research into - but not development of - new nuclear "bunker-buster" and "mini-nuke" warheads.
The nuclear bunker-buster would be designed to hit targets deep underground, such as subterranean military command centres that are beyond the reach of conventional arms. The mini-nukes would have the explosive power of less than 5,000 tons of TNT - one-fourth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Supporters of the new weapons said they would cause less damage and fewer deaths in the area around a target.
The United States has had a self-imposed ban on nuclear testing since 1992.
But Akiba said the world needs to dismantle and ban all weapons like the U.S. atomic bomb that killed or injured 160,000 people Aug. 6, 1945.
He called on countries to attend a nuclear non-proliferation meeting, to be held in May 2005 in New York City, and sign a treaty that would eventually abolish nuclear arms by 2020.
He also branded North Korea's development of nuclear weapons a "worthless policy of 'nuclear insurance."' Japan, the United States and four other countries have been engaged in recent talks to put pressure on North Korea to scrap its weapons program.
Before Akiba spoke, a bell pealed at 8:15 a.m. local time - marking the time when the U.S. A-bomb levelled the city, 687 kilometres southwest of Tokyo. Tens of thousands of survivors, residents, visitors and officials from around the world remembered the bombing victims by observing a minute of silence.
Afterward, 1,000 doves were released.
In brief remarks, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi reaffirmed Japan's policy banning production, possession and transport of nuclear weapons within its borders.
Hiroshima city added to a list - encased in a stone cenotaph - 5,142 names of those who have died from cancer and other long-term ailments over the last year, raising the toll to 237,062, city official Niroaki Narukawa said.
Among those added in recent years were seven U.S. prisoners of war who perished in the explosion.
Some of those Americans were from the crews of three aircraft - two B-24 bombers and a Helldiver dive bomber - shot down near Hiroshima on July 28, 1945 after a raid on Japanese warships in nearby Kure. Others were prisoners who had been killed elsewhere in grisly experiments the Japanese military apparently wanted to hide.
One American, U.S. army air force Cpl. John Long, was newly incorporated earlier this year into a memorial hall in the peace park, which opened in 2002 and displays photographs and biographical notes about 9,000 bomb victims.
Ceremonies will be held Saturday on the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, on the southernmost main island Kyushu. About 70,000 people were killed by an atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki from a U.S. aircraft, three days after the one that hit Hiroshima.
On Aug. 15, 1945, Japan's surrender ended the Second World War.
© The Canadian Press, 2004
yudansha
TheGreatOne
Back to the days of the Cold War...
Greenland will have role in U.S. anti-missile defence, Canada not committed
IGALIKU, Greenland (AP) - The United States, Denmark and Greenland signed agreements Friday to upgrade the early warning radar system at Thule, a Cold War U.S. air base with a crucial role in U.S. plans for an anti-missile defence system.
"Together we will meet the security challenges of the 21st century, from missile defence to international terrorism," Secretary of State Colin Powell said at a ceremony in this village on a fjord.
Canada and the United States agreed Thursday to amend the treaty that established the North American Aerospace Defense Command, to reflect the U.S. system. As amended, NORAD will share NORAD's missile warning function with U.S. commands that run its projected missile defence system.
Canadian ministers of defence , Bill Graham, and foreign affairs, Pierre Pettigrew, said the agreement does not commit Canada to join the missile program.
That decision "remains with the government and will only be made after extensive consultations," Graham said. "We're keeping both options open."
All 47 residents, give or take a few, turned out, many wearing local costumes. It isn't every day that a world figure comes to this Inuit hamlet.
Greenland's vice premier, Josef Motzfeldt, who signed for the self-governed Danish protectorate, said Greenland had no say when the United States and Denmark signed an initial defence agreement in 1951 under NATO's auspices.
He said that accord did not take into consideration the environment or animal life and exposed Greenland to Cold War risks "which we were not allowed to know about."
Now that Greenland has home rule, Motzfeldt said, historians will see Friday as "the day when Greenland took a decisive step toward equality and co-responsibility."
Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller signed for Denmark.
Before the ceremony, Powell was given a tour of Norse ruins that date from 1200. Lunch was an array of roast musk ox, reindeer steak, lamb, trout, smoked salmon, halibut, shrimp and three kinds of potato salad made from Greenland potatoes.
Three documents were signed. One updates the 1951 agreement, the second provides for economic and technical cooperation and the third was aimed at protecting the environment.
Powell told Greenland television that the agreement "allows us to make sure that we are providing for the kind of threats that the civilized world might see in the future."
Moeller indicated Denmark might hold some misgivings about the U.S. missile-defence plans. After the signing, Moeller said his government is not fundamentally opposed to missile defence, but "we have said yes to (the agreements signed Friday) and nothing else."
"Right now we are some distance from determining where we might need interceptors," Powell said, "but there is no plan right now for anything other than what we have already made known to the home rule government and Kingdom of Denmark."
The Thule base is just south of the North Pole. It housed more than 10,000 people, mostly Americans, at the height of the Cold War as well was U.S. warplane capable of carrying unclear weapons.
Currently, there are about 550 people, including 125 Americans, at Thule. Greenland, the world's largest island, has just over 56,000 people.
The Greenland ceremony was the second in two days in which a NATO ally has signed documents that deal with the U.S. missile defence plans.
In 2003, Britain gave the United States permission to incorporate an air force base in northern England into the proposed defence network.
The U.S. missile defence plan calls for 10 ground-based interceptor missiles in Alaska and California. The U.S. defence capability would also include 20 interceptor missiles on three Aegis cruisers with additional Patriot missiles and a series of upgraded sensors and radars.
ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS; © The Canadian Press, 2004
Greenland will have role in U.S. anti-missile defence, Canada not committed
IGALIKU, Greenland (AP) - The United States, Denmark and Greenland signed agreements Friday to upgrade the early warning radar system at Thule, a Cold War U.S. air base with a crucial role in U.S. plans for an anti-missile defence system.
"Together we will meet the security challenges of the 21st century, from missile defence to international terrorism," Secretary of State Colin Powell said at a ceremony in this village on a fjord.
Canada and the United States agreed Thursday to amend the treaty that established the North American Aerospace Defense Command, to reflect the U.S. system. As amended, NORAD will share NORAD's missile warning function with U.S. commands that run its projected missile defence system.
Canadian ministers of defence , Bill Graham, and foreign affairs, Pierre Pettigrew, said the agreement does not commit Canada to join the missile program.
That decision "remains with the government and will only be made after extensive consultations," Graham said. "We're keeping both options open."
All 47 residents, give or take a few, turned out, many wearing local costumes. It isn't every day that a world figure comes to this Inuit hamlet.
Greenland's vice premier, Josef Motzfeldt, who signed for the self-governed Danish protectorate, said Greenland had no say when the United States and Denmark signed an initial defence agreement in 1951 under NATO's auspices.
He said that accord did not take into consideration the environment or animal life and exposed Greenland to Cold War risks "which we were not allowed to know about."
Now that Greenland has home rule, Motzfeldt said, historians will see Friday as "the day when Greenland took a decisive step toward equality and co-responsibility."
Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller signed for Denmark.
Before the ceremony, Powell was given a tour of Norse ruins that date from 1200. Lunch was an array of roast musk ox, reindeer steak, lamb, trout, smoked salmon, halibut, shrimp and three kinds of potato salad made from Greenland potatoes.
Three documents were signed. One updates the 1951 agreement, the second provides for economic and technical cooperation and the third was aimed at protecting the environment.
Powell told Greenland television that the agreement "allows us to make sure that we are providing for the kind of threats that the civilized world might see in the future."
Moeller indicated Denmark might hold some misgivings about the U.S. missile-defence plans. After the signing, Moeller said his government is not fundamentally opposed to missile defence, but "we have said yes to (the agreements signed Friday) and nothing else."
"Right now we are some distance from determining where we might need interceptors," Powell said, "but there is no plan right now for anything other than what we have already made known to the home rule government and Kingdom of Denmark."
The Thule base is just south of the North Pole. It housed more than 10,000 people, mostly Americans, at the height of the Cold War as well was U.S. warplane capable of carrying unclear weapons.
Currently, there are about 550 people, including 125 Americans, at Thule. Greenland, the world's largest island, has just over 56,000 people.
The Greenland ceremony was the second in two days in which a NATO ally has signed documents that deal with the U.S. missile defence plans.
In 2003, Britain gave the United States permission to incorporate an air force base in northern England into the proposed defence network.
The U.S. missile defence plan calls for 10 ground-based interceptor missiles in Alaska and California. The U.S. defence capability would also include 20 interceptor missiles on three Aegis cruisers with additional Patriot missiles and a series of upgraded sensors and radars.
ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS; © The Canadian Press, 2004
kickingbird
candle lighter
I remember reading a book about Hiroshima when I was about 12 years old and it affected me greatly then as it does now. I still have the book.
Littledragon
Above The Law
yudansha said:
Interesting stuff. Thanks Yudansha, good read.
I enjoy alot of history/world studies info.
kickingbird
candle lighter
If you can get cable channel Discovery Times it has loads of documentaries that are very good - "real" stuff!
Littledragon
Above The Law
kickingbird said:
Ye I have that. I love watching the animal episodes on the Discovery Channel especially shark week.
yudansha
TheGreatOne
UN on high alert with the late nuclear international developments...
UN nuclear watchdog says tests vindicate Iran in at least one instance
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - New findings on Iran by the UN atomic agency, revealed by diplomats Tuesday, appear to strengthen Tehran's claim it has not enriched uranium domestically and weaken U.S. arguments that it is hiding a nuclear weapons program.
The diplomats, who are familiar with Iran's nuclear dossier, told The Associated Press that the International Atomic Energy Agency has established that at least some enriched particles found in Iran originated in Pakistan.
The origin of hundreds of other samples has not been established. Still, the finding bolsters Tehran's assertion that all such traces were inadvertently imported on "contaminated" equipment it bought on the black market.
It also weakens the case being built by the United States and its allies, which accuse the Islamic republic of past covert enrichment in efforts toward making nuclear weapons.
The origin of the enriched uranium has been a key part of investigations by the International Atomic Energy Agency as it has tried for months to determine whether Iran has violated the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Faced with evidence, Iran over the past year has acknowledged clandestinely assembling a centrifuge program to enrich uranium for what it says are plans to produce electricity, but has denied actually embarking on the process.
Enrichment occurs when uranium hexaflouride gas is spun through thousands of centrifuges in series to gain increasingly higher levels of a compound that can reach weapons grade above 90 per cent.
The International Atomic Energy Agency refused to comment Tuesday. IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said any new findings would be contained in a report being prepared for a Sept. 13 meeting of the agency's board of governors.
The report, being written by IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, will review the agency's progress in clearing up questions about nearly two decades of secret nuclear activities by Iran that were first revealed in 2003.
Most suspicions focus on the sources of traces of highly enriched uranium and the extent and nature of work on the advanced P-2 centrifuge, used to enrich uranium.
The diplomats, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said the agency had only been able to conclusively link one sample found at one Iranian site to Pakistan - particles enriched to 54 per cent - although another sampling enriched to a lower degree might also have come on equipment bought from the network headed by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
They said the findings strengthened Iran's hand ahead of the September meeting, even if the agency still was far from establishing the origin of hundreds of other traces of enriched uranium found in Iran.
The diplomats said lack of clarity on that issue, as well as Tehran's past cover-ups, its spotty record of co-operation with the IAEA investigation and its insistence on the right to enrich uranium, keep it high on the IAEA agenda.
"It's a boost for Tehran," one diplomat said of the enriched uranium finding. "But there are other things it still needs to worry about."
Experts said the reported findings could hurt renewed U.S. hopes that international impatience with Iranian foot-dragging could translate into support for referral of Iran to the UN Security Council at the Sept. 13 board meeting.
"This is definitely one for Iran's side, and it's a strike against the hardliners who want to make a case that Iran is (consistently) lying," said David Albright, a former Iraq nuclear inspector who runs the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security.
Washington's hopes received a boost just last week with Iran's continued insistence on its right to enrich uranium and other demands alienated key European powers France, Britain and Germany.
In a "wish list" presented to the European three and shared with The Associated Press, Iran called on them to back its right to "dual use" nuclear technology that has both peaceful and weapons applications.
The Iranians also asked the European to sell them conventional weapons and indirectly demanded they stick to any deal reached to supply them with nuclear technology even if international sanctions are later imposed on Tehran.
As well, the "wish list" called for a strong European commitment to a non-nuclear Middle East and "security assurances" against a nuclear attack on Iran. Both are allusions to Israel, which is believed to have nuclear arms and destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor in a 1981 air strike to prevent it from making atomic arms.
International Atomic Energy Agency: www.iaea.org - GEORGE JAHN
UN nuclear watchdog says tests vindicate Iran in at least one instance
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - New findings on Iran by the UN atomic agency, revealed by diplomats Tuesday, appear to strengthen Tehran's claim it has not enriched uranium domestically and weaken U.S. arguments that it is hiding a nuclear weapons program.
The diplomats, who are familiar with Iran's nuclear dossier, told The Associated Press that the International Atomic Energy Agency has established that at least some enriched particles found in Iran originated in Pakistan.
The origin of hundreds of other samples has not been established. Still, the finding bolsters Tehran's assertion that all such traces were inadvertently imported on "contaminated" equipment it bought on the black market.
It also weakens the case being built by the United States and its allies, which accuse the Islamic republic of past covert enrichment in efforts toward making nuclear weapons.
The origin of the enriched uranium has been a key part of investigations by the International Atomic Energy Agency as it has tried for months to determine whether Iran has violated the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Faced with evidence, Iran over the past year has acknowledged clandestinely assembling a centrifuge program to enrich uranium for what it says are plans to produce electricity, but has denied actually embarking on the process.
Enrichment occurs when uranium hexaflouride gas is spun through thousands of centrifuges in series to gain increasingly higher levels of a compound that can reach weapons grade above 90 per cent.
The International Atomic Energy Agency refused to comment Tuesday. IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said any new findings would be contained in a report being prepared for a Sept. 13 meeting of the agency's board of governors.
The report, being written by IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, will review the agency's progress in clearing up questions about nearly two decades of secret nuclear activities by Iran that were first revealed in 2003.
Most suspicions focus on the sources of traces of highly enriched uranium and the extent and nature of work on the advanced P-2 centrifuge, used to enrich uranium.
The diplomats, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said the agency had only been able to conclusively link one sample found at one Iranian site to Pakistan - particles enriched to 54 per cent - although another sampling enriched to a lower degree might also have come on equipment bought from the network headed by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
They said the findings strengthened Iran's hand ahead of the September meeting, even if the agency still was far from establishing the origin of hundreds of other traces of enriched uranium found in Iran.
The diplomats said lack of clarity on that issue, as well as Tehran's past cover-ups, its spotty record of co-operation with the IAEA investigation and its insistence on the right to enrich uranium, keep it high on the IAEA agenda.
"It's a boost for Tehran," one diplomat said of the enriched uranium finding. "But there are other things it still needs to worry about."
Experts said the reported findings could hurt renewed U.S. hopes that international impatience with Iranian foot-dragging could translate into support for referral of Iran to the UN Security Council at the Sept. 13 board meeting.
"This is definitely one for Iran's side, and it's a strike against the hardliners who want to make a case that Iran is (consistently) lying," said David Albright, a former Iraq nuclear inspector who runs the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security.
Washington's hopes received a boost just last week with Iran's continued insistence on its right to enrich uranium and other demands alienated key European powers France, Britain and Germany.
In a "wish list" presented to the European three and shared with The Associated Press, Iran called on them to back its right to "dual use" nuclear technology that has both peaceful and weapons applications.
The Iranians also asked the European to sell them conventional weapons and indirectly demanded they stick to any deal reached to supply them with nuclear technology even if international sanctions are later imposed on Tehran.
As well, the "wish list" called for a strong European commitment to a non-nuclear Middle East and "security assurances" against a nuclear attack on Iran. Both are allusions to Israel, which is believed to have nuclear arms and destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor in a 1981 air strike to prevent it from making atomic arms.
International Atomic Energy Agency: www.iaea.org - GEORGE JAHN