IRAN'S NUKES ARE ALMOST READY.... FOR ISRAEL

New nuke material found in Iran (JPOST)
New traces of plutonium and enriched uranium - both potential material for nuclear warheads - have turned up in Iran, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday. As IAEA head Mohamed Elbaradei disclosed the findings in a report, Iran's president said he was optimistic Iran would celebrate the completion of its controversial nuclear fuel program within Iran's current calendar year, which ends on March 20, despite international concerns that it could be misused to make weapons. And, he asserted, the world now had no choice but to "live with a nuclear Iran."

Iran Offers to Arm Enemies of Israel with Rocket Arsenal - Kay Biouki and Harry De Quetteville
Yahya Rahim Safavi, the commander-in-chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, last week offered to arm neighboring countries in the Middle East with sophisticated missiles for use in battle with the "Zionist regime" of Israel. Iran has also offered to open its armory to the official Lebanese army, providing air defense systems that could target Israeli planes. (Telegraph-UK)

Former Israeli Intelligence Official Warns of Iran's Nuclear Goals - Olivia Ward
Iran wants to create a new global power base by producing nuclear weapons, says retired Brig.-Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser, former head of Israel's military intelligence research division. "The Iranians want to change the world order....They want the most important element, that makes them a superpower, in their hands." "From our understanding of the Iranian leadership, they believe that possession of a nuclear weapon would increase significantly their ability to export the Iranian revolution. That is what they care about most," he added. (Toronto Star)

Report: Iran Has Secret Nuclear Fund (UPI)
Iran has a secret $418 million slush fund for expansion of its nuclear operations, the German magazine Der Spiegel reports. The information came from telephone calls made by a top Iranian official on a line tapped by a Western intelligence service. The money is to be used to safeguard Iran's nuclear sites from attack by moving nuclear operations into tunnels, to build additional centrifuges, and to construct a new nuclear plant at a secret location. Farhad Rahbar, vice-president and head of the planning and budget organization and a director of the Control Center for Nuclear Issues, reportedly wrote a clause authorizing the secret fund into the budget, allowing him to increase military spending by 30%.

Netanyahu: It's 1938 and Iran is Germany; Ahmadinejad is preparing another Holocaust (Haaretz)
LOS ANGELES - Drawing a direct analogy between Iran and Nazi Germany, Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu asserted Monday that the Iranian nuclear program posed a threat not only to Israel, but to the entire western world. There was "still time," however, to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, he said.

"It's 1938 and Iran is Germany. And Iran is racing to arm itself with atomic bombs," Netanyahu told delegates to the annual United Jewish Communities General Assembly, repeating the line several times, like a chorus, during his address. "Believe him and stop him," the opposition leader said of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "This is what we must do. Everything else pales before this.

"While the Iranian president "denies the Holocaust," Netanyahu said, "he is preparing another Holocaust for the Jewish state."

Speaking on Army Radio on Tuesday, Netanyahu hinted that Israel possesses the military capabilities necessary for curbing by itself the Iranian nuclear threat, declining to specify what these entail.

The Likud chairman said "I don't want to analyze the capability required to eliminate [the Iranian] threat, but this capability exists," when told by host Razi Barkai that Israel lacks the ability to eliminate Tehran's nuclear program by military means.

"This capability is eroded over time, and if we wait years then obviously this capability would not exist anymore ... but right now I disagree with the claim that nothing can be done against Iran," he added.

When asked if Bush could afford embarking on another "military adventure" after Iraq, Netanyahu said acting on the Iranian nuclear program would not be adventurous but necessary. "... Israel would certainly be the first stop on Iran's tour of destruction, but at the planned production rate of 25 nuclear bombs a year ... [the arsenal] will be directed against 'the big Satan,' the U.S., and the 'moderate Satan,' Europe," Netanyahu said." Iran is developing ballistic missiles that would reach America, and now they prepare missiles with an adequate range to cover the whole of Europe," he added.

Criticizing the international community in his GA speech for not acting more forcefully in trying to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power - "No one cared then and no one seems to care now," he said, again drawing on the Nazi parallel - Netanyahu warned that Tehran's nuclear and missile program "goes way beyond the destruction of Israel - it is directed to achieve world-wide range. It's a global program in the service of a mad ideology."

OH, AND TONY BLAIR HAS CALLED FOR A PARTNERSHIP WITH IRAN. PAGING NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN! MR. CHAMBERLAIN, PLEASE REPORT TO MUNICH.