Report: U.S. gave Iran 1st nuclear reactor

[Judi Lynn]

Report: U.S. gave Iran 1st nuclear reactor

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- An irony in the international struggle to get Iran to stop enriching uranium is that the United States gave Iran its first reactor, the Chicago Tribune reports.

The dome-shaped Tehran Research Reactor was given to the country as part of a U.S. Cold War strategy to help the shah, who was also against the Soviet Union. Compounding the irony in today's stand-off is that the U.S. government also supplied Iran with 10 pounds of weapons-grade uranium needed to power the facility, and which is likely still there, the newspaper said.

While the uranium has undoubtedly been processed, its waste remains radioactive and capable of being used in a weapon, the report said.

Under the international nuclear non-proliferation treaty, Iran has the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. But the U.N. Security Council now claims Iran has failed to prove it is not building weapons, and has demanded Iran stop enrichment by Aug. 31.
(snip/...)

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060824-090656-8012r

[stepnw1f]

1. The GOP is Good at Setting Up Wars

for greed and global dominance. Just not stopping them or finishing what they start.

"Pick up that gun so I can shoot you and then claim self-defense."

[Maine1991]

22. Hey stepnw1f

Can you believe that Johnson administration gave Iran this reactor? What was he thinking? You figured the Democratic controlled congress would have put stop to this transaction.

[xchrom]

2. the u.s. is meeting itself coming and -- uh -- going.

[Tace]

3. Halliburton Sold Iranian Oil Company Key Nuclear Reactor Components

Here's a Jason Leopold story we ran on the World News Trust site last summer. It has a more-recent time-frame for similar allegations. I know, it's Jason Leopold. Take it with a grain of salt. BTW, Al Jazeera picked up this WNT story for their web site. --Tace

Halliburton Sold Iranian Oil Company Key Nuclear Reactor Components, Sources Say

By Jason Leopold -- World News Trust

Scandal-plagued Halliburton -- the oil services company once headed by Vice President Cheney -- sold an Iranian oil development company key components for a nuclear reactor, say Halliburton sources with intimate knowledge into both companies’ business dealings.

Halliburton was secretly working at the time with one of Iran’s top nuclear program officials on natural gas related projects and sold the components in April to the official's oil development company, the sources said.

Just last week, a National Security Council report said Iran was a decade away from acquiring a nuclear bomb. That time frame could arguably have been significantly longer if Halliburton, whose miltary unit just reported a 284 percent increase in its second quarter profits due to its Iraq reconstruction contracts, was not actively providing the Iranian government with the means to build a nuclear weapon.

With Iran's new hardline government now firmly in place, Iranian officials have rounded up relatives and close business associates of Iran's former President and defeated mullah presidential candidate Hashemi Rafsanjani, alleging the men were involved in widespread corruption of Iran's oil industry, specifically tied to the country's business dealings with Halliburton.

more

http://worldnewstrust.org/modules/AMS/article.php?storyid=919

[leesa]

6. Funny how this never quite makes it mainstream, huh? I would think

Wolf Blitzer would like to do hours on this terrorist trade with Iran, in the name of his Israel.

[MaggieSwanson]

8. They must not know about the connection.

Otherwise, surely the MSM would be reporting this extensively. :sarcasm:

K&R - we need to spread this far and wide.

[leesa]

4. The false challenge to prove a negative, just like Iraq.

"PROVE those WMDs aren't there!", then,

"Just because I can't see them, doesn't mean they aren't there",

"Send in the bombs"

[Peace Patriot]

5. We also gave them the Shah of Iran, and 25 years of torture and oppression

--after we destroyed their democratic goverment in 1954. The Iranian people have good reason to hate and fear us--and our compadre in destroying Middle Eastern democracies, Israel. They also fear nuked up Pakistan (on their border). And Iraq. How about the UN guarantees the safety of the Iranian people before it starts dictating to them how they may defend themselves. For that matter, why doesn't Israel do it? Apologize to the Iranian people for those 25 years of torture and oppression, and offer them protection--and maybe, a pact to evict the Bush Cartel from the Middle East.

Ha! Think peace. Dream peace.

[Lisa]

18. a Persian friend exclaimed, "first they take away our democracy"

"... and now they blame us for not having one ... why can't they make up their minds?"

He added that when the CIA coup happened, a lot of people could not believe that the US could be involved. They admired and respected America, and thought that surely the US had been misled by the British (who had colonized the region earlier, and were quite unpopular).

[Freedom_from_Chains]

7. Yes, but that was back in the day when they were doing the bidding

of the U.S. Same thing happen to Saddam back when he was our proxy agent to carry out war against Iran for us he was an O.K. guy. In fact he was so O.K. that Rumsfield even went to Iraq to shake his hand. Never mind that he was still then a brutal dictator who massacred his people, that was alright back in those days.

It was only when Iran, and then Iraq, who got tired of taken their orders from us and began to assert their sovereignty, that they became evil godless butchers that we had a moral obligation to deal with. Who says that conservatives don't understand moral reverence.

[nealmhughes]

9. I assumed that it was common knowledge that the Iranian is an offshoot of

the US commercial industry. "Atoms for Peace" and all that... Had one rather have a nice GE or Westinghouse reactor or a Russian bomb fuel factory that incidentally made some steam? I'd take the GE and Westinghouse any day...

p.s. There is no reason for Iran to have to enrich fuel: there are literally tons of fuel sitting on shelves in warehouses in the US and Russia, just dying for buyers. Most commercial reactors are NOT highly enriched, only naval reactors are. The bulk of the fuel in a power reactor is natural U-238, with a small amount of 235. I doubt that the Iranians have the capacity to properly clad the fuel that need for their reactors. It is not as if it is secret technology, but it is complicated metallurgy. Believe it or not, when we got in new fuel at two commercial plants during refueling, it came in heavy casks on trucks, just for "show" to be honest, we did not need any special protective gear in the new fuel area, only a pair of white cotton gloves, as U is an alpha emitter that is stopped by a sheet of paper, clothing or else is soon "dead" as its high positive charge cannot travel very far, unlike a gamma ray.

The fuel comes in rods which are inside pellets are then arranged in bundles which have bales for the cranes to insert into the core. Once they hit the water, they never leave it. Refueling is very interesting work: it is a series of cranes and elevators and periscopes and while hot up there, is a nice safe change of pace from being inside the reactor compartment, itself, which is unbelievably hot and humid and full of contaminated hot spots near the pressurizer and pipe bends and drain valves.

If Iran wants nuclear power, why not just give them a sweetheart deal with a new Generation X GE BWR?

[Barrett808]

10. I fully expect Rumsfeld's ABB to do some nuke deals with Iran

Money is money, after all.

[Tellurian]

11. Cheney is the "chosen" FALL guy..

in this Apocalyptical equation:

"Scandal-plagued Halliburton -- the oil services company once headed by Vice President Cheney -- sold an Iranian oil development company key components for a nuclear reactor, say Halliburton sources with intimate knowledge into both companies’ business dealings."

With all the other Treasonous Acts he's been guilty of...He'll be wearing Gucci stripes before he knows what hit him..

Baby Bush strolling through the park on this one, mumbling.."Dick who?"

[CatholicEdHead]

12. ABC Radio National (au) did a documentary on this back in March

I dug this up from my Journal from early April. I see the podcast has been removed but I do have it archived on my HD (and iPod). It was Cheney's idea to get the Shah to stop buring fossil reserves for domestic use and put it on the international markets.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/rearvision/stories/2006/1586988.htm

[Tellurian]

14. Add in the Wilson/Plame flap and you have a winner..

I'll guarantee the reason Rove is un indicted is because he's given up the BIG FISH, Cheney to Fitzgerald.
Why not? Cheney has done nothing but stir the ire of the public with his rude and caustic remarks. He is the perfect patsy to take the fall for all the wrongdoing associated with Right Wing politics.

TIMBEEEERRRRRRRRR!

[lumpy]

13. "Good' deeds sometimes comes back to

bite cha'.

[donkeyotay]

15. It's not an irony. It's a consequence of failed policies.

"The dome-shaped Tehran Research Reactor was given to the country as part of a U.S. Cold War strategy to help the shah, who was also against the Soviet Union."

We have a long history of destroying democracy to replace it with something our establishment finds more desirable. They continue to equate people's governance of themselves with socialism/communism while promoting corporate rule as freedom. Oywell.

[daleo]

17. It's like shooting bullets into the air, and being surprised

when they fall back to earth. Such irony.

[Canuckistanian]

16. So Iran has to prove a negative

That they're NOT making nuclear weapons. By the same token, the UN should make Bush prove that he's NOT in Iraq to control their oil.

[VegasWolf]

19. Good point. For Bush, they are guilty until they prove themselves

innocent.

[ConcernedCanuk]

20. Zactly - "Iran has failed to prove it is not building weapons, "

.
.
.

How DOES one prove a negative?

I'm heterosexual

How would I prove I'm not homosexual?

Or Bisexual

or whatever else sexual . . . ??

hourly DNA samples off of my pee-pee ????

If the UN is indeed demanding that nations try to prove a negative

We got trouble . . .

[chenGOD]

21. Who;s surprised here? raise your hands...

*looks around, sees a room full of people sitting on their hands*

yeah that's what i thought. is there a picture of Rumsfeld shaking hands with the shah somewhere? lol