Rumblings in Congress On Iran

Rumblings in Congress On Iran

Two interesting occurrences in DC today.

In view of recent developments, the House tacked on an amendment to the recently passed 2010 defense budget bill requiring President Obama to report by January 31 on exactly what progress has been made with Iran over its nuclear weapons program.

It also demanded that sanctions be levied against Iran if the Islamic republic does not "accept the offer of the United States to engage in diplomatic talks" and also if it fails "to suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities" related to its nuclear ambitions.

The bill also requires that SecDef Robert Gates submit an annual report to Congress on current and future military strategy regarding Iran.

The bill still needs to go through the Senate, but it's highly likely the amendment will stand as written.

Another little noticed appropriation submitted by the Pentagon to Congress involves special funding to develop and implement a huge new bunker-buster bomb called the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) especially designed to take out underground targets buried as much as 200 feet below ground. Congress approved the $68.4 million dollar request as an 'Urgent Operational Need'(UON) and th eprocess is already underway.

In a separate development, two congressmen, Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) are circulating a letter in the House demanding to know exactly why the director of national intelligence, Dennis Blair, testified to Congress earlier this year that Iran had no secret nuclear facilities:

"While we now know Iran built a secret underground uranium enrichment facility too small to be used for civilian purposes, Director Blair's recent testimony and the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate suggested that such a facility did not yet exist," said Kirk, co-chair of the bipartisan House Iran Working Group. "The United States cannot afford another intelligence failure. Director Blair needs to explain these apparent disconnects within the Intelligence Community."

'Intelligence failure'? Sounds suspiciously like the language used about the Bush Administration over Iraq.

But of course, that's what happens when you put all sorts of constraints on your intel gathering sources, cut back your actions on the ground and rely on satellites rather than humint (human intelligence).

This might just lead to a bit more emphasis on our intel and less on mirandizing enemy combatants captured on the battlefield.

Perhaps people are waking up a bit. I hope it's not too little, to late.

Al Qaeda Moles Found In Europe's Top Nuclear Lab

French authorities arrested a 32-year old nuclear engineer and his brother who were working in the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland today.

They apparently intercepted messages between the engineer, a French citizen of Algerian origin and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb that suggested possible targets in France. He also apparently signified his willingness to help carry them out.

al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is based in Algeria and is composed of various Islamist elements that originally coalesced back in the 1990's to try and put an Islamist government in power in Algeria. They killed thousands and were especially noted for throat slittings ( particularly of women) and bomb attacks.

They have their tentacles into Algeria, Tunisia, ( where they were part of the group that truck bombed the ancient Djerba synagogue) Mali, Niger and Mauritania.

Certain people may think the War on Jihad is a thing of the past. They couldn't be more wrong.