Unfortunately, it takes only one…

The New York Times

Iran has now produced roughly enough nuclear material to make, with added purification, a single atom bomb, according to nuclear experts analyzing the latest report from global atomic inspectors.

The figures detailing Iran’s progress were contained in a routine update on Wednesday from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been conducting inspections of the country’s main nuclear plant at Natanz. The report concluded that as of early this month, Iran had made 630 kilograms, or about 1,390 pounds, of low-enriched uranium.

Several experts said that was enough for a bomb, but they cautioned that the milestone was mostly symbolic, because Iran would have to take additional steps. Not only would it have to breach its international agreements and kick out the inspectors, but it would also have to further purify the fuel and put it into a warhead design — a technical advance that Western experts are unsure Iran has yet achieved.

“They clearly have enough material for a bomb,” said Richard L. Garwin, a top nuclear physicist who helped invent the hydrogen bomb and has advised Washington for decades. “They know how to do the enrichment. Whether they know how to design a bomb, well, that’s another matter.”

Iran insists that it wants only to fuel reactors for nuclear power. But many Western nations, led by the United States, suspect that its real goal is to gain the ability to make nuclear weapons.

…..

American intelligence agencies have said Iran could make a bomb between 2009 and 2015. A national intelligence estimate made public late last year concluded that around the end of 2003, after long effort, Iran had halted work on an actual weapon. But enriching uranium, and obtaining enough material to build a weapon, is considered the most difficult part of the process.

…..

That uranium has been enriched to the low levels needed to fuel a nuclear reactor. To further purify it to the highly enriched state needed to fuel a nuclear warhead, Iran would have to reconfigure its centrifuges and do a couple months of additional processing, nuclear experts said.

“They have a weapon’s worth,” Thomas B. Cochran, a senior scientist in the nuclear program of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a private group in Washington that tracks atomic arsenals, said in an interview.

He said the amount was suitable for a relatively advanced implosion-type weapon like the one dropped on Nagasaki. Its core, he added, would be about the size of a grapefruit. He said a cruder design would require about twice as much weapon-grade fuel.

“It’s a virtual milestone,” Dr. Cochran said of Iran’s stockpile. It is not an imminent threat, he added, because the further technical work to make fuel for a bomb would tip off inspectors, the United States and other powers about “where they’re going.”

Attack and take out Iran, President Bush.

Please.

Hat Tip: Hot Air Headlines

UPDATE 1: It looks like Drudge Report has copied my headline.

The Jerusalem Post wonders if it is too late to stop Iran.

breitbart.tv

My Way

HOUSTON (AP) - Flight controllers were revamping plans Wednesday for the remaining spacewalks planned during space shuttle Endeavour’s visit to the international space station, after a crucial tool bag floated out to space during a repair trip.

The briefcase-sized tool bag drifted away from astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper on Tuesday as she cleaned and lubed a gummed-up joint on a wing of solar panels on the space station. She and fellow astronaut Stephen Bowen were midway through the first of four spacewalks planned for the mission. The tool bag was one of the largest items ever lost by a spacewalker.

As Stefanyshyn-Piper cleaned up a large gob of grease that seeped from a gun used to lubricate the joint, the tool case somehow became untethered from a larger bag and floated away along with a pair of grease guns, wipes and a putty knife attached to it.

“What it boils down to is all it takes is one small mistake for a tether not to be hooked up quite correctly or to slip off, and that’s what happened here,” said lead spacewalk officer John Ray.

Stefanyshyn-Piper and Bowen finished the spacewalk in almost seven hours by sharing tools from Bowen’s bag. Ray noted that Stefanyshyn-Piper showed “real character and great discipline” by continuing on. She was the first woman to be assigned as lead spacewalker for a shuttle flight.

“Despite my little hiccup, or major hiccup, I think we did a good job out there,” Stefanyshyn-Piper said after returning to the space station.

Women always screw things up.

Just kidding.

breitbart.com

A major Al-Qaeda operative of Arab origin was among six militants killed overnight in a suspected US missile strike in northwest Pakistan, a senior security official told AFP Wednesday.

Security sources identified the militant as Abdullah Azam al-Saudi, a senior member in Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network.

“He was a senior commander of Al-Qaeda and was involved in recruiting and training of fighters,” the senior official said.

According to US intelligence shared with Pakistan, al-Saudi was the main link between Al-Qaeda’s senior command and Taliban networks in the Pakistani border region, an Islamabad-based senior security official said.

“He was the man coordinating between Al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders on this side of the border, and also involved in recruiting and training fighters,” the official told AFP.

He is the second high-profile Al-Qaeda operative killed in recent US missile strikes in Pakistan’s rugged tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

Egyptian Al-Qaeda operative Abu Jihad al-Masri, described by the US as Al-Qaeda’s propaganda chief, was killed in a missile strike in Pakistan in the early hours of November 1.

He was among several rebels killed when two missiles fired by a suspected US spy drone hit a truck in the North Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan, security officials said.

I love Predator drones.

Also, according to Breitbart.com, Al Qaeda called Barack Obama a “house negro” and said that Obama “is not an honorable African-American”.

I guess Al Qaeda does not believe in Hope and Change.

UPDATE 1: Ed Morrissey on Hot Air says that Ayman al-Zawahiri received his cue to call Barack Obama a “house slave” and “house negro” from Harry Belafonte.

Funny stuff.

UPDATE 2: Michelle Malkin writes that Barack Obama’s call for “empathy” did not work.

FT.com

Pirates operating off the coast of east Africa have hijacked a Saudi supertanker fully laden with an estimated 2m barrels of oil in an attack that marks a significant escalation in the scope of banditry in the region.

The pirates, believed to be from lawless Somalia, seized control of the Sirius Star, which is owned by Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, on Saturday, 450 nautical miles south-east of the Kenyan Indian Ocean port of Mombasa.

It is estimated that the tanker was holding more than a quarter of the daily exports from Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter. The oil would have been worth about $100m (€79m, £66.5m) at Monday’s market price but is probably of little interest to the pirates.

The Daily Mail reports that the Indian Navy has destroyed the pirate’s “mothership”. The pirates want $10 million in return for the Saudi oil tanker.

Drudge Report is stating that this is the Dawn Of The Pirate.

FT.com reports that pirates have seized two more ships – a Greek bulk carrier, in the Gulf of Aden with about 25 crew on board, and a Hong Kong-flagged ship carrying grain and bound for Iran.

Hat Tip: Hot Air

breitbart.tv

WSJ: The SEC alleges in a civil action that Mr. Cuban sold his entire 6% ownership stake on June 28, 2004, after learning that Mamma.com was raising money through a private investment in a public entity, or PIPE. The next day, on June 29, the company announced the PIPE financing and shares of the company dropped by more than 10%. By selling his stake, the SEC alleges, Mr. Cuban avoided more than $750,000 in losses.

So, Martha Stewart gets prison time for selling stock illegally, and Mark Cuban does not?

UPDATE 1: Mark Cuban has responded on his Maverick Blog to the charges as having “no merit”.

7.7-magnitude quake… Tsunami warning issued…

Breaking News…

Developing…

UPDATE 1: MSNBC.com

JAKARTA, Indonesia - A local geological agency official says a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake has struck eastern Indonesia. A tsunami warning was immediately issued.

The official, Fauzi, said the underwater quake hit off Sulawesi island. He did not have any immediate reports about damage or injuries.

The U.S. Geological Survey said Monday the quake struck 13 miles (21 kilometers) beneath the sea and was centered 54 miles from Gorantalo, a coastal town on Sulawesi.

Indonesia is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

Hopefully there are no injuries or damage.

This earthquake could also rock stock markets around the world.

Developing…

UPDATE 2: According to Fox News, a 5.6-magnitude aftershock was recorded.

Developing…

ABC News

Osama bin Laden is alive and “putting a lot of energy into his own security,” the director of the CIA, General Michael Hayden, said today.

He also claimed, without providing details, that the US intelligence community had disrupted an attack “that would have rivaled the destruction of 9/11.”

“America and its friends have taken the fight to the enemy,” Gen. Hayden said in a broad roundup of efforts to fight al Qaeda.

“Al Qaeda has suffered serious setbacks, but it is a determined, adaptive enemy unlike any our nation has ever faced,” he said.

Without directly referring to the CIA’s offensive blitz of unmanned missile attacks in the tribal areas of Pakistan, the CIA boss said the US had successfully isolated the al Qaeda leader bin Laden, referring to him in the present tense.

“He appears to be largely isolated from the day-to-day operations of the organization he leads,” Hayden said in a speech delivered to the Atlantic Council in Washington.

Hayden said the failure to kill or capture bin Laden in the seven years since the 9/11 attacks, could be explained by the “rugged and inaccessible” terrain of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area and “the fact that bin Laden has worked to avoid detection.”

The CIA director provided no other details but it was the first public indication of the intelligence agency’s growing effort to narrow the focus of the search for bin Laden and other top terror leaders.

Hayden said the deaths of at least six top al Qaeda commanders in Pakistan had kept the terror group “off balance.”

The good news of success in Iraq against al Qaeda was measured against the terror group’s alarming growth in North and East Africa and Yemen, he said in his remarks.

Wow! U.S. intelligence interrupted a possible attack that could have rivaled 9/11’s destruction. Scoop This reported three days ago that Al Qaeda wanted to surpass 9/11 attacks.

It seems as if we know where Osama Bin Laden is, we just cannot get to him. However, the Predator-drone airplane attacks are working since at least six Al Qaeda terrorist leaders have been killed in the Pakistani mountain region.

Also, the end of the article states that Al Qaeda has strengthened in Africa. Scoop This reported that news seven days ago.

From Drudge Report:

Democrats prepare to move forward with investigations of the Bush administration… Developing…

This will be just a waste of time and money. Thank you, Democrats.

Why not investigate the illegal foreign contributions to Barack Obama’s campaign? These are contributions that number near $200 million. At least there is actual evidence available to the widespread corruption inside Obama’s campaign.

UPDATE 1: The New York Times has its new article posted.

If President-elect Obama is truly smart, he will tell Congressional Democrats to not waste their time and our money.

And just as I posted the Iranian nuclear missile test fire story…

Fox News.com

NEW DELHI — India test-fired a medium-range, nuclear-capable missile Wednesday from a land-based launcher in eastern India, a defense ministry official said.

The weapon tested was a K-15 missile, an undersea submarine-launched ballistic missile with a range of up to 435 miles, said the officer on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

It was fired from a test range in Chandipur in eastern Orissa state, nearly 700 miles southeast of New Delhi.

India and longtime rival Pakistan routinely test-fire missiles. They usually notify each other ahead of missile launches in keeping with an agreement between the two nations.

India test-fired the K-15 missile from a pontoon immersed in the sea earlier this year.

India’s current crop of missiles are mostly intended for confronting neighboring archrival Pakistan.

The Agni 3, in contrast, is India’s longest-range missile, designed to reach 1,900 miles — putting China’s major cities well into range, as well as targets deep in the Middle East.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947. They have been holding peace talks since 1994 aimed at resolving their differences, including their dispute over the Himalayan region of Kashmir.

I would rather have India test-firing nuclear missiles than Iran.

The Sudanese President has called for an immediate ceasefire in Darfur.

Breaking News…

Developing…

UPDATE 1: International Herald Tribune

DAKAR, Senegal: President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan and leaders of several rebel factions in Darfur, the western Sudanese region, have agreed to a 60-day cease-fire in separate meetings with Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, according to a statement by Richardson and Bashir.

Richardson went to Sudan on behalf of the Save Darfur Coalition of groups trying to stem the violence in Darfur, in an effort to break the deadlock over who will police the region.

A peace agreement signed last May between the government and one rebel faction has foundered, and the government has repeatedly rejected a UN peacekeeping force.

Bashir reiterated his opposition to such a force on Wednesday, telling The Associated Press that non-African peacekeepers would be seen as “colonialists.” But the Bashir-Richardson statement said he had agreed to halt military operations to allow time for a political settlement to the crisis to emerge.

“What is lacking is a political process that leads to a UN force,” Richardson said by telephone from Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. “I think this 60-day cease-fire is at least a step.”

Well, the ceasefire was agreed to yesterday, and the agreement was signed just moments ago.

Perhaps peace is possible in Darfur.

Just a crash course on Darfur - the violence stems from the Muslims in northern Sudan trying to commit genocide against the Christians in southern Sudan. Much of the violence occurs in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed, and more than 2.5 million people have fled the country.