Sources: Iran Planning to Test Nuclear Weapon This Year
In a very interesting article just released, the Middle East military analysts at DEBKAFile say their sources have revealed Iran is planning a one-kiloton underground nuclear test this year. They claim that while originally Iran was on a timetable to test its first nuclear weapon by 2013, recent aggressive acts by the West have served only to accelerate their nuclear program.
Realizing that a nuclear weapon is necessary to shield Iran from Western hegemony, the Iranian regime is pulling out all the stops on their mini-Manhattan Project. Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is currently making the rounds in sympathetic Latin American countries while being eyed by a worrisome U.S.
The folks at DEBKAfile claim Iran identifies the U.S. as a “paper tiger” and believes Israel to be internally considering living with a WMD-equipped Iran. Meanwhile, their Washington sources are quick to remind us that President Obama considers the risk of permitting a nuclear-armed Iran to be greater than the risks of military action.” Analysts have predicted a U.S. strike on Ira that potentially escalates into an all-out war, and DEBKAfile seems to think Obama would not allow this to happen:
Iran’s acquisition of a nuclear bomb and conduct of a nuclear test would hurt [Obama's] chances of a second term. The race is therefore on for an American strike to beat Iran’s nuclear end game before the November 2012 presidential vote.
Of course, all is conjecture at this point as tensions undeniably continue to increase. The rules of the race have been laid clear, however: keep nukes away from Iran until at least Novemeber 2012.
Many Convinced War with Iran is Imminent
The war drums can be heard loud and strong in Iran, and its citizens are already mentally preparing for an inevitable attack. They have every reason to be concerned, given that their country’s crossing of a new nuclear weapons development milestone has not gone unnoticed by Western military powers.
The most recent war buzz centers around the recent deployment of thousands of U.S. troops to Israel. Army officials have already admitted the move is more “deployment” than “exercise” and analysts say as many as 9,000 American troops are now in Israel helping that country prepare to bring Iran’s nuclear weapons program to a violent end.
This escalation in tension comes after repeated successful attempts by Western black ops to stymie Iran’s nuclear progress, first with the Stuxnet worm, something of a warning shot. This unprecedented secret cyber attack was followed by a pair of powerful explosions which destroyed important weapons manufacturing infrastructure. While Iran claims these as accidents, many analysts are convinced that a CIA/Mossad connection is a much more rational explanation.
Analyst Davis Swanson warns that not only is an Israel-Iran or Israel-US-Iran conflict imminent, but it threatens to quickly develop into a global conflict, saying recently:
All this news makes a war seems likely, to some even certain. It remains to be seen how such a conflict would begin, though many assume an Israel-led strike on Iranian nuclear targets. But as of now there is no way of knowing for sure if, 5 years from now, we’ll be writing about U.S. oil companies making bank in Iran, like we are today about Iraq. After all, we already have a contingency plan in place should oil supplies be disrupted by a conflict in the near future.