The U.S. State Department has not said publicly what type of punishment it might seek. But U.S. and European officials have indicated they might push for travel restrictions on Iranian officials or a ban on sale of dual-use technology to Iran. The hope is to start with relatively low-level punishments in a bid to attract Russian and Chinese support, the officials have said.We won't plan on that, will we.
Well, it looks like ex-Iranian President Khatami timed his visit to Chicago well, slipping in before the deadline. But the question remains why he was granted a visa at all, the first granted since the Islamists took our embassy hostage in Iran in 1979. No US officials will be meeting with Khatami, though former President Jimmy Carter, arguably the worst president in American history, on whose watch our embassy was trashed, wants to meet. Apparently he can't get enough of sucking up to murderous fascist dictators. Khatami will also attend a conference at the UN, where he will doubtless feel at home, and speak at the National Cathedral "about religion's role in promoting peace".
In Chicago he will be speaking at the convention of the Islamic Society of North America Saturday, and at a local mosque. Sun Times:
The former Iranian leader may also be on hand for a Friday afternoon session of the ISNA convention, Azam said. Tens of thousands of Muslims are expected to attend the three-day Rosemont convention, which, in its 43rd year, is the largest annual gathering of Muslims in North America.The head of CAIR in Chicago had this to say:
Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Chicago, said American Muslims consider Khatani "a kindred spirit in faith.""Khatami has been lauded as a reformist, a bridge-builder,'' Rehab said.
No condemnation yet by CAIR of the forced conversion of FoxNews journalists. No word yet on whether Khatami intends to hold a gun to the head of an attendee or two at the cathedral to usher in a few more "peaceful conversions".
Meanwhile, The Washington Times has a story today "US military sees Iran's nuke bomb 5 years away", but not all experts are complacent:
Advocates of stopping Iran's nuclear ambitions point to gaps in what the U.S. intelligence community really knows about Iran's secretive process. They also point to the fact that Iraq was much closer to building the bomb than the U.S. thought in 1991, when Operation Desert Storm air strikes destroyed much of Baghdad's atomic capability.....
Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney, a prominent proponent in Washington of air strikes against Iran, said that whether the estimate is five years or 10 years, the time span instills complacency in war planning. He said that Mr. Bush is now following the State Department's diplomatic path, without a clear policy.
"Everyone is in the Jergens lotion mode -- 'woe is me.' Wringing our hands," the former fighter pilot said.
Gen. McInerney advocates using B-2 stealth bombers, cruise missiles and jet fighters to conduct a one- or two-day bombing campaign to take out Iran's air defenses, military facilities and about 40 nuclear targets, which includes a Russian-built reactor and an enrichment plant.
This story ends with a reminder that Iran has threatened to destroy Israel and has the largest ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East and is working on arming them with nuclear warheads.
Hopefully the story will not end there.
UPDATE: Related OPed piece in Sun Times by Sec. of State Rumsfeld on why we need a missile defense:
UPDATE: NY Times on IAEA report due out Thursday:The goal is to fashion a system that will be able to engage a volley of several missiles launched by a rogue regime at the United States or its allies.
The end of the Cold War dramatically altered -- but did not eliminate -- the potential threat posed by ballistic missiles. Indeed, in some ways the threat today is even greater. Outlaw regimes have ambitions and are working toward a capability to blackmail or attack the United States and our allies with missiles.
The atomic agency’s report is also expected to detail questions that Iran has failed to answer about suspected nuclear activities that it has declined to show to international inspectors.European and American officials say, for example, that Iran has refused to elaborate on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s claim earlier this year that the country has an active research project under way using an advanced type of enrichment centrifuge that it obtained from the Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
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