John Horne

UK 'sells' bomb material to Iran

Wed Sep 25 18:29:49 2002
208.152.73.66

(I meant to post this yesterday -- THE SAME F*CKING DAY THAT BLAIR IS HARPING
ON ABOUT IRAQ HAVING WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION - and relax!)

This is a brief report from a radio documentary that aired last night. To listen to the
documentary (which will be online for a week) click here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/ram/tue2002.ram

British officials have approved the export of key components needed to make nuclear
weapons to Iran and other countries known to be developing such weapons.

An investigation by BBC Radio 4 programme File on Four will disclose that the Department
of Trade and Industry allowed a quantity of the metal, Beryllium, to be sold to Iran last year.

That metal is needed to make nuclear bombs.

Britain has had an arms embargo to Iran since 1993 and has signed up to an international
protocol which bans the sale of Beryllium to named countries, including Iran.

MP's concerns

Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, Menzies Campbell, who has been alerted to
the BBC programme's material, is said to be extremely alarmed.

Beryllium is a metal with a limited number of high-tech uses in civilian industry, but is
mostly used in defence applications and is a vital component in a nuclear bomb.

The programme has also interviewed a leading nuclear weapons expert in the UK who
says that the Beryllium and other items which the DTI has licensed to Iran add up to
a shopping list for a nuclear weapons programme.

The UK has an arms embargo against Iran, but not a trade embargo.

Export control weaknesses

The programme highlights the weaknesses in the UK's new export control system, which
was set up to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

It will reveal that Iranian procurement agents have been working in the UK to get sensitive
material back to Iran, and that Pakistan has also been successful in procuring material
for its nuclear programme from here.

It is also likely to cause concern among Britain's allies.

President Bush named Iran as part of an "axis of evil" accusing the Iranian regime
of sponsoring terrorism.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_politics/2275249.stm
=======================================================

BUSH'S PLAN TO CONTROL THE INTERNET - 65 PAGES PDF FILE:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/pcipb/cyberstrategy-draft.pdf
======================

MID-EAST REALITIES - MER - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 9/25/2002:
Alas...its clearly much too little much too late and without any
apparent strategy or follow-up. But that seems to be the plight these
days of independent academics, experts, and intellectuals throughout the
world at this point in history, most especially in the American Empire
itself. Even so...let the word go forth as best we all can:


URGENT WARNING:

THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT MAY BE CONTEMPLATING
CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY.

We, members of Israeli academe, are horrified by US buildup of
aggression
towards Iraq and by the Israeli political leadership's enthusiastic
support for it.

We are deeply worried by indications that the "fog of war" could be
exploited by the Israeli government to commit further crimes against the
Palestinian people, up to full-fledged ethnic cleansing.

The Israeli ruling coalition includes parties that promote "transfer" of
the Palestinian population as a solution to what they call "the
demographic problem". Politicians are regularly quoted in the media as
suggesting forcible expulsion, most recently MKs Michael Kleiner and
Benny
Elon, as reported on Yediot Ahronot website on September 19, 2002. In a
recent interview in Ha'aretz, Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon described the
Palestinians as a "cancerous manifestation" and equated the military
actions in the Occupied Territories with "chemotherapy", suggesting that
more radical "treatment" may be necessary. Prime Minister Sharon has
backed this "assessment of reality". Escalating racist demagoguery
concerning the Palestinian citizens of Israel may indicate the scope of
the crimes that are possibly being contemplated.

We call upon the International Community to pay close attention to
events
that unfold within Israel and in the Occupied Territories, to make it
absolutely clear that crimes against humanity will not be tolerated, and
to take concrete measures to prevent such crimes from taking place.

Signatories, as of the 23 Sept 2002, morning:

Prof. Zach Adam, Rehovot
Prof. Colman Altman, Haifa
Dr. Janina Altman, Haifa
Tammy Amiel-Houser, Tel Aviv
Chaya Amir, Tel Aviv
Dr. Shmuel Amir, Tel Aviv
Prof. Daniel Amit, Jerusalem/Rome
Yali Amit, Chicago
Dr. Meir Amor, Montreal, Canada
Dr. Yonathan (Jon) Anson, Beer Sheva
Prof. Shalom Baer, Jerusalem
Dan Bar-On, Beer Sheva
Dr. Avner Ben-Amos, Tel Aviv
Prof. Matania Ben-Artzi, Jerusalem
Prof. Linda Ben-Zvi, Tel Aviv
Avi Berg, Tel Aviv
Dr. Louise Bethlehem, Hod Hasharon
Prof. Anat Bilezki, Tel Aviv
Uri Bitan, Haifa
Prof. Daniel Boyarin, Berkeley
Prof. Victoria Buch, Jerusalem
Smadar Carmon, Toronto
Dr. Nicole Cohen-Addad, Tel Aviv
Dr. Uri Davis, Sakhnin
Athena Elizabeth DeRasmo, Haifa
Prof. Aharon Eviatar, Tel Aviv
Dr. Ovadia Ezra. Tel Aviv
Prof. Emmanuel Farjoun, Jerusalem
Pnina Firestone, Jerusalem
Elizabeth Freund, Jerusalem
Gadi Geiger, Cambridge, MA, USA
Dr. Amira Gelblum, Tel Aviv
Prof. Rachel Giora, Tel Aviv
Dr. Anat Goldrat-First, Netanya
Dr. Ofra Goldstein-Gidoni, Tel Aviv
Dr. Neve Gordon, Beer Sheva
Dr. Yerah Gover, New York
Prof. Charles W. Greenbaum, Jerusalem
Dr. Lev Grinberg, Beer Sheva
Ran HaCohen, Tel Aviv
Prof. Uri Hadar, Tel Aviv
Prof. Galit Hasan-Rokem, Jerusalem
Dr. Sara Helman, Beer Sheva
Prof. Hanna Herzog, Tel Aviv
Prof. Ze'ev Herzog, Tel Aviv
Prof. Hannan Hever, Jerusalem
Dr. Tikva Honig-Parnass, Jerusalem
Shirly Houser, Tel Aviv
Tal Itzhaki, Haifa
Prof. Eva Jablonka, Tel Aviv
Andrea Jacobs, Austin, Texas
Dr. Devorah Kalekin-Fishman, Haifa
Aya Kaniuk, Jerusalem
Prof. Jacob Katriel, Haifa
Prof. Tamar Katriel, Haifa
Prof. Baruch Kimmerling, Jerusalem
Dr. Haggai Kupermintz, Boulder, Colorado
Dr. Ron Kuzar, Haifa
Dr. Ariela Lazar, Evanston
Prof. Micah Leshem, Haifa
Erez Levkovitz, Jerusalem
Prof. Rene Levy, Lausanne
Dr. Orly Lubin, Tel Aviv
Dr. Ruchama Marton, Tel Aviv
Dr. Anat Matar, Tel Aviv
Prof. Paul Mendes-Flohr, Jerusalem
Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom, Jerusalem
Menucha Moravitz, Ramat-Gan
Regev Nathansohn, Tel Aviv
Prof. Avraham Oz, Haifa
Dr. Ilan Pappe, Haifa
Gabriel Piterberg, UCLA
Shakhar Rahav, Berkeley
Dr. Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin, Beer Sheva
Prof. Zvi Razi, Tel Aviv
Prof. Tanya Reinhart, Tel Aviv
Prof. Fanny-Michaela Reisin, Berlin
Prof. Freddie Rokem, Tel Aviv
Prof. Henry Rosenfeld, Haifa
Dr. Maya Rosenfeld, Jerusalem
Ouzi Rotem, Philadelphia
Dr. Hannah Safran, Haifa
Tami Sarfatti, UCLA
Dr. Nita Schechet, Jerusalem
Hillel Schocken, Tel Aviv
Ruben Seroussi, Tel Aviv
Dr. Erella Shadmi,Beit Berl
Prof. Nomi Shir, Beer Sheva
Dr. Miriam Shlesinger, Tel Aviv
Aharon Shabtai, Tel Aviv
Orly Soker, Sapir-Jerusalem
Nurit Steinfeld, Jerusalem
Roman Vater, Tel Aviv
Dr. Roy Wagner, Tel-Aviv
Dr. Michael Yogev, Haifa
Kim Yuval, Tel Aviv
Prof. Moshe Zimmermann, Jerusalem




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• President Bush had good reason to take us to war — The Patriot, Wed Sep 25 22:15