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War Pimp Alert
Iran 'has bomb and trying to make more'
By Neena Gopal, Foreign Editor
01/29/06 "Gulf
News" -- -- Dubai: A well-known US nuclear
proliferation and terrorism expert told Gulf News yesterday that
Tehran not only has the nuclear bomb, it is seeking to
"duplicate them in large numbers before revealing their
existence to the world".
Mansoor Ijaz said, "Iran has a functional nuclear device stored,
like the Pakistanis did for nearly a decade, in component parts
at multiple locations to justify its publicly declared stance of
'nuclear ambiguity' until Tehran can replicate the nuclear fuel
cycle and duplicate components reliably needed to manufacture a
diverse array of nuclear devices."
This, he says, requires patience and time, and underscores the
delay tactics seen with increasing frequency by Tehran regarding
their nuclear agenda.
Speaking exclusively to Gulf News while on a brief visit to the
region, Ijaz, an American financier of Pakistani ancestry whose
partners include former CIA Director James Woolsey and retired
US Air Force Generals James Abrahamson and Tom McInerney,
warned:
 "Iran is committed to expanding and supplying its global
'jihadist' network with tactical nuclear capabilities, ranging
from dirty radiological devices to electromagnetic pulse devices
or 'electron bombs', in order to redress what Tehran sees as a
growing geostrategic imbalance aligned against its interests."
Ijaz, an MIT-trained nuclear scientist whose father was a
pioneer of Pakistan's nuclear programme, said, "The one
functional device Iran has is the result of clandestine
transfers from Pakistan's rogue black market nuclear scientist,
Abdul Qadeer Khan, who sold the Iranians antiquated but highly
effective Chinese bomb designs and parts, including spherical
shell casings, spherical 'Krytron' detonation switches and
empirical software testing modules."
Through Khan, Iran also acquired the centrifuges to complete the
nuclear fuel cycles that could enrich uranium to weapons-grade
quality.
The US, he said, never earnestly believed in any of the
diplomatic options pursued by its European allies and friends in
the Middle East to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions because the
Bush administration has "known the insidious nature" of Iranian
governments now for many years.
"Today, the viable diplomatic options to stop Iran are few,
military options even fewer. So the US is exploring tactical and
strategic opportunities that blend a bit of both together."
He added: "If the US felt compelled to attack militarily, it
would use a new class of weapons and a war strategy never seen
before in the history of conflict.
"Let there be no illusions about the fact that the United States
possesses technological advantages in executing its military
options that would render every conceivable option available to
Iran useless. America may not win or manage peace very well, it
certainly has no difficulty waging the battle."
He said US think-tanks were already formulating strategies for
an option that would rely on preparing an insurgency force to
enter Iran from Iraq or other neighbouring countries. This force
could in "close coordination with sympathetic Iranians who seek
regime change" target Iran's vital infrastructure systems (water
supply, electricity, trucking, rail lines, etc) to shut the
country down and bring thousands of demonstrators out into the
streets.
"This would usher in a bloodless revolution, effect regime
change and avoid devastating military attacks."
Tactical support
Mansoor Ijaz, who opened channels between Israel and Pakistan in
the mid-1990s, said verbal tirades between Israel and Iran stem
from the "growing belief that Tehran's nuclear programme is
being readied to provide tactical support for Hezbollah and Al
Qaida cells around the world as a means of redressing strategic
imbalances that might arise from United Nations sanctions".
Ijaz accused Tehran of having mastered "fingerprint-less
terrorist acts," particularly now in Iraq where he says the US
has proof of Iranian attempts to destabilise the south.
"Tehran has forged an intelligent nexus of planning
state-sponsored terrorist acts with jihadists willing to martyr
themselves serving as the primary benefactors. The Bush
administration believes Tehran now wants to build nuclear
weapons in sufficient quantity and diversity that it can arm its
global militias with a range of attack options," said Ijaz, who
in 1997 negotiated Sudan's offer of counter-terrorism assistance
on Al Qaida to the Clinton administration.
© Al Nisr Publishing LLC 2005. All rights reserved.
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