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US parts found at suspected Iran nuclear site. So reports Reuters.
A radiation monitoring device spotted in Iran at a razed site where Washington suspects Iran conducted covert atomic bomb-related research was itself made in the United States and sold directly to Tehran, sources said.
A Western diplomat and an independent nuclear expert who follow the Vienna-based U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told Reuters the radiation detection device -- called a "whole body counter" -- was identified as having been made by the Connecticut-based firm Canberra Industries, Inc.
The disclosure could prove embarrassing to Washington which has accused Iran of pursuing a nuclear weapons program and has called on countries to crack down on exports of even seemingly innocent machinery that could be used in weapons programs.
Certainly the fact US industry might even unwittingly be involved in furthering the nuclear aspirations of a charter member of the axis of evil might be embarrassing for Washington.
And Matt is right. Iran may very well have emerged the winner of the US campagin in Iraq. Iran and the Iran nuclear issue also seem to be emerging as the predominant preoccupation of US foreign policy. Task forces at the Council of Foreign Relations, the Atlantic Council (led by Brent Scowcroft), and elsewhere are currently working on position papers on what US foreign policy to Iran should be.
Yesterday, former national security advisor Brent Scowcroft, who has been criticized by some in the past for being too pragmatic and pro-(oil) business friendly about Iran, sounded a note of real alarm about Iran's nuclear program in an oped in the Washington Post:
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has just rebuked Iran for failing to cooperate fully with international inspectors who are examining whether Tehran is meeting its nonproliferation commitments.
How concerned should we be about this development? What does it mean? By its own admission, Iran has been taking steps to develop the capability to enrich uranium...While Iran says its activities are solely for peaceful production of nuclear power and are permitted by the Non-Proliferation Treaty, once enrichment capability exists, a major barrier to producing a nuclear weapon virtually vanishes. The IAEA condemnation is an indication that the world may be on the verge of a major breakdown of the nonproliferation regime, to say nothing of a huge new source of instability in a critically important region.
We are at a critical moment. Are we serious in our efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation, or will we watch the world descend into a maelstrom where weapons-grade nuclear material is plentiful and unimaginable destructive capability is available to any country or group with a grudge against society?
What does Scowcroft propose?
Our goal instead should be to delegitimize the spread of uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing facilities to any country, because these capabilities are the linchpin of any program to develop nuclear weapons.
Hawkish undersecretary of state John Bolton discussed what he called the administration's "counterproliferation" program (he prefers that over the traditional "nonproliferation" he said) and Iran at AEI and on the Hill yesterday. You can read his AEI remarks here [note, link to .pdf file]. But given the report in Reuters yesterday cited above about US company parts being found at a suspected former Iranian nuclear site casts Bolton's remarks in a new light:
On February 11, at the National Defense University, President Bush gave what is arguably one of the most “wonkish” speeches ever delivered by a President. I liked it. He detailed a number of proposals that made clear the Administration’s overarching approach: the frontlines in our nonproliferation strategy must extend beyond the well-known rogue states to the trade routes and entities that are engaged in supplying the countries of greatest proliferation concern.
Trade routes and entities that include Connecticut, I take it?
MORE: As Tim Dunlop reminds us about the old joke about Iraq, we know they have weapons of mass destruction because we have the receipts. They pick us up too.