Obama: "I'm ready to negotiate with you, Iran." Iran: "Fuck you."

[tw]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Looks like the Israeli's have learned a few things from us. The use of drones.

Actually you have it backwards. Israel was first in demonstrating the power and versatility of drones. The only America exception may have been a drone used by Missouri class battleships to help target their 18 inch guns.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by tw

Actually you have it backwards. Israel was first in demonstrating the power and versatility of drones. The only America exception may have been a drone used by Missouri class battleships to help target their 18 inch guns.

Yes, Israel used drones to get the anti-aircraft positions to reveal themselves in the 6 day war.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by tw

Actually you have it backwards. Israel was first in demonstrating the power and versatility of drones. The only America exception may have been a drone used by Missouri class battleships to help target their 18 inch guns.

Eighteen-inch guns?? Missouri class???

I keep telling you, tw: copyedit, copyedit.

The name ship of the class was the IOWA (BB-61), you nonGoogling good example of a bad example! Your carelessness outside your specialty (about which you do not write) keeps your credibility in the negative numbers. And never, ever, do you clean up your act. Standards in your writing? Either you have none, or you leave them too low.

I'll leave you the chance to discover the actual size of the Iowa class' main battery on your own.

It's actually pretty fun. Battleships have an ominous yet undeniable beauty to them, like a fighter plane or a naked sword.

[classicman]

Ahmadinejad rips capitalism

ASTANA (AFP) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lashed out on Monday at capitalism as a "failed" economic system and called for the creation of a new global financial order.

"I want to say that capitalist economics is false economics. Now they are trying to reform the system, the very system that caused the crisis," Ahmadinejad told reporters during a visit to Kazakhstan.
"We are interested in a new financial system based on justice. A real economic system."
In a fiery speech, the Iranian leader, speaking through a translator in Kazakhstan's capital Astana where he is on a state visit, accused the world's economic powers of burdening the world with their economic mistakes.
In a surprise move, Ahmadinejad became the first major world leader to back a plan put forward by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev last month to create a single world currency.
"It's a wonderful proposal. We consider it a good and correct idea. The world needs a single currency, a real currency."
Nazarbayev first called publicly for the creation of a new global currency, the "acmetal," in an article published in Russia's official daily Rossiskaya Gazeta in February.

Ahmadinejad blamed Western immorality and shady financial instruments - he described their use as "selling paper" - for the global economic crisis.

"I want to say that this is a moral crisis and not a crisis of finances," he said.

Hmm, ok. So is this a possibility? It seems like a strange and improbable idea. Could this actually work? What about all the varying inflation, recessions, and so on.

[sugarpop]

Originally Posted by classicman

Ahmadinejad rips capitalism



Hmm, ok. So is this a possibility? It seems like a strange and improbable idea. Could this actually work? What about all the varying inflation, recessions, and so on.

Not to take up for that whacko, but he has a point about capitalism and the damage we have caused worldwide with this crisis.

[piercehawkeye45]

Originally Posted by sugarpop

Not to take up for that whacko, but he has a point about capitalism and the damage we have caused worldwide with this crisis.

Ahmadinejad does have intelligent views on some issues, but has completely idiotic views on others.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by piercehawkeye45

Ahmadinejad does have intelligent views on some issues...

Such as? His quasi-intelligent views are motivated and influenced by his wacky views.

[piercehawkeye45]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Such as? His quasi-intelligent views are motivated and influenced by his wacky views.

His views on American foreign policy aren't overly extreme in my opinion. I didn't see much but when he spoke at that university two years ago (big news event), I didn't find a problem with much what was said. It is just the US news only focused on his completely idiotic viewpoints. The questions following his speech, what got printed and shown on TV, at that university had nothing to do with the actual speech, just the common gay and Israel questions that will boost ratings.

[piercehawkeye45]

The United States won't jump on because it will just become a power issue. Whoever controls the currency can do whats best for their individual country or interests.

[TheMercenary]

Ahmadinejad has nothing but the purest of intentions when it comes to Iran and nuclear development for peaceful purposes.

BREAKING: Chinese financier Le Fang Wei indicted in plot to send nuclear materials to Iran.

The Manhattan district attorney's office has smashed a sinister plot to smuggle nuclear weapons materials to Iran through unwitting New York banks, the Daily News has learned.

Officials plan to unseal a 118-count indictment Tuesday accusing a Chinese national of setting up a handful of fake companies to hide that he was selling millions of dollars in potential nuclear materials to Tehran.

"This case will cut off a major source of supply to Iran and it shows how they are going ahead full steam to get a nuclear bomb. Long-range missiles they pretty much have already," a law enforcement source close to the case said.

"We think it is one of the largest suppliers of weapons of mass destruction to Iran."

Experts say Iran, under the leadership of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, appears close to amassing enough nuclear material to make an atom bomb. A United Nations embargo bans Iran from acquiring the high-tech metals needed to make a long-range nuclear weapon a reality.

The indictment will outline the financial conspiracy behind 58 different transactions, including shipments of various banned materials from China to Iran between 2006 and late 2008.

Among them:

33,000 pounds of a specialized aluminum alloy used almost exclusively in long-range missile production.
66,000 pounds of tungsten copper plate, which is used in missile guidance systems.
53,900 pounds of maraging steel rods, a superhard metal used in uranium enrichment and to make the casings for nuclear bombs.
The recipient is believed to have been a subsidiary of the Iranian Defense Ministry.
The suspect, who is not believed to be in the U.S., set up four bogus import-export companies that did business with six Iranian shell firms, one source said.

"They took elaborate steps to conceal the identity of the shipper and the recipient," the source said.

The deals went through "several" New York banks, which cooperated when the alleged plot was uncovered.

"The New York banks were completely unaware," the source said.

Authorities first stumbled over the scheme seven months ago in an unrelated probe into Iranian money-laundering through Lloyd's, a British bank.

In January, Lloyd's paid a $350 million fine to settle accusations it "stripped" information from Iranian money transfers to New York banks, hiding where the cash came from.

Officials said they suspected that money was also used to finance Iran's nuke program.

"The important thing is to put sunlight on these deals," the law enforcement source said.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009...e_city_-2.html

[classicman]

STOP it Merc. You know damn well its 85% mental midget, mission accomplished tinfoil hatted, beancounter Bush's fault.

[TheMercenary]

Yea, I thought a lot of the speech had not been publicized. But you know when you stand in front of the world and say some pretty stupid stuff as a world leader it is hard to recover from that. Look at Bush.

[piercehawkeye45]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Yea, I thought a lot of the speech had not been publicized. But you know when you stand in front of the world and say some pretty stupid stuff as a world leader it is hard to recover from that. Look at Bush.

I agree.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Yea, I thought a lot of the speech had not been publicized. But you know when you stand in front of the world and say some pretty stupid stuff as a world leader it is hard to recover from that. Look at Bush.

Better to look at Hugo Chavez. Bush said things that were pretty blunt. Blunt is not the same as stupid. Did bluntness get in the way of consensus? Perhaps so, but it only flaked off what would have been the weak sisters and other myopics insufficiently committed to democracy to see it emerge in places there hadn't been any recently. As you know, I regard such insufficiency with a very jaundiced eye.

Our foreign problems all come from places that don't have democracies running them. And those problems are general; they are not directed solely at America.

What happens if this equation changes and democracies run those places?

[classicman]

Iran willing to build new relationship with US

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's president on Wednesday sent the clearest signal yet that the Islamic Republic wants warmer ties with the U.S., just one day after Washington spoke of new strategies to address the country's disputed nuclear program. Taken together, the developments indicate that the longtime adversaries are seeking ways to return to the negotiating table and ease a nearly 30-year-old diplomatic standoff.
President Barack Obama's administration has sought to start a dialogue with Iran — a departure from the Bush administration's tough talk.


Iran's uranium enrichment program has been the key point of contention. The Bush administration had insisted that Iran scrap enrichment before talks could begin — a demand Iran repeatedly rejected. On Wednesday, a senior official said the U.S. would be prepared to let Tehran continue enriching uranium at the current level for some time.

Two years ago, Washington briefly softened its position, and its negotiating partners told Tehran that they could accept a continuation of enrichment for a limited time as they moved toward talks. But Iran insisted it be allowed to enrich as part of its rights under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, ending the effort.

A decision by the U.S. to return to the negotiating table last year also did not bear fruit.

Well publicly anyway - I guess we'll see if this is an earnest attempt at diplomacy or a stall tactic so that they can continue to proceed.

The article seems to contradict itself a bit - see underlined (mine)