Headlines for 02-20-08

Nuclear watchdog has enough info on Iran: Larijani


Exiled opposition group says Iran still developing nuclear warheads


Iran says atomic drive brings powers "to their knees"


U.S. fueling Iranian petroleum? Two congressmen want to know if U.S. contributions to the World Bank are helping develop Iranian petroleum resources.


UN watchdog coy on Iran nuclear weapons claims


Ahmadinejad in new attack on 'savage animal' Israel


How Labour used the law to keep criticism of Israel secret The document reveals how the Foreign Office successfully fought to keep secret any mention of Israel contained on the first draft of the controversial, now discredited Iraq weapons dossier. At the heart of it was nervousness at the top of government about any mention of Israel's nuclear arsenal in an official paper accusing Iraq of flouting the UN's authority on weapons of mass destruction.



Closed hearing and a secret ruling: how the word Israel was deleted When a researcher first applied to the Foreign Office for the release of the draft dossier, it turned the request down. The ministry then failed to conduct the required internal appeal against its decision. Its next move was to try to persuade the information commissioner, Richard Thomas, that the document - including the word "Israel" - was exempt under section 36 of the Freedom of Information Act, concerning free and frank discussion.


Oil prices race to record highs on supply worries


?Nuke Mom? Charged With Smuggling She is believed to be working for and with Asher Karni, owner of Top Cape Technology company in South Africa.


Israel sure of its military strength - Olmert Israel's armed forces are ready for a new war, should one erupt, Ehud Olmert said.


Israel's weapons - a diplomatic no-go area Israel, unlike Saddam Hussein's Iraq, never signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, the 1970 agreement which allows countries to develop civilian nuclear power in exchange for forgoing weapons. These are supposed to be the preserve of the five permanent members of the UN security council. In recent years India, Pakistan and North Korea have swelled the ranks of the weapons states, but unlike them Israel has never come out of the nuclear closet


The FO's case to the information tribunal I believe that if these comments were released into the public domain, this would seriously damage our bilateral relations with Israel. In my view, Israel will, in seeing these comments believe that the FCO has firstly, compared the Israeli regime to that of Saddam Hussein's Iraq, and secondly, suggested that Israel has flouted the authority of the United Nations in pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. Although the author of the marginal notes is unknown, I believe that the Israeli government would consider it likely that they would have been written by a senior figure. The assumption could, and I believe would, easily be made that these marginal notes represent the views of the FCO in relation to Israel.


Hidden words The word "Israel" was written in the margins of the draft document by an unknown - but presumably senior - hand. It referred to a sentence which said of Saddam's Iraq: "No other country has flouted the UN's authority so brazenly in pursuit of weapons of mass destruction." The implied meaning of the margin note was well articulated by a senior Foreign Office official, Neil Wigan, in trying to argue for its suppression - that "the person who wrote it believes that Israel has flouted the UN authority similar to that of the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein".


MKs to fan out globally to warn of Iran threat Israel's stepped-up lobbying effort is in part a response to the release by the United States late last year of a new National Intelligence Estimate, which claimed that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program.