Top US Nuclear Expert Tells Obama: There Is No Weapons Threat From Iran

According to 21st Century Science & Technology magazine, Clinton Bastin has sent an open letter to Obama to question the claims made about Iran. He also forwarded a copy to the Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee to the United Nations

Dear Mr. Ambassador:

THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE SENT TO PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA THIS MORNING IS BASED ON EXPERIENCE-BASED KNOWLEDGE

There is no weapon threat from Iran's important, fully safeguarded nuclear power and research programs. Sanctions based on false claims of a threat have disrupted Irans economy and Iranians' day to day lives, preclude effective negotiations with Iran to resolve problems and increase world dangers.

The ultimate product of Iran's gas centrifuge facilities would be highly enriched uranium hexafluoride, a gas that cannot be used to make a weapon. Converting the gas to metal, fabricating components and assembling them with high explosives using dangerous and difficult technology that has never been used in Iran would take many years after a diversion of three tons of low enriched uranium gas from fully safeguarded inventories. The resulting weapon, if intended for delivery by missile, would have a yield equivalent to that of a kiloton of conventional high explosives.

Drawings of weapons found in Iran by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors are fakes, prepared by dissidents to harm Iran. Any drawing for a nuclear weapon program would be stored in a top secret vault and never seen by inspectors.

Please share this information with your cabinet, Members of Congress, all Americans, and leaders of other nations, and the United Nations; end sanctions against Iran's nuclear programs and support strengthening Iran's economy.

(Clinton Bastin directed U.S. programs for production of nuclear materials and nuclear components for weapons and the successful U.S. nonproliferation initiative with India. He was a consultant to U.S. national security agencies on proliferation threats in other nations and a leader in the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign. He reviewed in detail 1970 U.S. and Iranian plans for nuclear cooperation, and has maintained cognizance of Iran's plans since that time.)

MR AMBASSADOR, PLEASE SHARE WITH OTHERS AT UN AND OTHERS AS APPROPRIATE, AND LET ME KNOW OF ANY SUGGESTIONS OR COMMENTS.

BEST WISHES!

I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE HELP FROM YOU AND OTHERS CORRECTING THIS GREAT WRONG.

CLINTON BASTIN

Chemical Engineer/Nuclear Scientist,

U.S. Department of Energy (Retired)

www.larouchepac.com...

This man appears to be a reliable source, if anyone can prove this man is unreliable please do so as I'm open to other viewpoints and do not mind being corrected if I post misinformation.

Here is a link to his interview with 21st Century Science & Technology magazine.

It's dated December 2, 2011.

www.21stcenturysciencetech.com...

Yet another insider who has come out to discredit the claims being made by the IAEA, U.S., Israel and other organizations from around the world.

When are people going to realize that we're about to start a huge war over more lies, just like Iraq and Afghanistan (those are just some of the recent ones).

I know that a statement from a man most of you have probably never heard of before isn't going to convince you of anything, but what would this man have to gain from lying for Iran?

If the expert has no money to offer then Obama won't be interested in what he has to say
Money talks.

reply to post by TheMindWar


This man's letter will probably go straight to the shredder.

At least he forwarded a few copies

News of this will eventually reach Obama's handlers unless they have their heads in the sand.

Originally posted by Corruption Exposed
This man appears to be a reliable source, if anyone can prove this man is unreliable please do so as I'm open to other viewpoints and do not mind being corrected if I post misinformation.

Unless this individual has been to Iran and inspected all of their facilities (including secret facilities), then how could anyone call him credible. Ok, so he gives his professional opinion, and I respect that; however, without firsthand knowledge of Iran's nuclear program, then his opinion is just that...an opinion.

Okay, I'm getting not only a bad feeling, but I am getting absolute Deja Vu about this crap and it's coming on double time. As in, we've seen this movie before and it ended last month with hundreds of thousands in total dead.

This is just unacceptable. Period. Full stop. We cannot go to war on a hunch or guess. 'Pretty sure' pretty well won't work this time. I think the people need to start making rumblings and demands that IF this war goes...and Nukes aren't found *AGAIN*...we want to see EVERY LAST man who sits at national leadership level and who didn't fight against this, to be held criminally liable for all that follows.

I have no problem with the idea that a nuclear Iran is a dangerous Iran...but even the hawks on here should agree, we cannot afford to get this one wrong. We NEED TO BE 100% SURE this time. No more "oops"! If we are eyeball sure...100% confirmed on the fact the problem exists, then Obama just has to get re-elected without an ongoing war to cover his polls and numbers. Too bad...won't work this time.

TOO many experts are ALREADY raising questions..this is red flag territory that should have EVERYONE questioning what is happening here.

There seems little doubt anymore of Iran's intentions to acquire technology and capability to build nuclear weaponry. Over the last half-decade, there have been numerous opportunities for Iran to set this issue aside through transparency. They have not.

In my opinion, the question now is whether to allow them to succeed and hold Iran, as well as Russia responsible for their use, or to apply an open ended course of effort to end the threat. In one case, the US and NATO could make a joint statement of policy that says that any first use of nuclear weapons by Iran on any nations, would require a full scale retaliatory counter strike on both Iran and Russia. This is similar to the statement by Kennedy in respect to the Cuban missile crisis.

There no threat because we killed off everyone who was

reply to post by Muttley2012


IMO, the man made some good points.

Which points of his professional opinion are you disagreeing with?

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


I believe that the Western leaders who are aiming for a war with Iran don't really care if they have nukes or not, it's just an excuse they can use for their war they have been planning over the last few decades.

Too bad for the West no one believes anything that comes out of there anymore, well almost, there are still a few people who eat everything the MSM feeds them.

(not you BTW, just some other members in general)

We already know Iraq was based on lies and people are beginning to find out that pretty much everything else was based on lies too.

That's just my 2 cents.

Peace.

Originally posted by Corruption Exposed


Which points of his professional opinion are you disagreeing with?

I'm not a nuclear scientist, so I am not in a position to dispute any of his claims. However, as I said in my previous post...unless this guy has firsthand knowledge of Iran's nuclear program, then, much like me, he is not in a position to make declarations of absolute certainty.

I'm not saying the guy is wrong, but you said:

if anyone can prove this man is unreliable please do so as I'm open to other viewpoints and do not mind being corrected if I post misinformation.

So, I am pointing out a glaring issue with his assessment....making an assessment based upon secondhand knowledge and suppositions. That is not a scientific approach; thus, it must be viewed with much skepticism.

If I am not mistaken, the Manhattan project used UF6 as well, and they got a bomb in several years while they were pioneering the process using 1940's tech. If Iran got help from China or Russia, couldn't they build the machinery needed to harness highly enriched UF6 quicker?

Also, even if they were not building a bomb before, they might not see any harm in it for them now. They can either get invaded and have no bomb, or the can get invaded and have a bomb.

reply to post by Muttley2012


You raised some good points, I hope I didn't come across as argumentative.

He doesn't have first hand knowledge on this situation, that much is probable.

He knows how the IAEA works and he also knows how other countries are most likely to react to certain
scenarios.

He has probably seen a lot of BS go down over the years including all the current nuclear powers come to fruitition except maybe Pakistan, I believe they were after his time.

But, the article does mention:

(Clinton Bastin directed U.S. programs for production of nuclear materials and nuclear components for weapons and the successful U.S. nonproliferation initiative with India. He was a consultant to U.S. national security agencies on proliferation threats in other nations and a leader in the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign. He reviewed in detail 1970 U.S. and Iranian plans for nuclear cooperation, and has maintained cognizance of Iran's plans since that time.)

He has been briefed on Iran since the 70's including actually participating in their plans.

As recent as 2007 the IAEA swore up and down that Iran had a peaceful program, but as soon as Mohamed ElBaradei retired in 2009 they took a whole new stance, complete 180.

Of course all of this is purely a loosely based theory on my behalf so please take it with a grain of salt.

As you said this man wasn't "there" but he is probably worthy of having his opinion considered.

Another good point he makes is:

The ultimate product of Iran's gas centrifuge facilities would be highly enriched uranium hexafluoride, a gas that cannot be used to make a weapon. Converting the gas to metal, fabricating components and assembling them with high explosives using dangerous and difficult technology that has never been used in Iran would take many years after a diversion of three tons of low enriched uranium gas from fully safeguarded inventories. The resulting weapon, if intended for delivery by missile, would have a yield equivalent to that of a kiloton of conventional high explosives.

I'm not a scientist but this statement appears to be correct. If true, then a lot of what he has said in his letter seems much more credible.

Once again if I'm wrong I would like a clarification. It's possible I missed something.

Toppling Iran has no relation TOO Iran.

China's energy sources must be cut to keep them from surpassing everyone else in research.

It's about China, not Iran.

Iran is just the retarded little boy about to get beat by an entire football team wielding golf clubs.

We killed +1 million Iraqi's and they never had WMD's. We didn't even waste the time making some stage prop fake WMD's for a photo op. Why bother.

This is just another Professional stating this.
Remember there have been high ranking US Military men saying the same.
Former Mossad leaders have said the same.

What will it take?? Colin Powell in front of the UN with irrefutable Evidence. Wait. What?

Rumsfield saying he knows EXACTLY where they are. Wait What?

This man, Clinton Bastin, also wants to downsize the DOE, an organization that's vital to our energy future. What else does he want to do? And is this letter even genuine? I think the lot of you should look into this further before using it as gospel. The man to me seems dismissive and too out of the loop to know much of anything. This man might not have noticed, but the UN released an extensive report just lately detailing Iran's plans to create a nuclear weapon. So I am not sure what planet this guy is on (earth? no way!) or whether he's mentally capable.

Seems to me Iran is exploiting our toothless bite to build nuclear weapons capability. For years this is what they've done and we've always turned the other cheek. We're acting lamely. We're sending a message to rogue peoples that we will sit back and let them do as they please.

I don't think it's wise to wait until Iran has nukes and then somehow one of them gets smuggled into lebanon or syria or (more generally) into the hands of hezbollah or hamas. Then we'll find out with certainty that somebody has nukes because a part of Israel will be radioactive.

We can't afford to appease. We have to fight. This is a period in time where the men are separated from the boys. All throughout history we've faced these times of judgment.

"This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave." - Elmer Davis. This could just as well be said for the planet as a whole. We must not be cowards.

You know, I am so tired of the topic of Iran and Nuclear weapons I want to puke.

Let them have nuclear weapons. Have them serialize and label every molecule of the stuff. If/when a bomb shows up and blows apart a city and we can trace it back to Iran, all bets will be off and Iran can suffer the consequence of its actions. To bad it would have to be reactive rather than proactive.


...or...


Lets arm Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE and Iraq with nukes as well. Then we can all play in the same nuclear sandbox and no one in the region will have an edge.

reply to post by jonnywhite


Please show what part of the recent IAEA report that decisively confirms your claims.

The report has already been dismissed as politically dishonest by several world leaders.

The most condemning information in the report was based on outdated information that was known to be untruthful since the very beginning. It's nothing more than a whole lot of what ifs.

Here is the link to the report:

isis-online.org...

I'm patiently waiting for your response that points out where in the report I can find proof of Iran's nuclear ambitions.

I feel this letter is liberal propaganda!

We are dealing with a very serious threat in a nuclear Iran. And it is terrifying to think another filthy liberal is in office during this critical time.

If ya'll think back 11 years, you will remember another filthy liberal(Billy boy) working with the North Koreans to get them to dismantle their nuke program with diplomacy, and Billions of "we promise not to do this if you give us millions" dollars.

Well, we all saw how well that yellow bellied, democratic,diplomatic process worked for a now THERMAL NUCLEAR N. KOREA.flame:

Sorry about the caps...But hopefully some understand my frustration with the way our leaders lead on both sides.

reply to post by Corruption Exposed

Old information or not Iran is not building these enrichment facilities to power temples and lower energy costs for the poor. They got enough oil that they're drowning in it. If you will remember, Iran kicked out inspectors after the inspectors started to smell something not right. And then it had the audacity to say that they were not qualified. Iran was simply scribbling on the board BS that everybody in the know recognizes to be a copout and merely an excuse to continue its activities without oversight. Iran is a expert sh** thrower. They're well on their way to accruing enough nuclear materials to build their first weapon. They consistently give out wrong information and do not even show a full list of their facilities. They're building them increasingly underground and fortified because they're aware of the wrongness of their actions. The sum total of all this and more is that Iran has no peaceful intentions in this endeavour and strives to build nukes to satisfy its needs in the coming end times prophecies that're written about in their holy books.

I haven't even covered their dealings with hezbollah or hamas. Oh dear. /boggle

Your intentions, while good natured, are misled. YOu will learn in time.

Since when did a lack of WMD's, 'mass graves' or actual threat ever stop us from going to war before?

They didn't lay all this ground work, instill bases surrounding Iran and feed us anti-Iranian propaganda to not go to war.