Bomb

A picture is worth a thousand fake narratives.

Claims that the device sent to CNN was not delivered are pure bunk.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times writes that “after hedging for 17 days,” the Russians have confirmed what everyone suspected.  Namely that the Metrojet 9268 that crashed in the Sinai 18 days ago was:

Way back in the beginning of September, the media, and in particular STEM-obsessed, politically correct digital outlets, were abuzz with the story of a young Muslim “inventor” falling afoul of school authorities in the suburbs of Dallas, possibly owing to a zero-tolerance policy run amok, possibly…

Under President Obama's deal with Iran, the nuclear breakout time for the rogue regime will shrink to zero. Obama admitted as much in an interview with National Public Radio.

In the course of trying to explain to Tom Friedman why his diplomatic outreach to Iran is no threat to America or our allies, President Obama sounded for a brief moment like the kind of warmonger he is normally heard denouncing.

In his annual statement marking the Persian new year, President Obama said he believes that Iran and the U.S. “should be able” to resolve the dispute over the mullahs’ nuclear program “peacefully, with diplomacy.”

Stories on President Obama’s strategy-for-the-Islamic-State speech this evening have made it plain that the military approach is going to be a combination of U.S. airpower and various Iraqi and Syrian proxies on the ground.  “Obama’s ISIL Strategy to Emphasize Coalition Effort,”…

In an email this evening, a veteran publishing source calls the latest Hillary Clinton book, Hard Choices, a memoir of her State Department years, a "bomb." The source is referring to the early but underwhelming sales figures.

With attention focused on the situation in Crimea and the Ukraine, Iran has been less in the news of late.  But it is still there, still dangerous. At the conclusion of a recent speech, retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, former CENTCOM commander, was asked about Iran and current diplomatic efforts…

In response to various media reports on the Iran sanctions bill, the chairman of the Emergency Committee for Israel, William Kristol, released this statement:

Reuters reports:

Barney Frank discussing the Boston marathon bombing on CNN this morning:

Twenty-nine years ago yesterday, December 12, 1983, Hezbollah and operatives of the Iranian-backed Iraqi Shiite group Da’wa carried out a series of seven coordinated bombings in Kuwait, killing six people and wounding nearly ninety more. The targets included the American and French embassies, the…

The Wall Street Journal editors write:

The Jerusalem Post reports:

Based on last week’s debate, both President Obama and Governor Romney believe that squeezing the Iranians economically is the best way—and perhaps the only way—to end their nuclear-weapons program without resorting to a military strike. Of course, nobody knows if sanctions will actually work. But…

An important report from the American Enterprise Institute's Maseh Zarif on Iran:

A new report on Iran from the Bipartisan Policy Center:

David Feith, writing in the Wall Street Journal:  

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters today that "statements" are not enough to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

“This attack will be a precedent for every future government in Israel. . . . [E]very future Israeli prime minister will act, in similar circumstances, in the same way.”

In a report to Congress authored in April, and posted online earlier this week by Bloomberg News, the Defense Department has once again accused Iran of supporting the Taliban. The unclassified assessment, which is titled “Annual Report on Military Power of Iran,” makes it clear that the U.S.…

Lee Smith, writing in Tablet: 

Despite all evidence that sanctions are hurting Iran's economy, four rounds of nuclear talks failed to prove that Iran's regime is now more malleable to a compromise. Diplomacy will continue, but with Iranian proposals falling short of Western minimum requirements, it is time to ask whether…

In an interview, veteran Democratic foreign policy insider Stuart Eizenstat admits that the Obama administration has not placed all options on the table for dealing with Iran. The Times of Israel reports:

This past weekend the Christian Science Monitor reported that Stuxnet, the original computer virus detected in the American-led cyber war against Iran’s nuclear program, was set to deactivate on June 24. That just so happens to be “seven years to the day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad…

Israeli vice prime minister Shaul Mofaz, of the centrist party Kadima, told Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington, D.C., that talks with the Iranians have failed and that the U.S. should escalate its activity to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

As Josh Rogin reports, almost half the members of the United States Senate joined together to write a letter to Barack Obama, urging the president to give up on Iranian talks if they fail yet again. The letter comes as American diplomats are getting set to meet with the Iranians in Moscow.

In advance of Monday's likely fruitless talks with Iran in Moscow, the Emergency Committee for Israel has released the following ad:

J.E. Dyer, writing on Iran's continued quest for nuclear weapons: 

The Obama administration’s recent focus on finding a compromise to allow the Iranian regime to maintain some enrichment capabilities “for peaceful purposes” distracts from the underlying nuclear threat at hand. Any outcome short of the verifiable dismantling and end of the Iranian nuclear program…

The future of Iran’s nuclear weapons program depends on one of those strange alignments of justice and personal gain that create eclipses and flood tides when planetary bodies are the actors.  It’s important that the world understand these strange circumstances.

A key feature of the negotiations with the Iranians over their nuclear program is doublespeak. To be more precise, you’ll notice that Iranian officials offer different accounts of what they are--and are not--willing to consider. Moreover, the meaning behind their words is often left obscure. 

The Obama administration set forth its demands of Iran in advance of this past weekend’s negotiations over the Iranian nuclear program. The New York Times reported on April 7 (emphasis added):

Steve Hayes, with Mara Liasson and Charles Krauthammer, last night on Fox News:

Reuel Marc Gerecht, writing in the Wall Street Journal: 

The New York Times reports that "A classified war simulation held this month to assess the repercussions of an Israeli attack on Iran forecasts that the strike would lead to a wider regional war, which could draw in the United States and leave hundreds of Americans dead, according to American…

The 2007 National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s nuclear weapons program lives on in the imagination of some government officials. At the end of a lengthy piece by James Risen in the New York Times this past weekend an anonymous official claims: “That assessment holds up really well.”

Ynetnews.com reports that British PM David Cameron says the UK won't support an Israeli strike of Iran's nuclear at this time:

In an interview on CNN, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated that “we are of the opinion that Iran is a rational actor,” from which he derived his conclusion that “we also know, or we believe we know, that Iran has not decided to make a nuclear weapon.” In making this…

Monday night, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said simply and clearly, "When it comes to Israel's survival, we must always remain the masters of our fate."

The prospect of Iran achieving nuclear breakout capability is becoming more imminent. Reports this past weekend indicate that Iran has built the infrastructure needed for operating more efficient and advanced centrifuges at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant. The Iranian regime will be able to…

Michael Makovsky and Blaise Misztal write in the Washington Post that President Obama is now trying only to contain Iran:

In a little noticed ruling on Monday, November 28, a Washington, D.C. district court found that both Iran and Sudan were culpable for al Qaeda’s 1998 embassy bombings. As is typical in state sponsorship of terrorism cases, neither Iran nor Sudan answered the plaintiffs’ accusations. But in a…

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has just published the following article on its website, indicating clearly that the regime seeks a nuclear bomb. The article, titled “The Day After Iran’s First Nuclear Test Is A Normal Day,” which has been translated by AEI's Critical Threats team,…

Are we moving toward zero nuclear weapons? Zero is the declared objective of the Obama administration. But it is realistic enough to recognize, as the president did in Prague, that achieving it might take a long time: “I'm not naive. This goal will not be reached quickly–perhaps not in my lifetime.…

After Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speeches, press conferences, and interviews in New York City last week, it’s obvious the Iranian president lives in a parallel universe. This has been difficult for many in the West to grasp. The Western reflex to believe that there are “universal truths” is…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has obtained excerpts from the prepared text of Sen. Joe Lieberman’s speech, “The Future of American Power in the Middle East,” to be delivered Wednesday at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. It should cause quite a stir.

MEMRI just published an interesting study that's worth a look:

“U.S. Assures Israel That Iran Threat Is Not Imminent” was the headline in the New York Times last Thursday. The article reported that U.S. officials were telling Jerusalem not to worry. It “would take roughly a year — and perhaps longer — for Iran to complete what one senior official called a…

Jeffrey Goldberg’s cover article in the Atlantic about the prospect of an Israeli strike on Iran has provoked fierce debate. One key issue is the likely timing of Israeli action, if it is to occur at all. Goldberg reports a consensus among the officials he interviewed that “there is a better than…