U.S. Intel: Iran Planning Nuclear Strike on U.S.?

[Ninemil]

Who cares?

For 50 years the U.S. and the Soviet Union lived under the the umbrella of "Mutually Assured Destruction". If Iran develops a nuke and uses it - the destruction won't be mutual. Besides, nukes aren't precision weapons. If Iran attacks Israel, for instance, with a nuke a lot of Palestinians will die too. I don't think they're THAT crazy.

 

[Garys]

Iran is doing two things that we should be very concerned about (besides developing a nuclear bomb). First, they a developing a sea launch capability. It's easy to put missile on freighter and launch it from just outside the US territorial limits. A missile launched like that will hit it's target before our defenses can react. It's also much cheaper for them.

The second thing is, if you've been paying attention, they are detonating them at the top of their tragectory. That wouldn't cause that much damage to buildings and such, but the EMP would disrupt communications up and down the east coast and probably knock out the power grid. Think about the effects of that for a while.

 

[Twigg]

I don't think they're THAT crazy.

They are counting on an attitude of complacency on our part. While I don't believe they have the capability to build an actual working bomb, they do have the money to buy one.

I've gone through NBC training while I was in the service, I have a pretty good idea of the results if they manage to set off an actual nuke or a dirty bomb.

Even if its just a dirty bomb, the chaos of the aftermath would be worse than the entire Katrina/Chernobyl distasters. Municipalities are not prepared for a disaster of this magnitude and the sheeple will panic.

 

[Dench]

The second thing is, if you've been paying attention, they are detonating them at the top of their trajectory. That wouldn't cause that much damage to buildings and such, but the EMP would disrupt communications up and down the east coast and probably knock out the power grid. Think about the effects of that for a while.

youve obviously missed the last 2 weeks worth of conversations about EMP attacks and the "risks" for america in todays world. ill say it again;
- it takes a massive nuclear bomb thats not only ridiculously heavy, it will have over 3 stages to it, making it incredibly complex. iran is literally 20+ years from that type of weapon, and thats assuming they pour soviet sized resources into it, which they dont have.
- NO ICBM SYSTEM IN THE WORLD CAN CARRY SUCH A HEAVY BOMB. how hard is that to understand?

some people here are under the assumption that a simple atomic weapon will "wipe out" the east coasts electronics. it would take a 300 megaton bomb literally in space to cause that type of damage. no country in the world currently has that capability, nor does any country have the resources to develop such a program.

also, a lot of people here seem to think that a atomic bomb going off in a shipping container will destroy a city the size of NYC. it wont. while it will causes massive damage, ground level bursts are significantly weaker then air burst explosions. it would take a bomb in the megatons to level a city the size of NYC from a ground burst.

big bad north korea, who the government wants you to hate with a passion used resources that its country coudlnt afford to lend to its nuclear program, and its single nuclear test resulted in a fizzle. they failed. its not a easy thing to accomplish.

 

[Dench]

Even if its just a dirty bomb, the chaos of the aftermath would be worse than the entire Katrina/Chernobyl distasters. Municipalities are not prepared for a disaster of this magnitude and the sheeple will panic.

a "dirty bomb" would have to be very, very, very large in order to compete with the amount of radiation released from Chernobyl. when Chernobyl #4 blew itself to hell it released about 35 times more radiation then the 2 combined atomic bombings of japan.

there are nuclear bombs made to have small blasts with massive amounts of radiation released insted. their called neutron bombs.

 

[calsdad]

youve obviously missed the last 2 weeks worth of conversations about EMP attacks and the "risks" for america in todays world. ill say it again;
- it takes a massive nuclear bomb thats not only ridiculously heavy, it will have over 3 stages to it, making it incredibly complex. iran is literally 20+ years from that type of weapon, and thats assuming they pour soviet sized resources into it, which they dont have.
- NO ICBM SYSTEM IN THE WORLD CAN CARRY SUCH A HEAVY BOMB. how hard is that to understand?

some people here are under the assumption that a simple atomic weapon will "wipe out" the east coasts electronics. it would take a 300 megaton bomb literally in space to cause that type of damage. no country in the world currently has that capability, nor does any country have the resources to develop such a program.

also, a lot of people here seem to think that a atomic bomb going off in a shipping container will destroy a city the size of NYC. it wont. while it will causes massive damage, ground level bursts are significantly weaker then air burst explosions. it would take a bomb in the megatons to level a city the size of NYC from a ground burst.

big bad north korea, who the government wants you to hate with a passion used resources that its country coudlnt afford to lend to its nuclear program, and its single nuclear test resulted in a fizzle. they failed. its not a easy thing to accomplish.

For crying out loud will you stop polluting this forum with facts and reasonable arguments? Don't you know we are in a new age, this is the 21st century - we don't respond to scientific fact and the laws of physics, we are past all of that. In the new age we will only respond to paranoia and irrational rantings of our leaders. If Al Gore says we are all going to die from glueball warming - we must do something (not the right thing - just something). If somebody says Iran might make a nuke someday - then obviously that will lead to the deaths of every person in the United States and again we must do something (not the right thing - just something). Save the poor! Save Africa! Bomb Iran! Bomb Iraq! Kill! Don't Kill the whales! Save the Polar bears! The ice is melting! We are running out of oil! Al Quaeda stole my baby! Ahhhhhh Save me Obama!!

 

[Garys]

- NO ICBM SYSTEM IN THE WORLD CAN CARRY SUCH A HEAVY BOMB. how hard is that to understand?

The part where it's an ICBM, since it's not intercontinental and it's not ballistic. Unless I'm missing who the nuclear physicist on the board is, speculation about the size of bomb required is speculation.

some people here are under the assumption that a simple atomic weapon will "wipe out" the east coasts electronics. it would take a 300 megaton bomb literally in space to cause that type of damage. no country in the world currently has that capability, nor does any country have the resources to develop such a program.

also, a lot of people here seem to think that a atomic bomb going off in a shipping container will destroy a city the size of NYC. it wont. while it will causes massive damage, ground level bursts are significantly weaker then air burst explosions. it would take a bomb in the megatons to level a city the size of NYC from a ground burst.

big bad north korea, who the government wants you to hate with a passion used resources that its country coudlnt afford to lend to its nuclear program, and its single nuclear test resulted in a fizzle. they failed. its not a easy thing to accomplish.

It's unclear exactly what the results of NK's test where since I've seen a wide variety of opinions. Also remember that Iran has a lot more money than NK does. Then again Pakistan which likely has less money has developed nuclear weapons. As has India. Not as clear cut as you'd have us think.

 

[Skald]

Iran may not have a working ICBM but they have had programs in the past, and it would not suprise me if they still do have these programs on the books.

As an unstable a regime as Iran is, to just sit back and wait for them would be akin to waiting for Hitler to have attacked U.S soil during WW II. I am using your reasoning, since they can't do it we should not worry about it.

Do I think they have a working ICBM - Nope
Are they trying to get a working ICBM - oh hell yes.

 

[RG617]

The part where it's an ICBM, since it's not intercontinental and it's not ballistic. Unless I'm missing who the nuclear physicist on the board is, speculation about the size of bomb required is speculation.

It's unclear exactly what the results of NK's test where since I've seen a wide variety of opinions. Also remember that Iran has a lot more money than NK does. Then again Pakistan which likely has less money has developed nuclear weapons. As has India. Not as clear cut as you'd have us think.

India felt they had no choice after Pakistan got the bomb, so they spent a ridiculous amount of their GNP developing one... though I'd be surprised if they didn't find a shortcut through espionage or back room purchases in order to do so. Pakistan, on the other hand, magically developed the bomb not two years after the Sino-Indian border war of the early 60's. Kind of convenient that India's biggest enemy ended up with a nuke shortly after that war. Pretty big coincidence that that war was with a nuclear weapons capable country that's the world's other billion person nation. No better way to end a messy situation than to give the absolute worst enemy of India the world's best distraction to wave around, no?

Oh, and the bomb plans Libya turned over after getting caught receiving enrichment and weapon materials from Pakistan a few years back just so happened to copies of the original Chinese design - printed in Chinese - from the early 60's.

My roundabout point is that when a country has help getting past the development stage, money becomes a lot less of an issue than if it were forced to figure it on it's own dime.

 

[Garys]

My roundabout point is that when a country has help getting past the development stage, money becomes a lot less of an issue than if it were forced to figure it on it's own dime.

It's certainly not out of the realm of possibility that those plans made their way to NK and then Iran. All of which means that the biggest hurdle for the Iranians right now might be obtaining weapons grade Plutonium.

 

[RG617]

They were all passing around info. That's why countries like Iran and Pakistan have missles that are nothing more than variants of NK's Taepodong. Lot of back scratchin' going on.

 

[Dench]

It's certainly not out of the realm of possibility that those plans made their way to NK and then Iran. All of which means that the biggest hurdle for the Iranians right now might be obtaining weapons grade Plutonium.

hopefully NK does give iran their plans. that way if they try to attack someone its going to result in a fizzle.

for the people who are under estimating the huge power needed for a large EMP attack, ill try to give you an example. the Tsar bomba, made to be up to 100 megatons, set off at 50-60 megatons, had more explosive power then every single explosive and bomb used in WWII times 10. it take serious, serious stuff to make these things.