WP: Iranian scientist involved in nuclear program killed in Tehran bomb attack

[Hubbs]

To whomever pulled this off, continued good hunting

Like I said earlier hoping for continued good hunting

So, let me get this straight. Terrorists are people who use things like car bombs to kill civilians as part of a campaign to achieve their goals, right?

[ardowling]

In my mind we have been at war with Iran since 1979, I see no terrorism here, you can think what you like, if I would have had my way we would have destroyed the whole regime back then. (edit) I would also add I believe the goal here is to prevent a certain madman from having the ability to kill millions.

[Unforgiven]

I'm a bit torn on this. On one hand I really don't want to see Iran with a nuclear weapon and anything that halts or slows that down is good. On the other hand I don't like discouraging Iranians away from science, a country like that needs more educated and scientifically literal people and less religious zealots (well most countries do, but really places like that do the most).

[ardowling]

The people of Iran are educated, its their government that is backasswards and until that changes the government and anyone who works for them will and should be a legitimate target.

[visionary]

The people of Iran are educated, its their government that is backasswards and until that changes the government and anyone who works for them will and should be a legitimate target.

I feel bad for anyone in the Iranian postal service then....

[ardowling]

You know what I mean, quit being obtuse...very weak

[Destino]

So, let me get this straight. Terrorists are people who use things like car bombs to kill civilians as part of a campaign to achieve their goals, right?

This looks more like assassination than terrorism.

[Bang]

It is assassination.. akin to tracking down and trying o kill V2 rocket scientists.

This guy is a nuclear scientist working for a government who has made pretty specific threats as to what they intend to do with the weapon thateveryone is finally pretty sure they're making. (How on earth it's been a question to begin with is a mjystery I'll never figure out. A lot of people seem to have been content to wait for the mushroom cloud before acknowledging that they may actually have evil intent, especially given the fact that they've spelled that intent out rather plainly.)

If that is a high risk career field, then the fault lies with his government for making the threats of what they intend to do with his knowledge.

~Bang

[twa]

This looks more like assassination than terrorism.

Eh, I'd go more along the terror line IF the intent to influence goes beyond the target

this is more of a question of is/was he a legitimate target to me ,the variables are sorta like in sanctions where you try to achieve a aim w/o starving the populace at large

[ardowling]

Yes Sir!!!!

[visionary]

You know what I mean, quit being obtuse...very weak

Sorry, I made the mistake of going off of what you actually said.

(although I was slightly joking)

So when you said, "anyone who works for them" [them being the Iranian government], what did you really mean?

[ardowling]

Again, very weak, got anything better? I tell you what why don't you man up and post an opinion.

[visionary]

Again, very weak, got anything better? I tell you what why don't you man up and post an opinion.

LOL. About what? I've already made it clear that I don't approve of assassinating (or blowing up, or murdering, or whatever term we choose to use,) scientists in the middle of Tehran rush hour traffic.

I don't like the deliberate targeting of scientists like this and I don't think it will make much difference.

If Iran wants nukes, they will get them one way or another, unless Israel or whoever kills a lot more of their scientists and their assistants and destroys all their data.

So what about you? Where does the assasination line end? If killing scientists and anyone in the car with them or near them is ok, at what point is it going too far?

What amount of involvement in the Iranian government is ok?

[ardowling]

Thats an easy question to answer, if you are in anyway shape or form involved in the Iranian Nuclear program you are fair game, and yes if we try hard enough we can prevent them acquiring nuclear weapons, will people die? Yup...will more people die if we don't oh hell yea and you're a damn fool if you believe otherwise. Now you keep on believing their BS but don't come crying when there is a smoking hole caused by these nutcases somewhere in the world hopefully not here.

[JohnLockesGhost]

Thats an easy question to answer, if you are in anyway shape or form involved in the Iranian Nuclear program you are fair game, and yes if we try hard enough we can prevent them acquiring nuclear weapons, will people die? Yup...will more people die if we don't oh hell yea and you're a damn fool if you believe otherwise. Now you keep on believing their BS but don't come crying when there is a smoking hole caused by these nutcases somewhere in the world hopefully not here.

Are American scientists fair game for the Iranians? What if they're not as good in their assassinations and it kills the scientist's family? Or a nearby crowd? Fair game?

[ardowling]

Yup, but I have a feeling they will die trying and I don't believe they will get that far. It already happens its not like Iran has not killed American civilians.

[twa]

Are American scientists fair game for the Iranians? What if they're not as good in their assassinations and it kills the scientist's family? Or a nearby crowd? Fair game?

What's their goal in doing so?

Greater good ....worthy goal?

The reasons the Iranians have killed Americans is rather weaker than the justification for killing someone developing nukes for them imo....but I'm biased

[SkinsHokieFan]

When was the last time Iran attacked another nation? Sparta in 300 BC?

Couldn't someone in Iran state the US started this war with Iran back with the disaster of 1953?

[twa]

Couldn't someone in Iran state the US started this war with Iran back with the disaster of 1953?

Certainly, we can all take offense and action over injustices or perceived danger.

Want to rephrase your first question to the last time the Iranian govt killed someone?....that was like saying the US hasn't fought a war since WWII

[SkinsHokieFan]

Certainly, we can all take offense and action over injustices or perceived danger.

Want to rephrase your first question to the last time the Iranian govt killed someone?....that was like saying the US hasn't fought a war since WWII

I dunno, maybe Iran shot down a US commercial airliner

Maybe agents of the Iranian gov't came to the US and manufactured a coup to replace our democracy with a secular playboy who oppressed evangelicals in the south with the help of the Iranian intel agency

Perhaps Iran gave logistics, intelligence and WMD material to Mexico during our 8 year war

Certainly we need to be very suspicious of Iran and its intentions

[ardowling]

When was the last time Iran attacked another nation? Sparta in 300 BC?

Couldn't someone in Iran state the US started this war with Iran back with the disaster of 1953?

Do you want a list ??? Really... starting with the embassy take over in 79, Beirut, Israel, Iraq. Should I continue. I can't believe someone as intelligent(I think) as you could post crap as this.

---------- Post added January-14th-2012 at 11:40 PM ----------

So ****ing what, if Iran would not have been playing BS games with the U.S. maybe that bird would have have not gone down, are you really surprised of the U.S. support for Iraq after the BS Iran pulled in 79.

[SkinsHokieFan]

Do you want a list ??? Really... starting with the embassy take over in 79, Beirut, Israel, Iraq. Should I continue. I can't believe someone as intelligent(I think) as you could post crap as this.

I would suspect we'd win the body count with Iran---easily

The fact our CIA actually aided the Shah's SAVAK is a major stain and significant error in judgement on our part.

We wonder why Iran today is distrustful of US intentions? Just look at the 20th century

---------- Post added January-15th-2012 at 12:44 AM ----------

[/color]So ****ing what, if Iran would not have been playing BS games with the U.S. maybe that bird would have have not gone down, are you really surprised of the U.S. support for Iraq after the BS Iran pulled in 79.

Are we really surprised at the "BS" Iran pulled in 1979 considering what we did in 1953?

100 years from now, historians will be confused about our Iran policy and why we were so paranoid.

That regime will fall on its own weight, its days are numbered and the people of Iran will have their say with the clerics

[twa]

Cuba is gonna reform any day now too

[Hubbs]

In my mind we have been at war with Iran since 1979, I see no terrorism here, you can think what you like, if I would have had my way we would have destroyed the whole regime back then. (edit) I would also add I believe the goal here is to prevent a certain madman from having the ability to kill millions.

Oh, we've been at war with Iran for a long time all right. But you've got the date wrong. We've been at war since 1953, when we did exactly what you wish we would have done in 1979—we helped to overthrow the government the Iranian people wanted. They hadn't forgotten about that in 1979, and they still haven't forgotten about it today. It's not. Our. Business. And every time we violently interfere with things that aren't our business, every time we use bombs and guns to meddle in peoples' lives in ways they do not want and did not ask for, a certain percentage of them become very convinced that they have the justification to do the same to us, even if they have to wait for years and years. Which leads me to my second point, this time about Iran getting a nuke, which I will address below.

It is assassination.. akin to tracking down and trying o kill V2 rocket scientists.

This guy is a nuclear scientist working for a government who has made pretty specific threats as to what they intend to do with the weapon thateveryone is finally pretty sure they're making. (How on earth it's been a question to begin with is a mjystery I'll never figure out. A lot of people seem to have been content to wait for the mushroom cloud before acknowledging that they may actually have evil intent, especially given the fact that they've spelled that intent out rather plainly.)

If that is a high risk career field, then the fault lies with his government for making the threats of what they intend to do with his knowledge.

~Bang

Iran has had, and has right now, the ability to wipe nearly every man, woman, and child in Israel off the face of the Earth. It has the capability to produce quite a cornucopia of chemical weapons, and to do so in mass quantities within a relatively short amount of time. There are quite a few experts out there who believe these weapons have already been produced, but even if they have not, there is nothing to stop such production from happening. It has the missiles necessary to deliver these chemicals to Israel. Missiles that Israel's defenses would not be able to shoot down at anywhere close to the rate they can shoot down plain old short-range SCUDs. The chemicals in question would create a modern-day Holocaust. Iran has been able to make that day happen for years. And yet, inexplicably, Iran has not done so, even though its leaders claim to want nothing more.

The truth is that every single day that Israel continues to exist is a testament to the complete invalidity of the fears that Iran will immediately turn around and nuke Israel the moment a bomb is produced. The truth is that Iran's leaders want nuclear bombs because they have looked at two countries on Iran's borders, Pakistan and Iraq, and asked themselves why the country that we know has elements of al Qaeda within its borders, the country in which Osama bin Laden himself was hiding, is an ally of the United States that receives billions of dollars for free every year, while we invaded and occupied the other country. The truth is that those leaders very much feel that they are surrounded in the same way that Iran/Persia has been surrounded before in history by its enemies. The truth is that we have multiple clandestine operations going on in areas of Iran with ethnic minorities with the intent of pushing them to cause chaos inside of Iran. The truth is that the primary function of anti-Israeli and anti-American rhetoric is to distract the masses from living conditions which are not as good as those in the countries they are told to hate, from the oppression that they suffer every day, and from the corruption in their government. The truth is that American politicians openly talking about killing Iranian nuclear scientists while Iranian nuclear scientists keep mysteriously dying is infinitely more dangerous, and has infinitely more potential to lead to American deaths in the future, than those scientists were. The truth is that all nuclear weapons have a particular "signature" in the radiation they leave behind when they go off, so there is no way that we would not know rather quickly where a bomb smuggled into Israel and detonated came from. The truth is that bin Laden, Ahmadinejad, the ayatollahs, and other leaders tend to find talk of martyrdom to be a powerful tool so long as they do not have to be the martyrs. The truth is that there is a reason that the former head of the CIA's bin Laden unit endorsed Ron Paul, and the reason has a lot to do with Iran, so much so that he said this:

"Washington, Tel Aviv, and London are already conducting a lethal, covert-action war inside Iran which is killing Iranian nuclear scientists and destroying nuclear-related facilities, as well as trying to goad Tehran into reacting with violence and thereby give the West a casus belli. Such a war would be a financial and military disaster for the United States, and would be watched with glee by Russian and Chinese leaders who — while their countries would lose some trade with Iran during a war — would applaud another U.S. self-inflicted wound that further erodes the already failing economy that is the base of American power."

The truth is that we are not making ourselves safer with these actions. We are putting ourselves in danger. And we're wasting billions of dollars and losing lives to do it.

[ardowling]

Paranoid, guess you don't listen to Imadinnerjacket. We can maintain until they light the world on fire, whoops too late . Sorry kill everyone involved.