Reality Has Consequences

The world no longer makes sense to most people over forty years of age. Much of what we thought was true is now denied. What to us is obviously false (or at least always was) is now accepted as being true. Here are examples from Frick at Bias Breakdown that show obvious contradictions between popular belief and what we hold as reality:

If every Arab in the Middle East laid down his weapon, there would be peace in the Middle East. If every Israeli laid down his (or her) weapon, Israel would be annihilated.



Likewise, if government stopped all spending, the deficit problem would be solved. If government confiscated the gross annual income of every individual in the country making over $66,193, the deficit would destroy our country.



In a sane world, politicians would cut every last dollar of government spending they could in order to bring financial order back to an entitlement-happy society. After government’s debilitating spending habits were slashed or restructured, only then would the conversation shift to taxes and revenue to make up the gap.



Of course, this isn’t a sane world. It’s the world in which it’s Israel’s fault for every ill in Palestine and Republicans are evil and stupid for wanting to cut spending.

Fantasies like these might are satisfying to many, but they are ultimately destructive. Truth cannot be changed by repeating falsehoods. Nor can it be altered by more people believing untruths. But, when these fantasizers overwhelm society with their false beliefs, society will no longer function. Society cannot invent its own truth based on convenience, prejudice or popularity. Truth, not manufactured myth, is key to survival. Societies which deviate from it, don’t survive.

As Ayn Rand stated:

You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.

The avoidance of reality has overtaken our society. The consequences of doing so have been building for decades and will soon overwhelm us. On our current path, much of what we knew and cared about will be destroyed.

Obama admin: By the way, we’re going to need insurers to pay to use our exchanges

I thought ObamaCare was going to be so awesomely efficient and innovative, and know how to accomplish things so much better than the free market, that all of the associated health care costs were going to go down, insurance was going to get more affordable, and none of this was going to have any adverse effects on the middle class, or something? Via the NYT:

The Obama administration said Friday that it would charge insurance companies for the privilege of selling health insurance to millions of Americans in new online markets run by the federal government.

The cost of these “user fees” can be passed on to consumers. The proposed fees could add 3.5 percent to premiums for private health plans sold in insurance exchanges operated by the federal government.

In proposing the new rule, Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, said that fees charged by the federal government would be “sufficient to cover the majority of costs related to the operation of federally facilitated exchanges.” She did not say how the remainder of the money would be raised. …

Fees charged for use of the federal exchange come on top of a separate annual fee to be imposed on health insurance companies to help offset the cost of expanding coverage under the new law. The annual fees, to be apportioned among insurers according to their shares of the nation’s health insurance market, are expected to total $6 billion in 2014 and more than $100 billion over 10 years.

Just getting these supposedly fabulous online insurance marketplaces set up is already turning into an unmitigated disaster — what on earth is going to happen when we finally get down to the business of actually insuring and caring for people? Rolling this thing out, the Obama administration is looking like a bunch of chickens running around with their heads cut off, and their unpreparedness in dealing with their own Frankenstein’s monster is showcasing all of the new costs and consequences coming with it.

The delusion that ObamaCare is going to do anything except turn our entire health care system into much more of an expensive, inefficient, bureaucratic nightmare than it already is, is quickly wearing thin — and we’ve barely even gotten started.

Allen West Exit Interview: "Lincoln Only Served One Term"

In a wide-ranging and sometimes contentious interview with Michel Martin of NPR, GOP Congressman Allen West discussed his time in Congress, his adverse relationship with the media, and his tough re-election defeat. He also dropped a surprising analogy at the end of the interview that may portend a future run for higher office.

Most of the interview is a must-read, but West's exposition of his difficult re-election campaign is of particular interest:

I'm saying when you sit up and call a 22-year veteran - look. My father served in World War II, my brother in Vietnam. My nephew currently serves. And you're going to call me a war criminal? I don't think that's a proper thing to bring up. And I don't think that that was part of, you know, what should've been the fair, open, and honest debate about issues and political discourse.

Well, there was also a credo SuperPAC that came down from San Francisco, and this is what some of the people that were out walking neighborhoods, these people were spreading rumors that I beat my wife.

West was also asked who the Congressmen he would miss most were - and provided some surprising answers.

Look, I have always said Peter Welch and Dennis Kucinich were great guys. You know, Dennis Kucinich and I came together on the whole Libya thing. Corrine Scott Brown - when we wanted to have the congressional medal recognition for the Montford Point Marines, the first African-American Marines, I mean, we worked together on that and we brought it to closure and the commandant was very happy about what we were able to do to get all those signatures.

And then, finally, he was asked about what comes next for Allen West.

Look, you know, God closes a door so that he can open up greater doors. I will continue to, you know, stand up and fight for this country. That's my goal. I have two daughters, 19 and 16, and I want to make sure that they grow up in a great America that provides them all the opportunities that it provided to their mother and father.

And always remember, Abraham Lincoln only served one term in Congress, too.

Obama Plan a Bridge to Socialism

As the “fiscal” cliff looms, there is another, perhaps more disastrous cliff of which congressional conservatives should be vary.

In Obama’s “plan” presented last week by tax cheat Timmy Geithner, are some just crazy ideas.

Obama, who ran on raising taxes by $800 billion dollars is NOW demanding $1.6 TRILLION in tax hikes.

If soaking the so-called rich, those who make $250,000.00 or more, many of them small business owners, was going to cause higher unemployment and a stalled economy, what then will soaking them for twice that amount do?

Faced with that sort of government theft, small business owners will NOT expand, will NOT invest, will NOT hire and WILL lay off employees to offset their losses.

In many, MANY cases, small businesses will ALSO raise their prices to consumers thus causing their customers to cut back on THEIR spending.

Combine the two and unemployment rises while the GDP falls.

Basically, the Obama “plan” calls for massive tax hikes and then leaves the spending cuts…dangling.

Obama says, give me the tax hikes NOW and we’ll talk about spending cuts…later…maybe.

Also included in his “plan” is another $50 billion dollar STIMULUS.

Why? Are there more green energy companies that have yet to go bankrupt?

Obama is acting like he has a mandate from 99% of the people to hike taxes in the 1% but, that simply is NOT true. He was “reelected” by a smaller margin than in his 2008 original election and, nearly half the people voted to send him packing.

In fact, the whole “tax the rich” and blow off the spending cuts “plan” only has the support of 11% of the people according to recent polls.

Gallop places the number of people who want “major cuts” to government SPENDING at 92% although, in Obama’s plan, we’ll discuss spending cuts sometime down the road…maybe.

NOT included in Obama’s goofy “plan” are any measures to stabilize Medicare or Social Security.

NONE.

NADA.

Zip, zilch zero.

Oddly, according to Gallop polls, 88% of the people WANT Obama to do something to save Medicare and Social Security.

It seems to me that 88% IS a mandate…92% IS a mandate but…11% is NOT.

So, let’s recap…

Obama’s “plan” to avert going off the “fiscal” cliff is a massive tax soaking of the “rich” who own small businesses, more stimulus spending because all the stimulus spending he did before failed, NO spending cuts and NO reform of Medicare or Social Security.

But wait…

There’s MORE!!!

As I said at the beginning of this Weekend Edition, there is a cliff MORE disastrous than the “fiscal” cliff.

Pay close attention as this is DIRE!!!

Obama, in his “plan” calls for a PERMANENT measure that would give HIM the ability to RAISE THE DEBT CEILING WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF CONGRESS!!!

My friends…

THIS IS THE CONSTITUTIONAL CLIFF and Obama is still on the campaign trail yelling…

FORWARD!!!!!

The Constitution in clear on this…CRYSTAL clear.

ALL spending and revenue is to be controlled by the HOUSE. ALL tax bills must originate in the House. ALL appropriations…SPENDING…of the taxpayers money is to be done through CONGRESS.

What Obama wants is a blank, signed check. HE wants to raise the debt ceiling WHENEVER and by WHATEVER amount HE wants.

By Obama’s plan…CONGRESS WOULD BE UNNECESSARY.

Yes, I know that the approval ratings FOR congress are at all-time lows and they aren’t doing their jobs the way they should BUT…

THEY ARE THE ONLY ENTITY STANDING IN THE WAY OF DICTATORIAL RULE and Obama wants to have the DICTATORIAL POWER presented to him BY congress to IGNORE congress.

Obama knows full well that should HE grant HIMSELF such power, as Morsi just did in Egypt…the Washington DC version of Tahrir Square would break out and HE doesn’t want THAT so…instead…HE wants CONGRESS to grant to him the powers of a DICTATOR so there will be NO QUESTION that such powers ARE legal.

While Obama and his socialist lemmings are convinced that congressional conservatives will be held accountable should we all go over the “FISCAL” cliff I say…let’s take the plunge!!!

Obama has put forth HIS absurd “plan so, now the ball is in OUR court. Right?

Okay…

Paul Ryan should now put forth a REAL plan which closes loopholes to raise the amount of revenue upon which the Emperor campaigned AND include IN the conservative plan SPENDING cuts that will MORE than equal those added revenues, reform measures for Medicare AND Social Security…NO NEW STIMULUS spending one which WILL maintain the Bush era rates on EVERYBODY!!!

Cut the corporate tax rate, leave the small businesses OUT of the mix and ENCOURAGE business and economic GROWTH.

The conservative plan should also MAINTAIN CURRENT military levels NOT increase them OR decrease them!!!

And, in NO WAY grant this or ANY future president ANY power to raise the debt ceiling WITHOUT the consent of CONGRESS!!!!!

IF the Emperor, as he claims he will, VETOES such a plan or, IF it doesn’t get to the senate floor for a vote under Harry Reid’s history of SHELVING of such plans…

Whose fault will it be?

Conservatives need to show the balls to say, “This is a REALISTIC plan, a COMMON SENSE plan and a RESPONSIBLE plan. THIS plan PRESERVES the CONSTITUTION. THIS plan ENCOURAGES economic GROWTH rather than the GROWTH of GOVERNMENT.

THIS plan CUTS government spending. THIS plan RAISES revenue WITHOUT jacking up ANYONE’S tax rates and CLOSES loopholes which have allowed the 1% to pay LESS and thus, matches Obama’s “fair share” gnashing of teeth.

Above all else…Conservatives in congress MUST make it CLEAR that should this plan be IGNORED by Harry Reid or VETOED by Obama…

IT’S ON THEM…NOT US!!!

IF WE GO OVER THE “FISCAL” CLIFF…PLUNGE INTO ANOTHER DEEP RECESSION, LOSE MORE OF OUR CREDIT RATING…

IT’S BECAUSE OBAMA AND HIS CRONIES REFUSED TO ACCEPT A PLAN THAT DID NOT GIVE HIM DICTATORIAL POWERS AND A BLANK CHECK!!!

Conservatives then should spend the next 4 years drilling it into the heads of ALL Americans that THEIR plan would NOT have raised ANYBODY’S tax rates and the ONLY reason EVERYBODY’S tax rates went UP is because OBAMA refused it.

If we go into another deep recession it will be because OBAMA refused the plan that would have averted it.

If we lose MORE of our credit rating it will be because OBAMA refused the plan that would have averted it.

The bottom line on this whole “fiscal” cliff is this:

Obama’s plan to avert going OVER the “fiscal” cliff is building a bridge to SOCIALISM using the taxpayers money and hiring UNION workers for the bridge construction.

Going OVER the “fiscal” cliff will only HASTEN the PROOF of the Iron Lady’s statement:

“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money. ”

When Medicare crashes and Social Security burns, when unemployment rises and economic growth goes into free fall, when entitlements, like union pensions, are no longer sustainable and the government, like the baker’s union goes bankrupt and is forced to close their doors…

Then, maybe THEN, people will wake up.

If going over the “fiscal” cliff prevents us from jumping off the Constitutional cliff, it’s a hardship but worth it in my opinion and if it all leads to a shut-down of government…so what?

A government doing nothing is far better than a government doing the wrong thing.

Craig Andresen

The National Patriot

Weekend Edition 12/2/12

The Working Class and the Government Class

Forget all the talk about whether we will or won’t go over the fiscal cliff. We ourselves are the fiscal cliff and have been for some time now. The real fiscal cliff is not the point at which we run out of money, our credit rating sinks lower than Enron and everyone is fighting over jars of cat food at Wal-Mart. The real fiscal cliff is when even the dumbest person in the country is no longer able to deny what the packs of robbers and thieves he appointed to steal for him have perpetrated for their own benefit in his name. And that fiscal cliff may never come.

Soviet leaders used to promise their people that one day they would live under true Communism. Under our hybrid system, many Americans already live under Communism. And the rest of the country pays for it. As the number of people living under Communism grows and the number of people subsidizing Communism shrinks, the fiscal cliffs begin coming in faster than Wile E. Coyote on jet-powered rocket skates.

Our class warfare is not determined by paycheck size. The United States has only two classes. The working class and the government class.

The working class extends through the lower class, the middle class and the upper class, and everyone of every income level who derives their income from gainful employment. The government class similarly extends from the poor to the middle class to the rich, and consists of those whose chief source of income is the government; whether that means welfare checks, government jobs or crony capitalism.

Not everyone in the working class is a saint and not everyone in the government class is a parasite. There are plenty of corporations who care only about short term profit and create social problems that the rest of the country has to live with. Immigration is a classic example. And there are also plenty of government employees who perform vital and even heroic functions. Your local firefighter and member of the armed services are obvious examples.

But the government class is dependent on the working class, deriving its income from their income. The government class turns from the symbiotic to the parasitic to the extent that its demands on the working class become unsustainable and exploitative, that its functions grow bloated, its spending programs reek of corruption and its government contracts emerge out of backdoor deals with friendly politicians.

The government class can never be productive, because it is not a creative force, it only provides secondary non-innovative services to the working class, but it is legitimate to the extent that it performs vital functions on behalf of the working class with their consent and in an economically sustainable fashion. When it violates these principles, then it becomes a parasite sucking the life out of the working class.

It is not just the government employee who is a member of the government class. The welfare class is a subgroup of the government class. And the welfare class is not only parasitic; it is the axis around which an entire parasitic constellation of the government class revolves around.

The classic welfare family has become the income generating center of the government class. They are the “wealth creators” for an entire infrastructure of social services built around them from the government officials who process their aid forms to the social workers who provide them with benefit counseling to the employees of those clinics who provide them with health care, and the extra teachers hired to help raise standards at their perpetually failing schools, the drug counselors who help them get clean and the police officers who break up their fights.

The seven members of the classic welfare family, Grandma, Ma and her five kids, are the axis around which thousands of government professionals revolve. Their dysfunctional state keeps an entire state of government employees, employed. And it is in the interest of those government employees to seek out and create such dysfunctional families by championing social policies that break up families and keep them down, under the pretense of helping them because those families are the cash cows of the government class.

Around their dungheap, fly community groups and a horde of other private non-profits, “advocating” for them while operating on government grants. When they go to the supermarket, they buy food with money from the government. When they go to the pharmacy, they get free medication from the government. The web of clinics, supermarkets and pharmacies are not part of the working class, they are subsidized by government money and prosper by feeding off that government class.

In a hybrid economy, the differences between the government class and the working class aren’t always as obvious. There are any number of businesses, large and small, that are members of the government class, and derive the bulk of their income from the government.

The fundamental difference between the government class business and the working class business is that the government class business is an instrument of government policy. While its owner may derive value from it, the government class business only exists because it fulfills an objective of government policy. And that makes the government class business indistinguishable from the policy it represents.

As the government class expands, the number of individuals and businesses in the government class grows because joining the government class, whether as a welfare recipient, government employee or crony capitalist company is a better strategy than staying in the working class. Planned economies are easier to profit from in the short term, whether it’s by getting free stuff, early retirement or contracts on generous terms, because their centralization makes them predictable and influence-able. The only problem is that they have no future.

American society has been reshaped to seek short cuts, whether it’s through lottery tickets, credit cards or corporate mergers, at the expense of long-term profits through hard work. Joining the government class is the ultimate shortcut. It wrecks families, trashes the economy and robs the country of its future, while providing limited short-term benefits to members of the government class.

Cities and towns are going bankrupt because government class unions asked for and got financially unsustainable benefit packages. Those small implosions are a metaphor for the tremendous harm that the government class is inflicting on the working class, and also, in the long term, on itself.

The major development of the last decade has been the government’s class disinterest in the economic sustainability of its demands. Call it the Californization of America.

Obama has emerged as the champion of the government class, his complete disregard for the fiscal consequences of his actions, allows him to act as the champion of a predatory government class that lies and bludgeons its way through all obstacles like a horde of Black Friday shoppers, grabbing everything in sight, without caring about what will happen tomorrow.

The parasite has gotten so big that it believes that it is the host and that the host is the parasite. Under the influence of its own propaganda, the government class has come to think of itself as productive and creative, and of the working class as a parasitic blot, holding on to the money that rightfully belongs to the government class. But just as parasites cannot survive without hosts, governments cannot survive without people to do the actual work.

A host and a parasite of equal size cannot both survive for long. Either both the host and the parasite will die. Or the parasite will die and the host will live.

$80 Trillion In Unfunded Liabilities The True Noose Around Our Necks

Economic collapse does not only effect the United States alone but also the world economy as a whole

We hear all about the $16 Trillion dollars in debt that our country is in, but the much larger problem and the one that our politicians and citizens do not want to talk about honestly is the $80 Trillion Dollars in Unfunded Liabilities at the federal level.

We all know about how the states and local governments are being swamped by these obligations, but we cannot even have an honest discussion about the true nature of the long term problems that we face because for one reason or another it always turns into a Left - vs -Right you are wrong and stupid argument. We have those in congress such as Dick Durbin and Chuck Schumer who will not even let this be discussed in all the negotiations that we currently hear about going on with the debt crisis that this government created.  It is easy to understand that they do not want to do so as it exposes the blatant mistakes that those in government have made over the years and this includes those from both sides. They are well aware of the true nature of the fact that if we do not address this head on and across the board that we are only just kicking the can down the road further. Eventually that can comes to rest and what you get is an economic collapse.

The hard thing to understand is that the economic collapse does not only effect the United States alone but also the world economy as a whole. There are different ways that people think that we can start climbing out of this from raising taxes to creating the mechanisms for inflation to increase. All of these things sadly are going to occur regardless under the current path that we seem to be going down. We hear so much about raising thetaxes on the upper percent, but what so many fail to understand is that we are obligated to around $7 Trillion dollars a year on average just to cover our obligations from pensions to Medicare and Social Security and that is just going up as the baby boomer generation hits full stride in retiring. Raising taxes is not the only way to get out of this problem long term, we have to reduce our obligation to these liabilities and reduce the coverage over all in the end. It will not happen today because no one in politics has the guts to do so because they are all too worried about getting reelected, but at some point economics catches up to politics and we are on the verge of crossing the Rubicon now and in the near future.

On raising taxes we have all heard that even if you increased the rates on the top 2% you will only be able to fund the running of our federal government for an estimated 19 days, so let’s be honest about this and understand that everyone really need so called skin in the game and that includes those in the middle and lower income levels. That is truly the political football right now that no one honestly wants to take on. Either way it is coming that taxes in one form or another are going to increase on theses income levels as well, so people it is time to stop playing the class warfare game, all that does is further divide people.  The government could raise taxes 100% on those making $66,000 and up and still not cover the unfunded obligations, that is something that we have to understand!

The petty games that we have allowed the politicians and pundits from both side have used to divide us has only allowed for the fact that we cannot have honest and constructive discussions about these very real and looming problems that are facing us. We have allowed them to pit us against one another so that we attack personal character over differences in political and financial leanings, but has it allowed one bit of honest debate or has it only allowed for us to become more spiteful?  I think it really is the later as I visit the political forums or talk to folks in the public. You can go back in history and see that this has been used in the past, but will we ever learn from those mistakes or will we only allow for it to control us in the end?

When you look at what our government is doing right now from devaluating the dollar with the printing press, to increasing spending in the hopes that it will lift us out of the financial mess that we are in it becomes clear that they do not have the real fortitude to address the real problems that we face and neither does the general public because as a whole we have put aside common sense to keep the gravy train rolling along to the personal pet issues that we all may have from one issue to the next.

The course that we are on right now has been tried many times throughout history and each time it has failed. You can look at how Weimar Germany attempted to print and inflate their way out of the morass it faced and how it led to totalitarianism, or you could look here at home how FDR tried to spend his way out of the problems he faced at the time. Both examples did not work, they only delayed the inevitable as in the case of FDR in his second term he faced a second recession instead of recovery just as we are facing today. They found out that spending did not help employment levels and left them further in debt as a result. Many of the things started under that administration and later under LBJ has led us to the real cliff of $80 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities.  Congressman Paul Ryan is on record if we do not address Medicare in an honest and constructive way in the next two years it will become unviable. The same can be said about Social Security. Governments own estimates already show that it becomes unviable before 2025, but will this government really address it and can the people really stomach the bitter pill that is coming?  

I do not think that we can because we are really the greedy not just those that the pundits, media, unions, and politicians want you to think are. Just like in our personal lives we would rather keep signing our names to credit card bills instead of having to reduce or do without. We have become conditioned that we can put off tomorrow for the need today and never think that it will not have lasting consequences.  That is catching up to us though and people just do not want to except it one bit! Those in their 40’s and younger already know that all those promises may not be there for us, if they do not they are only lying to themselves. Those who do not think that taxes will be going up on everyone are only lying to themselves, and those that have committed their faith in this government   to always be there and have the means to carry their water are only lying to themselves as well.  So we can keep being divided and let the petty games go on between us, after all that is what they want so that we can never really hold them to account and we can never be honest with one another. Or we can start demanding that yes we will have to take the haircut or better yet the shave of all the things that we want today so that we do not in the end collapse.

I have this feeling though that we are going to keep heading down the road of collapse regardless because no one wants to be honest or even realistic any longer. But remember one thing it is not just the $16 Trillion that we face it is really the $80 plus Trillion in unfunded liabilities that we face that are going to bring us to that collapse and until we start addressing that and taking that head on and doing the things that will effect each and every one of us regardless of how painful it may be we are only fooling ourselves and allowing ourselves to become further divided. In the end though folks it will affect all of us and we cannot escape that fact.

Pawns always pay the heaviest price. Today common sense as well as understanding of history and the lesson it has to teach allows for the ignorance in many to fully understand the bigger picture that is playing out around them. Allowing those who would rather keep us divided for their own personal gain, has only allowed us to become the pawns that lose the most in the larger game being played.

Ignorance is bliss for many, just as not wanting to own up to the reality that we cannot have all that we want each and every time we demand it. To continue down these paths of demand today at the expense of tomorrow lets the game players continue to use you as the pawns they want you to be. In the long term it is through ignorance and personal self greed along with not understanding to not do the hard things no matter how painful now in the end that leads to loss of each and every liberty that you have ever known and places you as the pawn that suffers the most in the end.

Alarm in Tehran and Moscow over Bushehr nuclear reactor’s near-explosion in mid-October

Iran’s nuclear reactor at Bushehr was shut down in mid-October for fear of an explosion. Saturday Dec. 1, an authoritative Russian nuclear industry source revealed the cause of its malfunction: “Indicators showed that some small external parts were… in the [Bushehr] reactor vessel….” They were identified as “bolts beneath the fuel cells.”

DEBKAfile’s Moscow sources report this information came from a source in the office of Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Russian nuclear energy authority Rosatom, which supervised the construction of Iran’s first atomic reactor at Bushehr.

According to our intelligence sources, Russian scientists and engineers were rushed from Moscow to Bushehr when Russian leaders including Vladimir Putin were warned that the danger of an explosion at Bushehr was high. Neither Moscow nor Tehran reported what was happening. Now they are racing against the clock to get the reactor back on stream.

Russian experts estimated that an explosion at the Bushehr reactor had the potential for causing a million Iranian deaths and hundreds of thousands of radiation victims in the Persian Gulf emirates, which supply the world with one-fifth of its fuel. The hazard was so great in October that Putin ordered command teams of the Russian emergency ministry trained to deal with nuclear disasters to set out for Bushehr in southern Iran and prepare the infrastructure for larger teams.

The engineers immediately shut down the reactor and removed its 163 fuel rods. The bolts which had turned up in the reactor vessel were examined to find out from which part of the plant they had come loose – from the fuel rods – which would have embarrassed Russia as their supplier - or some other part of the reactor.  The Russian source which revealed the mishap made a point of saying that the bolts were “small external parts,” indicating that they were not from the rods.
Our intelligence sources in Moscow report that two possible outside causes of the malfunction are under scrutiny by Moscow and Tehran:
1. The bolts were deliberately unscrewed and dropped into the reactor vessel as an act of sabotage;

2. The Stuxnet virus which attacked Iran’s nuclear program two years ago was back and had tampered with the reactor’s computers.

Five months ago, Iran suspended operations at the Fordo underground enrichment facility near Qom after the power lines supplying the plant were sabotaged on Aug. 17 and some of the centrifuges blew up. The Iranians resumed work at Fordo in the second half of September without discovering who was responsible for the incident. However, the suspicion of sabotage at Bushehr immediately crossed the minds of the Russian and Iranian investigators, although they have not ruled an accident or incompetence.
Bushehr supplies the Iran’s national electricity grid with one-fifth of its fuel and it was therefore important to get it running again without delay. Our sources report that Monday, Nov. 26, Iranian and Russian engineers reloaded the fuel rods – still without explaining why they had been removed.
Friday, Nov. 30, shortly before the disclosure from Moscow, Tehran for the first time in its twenty-year nuclear program showed concern about the impact of “nuclear accidents” at Iran’s nuclear sites on the wellbeing of the population and environment.
Gholamreza Massoumi, head of Iran’s accident and medical emergency center, announced: “We believe all of our emergency services should be trained and ready to face nuclear accidents.”
He referred to “accidents” at the Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facility where yellowcake is converted into highly toxic uranium hexafluoride and revealed: “People who have been in the region, for example – Isfahan’s UCF – have had some accidents for which they have been treated.”

He admitted that some employees at Isfahan had suffered from “health issues” and warned of “problems that civilians living close to nuclear sites could face.”
Massourni’s comments were removed from the semi-official Mehr news agency’s website a few hours after they were published.
Officials in Tehran, already jumpy over the near-catastrophe in Bushehr, must have realized that the comments about the urgent need to prepare emergency services for nuclear accidents, if tied in with the “health problems” at Isfahan and the near-disaster at Bushehr, were a recipe for a nightmare scenario of mass panic in the population and an outcry in the Gulf region against the hazards of Iran’s nuclear program – even before it produces a weapon.