Featured Articles
My view: Trump’s fear-mongering threatens Republican Party
Trump gets away with what he says precisely because he is not sincere. It isn’t accidental. We are being played. And what he is selling is fear, not security.
My view: Hatch reclaims moral high ground on Iran deal
Those who think that the nuclear agreement with Iran’s supreme leader will blunt Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s equating religion with fanaticism and terrorism must have missed the Ayatollah’s latest tweet. Tweeting from Tehran this week, the Ayatollah once again called for the destruction of Israel, declaring that “God willing, there will be no such thing […]
The Next Chernobyl?
The showdown over Iran’s nuclear program is likely to accelerate in 2013 as sanctions tighten, Israel threatens military strikes, and the centrifuges keep spinning. While most attention will be focused on the two most oft-discussed sites of uranium enrichment — Natanz and Fordow — a third site on the gulf could prove to be this year’s most dangerous nuclear wild card.
The Myth of “Surgical Strikes” on Iran
For all the years that the world has focused on the confrontation between Western nations and Iran, oceans of ink have been spilled over many aspects of its nuclear program — the quantity and quality of its enriched uranium, various UN Security Council resolutions, the number of Iranian centrifuges, IAEA safeguards, compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty, diplomatic negotiations, red lines, U.S. and Israeli attack scenarios, possible Iranian responses, the impact of a nuclear Iran, and so on.
Khosrow B. Semnani’s Interview on KCPW
Between President Obama’s stern warnings toward Iran and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bomb diagram at the United Nations, there’s plenty of talk of attacking Iran’s nuclear sites. But Khosrow Semnani, an Iranian-American scientist and philanthropist who lives in Utah, warns a military strike against Iran would kill thousands and expose many thousands more to toxic fallout. On Monday, Semnani joins us to talk about human cost of a military option in Iran.
Military Strike on Iranian Nuclear Facilities Could Cause Civilian Casualties, Report Says
“This paper is not a political paper, this paper is not a scientific endeavor, it is … really a humanitarian attempt for us to highlight and point out the degree of devastation that Iranians will suffer if there is an attack,” Semnani said.
Attacking Iran Is Like Setting Off Nuclear Bombs on the Ground
As you can tell by the title, this 61-page paper, The Ayatollah’s Nuclear Gamble, is not Tehran-friendly. The report, released in September, is the product of Khosrow B. Semnani, an Iranian-American industrialist and philanthropist with, according to his bio, “extensive experience in the industrial management of nuclear waste and chemicals.” I’m in the midst of reading it in its entirety.
Consider The Human Costs Of Using The “Military Option” On Iran’s Nuclear Facilities
With the study Semnani endeavors to scientifically prove something which seems obvious: attacking nuclear facilities in Iran could have devastating effects on possibly hundreds of thousands of Iranians who would be exposed to highly toxic chemical plumes and even radioactive fallout. Case studies were conducted on the Iranian cities of Isfahan, Natanz, Arak, and Bushehr. In Isfahan, a military strike on the nuclear facility there could be compared to the 1984 Bhopal industrial accident at the Union Carbide plant in India.
Radioactive fallout is likely if Iran hit, study says
One day after the 11th anniversary of the start of the war in Afghanistan, let’s turn our attention to that nation’s neighbor to the west — Iran.
Iran is kind of hard to ignore, really, especially here in Tampa, where a good number of people in the headquarters of U.S. Central Command are busy looking at the threats from and to that nation.
New Scientific Study Predicts 85,000 Casualties, “Devastating Consequences” for Iran Attack
The University of Utah’s Hinckley School of Politics and Omid for Iran conducted an extensive year-long study of the impacts of a western military attack on Iran. Led by Iranian-American environmental engineer Khosrow Semnani, a panel of nuclear engineers, scientists and senior U.S. military officers found:
Pre-emptive military strikes…whether using nuclear or conventional means, would result in devastating human, political, and environmental consequences upon both Iran and the region.
Jay Evensen: Strategic strike on Iran would kill thousands
When protests broke out in Iran this week over the devaluation of the nation’s currency, Khosrow Semnani saw the possible start of a solution.
Change Iran from within and you have a better chance of ending its nuclear weapons program than you ever would from a military strike, he said.
That is, of course, easier said than done. Groups within Iran have tried this before, but the Arab Spring seems always to wither under the foot of the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
How Many Civilians Would Be Killed in an Attack on Iran’s Nuclear Sites?
No one in Iran is — and few in the West are — talking about the potential death toll, but it could rival the catastrophes of Bhopal and Chernobyl BEHROUZ MEHRI / AFP / Getty Images Iranian twin sisters sit in front of worshippers performing ‘Id al-Fitr prayers to mark the end of the […]
What 371 metric tons of uranium hexafluoride could mean to Iranians
Lost in the debate on Iran is the human cost of a strike against the country’s nuclear sites, according to a new report published by an Iranian-American with a background in industrial nuclear waste and chemicals. Khosrow Semnani argues in “The Ayatollah’s Nuclear Gamble,” that striking Iran’s nuclear facilities, where the IAEA has verified an inventory of 371 metric tons of uranium hexafluoride, could have devastating effects on tens of thousands, and possibly hundreds of thousands of Iranians, who would be exposed to highly toxic chemical plumes and even radioactive fallout.
Military strike to have ‘devastating’ impact on democracy in Iran: report
The catastrophic aftershocks of such a strike will not be limited to the borders of Iran, the paper maintains. “An attack on the Bushehr nuclear power plant would pose a grave environmental and economic threat to civilians in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.”
It also dismisses claims that destroying the Iranian nuclear sites could be as simple and effective as the strike on the Iraqi nuclear site at Osirak in 1981.
Hinckley Institute Special Report
The University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics announces the release of a new policy paper written by Khosrow B. Semnani, The Ayatollah’s Nuclear Gamble: The Human Cost of Military Strikes Against Iran’s Nuclear Facilities, which argues that the humanitarian rights of innocent civilians should forestall any military strike against Iran by Israel and/or the the U.S.
Radio Farda’s Interview with Khosrow Semnani
In an interview with Radio Radia, Khosrow Semnani talks about his book, the Ayatollah’s Nuclear Gamble.
According to Semnani, “while much talk has been devoted to the likelihood and efficacy of such strikes, absent from the greater conversation has been the very real massive human casualties and chemical / nuclear fallout that will inevitably follow.”
Omid for Iran announces the publication of the Ayatollah’s Nuclear Gamble
As Western negotiators struggle to find a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear challenge, the threat of Israeli military strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities cannot be discounted. While much talk has been devoted to the likelihood and efficacy of such strikes, absent from the greater conversation has been the very real massive human casualties, and chemical and nuclear fallout that will inevitably follow.
Une attaque israélienne sur l’Iran ferait des milliers de victimes
Dans The Ayatollah Nuclear Gamble (“Le pari nucléaire des ayatollahs”) publié par l’institut de politique Hinckley de l’université d’Utah (États-Unis), l’industriel et philanthrope Khosrow Semnani chiffre à plus de 80 000 le nombre d’Iraniens qui pourraient être les victimes directes (décès) et indirectes (blessures et contamination) d’un bombardement aérien israélien.
Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Israeli threats, nuclear program and Syria
Iran may be on the firing line, but President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was as calmly combative as ever Sunday, dismissing Israel’s military threats and predicting that nothing will happen in the nuclear talks until after the U.S. presidential elections.