It's beyond dispute Iran is developing nuclear weapons and lying about it, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told CBC News chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge on Monday.
In an exclusive interview, Harper says the evidence, some from the International Atomic Energy Agency, is overwhelming that Iran has a nuclear weapons program.
“I think there is absolutely no doubt they are lying. Absolutely no doubt,” Harper said of Iran's claims its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
An IAEA report last fall said some of Iran's clandestine activities could be for no other reason than a nuclear weapons program.
"And that, I think, is just beyond dispute at this point," Harper said. "I think the only dispute is how far advanced it is."
Last November, following the IAEA report, Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. imposed new sanctions on Iran's banking and oil and gas industries.
Harper says it's scary to hear what the Iranian regime says.
"I’ve watched and listened to what the leadership in the Iranian regime says, and it frightens me.
"In my judgment, these are people who have a particular, you know, a fanatically religious worldview, and their statements imply to me no hesitation about using nuclear weapons if they see them achieving their religious or political purposes. And … I think that’s what makes this regime in Iran particularly dangerous."
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has referred to Iran several times as the world's greatest threat to peace and security.
Harper says there's a "growing consensus" among world leaders, at least privately, that Iran's regime is dangerous, but there's no agreement on how to handle it. He pointed to a comment by U.S. President Barack Obama that all options are on the table and said he and Obama have talked about "the full range of questions around these issues."
"While there’s, I think, a growing belief of a number of governments that my assessment is essentially correct, I think there’s still big uncertainty about what exactly to do.
"Trade sanctions are something that just about everybody agrees on at some level, and everybody is doing at some level, but beyond that, these are not easy questions for the world."
These sanctions may backfire in the long run, as Iran will have to go to other powers to get what they want and therefore may have to cause a lot more trouble than its worth.
SebastianLeeDanzig wrote:He watched me bang her, trying to cock-block by howling and being a bitch in every dog-possible way. As soon as we switched to "doggy-style" he shut up immediately
"Members of the 9/11 Commission staff testified that Iran aided the hijackers by concealing their travel through Iran to access al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. Iranian border inspectors refrained from stamping the passports of 8 to 10 of the 9/11 hijackers because evidence of travel through Iran would have prevented the hijackers from obtaining visas at U.S. embassies abroad or gaining entry into the United States".
"Expert and U.S. government evidence also confirmed that Iran facilitated the escape of al Qaeda leaders and members from the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan into Iran and provided safe haven inside Iran after 9/11".
"Abolghasem Mesbahi testified he was part of an IRGC-MOIS task force that designed contingency plans for unconventional warfare against the U.S., code-named " Shaitan dar Atash " ("Satan in Flames") which included crashing hijacked passenger airliners into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the White House. During the weeks before 9/11, Mesbahi received three coded messages from a source inside Iran's government indicating that the Shaitan dar Atash plan had been activated".
"Mesbahi also testified that in 2000 Iran used front companies to obtain a Boeing 757-767-777 flight simulator for training the terrorists. Due to U.S. trade sanctions, Iran has never had any Boeing 757-767-777 aircraft, but all the airplanes hijacked on 9/11 were Boeing 757 or 767 aircraft".
"A May 14, 2001 memorandum from inside the Iranian government demonstrating that Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, was aware of the impending attacks and instructing intelligence operatives to restrict communications to existing contacts with al Qaeda's Ayman al Zawahiri and Hizballah's Imad Mughniyah".
"Documents obtained from German federal prosecutors showing that 9/11 coordinator Ramzi Binalshihb traveled to Iran in January 2001 on his way to Afghanistan to brief Osama bin Laden on the plot's progress".
"Evidence from the 9/11 Commission Report that a "senior Hezbollah operative," which the Havlish evidence identifies as Hezbollah terrorist chief Imad Mughniyah, coordinated activities in Saudi Arabia and was present (or his associate) on flights the hijackers took to and from Beirut and Iran. 9/11 Commission Report at pp. 240-41. Mughniyah, a longtime agent of Iran, orchestrated a string of terror operations against the U.S. and Israel during the 1980s and 1990s. He was assassinated in Syria in February of 2008".
SebastianLeeDanzig wrote:He watched me bang her, trying to cock-block by howling and being a bitch in every dog-possible way. As soon as we switched to "doggy-style" he shut up immediately
joey64 wrote:then let Canada invade Iran, go ahead
"That's it, we've had it with you Mullahs building nukes, eh. We're taking over your country now, eh. Now you hosers got a real fight on your hands, eh. Tremble before the might of the Canadian military, eh."
MurrayFiend wrote:Plenty of Canadians died in Bush's war in Afghanistan. Way to respect the coalition, dickwad.
Awww. I was only joking, eh.
"Bush's Afghanistan war"?
Yeah, yeah. Nothing at all to do with the Taliban aiding/abetting Al-Qaeda in destroying two huge skyscrapers full of people, within two hours. Just George Bush's choice solely because he was bored.
