Notable Quotes
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran:
Please pay attention and understand that the people of Iran are brave enough that if it wants to build a bomb it will clearly announce it and build it and not be afraid of you. [...] When we say we won’t build it that means we won’t.
”Rick’ commenting on North Korea’s missile launch on the ArmsControlWonk blog (Rick was later quoted by the NY Times):
Pacific plankton will forever live in fear of the mighty reach of Kim Jong Il, now that millions have perished in one mighty splash.
H.G. Wells about military nuclear technology in his book “The Last War: A World Set Free”, which was first published in 1914 (!):
Humanity has been compared by one contemporary writer to a sleeper who handles matches in his sleep and wakes to find himself in flames.
US President Barack Obama in his video message on the occasion of Nowruz (March 19, 2009):
In particular, I would like to speak directly to the people and leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Shahram Chubin, Senior Non-resident Fellow of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in his Survival article “Iran’s Power in Context”:
Now it is time to see Iran for what it is: a political threat and regional nuisance with many weak points, which can be played on. Neither a colossus nor a failed state, its primary focus is regime survival. It is now the job of the Western foreign-policy community to communicate firmly but quietly that regime survival and regional destabilisation may be incompatible.
Jimmy Carter on the possibility of finding a solution to the North Korean crisis in an interview with the Associated Press (January 27, 2009)
It could be worked out, in my opinion, in half a day.
Dick Cheney, US Vice President, in an interview with FOX News (December 19, 2008)
The President of the United States now for 50 years is followed at all times, 24 hours a day, by a military aide carrying a football that contains the nuclear codes that he would use and be authorized to use in the event of a nuclear attack on the United States. He could launch the kind of devastating attack the world has never seen. He doesn’t have to check with anybody, he doesn’t have to call the Congress, he doesn’t have to check with the courts. He has that authority because of the nature of the world we live in. It’s unfortunate, but I think we’re perfectly appropriate to take the steps we have.
Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State, in remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations (December 17, 2008)
Nobody was trusting of the North Koreans. I mean, who trusts the North Koreans? You’d have to be an idiot to trust the North Koreans. That’s why we have a verification protocol that we are negotiating.
Lt.Gen. Henry A. Obering, Director of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), quoted by CNN (November 12, 2008)
Our testing has shown not only can we hit a bullet with a bullet, we can hit a spot on the bullet with a bullet. The technology has caught up.
Mehdi Kalhor, Media Advisor to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, quoted by The Washington Post (November 13, 2008)
Lt.Gen. Henry A. Obering, Director of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), quoted by NTI GSN (November 3, 2008)
Most of the intelligence community believes that the Iranians are going to have a capability to threaten certainly all of Europe. … In fact, that’s something they believe could happen shortly, within the year. And they can threaten the United States in the next five to six years. … So there is an urgency to getting this schedule on.
