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Bevo

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  1. CNN  — 

    Israel has carried out a military strike inside Iran, a US official told CNN Friday, a potentially dangerous escalation in a fast widening Middle East conflict that Iranian government officials have so far sought to play down.

    The United States was given advance notification Thursday of an intended Israeli strike in the coming days, but did not endorse the response, a second senior US official said. Secretary of State Antony Blinken later confirmed the US “has not been involved in any offensive operations,” but was focusing on Israel’s defense and de-escalation.

    Iran’s air defense systems were activated in the cities of Isfahan and Tabriz after three explosions were heard close to a major military airbase near Isfahan, state media reported early Friday morning.

    Maj. Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi, the commander-in-chief of Iran’s army, said the explosions in the sky above Isfahan were related to anti-aircraft systems shooting at what he called a suspicious object, which did not cause any damage, Iranian state news IRNA reported. Other Iranian officials said air defenses intercepted three drones and there were no reports of a missile attack.

    Iran has not identified the source of the strike.

    Multiple state-aligned news agencies reported that sites associated with Iran’s nuclear program were secure and the attack appeared to be limited in scope.

    Iranian media appeared to further minimize the scale of the attack on Friday, broadcasting calm scenes from Isfahan showing residents walking through parks and visiting landmarks. Traffic was reported as normal and the airport was also reported to have reopened after flights were briefly canceled or suspended early Friday.

    Reports of Friday’s strike came hours after Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told CNN that if Israel takes any further military action against Iran, its response would be “immediate and at a maximum level.”

    “If the Israeli regime commits the grave error once again our response will be decisive, definitive and regretful for them,” he added, noting that this warning had been communicated to the White House via the Swiss Embassy in Tehran.

    Tensions across the Middle East remain on a knife edge, following Iran’s unprecedented direct strike against Israel late Saturday. The attack, during which Iran launched more than 300 drones and cruise missiles toward Israel, came in response to a suspected Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic complex in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on 1 April, which killed a top commander, and several others.

    Separately, “material losses” were reported in southern Syria after an Israeli strike, targeted “our air defense sites in the southern region,” Syrian state media SANA reported Friday citing a military source. The Israeli military said that it does not comment on reports in foreign media.

    The Israeli military said it was unable to provide a comment on Friday, when asked by CNN about reports of explosions in Iran.

    At the end of a three-day meeting in Capri, Italy, the Group of Seven (G7) nations urged all parties in the region to “prevent further escalation.” Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi also warned the strikes risk “dragging the region into further conflict,” adding that the “Israeli-Iranian retaliations must end.”

    Iran warned of ‘maximum’ response hours earlier

    Israel’s action in Iran is the latest escalatory move in a region that has been rocked by Israel’s devastating war in Gaza following Hamas’ brutal October 7 attack. That attack killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw more than 200 others taken hostage.

    Israel’s bombardment and siege of Gaza has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian officials, caused widespread destruction of the enclave and sparked a humanitarian crisis where more than 1 million people face ‘catastrophic’ levels of hunger.

    Prior to Friday’s Israeli strike, the US expectation was the country would not target Iran’s civilian or nuclear facilities, the senior US official told CNN.

    CNN has previously reported that Israel told the US its response to the weekend attacks would be limited in scope. US intelligence had suggested Israel was weighing a narrow and limited strike inside Iran because they feel like they have to respond with a kinetic action of some kind given the unprecedented scale of the Iranian attack

    The range of targets was “never specified in precise terms but nuclear and civilian locations were clearly not in that category,” the senior official added.

    Calls for restraint

    Israel’s Western allies have both rallied to its defense in the wake of Iran’s attack Saturday, while also urging restraint.

    US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he should consider Iran’s strikes a win, since they had been largely unsuccessful and demonstrated Israel’s ability to defend itself.

    Biden had already made clear to Netanyahu that the US would not participate in any offensive operations against Iran in response, a senior administration previously told CNN.

    Benny Gantz, a key member of Israel’s war cabinet, had pushed for a swift response to the attack, two Israeli officials told CNN, arguing that the longer Israeli delayed its response, the harder it would be to garner international support for it.

    Some hardline officials have gone further. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said Israel should “go crazy” in response. Ben Gvir appeared to criticize Israel’s reported strike, publishing a one-word response on X early Friday morning – a slang word meaning “lame” or “weak.”

    Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid called Ben Gvir’s comment “unforgivable.”

    “Never before has a minister in the security cabinet done such heavy damage to the country’s security, its image and its international status,” Lapid said.

    Jasmine El-Gamal, a former Middle East adviser to the US Defense Department, told CNN that Israel and Iran’s tit-for-tat strikes were about “posturing and messaging.”

    “Neither side, obviously, is willing or ready to escalate into an all-out war. The Israelis in particular cannot get into an all-out war without the full support, both military and political, of the Americans, which President Biden made it clear he was not willing to give,” she said.

    El-Gamal said Israel’s reported strike was meant to tell Iran, “We can get to your nuclear sites if we want to. We know where they are, and even though we didn’t hit them this time – we can do it.”

    This is a developing story and will be updated.

  2. https://www.nti.org/education-center/facilities/natanz-enrichment-complex/

     

    Natanz is Iran’s primary enrichment facility and houses both the commercial Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) and the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP). 1 The facility consists of three underground buildings, two of which are designed to hold 50,000 centrifuges, and six above ground buildings. Two of the above ground buildings are 2,500 meter halls used for gas centrifuge assemblies. 2 The nuclear material and enrichment equipment located at the FEP and PFEP are under IAEA safeguards. 3

    Iran covertly moved its gas centrifuge research, development, and assembly operations to Natanz from the Kalaye Electric Company in 2002. 4 The operation did not remain secret for long, however, because the opposition group The National Council of Resistance of Iran publicly identified the site in August 2002. The revelations prompted Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, President of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, to reveal Iran’s intention to develop the full nuclear fuel cycle at the 2002 IAEA General Conference. 5 During IAEA Director General Mohammed El-Baradei’s follow-up visit in February 2003, Tehran officially declared that it was constructing the FEP and the PFEP at Natanz. 6

    In October 2003, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the European Union and Iran commenced negotiations on suspending Iran’s enrichment and conversion activities. 7 In addition to ceasing such activities, Iran agreed to halt manufacturing and assembling centrifuge parts at its enrichment installations. 8 The suspension was maintained through the duration of talks with the E3 and EU in November 2004. 9 Following the election of the conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in August 2005, however, Iran began to backtrack on cooperative agreements with the IAEA. On January 10, 2006, Iran broke the seals safeguarding Natanz and resumed its enrichment program. Shortly thereafter, Iran introduced UF6 into the gas centrifuges at the PFEP, and by February 2007 it had started feeding UF6 into the cascades installed at the FEP. 10

    With negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program deadlocked in 2006, the George W. Bush administration initiated a cyber-warfare operation, code-named “Olympic Games,” aimed at sabotaging Iran’s growing enrichment activities through a slow barrage of cyber-strikes. 11 Popularly known as “Stuxnet,” the virus, which was developed with the help of Israeli intelligence agencies, targeted the computer systems that commanded the centrifuges at Natanz. Designed to produce continuous, incremental damage rather than a catastrophic, one-hit strike, the virus caused the centrifuge rotors to spin uncontrollably fast. These substantial increases in velocity led to a destructive rise in the rotor wall pressure, thereby causing the centrifuges to break. 12 After assuming office in 2009, President Obama intensified the program, gradually increasing the rate and severity of attacks on Natanz’s enrichment complex. According to IAEA reports, between the end of 2009 and early 2010 Iran decommissioned and replaced approximately 1,000 centrifuges at Natanz due to damage from the Stuxnet virus. 13 In November 2010, Iran temporarily suspended enrichment activities at the FEP amid growing issues with centrifuge operations. Estimates of Stuxnet’s success vary, as some Obama administration officials believe the cyber-attack delayed Iran’s nuclear development by 18 months to two years. Other assessments are more critical of Stuxnet’s significance and point to the quick recovery of centrifuge activity at Natanz following the facility’s brief shutdown. 14

    As negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program proceeded in fits and starts, the Iranian government notified the IAEA in January 2013 that it planned to install more than 3,000 of the country’s advanced centrifuges, the IR-2m. 15 More durable and efficient than the IR-1 model, these centrifuges were capable of significantly increasing Iran’s output of enriched uranium. 16 The declaration signaled another step by Iran towards expanding its enrichment program in violation of IAEA Board of Governors and UN Security Council resolutions.

    On November 24, 2013, Iran and the P5+1 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States) concluded a Joint Plan of Action (JPOA) to place a temporary freeze on Iran’s nuclear program and lay the groundwork for a more sweeping, long-term agreement. Under the JPOA, Iran agreed to cap its uranium enrichment operations at Natanz, begin diluting its LEU stockpile, and discontinue the installation of new centrifuges at the FEP. It also gave the IAEA broader access to the facilities at Natanz. 17

    Using the JPOA as a foundation for a more comprehensive agreement, Iran and the P5+1 concluded the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on 14 July 2015, a far-reaching 25-year settlement that constrained Iran’s nuclear capacity in exchange for sanctions relief. In accordance with the JCPOA, Iran agreed to remove approximately two-thirds of Natanz’s centrifuges, limit uranium enrichment to 3.67 percent, and down-blend or sell the majority of its LEU stockpile. Iran is also required to provide the IAEA daily access to Natanz for continuous monitoring of enrichment activities and centrifuge production. 18

    In April 2021, the Natanz site experienced a blackout that Iran blamed on sabotage by Israel. This event created uncertainty for the diplomatic efforts underway to attempt restoration of the JCPOA.19

    An Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) report revealed that as of October 2022, Iran had installed 4,000 advanced centrifuges across its enrichment facilities, which was an increase of 44% from late August. At the Natanz site, new deployments included 6 IR-2m cascades and one IR-4 cascade.20

     

    • Hook 'Em 3
  3. 8 minutes ago, Schulz2.0 said:

    I assume:

    Iran’s top nuclear facilities, especially the installations at Natanz in central Isfahan, have been subject to multiple significant sabotage attacks blamed on Israel amid a shadow war in more than a decade that also saw several Iranian nuclear scientists assassinated.

    But Israel has never directly attacked Iranian soil, let alone its nuclear facilities.

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/18/iran-threatens-tit-for-tat-bomb-run-if-israel-attacks-nuclear-facilities

     

    • Hook 'Em 2
  4. 6 minutes ago, F250 said:

    The last time I checked demographic numbers, the NPR audience was predominantly white upper-middle class America with a similar amount registered R and D voters. It is bougie as fuck more than anything else.

     

    I wonder if the demographics look anything like this

     

    untitled1.webp.7af3e97850b8bb9bcab76c5109023756.webp

  5. 26 minutes ago, Samson's Wig said:

    I fucking love NPR and have for decades, but anyone who thinks it isn't heavily biased to an almost comical degree is delusional.  For me, it's like a warm cup of coffee on a cold day.  Hits just right.  But I also know what I'm being fed and can take it with a grain of salt. 

    Ole' Uri simply pulled the common old man mistake of stating the obvious and expecting people to give a shit.  Now his only friends are mouth breathers.  Have fun with that, bozo. 

    It worked out nicely for Juan Williams.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  6. 27 minutes ago, Hermanator said:

    There won't be a Worthy or Mitchell level man beater this year. 

    What there will hopefully be is a 3rd, 4th, and even 5th guy who can produce. Last year the 3rd receiver was a quality possession guy and when they needed a 4th to produce it wasn't there. 

    How do they compare to:

    Dwayne Jarrett*    SO    WR    91 Rec, 1274 Yds, 14.0 Avg
    Steve Smith*    JR    WR    60 Rec, 957 Yds, 16.0 Avg
    Brad Walker    SO    WR    
    Chris McFoy    JR    WR    17 Rec, 172 Yds, 10.1 Avg
    Patrick Turner    FR    WR    12 Rec, 170 Yds, 14.2 Avg
    Greig Carlson    SR    WR    1 Rec, 14 Yds, 14.0 Avg
    William Buchanon    SR    WR    
    Dominique Byrd*    SR    TE    29 Rec, 306 Yds, 10.6 Avg
    Fred Davis    SO    TE    13 Rec, 145 Yds, 11.2 Avg
    Jimmy Miller    FR    TE    3 Rec, 8 Yds, 2.7 Avg

  7. 1 hour ago, immamac said:

    It’s mounted. Got an aluminum plate  secured it to 3 studs spanning 36 inches  then mounted through it with toggle bolts and got into the stud on the right side mount proper as well as through the metal flat bar. We tried to pull it down and it’s not budging. 

    Still gotta do a few things to clean up the final look like putting the wires in the cracks and tightening them, but here’s a few shots of what we did and final result. 

    IMG_5481.jpegIMG_5482.jpegIMG_5484.jpeg

     

     

    Now for the rest of the room. Maybe she will go for a Longhorn sports bar theme.

  8. 17 hours ago, immamac said:

    Silver lining. Got another from Best Buy in bee cave for a crazy deal and the install guy I hired to help me is gonna pick it up with some steel flat bar from Home Depot on the way tomorrow. 

    All measured up with the template from the broken one. 

    studs in blue under template.IMG_5480.jpeg Spanning the studs where there is no hit with the steel and toggle bolting through mount steel and paneling should hold. 

    IMG_5479.jpeg

     

    That looks like one of the brackets I own. Doesn't it allow for a pretty much unlimited number of screws? You could place a screw or two on each shiplap and that thing isn't coming down.

  9. 3 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

    Yeah, read that the other day.  Really good piece with some interesting insight into what should be a perilous time in Iran....but won't be.  Like everywhere on earth in this current timeline, the hard right hardliners will end up winning, because rational moderates get steamrolled.  And the Iranian people just don't have what it takes to do what is necessary: kill the fascists.

    What's interesting in the link I provided yesterday, the Iranian revolution was of intellectuals and non-right wingers - they got hoodwinked.

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