Iran's uranium enrichment centrifuges are still a danger being hidden underground

Recent reports warn that Iran's dictatorship has moved their uranium enrichment tools to a deep underground complex in Natanz:

Iran transferred thousands of uranium enrichment centrifuges to underground facilities deep inside Natanz's Pickaxe Mountain last fall, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing Israeli and US officials.

The centrifuges were transferred to the mountain following the 12-day war in June 2025.

During the war, American and Israeli strikes pummeled three of Iran’s main nuclear sites, in an operation the US called "Midnight Hammer."

US and Israeli officials noted that the transfer of sensitive equipment inside the mountain increases concerns that Tehran is working to ensure continued uranium enrichment, even in the event of a large-scale military attack on its soil.

Pickaxe Mountain is located south of the Natanz nuclear complex, the site of two of Iran’s uranium enrichment plants bombed in June 2025.

The tunnel facility under construction at Pickaxe Mountain wasn't targeted in either of the wars, according to the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a US-based think-tank focused on nuclear non-proliferation.

Satellite imagery shows that the complex was carved to a depth of more than 100 meters below bedrock, making it deeper and more fortified than the Fordow enrichment facility, a highly fortified, underground uranium enrichment facility.

I suppose the RINOs at the Federalist are okay with this? I noticed one of their writers publishing stealth propaganda against the war on Iran just late last month, and continuing their attacks on Mark Levin as well. Oh yes, and even sugarcoating JD Vance, despite how otherwise poor and questionable his own dedication to civilized values and liberty is. And the writer even made sure to scapegoat Israel stealthily too. Writers like those at the Federalist are the reason this war is being prolonged, and also puts in serious doubt whether they're really concerned about Islamofascism's infiltrations into Europe. It also makes clear they don't put much value on concepts like selflessness, let alone caring about the lives and safety of innocent and defenseless women. This is why the war has to be waged, and we can only hope the military is doing what it can to put a stop to Pickaxe Mountain's own chamber of horrors without letting the whinings of RINOs like the Federalist's get the better of them.

JD Vance shows his true colors on Joe Rogan's podcasts

The USA vice president is proving to be the one of the worst omens for Israel, and making matters worse is that he aired horrific viewpoints on the podcast of a man who already gave indications he was hostile to Israel too:

U.S. Vice President JD Vance suggested on Wednesday that some elements within the Israeli government backed an influence campaign aimed at undermining the Trump administration’s negotiations with Iran, while emphasizing that Israel remains a U.S. ally.

Speaking on Joe Rogan’s podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Vance said, “I think you have seen this very discreet, extremely well-funded campaign to try to derail the negotiation and try to derail the deal.”

“There was a Times story that came out yesterday that basically there are certain influencers in America who are being paid in order to attack the deal,” Vance said. “It lists a bunch of people who have quite literally been paid by a former Trump campaign person who was himself paid by certain elements within the Israeli government.”

He said he has been accused of taking “marching orders from Tucker Carlson” and that “there’s just so much bullsh** out there when what I’m actually trying to do is accomplish what the president of the United States told me to accomplish.”

The vice president said he had no objection to Israel attempting to influence U.S. policy, calling such efforts a routine part of international diplomacy.

“A lot of other countries do,” Vance said. “I think some are better at it than others. I think the Israelis are definitely more effective at it than most. But I wouldn’t say that they’re the only effective country by any means that tries to influence American politics.”

“I mean, why wouldn’t you?” he said. “It’s a country of 9 million people. We have 330 million people. And so, of course, they’re going to try to persuade Americans. They’re going to try to move Americans in one direction or another. I think that’s just the nature of the beast.”

I think the use of the word "beast" is disturbing, and no matter what he says about not objecting to Israel trying to influence USA policy, it's clear he is disturbingly biased. Ruthie Blum addressed the news like this:

As much as I dislike citing Maya Angelou—and absolutely loathe using a single plural pronoun to describe a single noun—one of the late activist-poet’s famous quotes is so spot on that it bears repeating: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”

This certainly applies to U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who illustrated it most recently on “The Joe Rogan Experience.”

Yes, during a nearly three-hour chat with the most-streamed podcaster on Spotify, Vance yet again showed us just who he is.

Not that it was tough to do with a host like Rogan, who didn’t challenge a word his interviewee said. Oh, other than asking him what “MoU” stands for and expressing surprise that “dove” in the political context is the opposite of “hawk.”

Where blaming the Jews and Israel for the doomed memorandum of understanding with the Islamic Republic was concerned, there was no pushback. On the contrary, Rogan goaded Vance to keep going down his embarrassing rabbit hole of conspiracy theories.

These included the groyper line about sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s deep ties to the Mossad or the CIA. It was as though anti-Israel political commentators and podcasters Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens prepped the VP for the one-on-one. They undoubtedly were pleased with his performance.

Take the following passage, for instance:

“I definitely think you have seen this very discreet, extremely well-funded campaign to try to derail the negotiation and derail the deal,” he said, referring to the MoU with the Islamic Republic that his boss, U.S. President Donald Trump, had declared dead in the water mere days earlier.

Nonetheless, Vance continued in this vein, totally omitting two facts: that Tehran has been blitzing the Gulf (his only mention of the countries in that region is to say that they’re gung-ho for the MoU); and that Israel has been totally out of the fray for many weeks.

Well he certainly isn't helping to end the Iran war sooner than it could be done. Stuff like this also puts his sincerity regarding Europe into doubt. What if it turned out he had some responsibility for getting former Hungarian premiere Viktor Orban voted out? It remains to be seen if Vance will apologize for causing all the trouble he's going to cause with his conspiracy theory tactics, which aren't helping the situation one bit. Just plain embarrassing.

Update: here's what Fox News' Brian Kilmeade has to say about the subject.

The raid on Iran was necessary to prevent a nuclear version of 9-11

Bob Kiffney, a former intel specialist, makes an important case for why the USA/Israel needed to attack Iran and stop its nuclear building:

On Sept. 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 Americans were murdered in the deadliest terrorist attack in our nation’s history. The World Trade Center towers collapsed in Lower Manhattan, the Pentagon was breached, and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, became a graveyard for heroes who prevented even greater loss. The economic toll exceeded $100 billion. The psychological wound reshaped American life for a generation.

Now imagine those same three targets struck not by hijacked airliners but by nuclear devices.

Many hundreds of thousands—potentially upward of 800,000 in Manhattan alone—would die instantly in fireballs and blast waves. Hundreds of thousands more would suffer horrific burns and radiation poisoning. Firestorms would rage across dense urban cores. The financial heart of the free world would be paralyzed, the seat of American government devastated, and fallout would render swaths of our most populous regions uninhabitable for years. Trillions in economic damage, mass evacuations, overwhelmed hospitals, and a body count dwarfing 9/11 by orders of magnitude would follow.

That is not science fiction. That was the imminent risk a nuclear-armed Iran posed until the United States and Israel launched decisive military action on Feb. 28.

The ongoing war against the Islamic Republic is not the beginning of a conflict. It is the necessary end to one that has raged for 47 years.

He's absolutely correct. Have any of the RINOs opposing war against Iran's autocracy ever considered that? Let's be clear. If ground invasions are needed to put an end to any further horrors in the making, that's what must be done, and it's to be hoped the USA public understands that at this point, and will back the Trump administration on any decision they make in that context.

All these horrors could've been prevented long ago if anybody who actually cared had shown the courage to do so. Yet all these years, in one of the worst examples of history showing we don't learn lessons from the past, the cancer was allowed to metastisize, and regardless of the current situation and outcome, a horrific mess was left that will take ages to clean up. It's very fortunate the USA and Israeli militaries took up what missions they have so far, because sooner or later, wars to stop evil entities are entirely inevitable.

Update: Clifford May has an important related op-ed here.

Where comics writer Kurt Busiek now posts his sad political rants

Years ago, when X was Twitter, leftist writer Kurt Busiek had plenty of terrible leftist drivel to say there. Today, after Elon Musk bought out the social network, it looks like Busiek no longer posts there, presumably because he can't stand being on a rightist-owned site, and now he's turned to Blue Sky. And here's a few examples of his continuing leftist rhetoric there. For example:

Wow, look how he's trying to draw a moral equivalence between antisemitic and "anti-palestinian" sentiment, making it sound like Iran's mullahs are literally against local Moslems, or as though the fabricated race/community "palestine" isn't Islamic. Put another way, Busiek's clearly not interested in doing any research to determine that the whole name "palestine" was a Roman conception, drawing from the Philistines, to humiliate the land of Stan Lee's ancestry. Also interesting how Busiek simultaneously attacks the POTUS who's now overseeing a raid against Iran's tyrants to destroy their murderous weaponry. Whose side is Busiek on anyway? He's right that Iran's got anti-LGBTQ positions, but, if he won't acknowledge it stems from the teachings of the koran, then his approach there falls flat too.

Then we have:

The USA military many sigificant achievements so far, like destroying Iran's naval crafts, and Busiek's ungrateful? Just what and who does Busiek stand for anyway?

Busiek even posted the following involving Israel:

How intriguing he lectures us all that Israelis across the board literally don't support Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister, this despite how recent pollings show he has sizable support, and plenty of support for the war against Iran's tyrants. What's telling here is how Busiek doesn't back up his claim, and while he may acknowledge the Islamofascists of Iran are willing to attack civilians, his absurd biases ruin any notion he respects the Israeli public on anything. Also atrocious is how Busiek subtly compares Netanyahu to the Iranian Islamofascists. Shame.

Next we have this:

And is that supposed to mean the military commanders don't face any danger, say, from enemy moles and sleeper agents? Oh good grief, this is just so naive. Then there's this and this:

Busiek won't learn lessons either, that wasting so much energy attacking conservatives doesn't improve the situation. And if he's implying Americans and Israelis who allegedly want war should die, that's disturbing as well, and sick. Besides, it's not that any sensible person literally wants war for "fun". They support war against tyrants because there's situations where force is inevitable if that's what it takes to stop barbarism. Busiek also made unverified claims that Israelis literally are guilty of war crimes, and also this item, and this one:

Well if that's what he thinks, but doesn't think the Islamofascists running Afghanistan today aren't guilty of war crimes against the ancient Buddhist inhabitants who originally dwelled there, that's disgraceful too. Ditto if he doesn't think Turkey's guilty of war crimes against Armenia. And Busiek also reposted the following from Tom Peyer:

I guess that means Mr. Peyer's also hostile to Israelis, conservative or otherwise? For shame. Later on, Busiek made a nasty comment about Trump:

And then, what did Busiek say about the US army attack on Kharg island?

If he's no military expert, he has no business commenting, and also had no business writing superhero comics. But who knows, maybe today, he regrets writing superhero tales. It is rather funny he'd write anything starring say, Captain America, considering Kirby/Simon created Steve Rogers as a military cadet who volunteered for the super-soldier serum experiment that made him the formidable fighter he became. But then, that's why, if Busiek really feels that way today, he should no longer be writing superhero themes, plain and simple.

Interestingly, if it matters, Busiek also mentioned the disgraced Gerard Jones, and said the following:

What's that supposed to mean long before? Does that mean people not wanting to benefit monsters is something that only recently came up? Let's be clear. If Jones had been caught in the acts years before and it made headlines in the news, you can be sure there's plenty who'd want nothing to do with him anymore. And must it be pointed out Staton didn't just illustrate comics written by sick Jones? Staton got into comics as far back as the early 1970s, and he'd drawn Green Lantern before, beginning in 1979, for stories written by writers with far better reputations than Jones will ever have at this stage. Staton also has other comics to his credits (including some Batman books), and even a few at Marvel. What, does Busiek have a grudge against Staton or something? That aside, if there's anything Busiek wrote that perhaps we shouldn't benefit, it's his creator-owned comics like Astro City and Arrowsmith, based on how he's indirectly insulting plenty of decent USA military officials who're working hard to bring down the Islamic regime in Iran. Don't their reputations matter? Don't even the reputations of 911 Families matter? Why, what about Betty Mahmoody, who was fortunate to get her daughter out of Iran during the mid 1980s after her creep of a husband taqqiya'd them into traveling there? How don't topics like those ever matter to Busiek?

And since Jones came up, this is very embarrassing, but it appears that since his release from prison nearly 4 years ago, he's been quietly turning up on social media again, and even posting chapters of a book he wrote called "Ginny Good" on a Substack site. Most disgraced writers of his sort would ususally just disappear after all the harm they caused. But Jones appears to be one of those sorts who cannot keep his stupid mouth shut. And if there's at least one example of what political rants he's posting to put on display here, it's the following:

Well. Looks like Jones hasn't changed from the time he first said a decade back he considered Trump a "fascist". And I guess he also considers Trump a communist, seeing how he claims the POTUS wants to be like Vladimir Putin. And all this after Jones was arrested and convicted for illegally hoarding child porn. What, does he think because he's been paroled from prison after 2 thirds of his sentence, it's okay to go right back to such crap again? As though it weren't bad enough he was trying to downplay his criminal offenses when he was still behind bars. All that aside, does he really think anybody wants to read even his text-only books after what he did? Such a repellent disgrace indeed. I wonder how Busiek feels about having written a backup story for Wonder Man in one of the 2 annuals for the 1991-94 series Jones wrote over 3 decades ago? That series was practically worthless as it is.

It's very sad some of the same leftist comics writers of the past decade refuse to stop wasting time on divisive politics, yet quite interesting how, ever since X/Twitter was bought out by a conservative supporter, they decided to jump ship from that service over to one that's more attuned to their leftist beliefs. That, alas, doesn't make the situation any better for the well being of the world.

Why nation-building in Afghanistan only wound up failing

Here's an excerpt from Jesse Petrilla's recent book, "If It Takes a Thousand Years: From Al-Qaeda to Hamas, How the Jihadists Think & How to Defeat Them", which explains why, so long as Islam rules countries like Afghanistan, nation-building there won't be possible:

I was serving in the U.S. Army as a Liaison Officer to the Afghan secret police, and facilitated the interrogations of over 400 captured Taliban and Al-Qa’eda members while there. A Taliban leader once told me “You have me in a cage, my fight is over for now, but my children will fight you, and if they don’t win, their children will fight you. If It Takes a Thousand Years, we will win.” Although it didn’t take the Taliban a thousand years to win the battle of Afghanistan, it demonstrates the drive that our jihadist enemies have. They fight generational wars against the West as a whole.

When analyzing our Islamic extremist enemies, it is important for the American people to understand the tribal mindset that so many of our enemies come from. Islam developed from tribal cultures, and many tribal cultures over the past 1,400 years developed under Islam. The Islamic world itself is divided into what I would describe as tribes; you have the Sunni tribe, the Shia tribe, and within that are thousands of other tribes, one of the most recent being the “Palestinian” tribe which has become somewhat of a self-appointed identity by various lost members of other tribes. But in Afghanistan, tribalism is at a level that is virtually unparalleled in the world.

It is human nature to coalesce together into groups, but when you add Islam to the mix, it fuels different dynamics that are completely alien to Westerners. The tribal mindset is so vastly different than our own that it often makes it impossible to reason with them, and they will not respond logically or rationally as you might assume an American or other Westerner would. To Westerners, the tribal mindset may contain many elements that are quite shocking and deeply disturbing.

Part of our training upon arrival in Afghanistan included multiple briefings on Islamic and Afghan culture, since we would be working with locals on a daily basis. In one such briefing, the Afghan-American man leading the discussion began by stating; “You must understand that everything about your way of life in America, is completely different in this planet.” He quickly corrected himself to say “in this country,” but his misspeaking was not too far from the truth. From the way people say hello to the way they go to the bathroom, everything is different, and it is like another world to a Westerner.

In Pashtun tribal law, the largest tribe in Afghanistan comprising almost half the nation, there is something known as khun, or blood money. It can be paid to make amends for various transgressions such as murder, property damage, theft, kidnapping, etcetera. In addition to khun, women can be given to become sex slaves as well as female babies to eventually turn into sex slaves. Women and female babies count as two-thirds of the khun.

Just as in every other part of the Islamic world, Pashtun women have far less status than men. To divorce a woman, the man only needs to declare “I divorce thee” three times publicly. Many Pashtuns also believe that women have something called the “evil eye,” that they have special powers and the ability to cause bad things to happen.

In Pashtun tribal law, if a woman is kidnapped by force, and coerced to consent to marry her kidnapper, but she does not get her father’s permission, the father has the right to kill her. Any inclination of a woman having dishonored the family is rapidly met by her murder. In one of the detainee interrogations, I was truly shocked and saddened when the detainee was describing his family, and nonchalantly said “I have eight children, I had nine but one of my daughters dishonored the family and so I killed her,” a story I unfortunately would hear similar versions of on more than one occasion from multiple detainees.

With women and children relegated to 2nd-class status via Islamic sharia, it's no wonder things are as horrific there as they still are. That the government of Dubya did nothing to prevent many of these repulsive cases behind the scenes is another reason Afghanistan's "liberation" was doomed to failure. We must hope Donald Trump's incoming government will do whatever possible in the meantime to reverse what Biden's bunch enabled upon retreat. But it's doubtless going to be a very long, grueling trip to put an end to the suffering there.

China, Fearing Regime Change by the U.S, Bulks Up Its Nuclear Deterrence Capabilities

An eye opening report. 

My first thought, "Well that's just great (*Eye-roll*)."

At the Wall Street Journal, "China Is Accelerating Its Nuclear Buildup Over Rising Fears of U.S. Conflict":

China has accelerated an expansion of its nuclear arsenal because of a change in its assessment of the threat posed by the U.S., people with knowledge of the Chinese leadership’s thinking say, shedding new light on a buildup that is raising tension between the two countries.

The Chinese nuclear effort long predates Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but the U.S.’s wariness about getting directly involved in the war there has likely reinforced Beijing’s decision to put greater emphasis on developing nuclear weapons as a deterrent, some of these people say. Chinese leaders see a stronger nuclear arsenal as a way to deter the U.S. from getting directly involved in a potential conflict over Taiwan.

Among recent developments, work has accelerated this year on more than 100 suspected missile silos in China’s remote western region that could be used to house nuclear-tipped missiles capable of reaching the U.S., according to analysts that study satellite images of the area.

American leaders have said the thinking behind China’s nuclear advance is unclear. Independent security analysts who study nuclear proliferation say they are also in the dark about what is driving Beijing after exchanges between Chinese officials and analysts mostly dried up in the past few years.

The people close to the Chinese leadership said China’s increased focus on nuclear weapons is also driven by fears Washington might seek to topple Beijing’s Communist government following a more hawkish turn in U.S. policy toward China under the Trump and Biden administrations.

American military officials and security analysts are concerned China’s nuclear acceleration could mean it would be willing to make a surprise nuclear strike. The people close to the Chinese leadership said Beijing is committed to not using nuclear weapons first.

China plans to maintain an arsenal no larger than necessary to ensure China’s security interests, they said, adding that the Chinese military believes its nuclear weapons are too outdated to present an effective deterrent against a potential U.S. nuclear strike.

“China’s inferior nuclear capability could only lead to growing U.S. pressure on China,” one person close to the leadership said.

Nervous international reaction to Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s call for his nuclear forces to be put on alert following his invasion of Ukraine has offered Chinese officials a real-world lesson about the strategic value of nuclear weapons. So did Ukraine’s decision in 1994 to turn over the nuclear weapons left in the country after the breakup of the Soviet Union in return for security assurances from the U.S. and Russia.

“Ukraine lost its nuclear deterrence in the past and that’s why it got into a situation like this,” said a retired Chinese military officer with ties to the country’s nuclear program.

The people familiar with the Chinese leadership’s thinking said Beijing hasn’t conveyed any adjustments to the country’s nuclear policy as a result of developments in Ukraine. China’s Ministry of Defense didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The people have knowledge of Beijing’s thinking about nuclear policy through their work with various agencies involved in security issues. None are directly involved in the setting of nuclear policy. They didn’t preclude that future developments might change Beijing’s approach and said other factors may also be influencing the leadership’s approach to nuclear weapons.

Their observations nevertheless bring greater clarity to a shift in Beijing’s thinking that has far-reaching consequences globally. Rising tension between the U.S. and China over nuclear weapons could throw the world back into a Cold War-style nuclear standoff similar to that seen in the decades following World War II between the U.S. and Soviet Union.

The risk of miscalculations this time could be higher, however, because while the U.S. and Soviet Union communicated about their nuclear weapons during arms control talks from the late 1980s, the Chinese program and Beijing’s thinking on the role of nuclear weapons has been shrouded in secrecy. China has declined to engage in nuclear arms control talks with the U.S., saying Washington should first reduce its nuclear inventory.

U.S. government and private sector estimates put China’s nuclear arsenal in the low hundreds of warheads, far below the roughly 4,000 warheads held by both Russia and the U.S. The Pentagon says it now expects China to have 1,000 warheads by the end of this decade.

Satellite images taken during January show the last 45 of the temporary covers over each of 120 suspected missile silos near the city of Yumen have been removed, suggesting the most sensitive work at all of the silos has been completed, said Matt Korda, a senior research associate for the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington. At two other smaller silo fields in western China, work is at earlier stages.

The silos at each of the sites are large enough for a new long-range Chinese missile known as the DF-41 that was put into service in 2020 and is capable of hitting the U.S. mainland, analysts say. Tests of missiles that are launched from aircraft and can carry nuclear warheads also give Beijing a stronger chance of being able to retaliate if it is hit first in a nuclear attack.

In public, China has played down its nuclear pursuits.

“On the assertions made by U.S. officials that China is expanding dramatically its nuclear capabilities, first, let me say that this is untrue,” Fu Cong, director general of the Foreign Ministry’s arms control department, said earlier this year. He said that China is working to ensure its nuclear deterrent meets the minimum level necessary for national defense.

Chinese leaders had seen nuclear weapons as being of limited value because they don’t offer realistic options for fighting most wars. A major shift occurred in early 2020, according to the people familiar with the leadership’s thinking, as the U.S. government hardened its stance toward Beijing in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Strong criticism of the Communist Party from senior Trump administration officials spurred a consensus among Chinese leaders that Washington was willing to take greater risks to stop China’s rise, some of the people said.

A May 2020 speech in Mandarin by former Deputy National Security Adviser Matt Pottinger was particularly alarming, they said. Speaking on the anniversary of a pivotal 1919 student protest in China, Mr. Pottinger said: “Wasn’t the goal to achieve citizen-centric government in China, and not replace one regime-centric model with another one? The world will wait for the Chinese people to furnish the answers.”

“The speech was obviously calling the Chinese to topple the Communist Party,” one person familiar with the Chinese leadership’s thinking said.

In response to a request for comment, Mr. Pottinger said that such an interpretation was “a profound admission that the Communist Party knows it has failed to deliver citizen-centric governance, and it confirms what everyone already suspected: What Beijing fears above all is its own people.”

At the same time, increased support from the U.S. for Taiwan, a democratically self-ruled island that Beijing views as a part of China and has vowed to put under its control, prompted Chinese leaders to debate the prospect that the U.S. might be willing to use nuclear weapons in a conflict over the island, according to the people close to the leadership...