IRAN WEEK II – THE LITTLE BOMB – AT 8:42 A.M. ET:  This adds to our earlier post on the UN report concerning Iran's nuclear program.  From Bloomberg:

Iran continued working on nuclear weapons at least until last year, including efforts to shrink a Pakistani warhead design to fit atop its ballistic missiles, a report from United Nations inspectors said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, drawing on evidence collected over eight years, reported yesterday that Iran carried out “work on the development of an indigenous design of a nuclear weapon including the testing of components.”

The document shows that Iran worked to redesign and miniaturize a Pakistani nuclear-weapon design by using a web of front companies and overseas experts, according to the report and an international official familiar with the IAEA’s probe. Such a warhead could be mounted on Iran’s Shahab-3 missile, which has the range to reach Israel, according to the IAEA.

COMMENT:  Shrinking a warhead has many uses other than mating the warhead to a missile.  The smaller the device, the more transportable it is.  The lighter the device, the more transportable it is with fewer people.  Our concern here centers on two possibilities:  1) the sailing of a nuclear device, in a small crate, into an American harbor, where it would be set off by a "martyr" (suicide) crew; 2) the smuggling of a small nuclear device across our southern border, from which it could easily be transported into an American city.  The work could be done by a terrorist group under Iranian control, and possibly based in Venezuela.

The future gets more and more precarious.  There are no guarantees that anything serious will be done to stop the Iranians.

November 9, 2011