{"id":79894,"date":"2016-09-19T12:01:42","date_gmt":"2016-09-19T11:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=79894"},"modified":"2016-09-19T08:46:28","modified_gmt":"2016-09-19T07:46:28","slug":"colin-powell-leaked-emails-israel-has-200-nukes-all-pointed-at-iran-former-us-secretary-of-state-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/09\/colin-powell-leaked-emails-israel-has-200-nukes-all-pointed-at-iran-former-us-secretary-of-state-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Colin Powell Leaked Emails: Israel Has ‘200 Nukes All Pointed at Iran’, Former US Secretary of State Says"},"content":{"rendered":"

The detail is the latest revelation to emerge from a cache of leaked communications which has set Washington on edge.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Mr<\/a>

Mr Powell was writing to a Democrat donor regarding the Israeli prime minister\u2019s speech to US Congress, warning against the nuclear deal with Iran Rex.<\/p><\/div>\n

16 Sep 2016 – <\/em>Israel has 200 nuclear weapons, according to the latest revelation hidden in a cache of Colin Powell’s leaked emails.<\/p>\n

The former US secretary of state revealed the information in an email he sent to a colleague last year, which was\u00a0obtained by the hacking group\u00a0DCLeaks<\/a> and published on LobeLog<\/a>, <\/em>a foreign policy blog.<\/p>\n

Israel has a policy of nuclear ambiguity and has never talked about the type or size of its weapons, even if it has been an \u201copen secret\u201d that the US ally\u00a0is well armed.<\/p>\n

Some Israel watchers estimate the country has as many as 400 weapons but Mr Powell is one of the most authoritative sources to date.<\/p>\n

He was writing to business partner and democratic donor Jeffrey Leeds regarding Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s speech to US\u00a0Congress, warning them\u00a0against the nuclear deal with Iran which would limit Tehran’s nuclear ability in return for lifting international oil and financial sanctions. The deal was nonetheless finalised last summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cNegotiators can\u2019t get what he wants,\u201d wrote Mr Powell in the email.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyway, Iranians can\u2019t use one [a nuclear weapon] if they finally make one. The boys in Tehran know Israel has 200, all targeted on Tehran, and we have thousands. As Akmdinijad (sic) [said], \u201cWhat would we do with one, polish it?\u201d I have spoken publicly about both nK and Iran. We\u2019ll blow up the only thing they care about \u2013\u00a0regime survival. Where, how would they even test one?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"nuclear-weapons-bombs-atomic\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The US-Iran deal requires Iran to reduce its stockpile of low-enriched Uranium, used to fuel bombs, by 98 per cent, as well as limit their enrichment capacity and research and development for the next decade and a half.<\/p>\n

Yet Mr Powell publicly endorsed the agreement \u2013 he told NBC\u2019s Meet the Press<\/em> in September 2015 that it was a \u201cpretty good deal\u201d \u2013 but did not seem so keen in another email to Mr Leeds a few months later. He expressed doubt to Mr Leeds that Iran could test out a nuclear weapon \u201cwithin a year\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the email, the retired statesman and general also acknowledged that sanctions would not be enough to halt Iran if it was really bent on developing nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey [the Iranians] say, correctly, that they have every right to enrich [uranium] for energy. Russians helped build a power reactor at Busher. Can\u2019t get enough sanctions to break them Lots of bs around about their progress. Bibi likes to say \u201ca year away,\u201d as do our intel guys.They say it every year. [It] ain\u2019t that easy to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The leaked emails have also exposed the\u00a0former top American diplomat for insulting Donald Trump as a \u201cnational disgrace and an international pariah\u201d, as well as calling Hillary Clinton a \u201cgreedy, not transformational\u201d politician.<\/p>\n

In another twist, president Ronald Reagan\u2019s former chief of staff, Ken Duberstein, had urged Mr Powell not to publicly support the deal, but Mr Powell wrote back to defend it being \u201cgood for the country\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Iran deal is a good one for the country and our alliances. Retired generals and admirals popping off. I have studied it pretty thoroughly\u2026I have done emails before on tv. Have to deal with ISIS. Richard] Haass, Petraeus et all claiming to be undecided. BS, they are just protecting their future options. I don\u2019t have or want any. Baker, Shultz know what\u2019s right, as does Henry. Brent showed some guts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The website which leaked the emails has links to Russian military intelligence hacker group dubbed Fancy Bear, according to the Washington Post<\/em><\/a>, and the FBI is investigating an apparent Russian attempt to undermine political competence in the US.<\/p>\n

The news comes shortly after Mr Trump was accused of treason<\/a> for encouraging the Russians to hack Ms Clinton\u2019s emails to search for the 30,000 \u201cmissing\u201d documents that were not handed over to the FBI.<\/p>\n

Mr Powell has been discovered, via more leaked emails, to have tried to distance himself from the email scandal surrounding Ms Clinton, which had dogged her election campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a great deal of respect for Colin Powell, and I have a lot of sympathy for anyone whose emails become public,\u201d Ms Clinton told CNN<\/a> on Thursday, declining to discuss the issue.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 independent.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The detail is the latest revelation to emerge from a cache of leaked communications which has set Washington on edge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weapons-of-mass-destruction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79894\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}