Via Juan Cole a bit of actual reporting on the Iran nuclear issue from Scott Peterson in The Christian Science Monitor from November 8, 2011: Imminent Iran nuclear threat? A timeline of warnings since 1979.

The Shah was still in power in 1979, but Iran was between 3 and 7 years from having a nuclear weapon, according to “intelligence sources”.

As Badtux has pointed out in comments before, based on the US Manhattan Project, any nation with its own source of uranium is about 5 years from building a nuclear weapon, if they really want to do it.

It has been over 30 years since Iran was supposed to be an average of 5 years from building a nuclear weapon. People keep saying this and they still haven’t got one. How long before people start to admit the possibility that they may not want one?

Another annoying recent point that the IAEA brought up was the Iranian ‘refusal’ to allow them to inspect a military facility that was rumored to have been involved in unspecified ‘nuclear related program activities’. Excuse me, but the US and USSR specifically excluded inspections of military facilities from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, because they didn’t want UN inspectors having access. Iran is under no obligation to allow the inspections, but seems willing to, if the IAEA sends actual inspectors, more particularly, inspectors not associated with governments who keep threatening to bomb them because ‘they are five years from having a nuclear weapon’.

I would also remind people that the reason the Iranians insist on having the ability to refine their own fuel is because governments keep imposing sanctions on them, sanctions that would make impossible for them to get the fuel they will need for their power plants. When you look at it from the Iranian side, they would be stupid to give up the ability to refine the fuel. They aren’t stupid, and they are rational. Can anyone really say that about Netanyahu and the Israeli government?

Aliy won the Spirit of Alaska award when she blew through McGrath and arrived 39 minutes before John and Mitch in Takontna for her 24-hour layover. That said, Mitch will get to leave 3 minutes before Aliy because of the start time adjustment. Her team is ready to run with the best.

While Lance chose to take his 24-hour break at McGrath, Martin decided to take it further down the trail.

Update 9:50PM CST: [Note: Last year Trent stayed on the trail while others took their 24-hour breaks and won the ‘Halfway’ award. He may be planning to do it again.]

At Ophir
1 Martin Buser (41)
2 Rohn Buser (62)
3 Jim Lanier (3)
Beyond Takotna
4 Trent Herbst (16)
At Takotna
5 Aliy Zirkle (14)
6 Mitch Seavey (35)
7 John Baker (11)
8 Jeff King (10)
9 Dallas Seavey (34)
10 Ray Redington Jr (2)
11 Paul Gebhardt (25)
12 Hugh Neff (27)
13 Aaron Burmeister (44)
14 Sonny Lindner (59)
15 Gerry Willomitzer (23)
16 DeeDee Jonrowe (17)
17 Michelle Phillips (26)
18 Peter Kaiser (28)
19 Jake Berkowitz (29)
20 Rick Swenson (60)
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