Leaders of the Shi’ite Muslim totalitarian government of Iran have continually denied that they are developing nuclear energy to build weapons — a denial that much of the world does not believe.
Bob Feferman of South Bend, Ind., is so convinced that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons that he has become active in the national organization United Against Nuclear Iran, for which he is the Midwest coordinator.
In that capacity, he spoke in Milwaukee on Nov. 29, in a program hosted by the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, and taking place at the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center.
Addressing some 40 people, Feferman discussed three questions:
• How close is Iran to obtaining nuclear weapons?
• Why should U.S. citizens be concerned about the issue?
• What can U.S. citizens do to help prevent Iran’s obtaining these weapons?
Feferman said that Iran needs three items to develop nuclear weapons: appropriate amounts of radioactive uranium; a means of delivering a bomb; and the ability to put the weapons together.
The process of enriching uranium involves increasing the proportion of the radioactive isotope of uranium (U-235) to non-radioactive uranium (U-238). Naturally occurring uranium is 99 percent U-238.
Weapons grade uranium is usually 80 percent or more U-235, though apparently a weapon can be made if the U-235 proportion is as low as 20 percent. The enriching is done in a centrifuge machine.
Feferman said that for 18 years, the Iranian government hid its uranium enrichment program in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Moreover, he said, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, in 2008, Iran had “nearly 4,000” uranium-enriching centrifuges, and in 2012 it has “more than 11,000.”
He further said that to date Iran has produced “seven tons of enriched uranium, enough to produce five nuclear weapons should [Iran’s leaders] decide to continue to enrich the uranium it already has to weapons grade.”
As for a means of delivering a bomb, Iran has the Shahab-3 medium-range ballistic missile that its leaders “display proudly in parades,” Feferman said. It has the capacity to reach both Israel and the Persian Gulf, according to a map Feferman displayed.
Feferman acknowledged that “we don’t yet know enough” about Iran’s ability to make a workable nuclear weapon because Iran’s leaders will not allow IAEA inspectors to see the military bases “where the process of weaponization was believed to be carried out.”
Nevertheless, he said, it is significant that the IAEA continued to be concerned about this topic.
Why should this matter to U.S. citizens? Feferman said he replies to this question by telling those who ask it to “take a look at what Iran has been up to in the past 30 years without nuclear weapons.”
At home, Iran’s government is “a brutal dictatorship that does not hesitate to murder its own citizens,” and human rights organizations report that hundreds of political dissidents endure torture, rape, and murder in Iran’s jails, Feferman said.
Internationally, Iran’s government is “the world’s most active state sponsor of terrorism,” and has been designated as such by the U.S. State Department since 1984, Feferman said.
It has carried out attacks on U.S. troops and embassies in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Africa; has attacked Jewish institutions like the 1994 bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina; has helped with some 170 suicide bombings in Israel; and has provided the rockets that Hamas launched at Israeli civilians from the Gaza Strip.
Such a government with nuclear weapons “would be emboldened” to use them “as an umbrella” under which it could “expand its dangerous behavior,” Feferman said. And in the worst case scenario, Iranian officials could either launch a nuclear attack or provide nuclear weapons to terrorists, he said.
What can individual citizens do? Hit Iran in the economy by campaigning to have companies avoid or cease doing business in Iran, Feferman said.
This is the approach of his organization. UANI, founded in 2008, maintains a web site (www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com) that provides an Iran Business Registry that contains names, information, and email addresses of firms throughout the world that do business in Iran.
Feferman said that individuals could devote as little as “20 minutes a week” to write letters to these firms. “When citizen activists bombard the chief executive officers” of such firms, “they know their company’s reputation is at risk,” he said.
This campaign has been effective, Feferman said. To date, 12 multi-national corporations have “ended or curtailed business with Iran,” he said.
Letter-writing campaigns are not all UANI does or encourages. In 2010, it placed a billboard near the plant of the construction-machine-maker Caterpillar in Peoria, Ill., calling on viewers to stop the company from doing business in Iran. Feferman said that about a week later, company officials announced that the firm would end its dealings with Iran.
The organization has also proposed and advocated for legislation requiring the federal and state governments to obtain from companies certification of not doing business in Iran before paying or investing taxpayer funds in those companies. Feferman said that since September 2012, six states have passed such legislation.
“Iran’s nuclear clock is ticking, and we need your help,” Feferman said. “Each night we convince a major company to end its business in Iran, I believe we are one step closer to convincing the regime to end its pursuit of nuclear weapons.”
Feferman chairs the Jewish Community Relations Committee in South Bend, and has worked on Indiana state legislation targeting Iran’s nuclear program since 2009.
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