U.S. Demands ‘Unfettered Access’ to Nuke Plant

‘Transparency package’ will cover sites, computers, scientists

Video

Obama: Iran ‘must now cooperate fully’ (NBC Nightly News, Sept. 26, 2009) — Iranian leaders declared Saturday that international inspectors would be allowed access to a newly disclosed nuclear site as President Barack Obama continued his push for more transparency from Iran during his weekly internet address. NBC’s Mike Viqueira reports. (03:15)

September 26, 2009

WASHINGTON — The U.S. and its five partners trying to stop Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program plan to tell Tehran in a key meeting on Thursday that it must provide “unfettered access” to its previously secret Qom enrichment facility within weeks, a senior administration official said.

The U.S., Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia … will demand that Iran prove to the increasingly skeptical group that its intentions with its various sites are peaceful and energy-related, as Iran claims, and not for weapons development, as the West believes, the official said Saturday.

These nations now agree that they are less inclined to listen to suspect arguments or incomplete evidence — viewing it as a stall tactic, the official said. …

Earlier Saturday, President Barack Obama offered Iran “a serious, meaningful dialogue” over its disputed nuclear program, while warning Tehran of grave consequences from a united global front. …

“My offer of a serious, meaningful dialogue to resolve this issue remains open,” Obama said, urging Tehran to “take action to demonstrate its peaceful intentions.”

Evidence of the clandestine facility was presented Friday by Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the G-20 economic summit in Pittsburgh. …

Soon after, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, at his own news conference, urged Iran to cooperate, as did Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei. He, however, did not endorse penalties against Tehran.

At a news conference in New York, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his country had done nothing wrong and Obama would regret his actions.

“What we did was completely legal, according to the law. We have informed the agency, the agency will come and take a look and produce a report and it’s nothing new,” he said.

Ahmadinejad said the plant — which Iranian officials say was reported to nuclear authorities as required — would not be operational for 18 months. But he sidestepped a question about whether Iran had sufficient uranium to manufacture a nuclear weapon.

Video

Ahmadinejad: Nuclear plant in ‘beginning stages’ (NBC Nightly News, Sept. 25, 2009) — Iranian president insists that Iran’s nuclear plant is in compliance with international rules. NBC’s Ann Curry reports. (01:22)

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The Personality Profile of Iran’s President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Aubrey Immelman
Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics
June 2009

Video profile

Mystical populist (NBC News Web Extra) — Watch an in-depth profile of the Iranian president: firebrand, soccer fan, and true believer in Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution. Produced by Baruch Ben-Chorin. (11:01)

Abstract

A remote psychological assessment of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was conducted from 2005 to 2009, mining open-source data in the public domain. Information concerning Ahmadinejad was collected from media reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the second edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM-IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed on the basis of interpretive guidelines provided in the MIDC and Millon Index of Personality Styles manuals. Ahmadinejad’s primary personality patterns were found to be Distrusting / suspicious (paranoid) and Ambitious / exploitative (narcissistic), with secondary Dominant / controlling (sadistic) and Dauntless / dissenting (antisocial) patterns. In addition, the personality profile contained subsidiary Aggrieved / unpresuming and Contentious / resolute features.

The amalgam of Distrusting (paranoid) and Ambitious (narcissistic) patterns in Ahmadinejad’s profile suggests the presence of a syndrome that Theodore Millon has labeled the fanatical paranoid — a personality composite that overlaps substantially with the construct of “malignant narcissism” described in modern reformulations of psychoanalytic theory.

Characteristically, these personalities harbor intricate fantasies, make extravagant claims, fabricate stories to enhance their self-worth, and endow themselves with illusory powers. In their own minds, they are inspired leaders, talented geniuses, holy saints, or demigods, perceiving themselves as righteous saviors standing up to the evils of the universe. Behaviorally, these personalities present as smug, arrogant and expansive, with an air of contempt toward others. In the face if adversity, delusions of grandeur constitute their chief coping mechanism.

The major political implication of the study is the inference that Ahmadinejad is relatively impervious to influence by diplomatic or economic means and not conflict averse, which heightens the risk that he would be psychologically inclined to use military force with minimal provocation to counter perceived threats to regime survival.

Appendix: Paranoid Personality Subtypes

Technical References

Immelman, A. (1999). Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria manual (2nd ed.). Unpublished manuscript, St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minn.

Immelman, A. (2003). Personality in political psychology. In I. B. Weiner (Series Ed.), T. Millon & M. J. Lerner (Vol. Eds.), Handbook of Psychology: Vol. 5. Personality and Social Psychology (pp. 599-625). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Immelman, A. (2005). Political psychology and personality. In S. Strack (Ed.), Handbook of Personology and Psychopathology (pp. 198-225). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Immelman, A., & Steinberg, B. S. (Compilers) (1999). Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (2nd ed.). Unpublished research scale, St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minn.

Millon, T. (with Davis, R. D.). (1996). Disorders of Personality: DSM-IV and Beyond (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley.

Millon, T., & Davis, R. D. (2000). Personality Disorders in Modern Life. New York: Wiley.

(Note: Originally published on this site June 11, 2009)

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — September 26, 2008

After the Primary Election: Day 17

One year ago today, on the 17th day after losing my 2008 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, in line with my focus on national security, I reported on a skirmish between U.S. and Pakistani ground forces across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and a speech at the United Nations by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, in which he told world leaders (in an apparent reference to U.S. cross-border raids) that his country cannot allow its territory to “be violated by our friends.”