September 16, 2005
The Washington Times
Bill Gertz

  Photo: Power Point Presentation: Pages 1-10

http://abcnews.go.com/images/International/iran_1_10.pdf

  Photo: Power Point Presentation: Pages 11-19

http://abcnews.go.com/images/International/iran_11_19.pdf

  Photo: Power Point Presentation: Pages 20-30

http://abcnews.go.com/images/International/iran_20_30.pdf

  Photo: Power Point Presentation: Pages 31-43

http://abcnews.go.com/images/International/iran_31_43.pdf

Iran is concealing many of its nuclear facilities from international controls and the activities show it is seeking nuclear weapons, according to a U.S. government report.

The computer slide presentation developed by the Energy Department for the International Atomic Energy Agency also shows that Iran's nuclear program closely resembles Pakistan's nuclear arms programs.

"Iran's past history of concealment and deception and nuclear fuel cycle infrastructure are most consistent with an intent to acquire nuclear weapons," the report said.

The report, first made public Wednesday by ABC News,

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/International/story?id=1127021

states that Iran has a "confirmed record of hiding sensitive nuclear fuel cycle activities from the IAEA."

The presentation contains numerous photographs, including satellite imagery, showing that Iran built "dummy buildings" to hide an underground vehicle entrance and ventilator shafts at its Natanz facility.

Iran has violated IAEA safeguards and provided false information about centrifuge development, plutonium experiments and military involvement in nuclear activity, the 43-page report stated.

The presentation was shown recently at the U.S. mission to the IAEA in Vienna at a briefing for IAEA representatives. It was produced by the Energy Department's Los Alamos National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratories.

Seven of Iran's 13 nuclear-related facilities were kept secret until 2002, including enrichment plants at Lashkar-Abad, Tehran, Natanz, and uranium processing at Adrekan and Gachin, the report said.

"Iran's nuclear program is well-scaled for a weapons capability, as a comparison to [Pakistan's] nuclear weapons infrastructure shows," the report said. "When one also considers Iran's concealment and deception activities, it's difficult to escape the conclusion that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons."

The Bush administration is pressing the IAEA to refer the issue of Iran's covert nuclear program to the United Nations Security Council, after months of diplomatic efforts by the governments of Britain, France and Germany have produced few results.

The United Nations could then impose economic sanctions against Iran or possibly a future authorization for the use of force.

The report states that Iran's uranium ore resources are insufficient for Tehran to produce enough fuel for civilian electrical power generating reactors.

"However, Iran's uranium resources are more than sufficient to support a nuclear weapons capability," the report said.

For example, Iran's Gachin uranium ore mine is producing about 21 tons of ore annually, enough to produce about four nuclear bombs per year, the report said.

Satellite photographs included in the report show that Iran's gas centrifuge facility and its heavy water plants closely resemble nuclear plants in Pakistan. The report does not identify the country as Pakistan, but U.S. officials said the photographs show Pakistani nuclear infrastructure.

The report also includes a comparison of nuclear weapons delivery vehicles and shows how Iran's Shahab-3 missile closely resembles Pakistan's Ghauri missile. Both have a range of up to 930 miles. Both are based on North Korea's No-Dong missile.

The report notes that the Shahab-3 can carry a warhead weighing up to 2,200 pounds, and the Ghauri can carry a 1,540-pound warhead.

The report said that after Iran was caught with an "extensive concealment and deception record," the government in Tehran claimed that its nuclear program was for a peaceful nuclear fuel cycle.

However, the report said the lack of uranium ore reserves could not support nuclear power plants but "are well scaled to give Iran a significant number of nuclear weapons."

Iran Readying for Conflict with U.S.

September 17, 2005
Arab News
Amir Taheri

Incredible though it may sound there are signs that Tehran may be preparing for a military confrontation with the United States, and has convinced itself that it could win.

The first sign came last June with the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president of the Islamic Republic, an event that completed the conquest of all levers of power by the most radical elements of the establishment.

Since then Iran Readying for Conflict With US the revolutionary factions have conducted a little publicized purge of the military, the security, the civil service, and state-owned corporations and media.

The most significant purges have affected the military high command.

Among those replaced are the defense minister, the commander-in-chief of the regular army and his four deputies, 11 senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and five commanders of the paramilitary Mobilization of the Dispossessed. Some of the purged officers have been "parked" in a mysterious new organ called "The Defense Guidance Commission" attached to the office of the "Supreme Guide" Ayatollah Ali Khamenehi.

The minister of intelligence and security and the minister of the interior, who controls the police and the gendarmerie, have also been replaced.

Another sign that Tehran may be preparing for war is the appointment of military officers to posts normally held by civilians, such as governors, mayors and directors of major public corporations.

But, perhaps, the surest sign yet is the military build up under way in the five provinces bordering Iraq. The region, with a population of 20 millions, has been put under the control of the IRGC which has also taken over units of the regular army, including the 88th Division, and the border police. Iran is estimated to have 250,000 troops in the area, its biggest military build-up since the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988.

One of the first acts of the new Cabinet led by Ahmadinejad was to approve an "emergency" fund of $700 million to be disbursed at the discretion of "the supreme guide" for "sacred defense purposes."

The new administration has also decided to speed up defense disbursements under a five-year plan approved by Khamenehi last year. The plan aims at doubling the military budget by 2010. But it now seems that, thanks to rising oil revenues, most of the plan could be completed by 2008.

In the past few weeks top regime figures, including Khamenehi and Ahmadinejad, have made a series of unscheduled visits to Mash'had, Iran's second largest city. One curious fact revealed during these visits is that a bunker-like structure to house the "supreme guide" is being completed close to the "holy shrine" of Reza, the eighth imam. The complex could also house the top echelon of government, including the president, the Cabinet and members of the Islamic Majlis (Parliament).

The choice of Mash'had is not accidental. The city is located 1,000 km from Tehran and thus as far as possible inside Iran from American fire power in Iraq and the Gulf. The US is also expected to shrink from attacks against the Mash'had bunker for fear of collateral damage to the "holy shrine" of the imam a few hundred yards away.

The summer's comings-and-goings in Mash'had have provoked rumors that Khamenehi plans to appoint Abbas Va'ez Tabasi, the mulla who runs the eighth imam's foundation, as "deputy supreme guide", just in case!

The belief that the Americans would not attack sites close to "holy shrines' has also led to the creation of a massive new military base at Fadak, a suburb of the "holy city" of Qom where the eighth imam's sister is buried, south of Tehran. Work on the base that covers an area of 7.2 square km started in August.

Piecing together the bits of the jigsaw one may guess the outline of Tehran's scenario for what it believes is an inevitable clash with the US:

  The diplomatic tussle over Iran's nuclear plans goes to the Security Council that will fail to take a decision thanks to Russian and Chinese vetoes.

  The US, after much huffing and puffing launches air strikes against Iran's nuclear installations. (Tehran loves Israel to also participate because that would give the Islamic Republic a better claim to be fighting on behalf of Islam as a whole.)

  Iran retaliates by ordering the forces it controls inside Iraq to attack American and British troops. At the same time the Lebanese branch of the Hezbollah launches massive rocket attacks against Israel while Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, whose leaders spent the past month in Tehran meeting Khamenehi and his aides, organize a wave of suicide operations against Israel from Jerusalem and the West Bank.

  The US and its British allies, stationed in southern Iraq, launch a three-pronged attack, from Shalamcheh, Hamroun and Shatt Al-Arab to seize control of Khuzestan, the province that accounts for 70 percent of Iran's oil production.

  Iranian Special Forces attack Iraq from the Zaynalkosh salient, south of the Kurdish provinces, some 80 km from Baghdad's first defenses in Ba'aqubah.

  Hazara Shi'ites strikes against Kabul, the Afghan capital, from Maydanshahr while Pushtun warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and the remnants of the Taleban, some of whom are under Iranian protection, attack across Afghanistan.

  The Americans and their allies attack Khuzestan.

  Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz.

  The Americans attack the Iranian provinces of Kermanshahan and Kurdistan.

  US-led forces attack across the Mandali-Ilam axis. The Iranians retreat to the Zagross mountain range, the first line of Iran's natural defenses. (To fight along the Zagross the IRGC is building new bases at Khorramabad, Pessyan, Borujerd, Zagheh and Malayer in the province of Luristan. The bases would assure the logistics of a quarter of a million troops, and provide temporary shelter for half a million refugees from the border. These bases will complement older ones further west, at Sahneh and Kangavar. )

  Oil prices top $100 and the global economy plunges into a crisis.

  Americans launch cruise missiles against "regime targets" in Tehran. But the regime is already in Mash'had.

  Global TV networks air images of "indiscriminate carnage" and "wanton destruction" in Iranian cities.

  The Security Council meets in emergency and orders a cease-fire while the American media and Congress revolt against President George W Bush and his "pre-emptive" strategy.

  Anti-Bush marches in Washington and dozens of other cities with Hollywood figures and other celebrities calling for Bush to be overthrown.

  Bush accepts a UN-brokered cease-fire and withdraws his forces.

  The Islamic Republic emerges victorious from what Ahmadinejad sees as "a clash of civilizations."

  The Americans leave Iraq and Afghanistan as Bush becomes a lame duck for the rest of his presidency.

  The Islamic Republic gains new domestic legitimacy and proceeds to crush its opponents as "enemies of the nation and of Islam."

  Iran can speed up making its nuclear weapons and long-range missiles without being harassed by Washington.

  Iran becomes "the core power" of a new "Islamic pole" in a multipolar system with China, the European Union and Latin America, Under the Bolivarist leadership of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez emerging as other "poles".

  Bush's successor acknowledges Iran's new status and sends Bill Clinton, who apologized to Iran for "our past misdeeds" in 2000, to Tehran to offer another formal apology on behalf of Bush's successor and offer Ahmadinejad "a grand bargain".

  The Islamic Republic is now free to proceed to address what Khamenehi has described as its "greatest historic task" which is the destruction of Israel.

Sounds outlandish? Well, it is. The Islamic Republic is a fragile structure in a zone of political earthquakes. Logically, the last thing it should want is war. Nevertheless, former President Muhammad Khatami has warned that Tehran may be boxing itself into a position in which it will either have to surrender or fight.

Iran's Nuclear Agenda

September 14, 2005
UPI
Claude Salhani

WASHINGTON -- As Iran's newly elected president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in New York to attend the U.N. general assembly he was met by a flurry of protests and warnings that the Islamic republic is being seen as a growing threat to the United States.

Iran, reveals a "white paper" released by the Iran Policy Committee, a group lobbying Washington to take action on Iran, is far more threatening towards the United States today following the election of Ahmadinejad. The Committee, as well as groups of Iranians opposed to the theocratic regime in Tehran, see Ahmadinejad's victory as consolidating the power of the mullahs under the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

The IPC reminded during a press conference Tuesday that "Iran has unilaterally violated its prior commitments and has resumed enrichment-related activities at the Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facility, posing a serious challenge to the international community."

The White Paper focuses on revelations, not known before, of the "Iranian regime's efforts to destabilize Iraq and sabotage American attempts to spread democracy in the Middle East." The Paper also reflects the outcome of an IPC Task Force that investigated Iranian opposition groups' capabilities and allegations, and made new policy recommendations.

Meanwhile, Ali Safavi, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, gave a press conference in Brussels, where he pointed out that Tehran intends to pursue its nuclear ambitions.

The Iranian opposition group claims to have come across information that in order to obtain weapons grade uranium, "the Iranian regime has been concentrating on building 5,000 centrifuge machines as the first phase toward the ultimate goal of building 50,000 such machines, subsequent to previous revelations by the NCRI concerning the directive by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to continue the manufacture of centrifuge machines in blatant breach of the Paris Agreement."

The Iranian opposition group claims that the Supreme National Security Council's nuclear committee discussed this matter. "In order to expedite the advancement of nuclear projects and the procurement of enriched uranium, those in charge focus on starting up a limited number of centrifuges to obtain enriched uranium as quickly as possible. As such, the regime would be able to obtain enriched uranium for several nuclear bombs in a shorter time frame."

Safavi recalled that "Natanz was designed to house 50,000 centrifuge machines, but their manufacture is taking place in several stages. The first phase involves the manufacture of 5,000 machines."

Safavi claims "the regime has completed testing on nearly two-thirds of these centrifuges and is working rapidly to prepare other requirements to install them at Natanz." It named engineer Mohammadi, a Defense Ministry centrifuge expert, who regularly visits Natanz, to ensure the preparatory work is carried out according to plans.

Tehran, said the Iranian dissident, "smuggled the engines for the centrifuges from China through Dubai in the past two years." He went on to say that "orders for the production of one of the most sensitive part of a centrifuge machine, Copper-Beryllium Cup of Bottom Bearing, has been placed at one of Defense Ministry's cover companies."

A secret company in the Defense Ministry's Defense Industries group, called "Precision machines and equipment" is also involved in building parts and assembling centrifuges.

In addition to companies affiliated with the Defense Ministry, several cover companies that are involved in the manufacture and testing of centrifuges are located in a seven-story building in Tehran that is owned by Atomic Energy Organization of Iran; he gives the address as Seyyed Jamal ad-Din Assad-Abadi Street, 15th Street, number 33, Tehran.

While the regime's experts believe that only 1,000 centrifuges are needed to produce highly enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb, building 5,000 provides the necessary cover to pursue military aims.

Safavi reminded that "if the international community, in particular the IAEA, does not move to refer Iran's nuclear file to the U.N. Security Council, the world would be in a perilous situation."

There is even more urgency today given the 22-month negotiations with the EU-3 -- Britain, France and Germany -- provided ample opportunity and precious time to Tehran "to continue and complete many of its nuclear programs."

The representative of the Iranian Resistance group stressed there was "no longer any justification to delay the referral of Iran's nuclear dossier to the Security Council. We welcome the fact that the EU-3 has finally, after wasting 22 months, came to the conclusion that the negotiations were fruitless and that Iran must be referred to the Security Council."

"Time is of the essence," said Safavi. "The Tehran regime must not be allowed to use its oil revenues to fund its secret and dangerous nuclear projects."

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Blix: Iran greater nuclear threat than Iraq was

Daniel Flitton
November 8, 2007

Dr Blix delivered the Sydney Peace Prize Lecture last night, saying he was still optimistic the international community could escape the threat posed by nuclear weapons.

But he said that souring relations between the big world powers could raise long-term military tensions.

His comments came as Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the country's nuclear program was "irreversible", voicing continued defiance in the face of possible new international sanctions.

Speaking before the lecture, Dr Blix said US hostility towards Iran was similar to that expressed by the US before the Iraq invasion.

"The US is orchestrating allegations or contentions — some which may be true, some which may not be proven — about Iranian participation in the Iraqi situation with the roadside bombs and the training of militias," he said.

"That sort of orchestration you saw before the Iraq war."

The crucial difference with Iran now was that Iraq was "practically prostrate" in 2003.

"They had had sanctions since 1991 and were in miserable shape and everyone knew that," he said.

"In the case of Iran, this is very different. Iran is a country that has a big military apparatus.

"They have also a large nuclear sector with two nuclear power reactors that are ready to go into operation, research reactors going on, a lot of people and a lot of money.

"Therefore the suspicions and concerns about Iran and enriched uranium are far more substantial than they were in the case of Iraq."

President Ahmadinejad, who rejects US accusations the country is seeking to develop nuclear weapons, said yesterday that Iran had 3000 centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium.

Enriched uranium can fuel power plants but also, if refined further, provide material for bombs. Western experts say 3000 machines could make enough enriched uranium for an atomic bomb in about a year.

"The Iranian nation has entered the phase of industrial scale of nuclear fuel (production) and the train of the Iranian nation's progress is irreversible," President Ahmadinejad told a rally in South Khorasan province broadcast live on state television.

"Today, we've reached 3000 centrifuges," he said.

When Iran announced launching the 3000 centrifuges in April, the UN nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Tehran had only 328 centrifuges up and running at its uranium enrichment facility at Natanz.

In a recent report, drawn up by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, the agency put the number of centrifuges working in Natanz at close to 2000, with another 650 being tested.

Dr Blix said the main concern related to Iran's intentions, not its nuclear capacity.

"The Iranians themselves assert that they have no intentions to go for nuclear weapons, that it is abhorrent to them," he said.

"But it is also clear they could change their mind one day and if they did that they would be a couple of years closer to a weapon."

With AP, REUTERS

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/11/07/1194329319275.html

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Iran nuclear negotiator is accused of spying for UK

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=493850&in_page_id=1811

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Hossein Mousavian, who played a pivotal role in Iran's fraught negotiations with the West over Tehran's nuclear programme, is said to have passed classified information to the British Embassy in the Iranian capital.

A former security official and respected ambassador, Mousavian is also accused of meeting and communicating with foreign agents and exchanging sensitive information with them.

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Charged: Hossein Mousavian passed secrets to the British Embassy in Iran, it was claimed

The charges will place more pressure on the tense diplomatic relationship between London and Tehran over the nuclear enrichment programme at a time when the United Nations is considering stepping up sanctions against Iran.

Mousavian was one of the Iranian government's top nuclear negotiators under former reformist President Mohammad Khatami until hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected.

He removed the negotiating team, which he had accused of making too many concessions to the West.

Significantly, on Monday President Ahmadinejad attacked critics of his nuclear policies as "traitors" and accused them of spying for Iran's enemies.

He used his strongest rhetoric yet against his domestic opponents and raised concerns of a possible crackdown.

"We even have a recorded speech of one of them telling the enemy, "Why should you give up?... Step up pressures to make them (Iran) retreat"," Ahmadinejad said, without identifying the person at the time.

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Mousavian is a close friend of Hashemi Rafsanjani (left), a leading rival to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (right)

A spokesman for the Foreign Office in London declined to comment yesterday but one official in the Middle East said Mousavian regularly met European envoys in Tehran from October 2003 in talks to resolve the nuclear dispute.

"It was normal diplomatic activity in that we sought to find out what the Iranian position was and he conveyed the Iranian position," one European envoy said.

"Whether they are simply claiming that in doing their government duty people like Mousavian were traitors, or whether they are claiming that over and above their government duty Mousavian passed sensitive information, we don't know," the envoy added.

Mousavian, who was also briefly detained in May on suspicion of espionage, is said to have been taken into custody on Monday shortly after appearing at a rally next to former president Hashemi Rafsanjani when he warned that Iran was facing "serious threats."

It was Mousavian's first major public appearance since being released in May.

No details of when he will appear in court were given yesterday but he is likely to appear before Iran's Revolutionary Courts. The charges carry sentences of up to life in prison.

Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi, a former judge, speaking on behalf of the authorities, said: "He has been informed of the charges that he has given the British Embassy information contrary to the security of the country.

"His crime from the viewpoint of the Intelligence Ministry is obvious and provable."

Mousavian was a senior member of Iran's negotiating team between 2003 and 2005 which regularly met EU officials.

He was Iran's ambassador to Germany in the late 1990s and early 2000s.