Iran deploys S-300 to protect Fordo nuke plant, forms Shiite army to eradicate Israel
Here's Barack Obama's legacy. After allowing Iran's nuclear program to survive and thrive and giving the Mullahcracy $1.7 billion in spending money, Iran is using the money exactly how it promised to use it. It has deployed an
S-300 missile system to protect its Fordo nuclear plant, and it has formed a Shiite army
whose goal is to eradicate Israel. This is from the first link.
A video showed an S-300 carrier truck in Fordo, raising its missile launchers toward the sky, next to other counter-strike weaponry.
The images were aired hours after supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave a speech to air force commanders, including Esmaili, in which he stressed that Iranian military power was for defensive purposes only.
"Continued opposition and hype on the S-300 or the Fordo site are examples of the viciousness of the enemy," Khamenei said.
"The S-300 system is a defence system not an assault one, but the Americans did their best for Iran not to get hold of it."
The Fordo site, built into a mountain near the city of Qom has stopped enriching uranium since the January implementation of a nuclear deal with world powers.
Under the historic accord, Iran dismantled most of its estimated 19,000 centrifuges -- giant spinning machines that enrich uranium, keeping only 5,000 active for research purposes.
Maybe for a few years anyway....
In the meantime, Iran has not given up on
eradicating Israel.
Retired General Mohammad Ali Falaki, who is currently one of the Iranian
forces leaders in Syria, has recently revealed that Iran has formed a
“Shiite Liberation Army” led by Quds Force commander, General Qassem
Soleimani.
The Quds Force also known as Pasdaran in Persian is
a special forces unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and
is responsible for the Islamic Republic’s extraterritorial operation.
“The Shiite Liberation Army is currently fighting on three fronts -
Iraq, Syria and Yemen,” he told Mashregh news agency, which is close to
the IRGC, in an interview published on Thursday.
The retired
general said “This army is not only composed of Iranians but it recruits
locally from the regions witnessing fighting.”
Falaki, who is
leading part of the IRGC fight in Syria to give support to Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, advised that it was “not wise to
directly involve Iranian forces into the Syrian conflict.”
“The
role of our personnel should be limited to training, preparing and
equipping the Syrians to fight in their areas, ” he added.
Falaki said that the main objective behind the formation of the first
nucleus of the ‘Shiite Liberation Army’ is to “eradicate Israel after 23
years, especially that these battalions are now on Israeli borders.”
#ThanksObama
And you were still wondering why he hasn't taken the fight to Assad?
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Bashar al-Assad, Fordow nuclear plant, Iran Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran sanctions regime, Obama's legacy, S-300 missile defense system, Syria, uranium enrichment
Iran's nuclear map - much more than you knew about
There's a great map of Iran's nuclear facilities that's been posted
here.
It's by Olli Heinonen, a senior fellow with the Belfer Center at Harvard
University's Kennedy School and a former deputy director-general for
safeguards at the IAEA, and by Simon Henderson is the Baker fellow and director of the Gulf and Energy
Policy Program at The Washington Institute, specializing in energy
matters and the conservative Arab states of the Persian Gulf.
If you click the link, you can even download a pdf version (which I did). I had no idea that there were this many facilities and I suspect that most of you didn't know either (I thought there were four or five facilities). Most of these facilities will remain intact if President Obama's agreement with Iran goes through and is implemented.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Arak heavy water production plant, Barack Hussein Obama, Bushehr, Fordow nuclear plant, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, Natanz, P 5+1, plutonium, uranium, uranium enrichment
Change: Obama keeps his word
President Obama promised that he would not sign a bad deal with Iran over its nuclear weapons capability. And for once, he has kept his word. But, writes David Horovitz,
leaving a bad deal unsigned could be even worse than signing it.
They didn’t sign a bad framework deal in
Lausanne, Switzerland, last week. They just agreed on one in principle,
and left it unsigned, allowing for multiple conflicting interpretations.
It was immediately plain that the US-led
negotiators had mislaid their moral compass, and indeed any clear sight
of their own self-interest, when they agreed to conduct the negotiations
as scheduled even as Iran’s ruthless, arrogant leader Ali Khamenei was
intoning his “Death to America” mantra, and one of his military chiefs
was declaring that Israel’s destruction is “nonnegotiable.”
What is becoming increasingly plain is the
extent to which the Obama team and their colleagues were played for
fools by the Iranians in the talks themselves.
Iran was dragged to the negotiating table by
the accumulated impact of a painstakingly constructed sanctions regime.
It was allowed to leave the table with much of its nuclear weapons
program intact, and with the promise of those sanctions being removed.
Unsurprisingly, Iran was not required to
acknowledge its nuclear weaponization efforts to date.
Unsurprisingly,
it was not required to halt its missile development program.
Unsurprisingly, sanctions removal was not conditioned on its abandonment
of terrorism, a halt to its financing and arming of Hezbollah, Hamas
and other Islamic extremist groups, or an end to its relentless
incitement against Israel. Nobody who had followed the Obama
administration’s abject handling of the negotiations prior to Lausanne
had expected anything in these areas.
But the deal is far worse than even our
relentlessly lowered expectations had given us reason to anticipate. The
Arak heavy water plant is not to be dismantled. Why not? Because this
was the best deal we could get. The Fordo enrichment facility, built
secretly into a mountain, is not to be shuttered. Why not? Because this
was the best deal we could get. Thousands of centrifuges are to be
allowed to keep on spinning. Thousands more will remain intact. For
heaven’s sake, why? Because this was the best deal we could get.
All this according to the — so far — undisputed elements of the unsigned agreement.
Less than a week after those sickening scenes
of back-slapping in Lausanne, however, more and more of the central
elements of the framework are being disputed.
And to bring this back to Israel, am I the only one who can envision such a vague, unsigned agreement with the 'Palestinians' if this administration gets its way?
Labels: Arak heavy water production plant, Barack Hussein Obama, breakout capacity, centrifuges, Fordow nuclear plant, Hamas, Hezbullah, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, Natanz, P 5+1, uranium enrichment
Nuke deal signed, Obama to threaten Netanyahu later today
An
agreement has been signed between Iran and the P 5+1, and President Hussein Obama is calling Prime Minister Netanyahu later today to make sure that Netanyahu will not take matters into his own hands (see the tweet above - what else could it mean? Obama detests Netanyahu...). Except that it's not much of an agreement, and Iran is laughing all the way to the bank.
After failing to meet a March 31 deadline for the announcement of a
firm political agreement, Secretary of State John Kerry and Javad Zarif,
his Iranian counterpart, said that the sides had agreed in principle to
let Iran continue running major portions of its nuclear program.
Despite threats from Obama administration officials that the United
States would abandon talks if Iran continued to demand greater
concessions, Kerry extended his trip and conducted a series of meetings
aimed at hashing out a statement of progress—a far cry from the detailed
document officials vowed would be finalized by now.
The sides continue to disagree over Iranian demands that it be
permitted to continue key nuclear research and granted the ability to
ramp its program up to industrial capacity after a decade.
However, Zarif said many of these issues are closer to being resolved.
“None of those measures” that will move to scale back Iran’s program
“include closing any of our facilities,” Zarif said. “We will continue
enriching; we will continue research and development.”
“Our heavy water reactor will be modernized and we will continue the
Fordow facility,” Zarif said. “We will have centrifuges installed in
Fordow, but not enriching.”
...
Zarif said that once a final agreement is made, “all U.S. nuclear
related secondary sanctions will be terminated,” he said. “This, I
think, would be a major step forward.”
Zarif also revealed that Iran will be allowed to sell “enriched
uranium” in the international market place and will be “hopefully making
some money” from it.
...
The United Nations also will move to endorse the ongoing Joint Plan of
Action interim deal and terminate all of its previous security council
resolutions on Iran.
...
Zarif told
reporters late Wednesday amid extensive meetings with the United
States and other P5+1 one nations that he was “all smiles” after days of
intensive talks in which Tehran has given little ground on American
efforts to reduce the size of its nuclear program and uranium
stockpiles.
Zarif emphasized that no progress could be made in the talks due to continued United States “pressure” and lack of respect.
Iran in recent days went
back on earlier promises that it would export its stockpiles of
enriched uranium, the key component in a nuclear weapon. This
requirement continues to remain one of the key sticking points to
progress.
With the talks slated to continue through June, a majority of Americans say Congress “should be required” to approve the agreement, something the Obama administration has opposed.
Around 55 percent of those surveyed by Fox News said the United
States cannot “trust anything” Iran promises on the nuclear front.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Arak heavy water production plant, Barack Hussein Obama, Fordow nuclear plant, Iranian nuclear threat, John Kerry, Mohammad Javad Zarif, P 5+1, plutonium, uranium enrichment
Great news: Iran has another underground nuclear facility
Maybe this will put a monkey wrench into John FN Kerry's plans. Iranian opposition groups are alleging that the Iranian mullahcracy has yet another
undisclosed, underground nuclear facility.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran
exposed Iran's uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and a heavy-water
facility at Arak in 2002. But analysts say the NCRI has a mixed track
record and a clear agenda of regime change in Tehran.
...
The Paris-based NCRI said members of its affiliated People's
Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI) inside the country had obtained
reliable information on a new and covert site designated for Iran's
nuclear project. But it had no details of what kind of nuclear activity
was being carried out there.
"According to specific information
obtained by the Iranian resistance, the clerical regime is establishing
or completing parallel secret and undeclared sites for its nuclear
project," NCRI official Mehdi Abrichamtchi told reporters.
Accusations the NCRI made in July and October
about secret nuclear sites drew a wary international response, while
the United States expressed skepticism about another claim in 2010.
The
NCRI said the new site was inside a 600-metre tunnel complex beneath
mountains 10 km (6 miles) from the town of Mobarekeh, adjacent to the
Isfahan-Shiraz highway, within the existing Haft-e Tir military
industrial complex.
Abrichamtchi said work on the site began in
2005 and the construction of tunnels ended in early 2009. Work on the
facilities was recently completed, he said.
Abrichamtchi said
Iran's Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research handled Iran's
sensitive nuclear activity and also managed the new facility. The site
had extra security compared to the rest of the military complex, he
said.
You will recall that in 2009,
President Obama tried to cover up the existence of the Fordow underground facility near the 'holy city' of Qom until the British and the French forced him to disclose it.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Fordow nuclear plant, Iranian nuclear threat
US bunker buster destroys Fordo replica
The United States has used a bunker buster to
destroy a replica of an unnamed underground nuclear facility - clearly meant to be Iran's Fordo uranium enrichment facility - according to a report in Friday's Yedioth Aharonoth.
The Pentagon has recently completed a series of field exercises on US soil as part of which a replica of an underground nuclear facility
was destroyed, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Friday.
The tests were declared a resounding success having exceeded all expectations.
The results of the
experiment were relayed to friendly nations with the aim of reassuring
them as to the US's ability to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities in a
single strike.
It was also meant to convey that the US is serious in its intentions to attack Iran
should circumstances allow it.
The experiment
included the firing of several bunker buster bombs
first introduced by the US Defense Department in July 2012. The GBU-57
B bomb is mounted on a B-2 bomber and as part of the experiment
penetrated the underground facility's concrete ceilings.
The US has suggested it will manufacture only a limited amount of such bunker busters. Each bomb
is estimated at $ 3.5 million and the overall cost of developing the new weapon was $500 million.
The size of the munition is six times greater than any other known
bunker buster. It weighs 13 tons and its speed of penetration two times
faster than the speed of sound at a rate of accuracy of five meters.
The real question appears to be not whether the United States can do it, but whether Obama will have the guts to pull the trigger. Or whether Chuck Hagel will have the guts to do it
while Obama is on the golf course.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, bunker busters, Chuck Hagel, Fordow nuclear plant, GBU-57, Iranian nuclear threat
West drops demand to close Fordow
In an amazing concession to Iran, the West has
dropped its demand that the Mullahcracy close its Fordow uranium enrichment plant, instead offering an agreement that Iran will not enrich uranium there - except for a 'tiny bit' of 20% enriched uranium that Iran claims to need for medical isotopes.
But the six powers dropped their demand that Iran shut down its enrichment plant at Fordo, built deep underneath a mountain, instead insisting that Iran suspend enrichment work there and agree to take a series of steps that would make it hard to resume producing nuclear fuel quickly. The six also agreed, in another apparent softening, that Iran could keep a small amount of 20 percent enriched uranium — which can be converted to bomb grade with modest additional processing — for use in a reactor to produce medical isotopes.
Before you decide that this is 'reasonable,' keep in mind that Iran is a regime that has consistently deceived the world as to what it is doing and what its intentions are - just yesterday I reported on a newly discovered
Iranian attempt to make a bomb out of plutonium.
For that it's worth, the Iranians are now exuding optimism about the negotiations, and the West is a little less optimistic.
The chief Iranian negotiator, Saeed Jalili, called this week’s meeting positive, asserting at a news conference that the six powers, representing the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany, had offered a revised proposal that was “more realistic” and “closer to the Iranian position.”
Mr. Jalili, whose comments were notably short of the aggressive wording he has used in the past, called the meeting “a turning point.”
But senior Western diplomats were less enthusiastic, saying that Iran had not in fact responded to the proposal of the six and that real bargaining had not yet begun. A senior American official described the meeting as “useful” — refusing to call it positive — and emphasized that it was “concrete results” that counted, not atmospherics.
A senior European diplomat was even more skeptical, saying that the technical meeting was essentially to explain the proposal to the Iranians once again, and that Iran might very well come back in April with an unacceptable counterproposal that swallows the “carrots” of the six and demands more.
The West thinks it has imposed enough conditions to make sure Iran cannot resume enrichment again, and it regards letting Iran keep the plant as a 'face-saving measure.' But what will happen when Iran bars IAEA inspectors again?
Iran is running out the clock and the West is going along with it. What could go wrong?
Labels: Fordow nuclear plant, Iranian nuclear threat, P 5+1, uranium enrichment
Iran's Plan B for nuclear weapons exposed
London's Daily Telegraph published the photo above, which proves that Iran has a Plan B to obtain a nuclear weapon. The photo, which shows vapor coming out of Iran's Arak heavy water production plant, shows that Iran is now
operating a plant that can produce plutonium, which is exactly how its ally North Korea is trying to develop
nuclear weapons.
Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency have been unable to
visit the facility since August 2011 and Iran has refused repeated requests
for information about the site, which is 150 miles south-west of the
capital, Tehran.
Western governments and the IAEA have held information about activity at Arak
for some time.
But today’s exclusive images are the first to put evidence of that activity
into the public domain.
The details of Iran’s plutonium programme emerged as the world’s leading
nations resumed talks with Tehran aimed at allaying fears over the country’s
nuclear ambitions.
The new images also show details of the Fordow complex, which is concealed
hundreds of feet beneath a mountain near the holy city of Qom. At talks in
Kazakhstan yesterday, world leaders offered to relax sanctions on Iran in
exchange for concessions over Fordow, which is heavily protected from aerial
attack.
...
Previously, international talks on Iran’s nuclear programme have focused on
the Islamic Republic’s attempts to enrich uranium at plants including
Fordow.
But the new images of Arak highlight the progress Iran has made on facilities
that could allow it to produce plutonium, potentially giving the country a
second option in developing a nuclear weapon.
...
Other images of the area around Arak show that numerous anti-aircraft missile
and artillery sites protect the plant, more than are deployed around any
other known nuclear site in the country.
The missile defences are most heavily concentrated to the west of the plant,
which would be the most direct line of approach for any aircraft delivering
a long-range strike from Israel.
The Arak complex has two parts: the heavy-water plant and a nuclear reactor.
Unlike the heavy-water plant, the reactor has been opened to examination by
inspectors from the IAEA. During a visit earlier this month, the inspectors
noted that cooling and “moderator circuit” pipes at the reactor were “almost
complete”.
Let's go to the videotape.
Read the whole thing.
There's another possibility: That Arak is meant to replace or back-up Fordow, assuming that one gives credibility to reports last month about an
explosion in Fordow.
Labels: Arak heavy water production plant, Fordow nuclear plant, Iranian nuclear threat, North Korea, plutonium, uranium enrichment
The lady doth protest too much?
Iran continues to issue denials regarding the explosion that allegedly occurred last month at its Fordow uranium enrichment plant. And Reza Khalili continues to provide
the kind of minute details that make you think he knows something that the world's media isn't telling us.
The bodies of 11 of the technicians and scientists are beyond
recognition, a member of the security forces at the facility told WND.
According to the source, 60 others are in critical condition and have
been transferred to the central base of the 27th Division of Mohammad
Rassool Allah. The base, between Tehran and Qom, is equipped with a
modern medical facility.
At the time of the explosions, the source said, 203 Iranian
scientists and technicians along with 16 North Koreans had been logged
in at the site, though the initial report listed 240 people.
...
The International Atomic Energy Agency has not visited the site since
the explosions despite media rumors, the source said. Because the
regime’s Ministry of Defense covers the project at Fordow, officials of
Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization were allowed to visit it Jan. 5.
In an unusual move, the IAEA issued a brief statement Jan. 29: “We
understand that Iran has denied that there has been an incident at
Fordow. This is consistent with our observations.”
IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor emailed that response to reporters.
However, when pushed by WND, Tudor could neither confirm nor deny the
incident had taken place and did not say whether inspectors had visited
the site after the explosions, despite media reports.
Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi, representatives of the supreme leader
and intelligence officers from both the Ministry of Intelligence and the
Revolutionary Guards have visited parts of the site that have been
cleared as secure. A counterintelligence committee has been formed to
investigate the incident, which already has been called an act of
sabotage, with Israel the prime suspect.
The regime is debating how to explain the incident at a later date
depending on the level of destruction, the source said. But because of
internal rifts among President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, supreme leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Majlis (parliament), Ahmadinejad or
others connected to his team will soon reveal the incident.
Regime media have solely based their denial that the explosions
occurred on a statement by White House spokesman Jay Carney, who told
reporters Jan. 28: “We have no information to confirm the allegations in
the (WND) report, and we do not believe the report is credible.”
However, the Islamic regime’s official news agency, IRNA, in a report Jan. 30, called WND a “mouthpiece of the CIA”
and its reporting mere propaganda by the West before the start of
renewed negotiations between Iran and the 5-plus-1 powers – the United
States, Britain, France, Russia and China, plus Germany.
IRNA’s report said: “WND, which publishes under the direct control of
the CIA, on Thursday, Jan. 24, reported that an explosion took place at
Fordow that destroyed much of the facility and trapped 240 personnel.
WND in its report interestingly touches on the previous sabotage at
Fordow and in a coordinated effort, the White House denies having
information and the Israelis state their happiness of such an event. The
propaganda by the West continues with the BBC reporting that Iran has
denied the report put out by Reza Kahlili, a former CIA spy in the
Revolutionary Guards.”
Read the whole thing. If there's nothing to Khalili's story, why does Iran feel the need to keep denying it?
Labels: Fordow nuclear plant, Iranian nuclear threat, Reza Khalili, uranium enrichment
Satellite images show no sign of emergency response at Fordow
The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) has published the satellite image above, which shows the Fordow uranium enrichment plant in Iran on January 22, 2013, the day after
there was allegedly an explosion at the same plant.
ISIS
adds the following comments:
On January 25, 2013, news website WND published a report
claiming that on January 21, the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant near the
Iranian city of Qom was the target of a major explosion, thought to be
an act of sabotage. The website claimed the explosion partially
destroyed the site and trapped 240 people underground. ISIS obtained
from Astrium commercial satellite imagery of the site taken the day
after the explosion (figure 1). The imagery shows no exterior signs of
an explosion or major damage. Although an underground explosion may not
leave visible exterior signs of damage, ISIS observed no intensified
activity in the form of emergency or cleanup vehicles that one would
expect to see around the site in the wake of an incident of this
magnitude (figure 1). The lack of clarity at very high magnification
does leave some doubt on whether a set of three white marks near one of
the entrances of the southernmost tunnel could indeed be three vehicles.
However, an emergency response would be expected to have been prompt
and to have involved many more vehicles, particularly given the national
importance of the gas centrifuge site and especially of the personnel
working underground.
During the last few days, Iranian, Israeli, and U.S. officials denied that sabotage or a major incident occurred and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) concurred.
Well, if it didn't happen, that would definitely be a disappointment.
/sigh
Labels: Fordow nuclear plant, IAEA, Iranian nuclear threat, Israeli attack on Iran, Qom, Reza Khalili, uranium enrichment
Did the IAEA miss something?
Given the IAEA's knack for missing the existence of and important developments in Iran's nuclear program, how much credence should we give their claim that
there was no explosion at Fordow?
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in an unusual move, made a
brief statement following media reports at the weekend of significant
damage at the underground Fordow uranium enrichment site.
IAEA inspectors regularly visit Iranian nuclear sites, including the one
at Fordow, and the UN agency suggested in its comment that they had
been at the site after the reports in some Israeli and Western media of
an explosion there.
"We understand that Iran has denied that there has been an incident at
Fordow. This is consistent with our observations," IAEA spokeswoman Gill
Tudor said in an emailed comment in response to a question.
Hmmm.
Labels: Fordow nuclear plant, IAEA, Iranian nuclear threat, Qom, uranium enrichment
So you still don't believe there was an explosion at Fordow....
Over the last few days, I've heard a lot of skepticism over the claim that an explosion seriously damaged the Fordow uranium enrichment plant last week. I've heard that WND (World Net Daily) isn't reliable, that Reza Khalili is not and never was a CIA agent, and other such claims.
So here are two sources that many of you might consider more reliable who are advancing the same claim. One is
Michael Ledeen, an expert on Iran who writes for PJ Media and other sites.
Confirmation has been dribbling in, mostly from the German press.
I’m told that there was indeed an explosion, which took place in a gas
line that was being run to a new part of the Fordo facility, deep
underground. I don’t know if it was sabotage or an accident, but
eyewitnesses talk about a monster blast, and it does indeed appear that
lots of workers are trapped.
There are lots of explosions in Iran’s pipelines, and at the
country’s refineries, as I’ve pointed out several times. Both petroleum
and natural gas pipelines are blown up regularly, and the biggest
refineries are often out of commission.
This is different; the regime dearly wants to craft atomic bombs,
and the new Fordo facility, cleverly concealed from IAEA inspectors,
would have added to their capacity, and, as long as it remained secret,
would have enabled them to work away from the snoopers. Now, not only
is the new facility exposed, but it, and the surrounding operations, are
severely damaged.
UPDATE: Still too early to know all the details, but it seems the
gas line was being run to a facility separate from the
formerly-secret-but-now-well-known site. So while the new, very deep
underground, project was blown up, the older one is intact.
The second source is
Dr. Ali Reza Nourizadeh, an Iranian, who is a senior researcher and director at the Institute for Arab and Iranian Studies in London.
Nourizadeh, who is a commentator for Deutsche Welle and the Voice of
America and has an extensive network of contacts in Iran, told us that
the explosion has caused relative little damage to the uranium
enrichment facility itself but that the blast has blocked the entrance
to Fordow. He confirmed that more than 200 personnel are trapped in the
plant and that there is a unknown number of casualties.
He said that since the blast the city of Qom, where Fordow is
located, has been encircled by forces of the Iranian Revolutionary
Guard. He also reported that today the regime arrested between eight
and twelve Iranian journalists who where accused of collaborating with
foreign media. Nourizadeh said that local journalists have been
responsible for leaking information about the incident in Fordow. Their
computers and other equipment has been confiscated.
Meanwhile, Reza Khalili has an
update.
Sixteen North Koreans, including 14 technicians and two top military
officers, are among those trapped after a Jan. 21 explosion destroyed
much of Iran’s Fordow nuclear site, a source reveals.
The source who provided the initial information on the explosion at
Fordow has now provided details of the explosion and the degree of the
destruction at one of Iran’s most important nuclear sites.
The report, published exclusively on WND on Jan. 24, is being covered internationally by major media, with independent intelligence sources confirming the explosion for the Times of London and the German Die Welt.
But White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Monday: “We have no information to confirm the allegations in the report and we do not believe the report is credible.”
...
Iranian authorities fear that opening the site from the outside in a
rescue mission could possibly release radiation and uranium gas or cause
further explosions, which could contaminate thousands of people living
nearby, the source said.
As of Monday, the regime had not come up with any concrete rescue
plan, though more than 200 people remain trapped, including the North
Koreans, he said. He added that an agreement reached last September
between North Korea and Iran called for further collaboration on Iran’s
nuclear bomb project and the arming of missiles with nuclear warheads.
Another source in the Intelligence Ministry said that in a meeting
Monday among top officials, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, it
was decided that the international community would be kept in the dark
about the disaster because any validation would undermine their current
negotiating power with the 5+1 world powers.
It would also undermine the regime from within should Iranians react
to its illicit nuclear activity and the international sanctions it
caused, which are being felt deeply.
The source added that the regime is contemplating showing old images
of the interior of the site to buy time until it can accurately estimate
the extent of damage and possible loss of lives.
Ahmadinejad will hold a
parliamentary meeting behind closed doors on this issue on Thursday.
Read the whole thing.
The bottom line is that they give a minute by minute breakdown of what happened when, and it really does sound believable. How much damage it has actually done remains to be seen. Hmmm. Or should I say Heh?
Labels: Fordow nuclear plant, Iranian nuclear threat, Qom, uranium enrichment
Khalili: 'The largest case of sabotage in decades'
Former Iranian Revolutionary Guard turned CIA agent Reza Khalili has told the Jerusalem Post that the destruction of the Fordo uranium enrichment plant is
the largest case of sabotage in decades.
Speaking to the Post
on Monday, Khalili expressed confidence that the alleged blast will
receive "further coverage in the US," and that "more information" will
become available to verify the incident.
"This is the center of
the Iranian nuclear program. It's essential for the regime, its
activities, and its nuclear program. If such a blow was given to Fordow,
it definitely harms [Iran] drastically. They were reaching for 20
percent uranium enrichment, and were increasing output," he added.
...
Asked why
satellite imagery was not being released of rescue efforts at Fordow,
Kahlili said only state intelligence agencies have access to live
satellite feeds. "Why don't they put it out? My only assumption is that
no one wants to take credit because of what the consequences could be by
the regime," he said. "This is a very sensitive time. I'm sure that
soon, very soon, more information will leak out. Chatter will get loud
enough to provide further information."
Kahlili went on to say that the
"first suspicion is Israel" within the Islamic Republic. "I have
verified information that there was a meeting [called by Iran's Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei. A decision was made to act in Lebanon. A
request was made to [Hezbollah chief Hassan] Nasrallah to vacate
southern Lebanese villages. Islamic Republic Guards are on their way
there. A decision has been made to prepare for missile launch from a
certain area in Lebanon against Israel," he said.
Khalili said
one of the sources who initially leaked information of the blast came
from within the security forces guarding Fordow, adding that precise
information of the attack was not being released in order to protect the
source. "The source has been collaborating for a long time," he said. A
second source came from the Iranian Intelligence Ministry, he said,
adding that it was very difficult to safely get information out of Iran.
Iranian
authorities have not yet made any progress in their attempt to enter
Fordow, Kahlili asserted, adding, "I fear there is radiation involved."
Iran's defense ministry dispatched drilling vehicles, "the same they
used to carve tunnels and create underground facilities, to see if they
can make any headway in opening emergency exists, because they
collapsed. Among those stuck in the facility are dozens of foreign
nationals. These are contracted scientists," he said.
Kahlili
said a second mysterious blast occurred in Tehran last week, at an IRGC
base called "21 Hamza." "There are injuries, and there have been arrests
of IRGC members who are being questioned. The Intelligence Ministry
suspects sabotage," he added.
Now isn't that funny? Just last night, I reported that
two Iron Dome batteries were moved to Northern Israel, one to Haifa and one to an undisclosed location. We were led to believe that was due to an ongoing threat that Syria's chemical weapons would fall into the hands of either Hezbullah or the Islamist rebels in Syria. But could it be that at least one of those batteries was to deployed to defend our border with Lebanon? And is Nasrallah going to be stupid enough to open the gates of hell on Lebanon again?
Hmmm.
Labels: Fordow nuclear plant, Hezbullah, Iranian nuclear threat, Iron Dome, Qom, Reza Khalili, sabotage, uranium enrichment
Israel confirms, Iran denies Fordow explosion - UPDATED
And now Iran feels it has to
issue a denial....
An Iranian official on Sunday night denied the reports, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
The deputy head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization Seyyed
Shamseddin Barbroudi was quoted by the IRNA as dismissing the report.
But The Times of Israel
- citing the Times of London (I understand that it's Sheera Frankel and not Uzi Mahnaimi) - is now reporting that
Israeli sources are confirming the explosion.
Israeli intelligence officials have confirmed
that a major explosion has rocked an Iranian nuclear facility, according
to a report Monday in The Times of London.
The British daily cited officials in Tel Aviv
who said the blast occurred last week, as originally reported on the
website wnd.com.
Iran is not believed to have evacuated the
area surrounding the Fordo plant, according to the same Israeli sources,
who said that an investigation into the blast was ongoing.
“We are still in the preliminary stages of
understanding what happened and how significant it is,” one Israeli
official told the London Times. He did not know if the explosion was
“sabotage or accident” and refused to comment on reports that Israeli
aircraft were seen near Fordo at the time of the blast.
The Times of Israel also has a further denial from Iran.
How long does it take to get a satellite photo?
Remember al-Kibar in Syria and how the Syrians claimed nothing happened while Israel maintained radio silence for weeks?
Hmmm.
UPDATE 10:41 AM
Someone has now emailed the text of Sheera Frankel's report in the Times of London. Here's part of that report:
An explosion is believed to have damaged Iran’s Fordow
nuclear facility, which is being used to enrich uranium, Israeli
intelligence officials have told The Times. Sources in Tel Aviv said
yesterday that they thought the explosion happened last week. The
Israeli Government is investigating reports that it led to extensive
structural damage and 200 workers had been trapped inside.
Israel believes the Iranians have not evacuated the surrounding
area. It is unclear whether that is because no harmful substances have
been released, or because Tehran is trying to avoid sparking panic among
residents.
The Fordow plant is buried deep underground inside a mountain near
the holy city of Qom. It is thought to be Iran’s most heavily fortified
facility and is regarded as impervious to Israeli airstrikes. Many of
Fordow’s 2,700 nuclear centrifuges are stored hundreds of feet below
ground in bunkers.
One Israeli official said: “We are still in the preliminary stages
of understanding what happened and how significant it is.” He did not
know, he added, if the explosion was “sabotage or accident”, and refused
to comment on reports that Israeli aircraft were seen near the facility
at the time of the explosion. [Emphasis mine. CiJ]
...
In briefings given recently to The Times, Israeli
intelligence officers provided satellite imagery that showed new
fortifications had been built around Fordow’s perimeter. “This is
already Iran’s most heavily fortified facility,” one officer said. He
added that while there were larger facilities, intelligence estimates
suggested that nuclear scientists at Fordow were producing
medium-enriched uranium, which could be converted to bomb grade.
Hmmm.
Labels: Fordow nuclear plant, Iranian nuclear threat, Israeli attack on Iran, Qom, Reza Khalili, uranium enrichment
