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[MIMIC]

Nuclear allegations on Iran unverified

U.S. officials checking evidence cited by Powell

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell shared information with reporters Wednesday about Iran's nuclear program that was classified and based on an unvetted, single source who provided information that two U.S. officials said yesterday was highly significant if true but has not yet been verified.

[...]

According to one official with access to the material, a "walk-in" source approached U.S intelligence earlier this month with more than 1,000 pages purported to be Iranian drawings and technical documents, including a nuclear warhead design and modifications enabling Iranian ballistic missiles to deliver an atomic strike. The official agreed to discuss the information on the condition of anonymity and only because Powell had alluded to it publicly.

[...]

The information provided by the source, who was not previously known to U.S. intelligence, does not mention uranium or any other area of Iran's known nuclear program, according to the official with access to the material. It focuses instead on a warhead design and modifications to Iran's long-range Shahab-3 missile and a medium-range missile in its arsenal. The Shahab-3 has a range of 800 miles and is capable of hitting Israel.

The official said the CIA remains unsure about the authenticity of the documents and how the informant came into their possession. A second official would say only that there are questions about the source of the information.

Officials interviewed by The Washington Post did not know the identity of the source or whether the individual is connected to an Iranian exile group that made fresh accusations about Iran at a news conference Wednesday in Paris. The National Council for Resistance in Iran charged that Iran was still enriching uranium and will continue to do so despite the pledge made Sunday to European foreign ministers.

The group also claimed that Iran received blueprints for a Chinese-made bomb in the mid-1990s from the global nuclear network led by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. The group, which is considered a terrorist organization by the State Department, exposed a secret Iranian enrichment facility in 2002, but many of its claims since have been inaccurate.

The lack of certainty about the source who approached U.S. intelligence had kept officials from talking publicly about the information, and Powell's comments caught the small group of informed officials by surprise and angered some of them.

The Washington Post (MSNBC)

I think I'll start to loosely use the word "stupidassdumbfuck" to describe people from now on.

 

[Ripclawe]

I am confident in about 20 years IAEA will confirm yet another unknown Iranian nuke program.

 

[Nerevar]

I am confident in about 20 years IAEA will confirm yet another unknown Iranian nuke program.

Why would you say that? It's not like Iran has an incentive to develop nuclear weapons after seeing US policy towards other middle eastern despotisms.

 

[Ghost]

Why would you say that? It's not like Iran has an incentive to develop nuclear weapons after seeing US policy towards other middle eastern despotisms.

Well Iran knows the only way to stop the US threatening invasion is for them to say "somebody set us up the bomb", like north korea.

 

[Pimpwerx]

They're building the bomb, they'll build the bomb, and then they'll be the first "confirmed" nuke power in the ME. We all know Israel has them too, but Iran having them will actually be a *gulp* stabilizing power in the region. I can't believe I just said that, but I guess I did. A nuke-enabled Iran will at least give the US a moment of pause before they decide to launch another crusade into the region. Sorry, but I don't believe what we're doing over there is right or for the right reasons, and NK and others have shown us that the only deterrant to US imperialism is the bomb.

Personally, I don't know what the concern is. I'm more concerned that the nuke powers have taken it upon themselves to lock everyone else out of the game, while continuing to develop and research nuclear technology themselves. Pretty counterproductive, and pretty hypocritical. PEACE.

 

[SteveMeister]

They're building the bomb, they'll build the bomb, and then they'll be the first "confirmed" nuke power in the ME. We all know Israel has them too, but Iran having them will actually be a *gulp* stabilizing power in the region. I can't believe I just said that, but I guess I did. A nuke-enabled Iran will at least give the US a moment of pause before they decide to launch another crusade into the region. Sorry, but I don't believe what we're doing over there is right or for the right reasons, and NK and others have shown us that the only deterrant to US imperialism is the bomb.

Personally, I don't know what the concern is. I'm more concerned that the nuke powers have taken it upon themselves to lock everyone else out of the game, while continuing to develop and research nuclear technology themselves. Pretty counterproductive, and pretty hypocritical. PEACE.

The concern is that "irresponsible" nations might be inclined to provide nuclear weapons to terrorists. Iran is, after all, part of Bush's "Axis Of Evil".

 

[MetatronM]

I'm sorry. Haven't we played this game before?

 

[Fragamemnon]

Nah, this isn't Iraq 2. There's no way that we could do to them what we did to Iraq.

That being said, I can see Israel and even the US taking preemptive action to bomb suspected nuclear sites if they felt that they had the intel that warranted it, and do so without any kind of UN Secuirty Council resolution regarding Iran's program.

 

[Ripclawe]

I'm still laughing at the EU-3 thinking Iran will actually follow up any deal. :lol


http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,139059,00.html

VIENNA, Austria — Iran is using the last few days before it must stop all uranium enrichment to produce significant quantities of a gas that can be used to make nuclear weapons, diplomats said Friday.

Iran recently started producing uranium hexafluoride (search) at its gas-processing facilities in Isfahan, the diplomats told The Associated Press. When introduced into centrifuges and spun, the substance can be enriched into weapons-grade uranium (search) that forms the core of nuclear warheads.

Iran last week agreed to suspend uranium enrichment and all related activities in a deal worked out with Britain, France, Germany and the European Union. The deal, which takes effect Monday, prohibits Iran from all uranium gas processing activities.

But the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Tehran was exploiting the window until Monday to produce uranium hexafluoride at its Isfahan (search) plant in central Iran.

Asked about quantities, one diplomat said "it's not little," but he declined to elaborate.

Iran has huge reserves of raw uranium and has announced plans to extract more than 40 tons a year.

 

[MIMIC]

OK, did I REALLY have to get that tag?

 

[Guileless]

Personally, I don't know what the concern is.

Yes, what is there really to be concerned about? It's just some theocratic religious fanatics in the most unstable region in the world--a region whose resources are absolutley essential to global economic growth-- armed with weapons capable of killing millions of people.

Pish posh, ho hum, I'm more worried about when TV Land is showing the Family Ties episode where Tom Hanks guest stars as Michael J. Fox's alchoholic uncle.

 

[doncale]

Osirak 2 coming soon !

 

[MIMIC]

Bush talks about possible "regime change" in Iran