Yossi Melman / Intel assessments of Iran's nuclear program coming true
Disclosure of 'secret' nuclear plant has only increased aggravation of int'l community towards Iran.
By Yossi Melman Tags: Iran UN Israel news Iran nuclearOver the past few hours, Iran has made international waves in regard to its nuclear program.
Western intelligence officials in Israel and elsewhere have long held that in order to build a nuclear weapon, Iran would need at least one secret uranium enrichment facility not subject to international inspections.
At the moment, with the revelation of the existence of a secret Iranian facility for uranium enrichment, we see such intelligence assessments proving true before our eyes.
It appears that Iran's disclosure of the facility is meant to cool tempers following the revelation of the facility by a number of sources. Nonetheless, the disclosure has not achieved much for Iran, and has only increased suspicions against them and caused further aggravation among the international community.
Still, Iran has conducted itself as required under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), whose regulations do not require the instant disclosure of any new nuclear facility, but do require the UN watchdog be notified of the construction of any new uranium enrichment facilities. Nonetheless, the timing of the announcement has only aggravated the issue. The announcement comes only days before the opening of talks between Iran and the permanent members of the UN Security Council, meant to bring a resolution to the crisis over Iran's nuclear program.
The announcement also came during the same week the UN General Assembly was meeting, the IAEA held its annual summit, and the G8 countries held a summit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At each meeting, the controversy over Iran and its nuclear program played a major role.
All of these factors have resulted in fury from the international community towards Iran, fury that has been expressed in statements issued by Obama, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who have demanded the IAEA immediately examine the site. Iran has said it will allow the IAEA to patrol the site, and has been insistent that the facility is only being used to enrich uranium at levels not suitable for the building of a nuclear weapon.
There is no guarantee that Iran will not move highly-enriched uranium to a secondary hidden site and hide the centrifuges used in the secret facility. One thing has been made clear though, that Iran is continue to stall and run out the clock before they must pay stiffer consequences, consequences that even Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hinted he'd weigh supporting. Meanwhile, as the clock runs, Iran comes closer and closer to the day they have a nuclear weapon, and talk of sanctions have long become moot.
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"more probable that the mossad fed the intel to the west"... i was wondering when THAT claim would be voiced...lol!!! you "MAY" be right(unfortunately there are no other means available to place emphasis on the word)... however, if the mossad HAD first discovered it, and was the source for american intelligence; don't you think it would have long ago been leaked to the press by "sources" from the office of one or another power hungry israeli politician to benefit some little self-serving agenda? do you also think that israel is so dearly in love with obama that it would sit silently by while he makes his revelation to the world while claiming it was u.s. intelligence that uncovered it? and that "that israel has been stating all along that iran had a secret reactor producing weapons grade uranium" is what's known as a "shot in the dark", and obviously based on the same presumption that the u.s. and others held; which is that "IF" iran was aimed towards building a bomb, it would almost have to have a secret facility for doing so. this facility is NOT a reactor...it's to house centrifuges, and is over a year away from being operational. so even IF it was to have remained secret; it would have been for refining uranium ore, or further refining what it already has refined, into weapons grade material. shots in the dark do not qualify as "intelligence". now consider THIS for something that's "probable": it's quite probable that the u.s. has recently shared this intelligence with israel... and so what are the probabilities of this being instrumental in iran's discovery that its facility was known? it's a bit coincidental, don't you think, that after several years of the u.s. knowing about it, iran would suddenly become aware its secret was known...in time for it to send a letter to the iaea to report its existence...just days before obama reveals it to the world?
For some reason I didn't see Russia or China in the list of "infuriated" countries.
We're not in Iraq for Israel. We were given about 30 reasons. But that never was one. The neocons own website said it was to control the oil supply to dominate China and India's economies and thereby rule the world. Theirs was a unique form of megalomania. I don't know if it's still operating or if they've changed it but it was the Project for a New American Century. Maybe you can Google it.
if the u.s. has known about it for several years? so you see...it was NOT a "secret" after all; now was it? the secret here was that the u.s. secretly knew about it; and was keeping that knowledge secret. and the "or a few" within your definition CANNOT include an adversary from whom one wishes to keep a "secret" secret...without the secret of the first party losing its secrecy to the discovery of the secret by the second party... thus rendering the secret of the first party no longer secret. so any way you look at it; the facility ceased to be a secret the moment it's existence was discovered.
On the news tonight, it was reported that Obama was briefed by the Bush Administration about the plant. It apparently has been there for some years. They even showed satellite photos of some of the support buildings and out buildings. It was no secret from the US government.
"The lack of a statement by Netanyahu indicates Israel is playing catch up." OR perhaps there is no need to speak out since it is more probable that the Mossad fed the intel to the West, then the other way around! It is a fact that Israel has been stating all along that Iran had a secret reactor producing weapons grade uranium. And about the reactor Iran gave Syria, nothing but rubble now!
"The lack of a statement by Netanyahu indicates Israel is playing catch up" Or there is NO need for Netanyahu to GET into the verbal ACT when he can SIMPLY watch and ENJOY the iran being ROASTED by the MAJOR nations.
MoL:"Just because the US didn`t tell a paranoid Israeli press about it doesn`t mean it was secret" Mark by your definition if US Intelligence Agencies find out anything through their network of informants it's no longer secret.... because by definition, the moment they know about it... it can't be a secret? You get the Derek Zoolander award for that tautology.
"There is no obligation for the US government to tell the Israeli press or politicians everything we know" American Heritage lexicon : se-cret (sekrit) NOUN - Something kept hidden from others or known only to oneself or to a few. Which is WHY, despite ALL your BABBLING, the info is STILL referred to as a SECRET. Get it now?
Marc, this will be nightmare for both US-israel to attack Iran, there is no way that they will attack Iran unless they want a declared suicide in all terms, simply they are not in a position to do so. US is not in a position to fight dirty wars for israel anymore, it is fighting in Iraq on behalf of israel. Look, western double standard pushed Iran so far and now simply so called international community (P5+German plus israel) now has to wash their hands and get over with Iranian nukes so it did in case of N Korea. Attacking Iran will be similar to buying one way ticket and Iranians are best chess player in the world. See the timings! when they have revealed this hot news! Iran has every right to have nukes as long as any other country got those, simple equation.
Nation, wouldn't matter if they were making peanuts under neath natanz or anywhere else. The Americans and Israelis want NO resistance in the Middle East.
Iran has Plutonium reactors similar to the North Koreans. In fact they have so many they gave one to Syria.
Iran on the back foot during negotiations on 1st October. However it does explain why Israel has not been allowed to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. The lack of a statement by Netanyahu indicates Israel is playing catch up.
the point must be that the US secretely knew about it, while iran waited w/disclosing it to IAEA till discovering that they had been detected. not that they had to do it before, strictly speaking, but obviously they were dragging this out as long as possible. the israeli /whatever other press has nothing to do w/it. btw, who knows what really has been going on at the 2nd facility. this iranian playing w/hidden cards is a consistent pattern over many years.
Iran is just stalling - why is the world so surprised with these not so new "news" ? Their foreign policy is to stall, and they've done great for themselves!
Just because the US didn't tell a paranoid Israeli press about it doesn't mean it was secret. And if it's inside a mountain, it can't be successfully attacked from the air. Even Dick Cheney knew about it likely. There is no obligation for the US government to tell the Israeli press or politicians everything we know.
If they disclose this, there are MANY others! This is a joke. Clearly, this is a distraction. How foolish are our leadership?