Tag Archives: Iran’s nuclear program

Iran’s Underground Nuke Site Struck?

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imagesCAZ18BYABy Ryan Mauro:

The biggest blow in the covert campaign against Iran’s nuclear program may have just been delivered. It is reported that a mysterious explosion was set off inside the underground enrichment site at Fordo on Monday. The Iranian regime predictably denies the report. Anonymous Israeli officials have confirmed that an explosion took place, but the White House says it doesn’t believe the report is credible.

The original report was written by “Reza Kahlili,” a former CIA spy inside the Iranian Revolutionary Guards who is now in the U.S. and active in the Iranian opposition. His source is Hamid Reza Zakeri, a former Iranian intelligence officer who defected in 2001. Zakeri claims to have worked in Supreme Leader Khamenei’s Intelligence Office and his information helped convince Judge George Daniels to rule in December 2011 that Iran and Hezbollah hold responsibility for the 9/11 attacks.

The Fordo site is about 300 feet under a mountain in order to protect it from aerial attack. It can hold about 3,000 centrifuges, which is far from what is needed for a domestic nuclear program but adequate for nuclear weapons. This is the site drawing the most concern of those that have been publicly disclosed because it is also where Iran is storing the uranium it has enriched to 20 percent. Nuclear expert David Albright says that 20% enriched uranium can be brought to bomb-grade level in as little as six months using 500 to 1,000 centrifuges.

The explosion reportedly took place at about 11:30 in the morning inside the third centrifuge chamber that lies above the stock of enriched uranium. The blast disabled two elevators, leaving no way to rescue the 240 personnel stuck inside. The report says that traffic was blocked off for 15 miles and the Tehran-Qom highway was temporarily closed off. There was no evacuation of nearby residents.

A satellite image of Iran's Fordo nuclear enrichment facility (photo: credit AP/ DigitalGlobe)

A satellite image of Iran’s Fordo nuclear enrichment facility (photo: credit AP/ DigitalGlobe)

The Iranian regime denies that any explosion took place. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said, “We have no information to confirm the allegations in the report and we do not believe the report is credible.” Anonymous Israeli intelligence officials, on the other hand, confirmed that an explosion took place and said that the damage is still being assessed.

It is difficult to determine the impact of the alleged explosion on Iran’s nuclear ambitions because the program’s full extent is unknown. “Kahlili” has identified three other secret nuclear sites and a biological weapons site. His sources report that the regime is making progress in warhead production, uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing at these sites. He recently provided a briefing on these activities in a RadicalIslam.org webinar on Iran’s nuclear program.

Read more at Front Page

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Iran – The Greatest Threat to Western Civilization

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Iranian President Ahmadinjad inspects Iran’s nuclear facilities

Published on Aug 28, 2012 by    

Iran has the ability to wipe out the entire power grid of the United States of America with one small nuclear bomb.

Take Action! Contact your representative: http://www.radicalislam.org/enriched/send-a-letter.php

 

 

UN Report: Iran Doubled Enrichment Capability in Last 3 Months (radicalislam.org)

A recent U.N. report says that Iran has doubled its number of uranium enrichment centrifuges housed in one of its underground bunkers. This, despite sanction on the regime by the West and the threat of an attack by Israel.

The report says that the enrichment process was rapidly increasing in the Fordow bunker. The bunker is buried deep inside a mountain and is believed to be capable of surviving any attack. Enriching centrifuges at Fordow were said to have more than doubled in since May alone, up from 1,064 to the current 2,140, although the report said the new machines were not functional as yet.

Also mentioned in the U.N. quarterly report was the fact that Iran had attempted to hide evidence of nuclear-linked tests, as witnessed by the siting of buildings that had been destroyed along with the removal of earth at a military site. Iran has denied the International Atomic Energy Agency access to the site for inspection. In addition, the site, which the IAEA believes houses a steel chamber used for explosive tests, has recently been “shrouded,” negating the effectiveness of gleaning information about it from satellite images.

The IAEA also said that “no concrete results” had come from extensive negotiations with Iran this year by the international community.

A news report by Reuters quotes a senior Western diplomat as saying, “Iran’s continued enrichment activities … serve to taunt all those in the international community concerned by Iran’s nuclear program.”

 

Excellent in depth article on the history of Iran’s nuclear program:

The Iranians are almost there. This is how they did it… (timesofisrael.com)

Enrichment is accelerating, the warhead is taking shape, a nuclear trigger is deep in development, and the Shahab-3 missile has Israel in range and can detonate in an airburst 600 meters above ground —  just like the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Since the last century, Iran has been methodically pursuing the in-house capability of developing a missile-delivered nuclear bomb. The regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is now closer than ever — probably in the latter stages of perfecting an atomic bomb with a multipoint detonation mechanism, compact enough to insert into a Shahab-3 missile nosecone.

For years, the Obama administration, Western governments, the United Nations, and the International Atomic Energy Administration (IAEA) have been fully aware of the specific details of Tehran’s nuclear weapons program, down to the blueprints and names of the engineers. Whether or not Iran will complete the last leg of its decades-long journey toward a deliverable atomic bomb is still unknown. The difference in viewing the cannon is whether you are staring down the muzzle or observing it through a telescope from a perch 6,000 miles away. Israel is peering into the muzzle, hence its assessment is different than Washington’s.

Protracted multilateral negotiations, crippling international sanctions, and even elaborate programs of sabotage have delayed but not derailed the nearly autarkic program. Now the world teeters at the brink of a regional war with profound global ramifications because the threat may have been ignored too long.

Here are the four determining factors, the dynamics of which will govern whether Israel launches a preemptive attack against Tehran’s massive nuclear infrastructure.

Four technological achievements are key to completing Tehran’s nuclear weapon: 1) accretion of enough nuclear materials, highly enriched to 90 percent, to make the bomb; 2) machining that highly-enriched material into metal for a spheroid warhead so it can fit into a missile nosecone for detonation; 3) a trigger mechanism to initiate the atomic explosion at the precise moment of missile reentry; and, of course, 4) a reliable rocket delivery system to carry such a weapon.

Read it all

Also see:

What Lies Behind Iran’s Nuclear Threat: An interview with Ex-CIA Agent Reza Kahlili (counterjihadreport.com)