You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran uses tunnels to hide atomic work: exiles
2005-12-21
LONDON - An Iranian exile group on Tuesday called on the UN’s atomic watchdog to inspect an extensive network of tunnels which it says the Islamic Republic has built to conceal a clandestine nuclear weapons programme.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran, which first made allegations of the tunnels in September, said their sources in Iran had evidence of underground complexes in 14 locations, near Teheran, Isfahan, Qom and other cities. “These have been built by military agencies and their front companies,” said Hossein Abedini, a member of the foreign affairs committee of the NCRI at a news conference.

“The purpose of the tunnels is to conceal parts of the Tehran regime’s atomic and missile programmes,” he said, adding they were used for hiding research centres, workshops, nuclear equipment and nuclear and missile command and control centres.
It's not for a subway system.
He said the NCRI, which has previously reported accurately about hidden atomic facilities in Iran, had sent the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency its latest information and urged the body to inspect the tunnels. “Today we call on the International Atomic Energy Agency to immediately and urgently act,” said Abedini.

No one was immediately available at the IAEA to comment.
That's what the IAEA calls an immediate and urget response.
Abedini gave more details about the tunnels than previously available and named companies and engineers involved. He said a complex of tunnels at Parchin, east of Tehran, was used for work on laser techniques for uranium enrichment. Another tunnel system in Khojeer, southeast of Tehran, was used to assemble ballistic missiles and was 1 km (0.6 miles) long and 12 metres (yards) wide.
Posted by:Steve White

#11  Weirdly enough Stalin was a Choir Boy and from all evidence had a fine voice.

Mebbe so, but the instant Nazi Germany surrendered we shoulda made sure Unca Joe sang soprano.
Posted by: Zenster   2005-12-21 20:06  

#10  Weirdly enough Stalin was a Choir Boy and from all evidence had a fine voice.
Posted by: Leon Clavin   2005-12-21 18:33  

#9  The enemy of my enemy can be my friend, for a while. Then when it doesn't suit my needs, he can be my enemy too.

Stalin was no choir boy, but he was real useful in crushing Hitler. That's all I'll say.

EP
Posted by: ElvisHasLeftTheBuilding   2005-12-21 13:02  

#8  3dc and Buckminster

You are forgetting out greatest weapon (Pictured on the left) against the Magic Mullahs of Teheran...



ARNOLD ZIFFEL

Release Arnold into the tunnels, and watch TERROR insue...
Posted by: BigEd   2005-12-21 11:44  

#7  But they're on our side...right?

November 1971 attempt to kidnap the American ambassador, as well as the 1972 bombings of the offices belonging to Pepsi-Cola, General Motors, the Hotel International, the Marin Oil Company, the Iranian-American Society and the US Information Office. Over the next three years, the MEK robbed six banks, assassinated the deputy chief of the US Military Mission (Colonel Lewis Hawkins), killed the chief of the Tehran police, killed five American civilians and/or military advisers, attempted to assassinate the chief of the US Military Mission in Iran (General Harold Price), and bombed the offices of Pan-American Airlines, Shell Oil Company, British Petroleum, El Al and British Airways.
Posted by: DepotGuy   2005-12-21 11:07  

#6  An Iranian exile group??

Designation of National Council of Resistance and National Council of Resistance of Iran under Executive Order 13224
The Secretary of State has amended the designation, under Executive Order 13224 on terrorist financing, of the Mujahedin-e Khalq, known as the MEK, to add its aliases National Council of Resistance (NCR) and National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
The Secretary of State designated the MEK as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997 under the Immigration and Nationality Act, and again in 2001 pursuant to section 1(b) of Executive Order 13224. That order (as amended) authorizes the Secretary to designate foreign entities and individuals that he determines – in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Homeland Security – to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States.
The action to amend the Executive Order 13224 designation of the MEK to include NCR and NCRI is based on information from a variety of sources that those entities functioned as part of the MEK and have supported the MEK's acts of terrorism.
Released on August 15, 2003
Posted by: DepotGuy   2005-12-21 10:13  

#5  Fierce Moslem Love Monkeys 3dc.
Posted by: Buckminster Spemble1220   2005-12-21 09:27  

#4  I think rabid minks and ferrets released into the tunnels and shafts could be rather humorous.
Posted by: 3dc   2005-12-21 08:02  

#3  Probable the stress and pressure of Sharon trying to decide authorizing nuclear tipped bunker-busters, is what forwarded the light stroke he had!
Posted by: smn   2005-12-21 02:39  

#2  Iran: Iraq War Puts Off U.S. Invasion

Doug Lorimer
Green Left Weekly (radical newspaper)
New South Wales, Australia

excerpt:
Anti-U.S. Nations

Since the September meeting the composition of the I.A.E.A. board has changed, with more countries represented on it that have already indicated their support for Iran. As the Nov. 21 London Guardian observed:[b] “Belarus, Cuba and Syria joined Venezuela on the I.A.E.A. board in September.[/b] With those anti-U.S. nations on board, any vote on referral would be more strongly opposed than the resolution passed at the last board meeting two months ago.”

[b]Russia, China, India, Brazil and South Africa [/b]have also indicated they would oppose referral. A vote with less countries in support of Security Council referral than in September “would look like a step backward,” a U.S. official told the Guardian.

As part of its effort to counter the U.S. and E.U.-3 attempts to turn other I.A.E.A. members against it, Iran has stepped up its economic and military cooperation with Russia, the chief source of Iran’s nuclear power technology. On Nov. 7, for example, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Hamid-Reza Asefi said Tehran welcomed Moscow’s proposal for the establishment of a common, Russian-led military force in the oil-rich Caspian Sea with participation of all the littoral countries — Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. The Russian proposal explicitly excludes the participation of other countries, i.e., the U.S., from provision of equipment, technical assistance, intelligence sharing, personnel training or other inputs.

Tehran is also stepping up its cooperation with other countries that are threatened by U.S. aggression, particularly Venezuela and Cuba.

At a joint Nov. 13 press conference in Tehran with visiting Cuban foreign minister Felipe Perez Roque, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared: “We hope that given new wave of revolutionary moves inspired by freedom-seeking as well as justice-seeking spirit of world nations along with the intellectuals of some South American countries, we will witness further coordination and convergence in rescuing the countries from hegemonic powers in those regions.”

On Nov. 23, the official IRNA news agency reported that the Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottak had told the new Cuban ambassador to Tehran that “Fidel Castro taught a very good lesson to world countries, particularly those in Latin America, on how to stand firm in their positions,” and that “Iran considers Fidel Castro as a valuable asset for the Latin American nations.”

According to an Oct. 31 IRNA report, Ahmadinejad had sent a letter to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expressing Tehran’s appreciation for Venezuela’s stance in support of Iran at the Sept. 24 I.A.E.A. board meeting. Ahmadinejad reportedly described Venezuela’s stance as proof of the two governments’ “brotherly and lasting relations.”

On Nov. 23, Iran’s Petropars company announced it would invest $2 billion to develop an oil field in Venezuela, Latin America’s largest oil producer, with the state-owned Venezuelan oil company PDVSA. “This is the first oil project of Iran that is being implemented abroad,” Petropars managing director Golam-Reza Manuchehri told the Mehr news agency.
Posted by: 3dc   2005-12-21 02:19  

#1  I'm sure we noticed - or did they smuggle all the excavated dirt out in their pants cuffs (a la Sandy Burglar the POWs)?
Posted by: Frank G   2005-12-21 00:43  

00:00