Zitat:Israel: IAEA hiding Iran info

Jerusalem issues angry response to latest atomic watchdog's report on Iran; account fails to reflect Tehran's concealment, deception efforts, Israel says, urges international community to adopt decisive position vis-à-vis Iranians

Zitat:Leaked stories taint Iran nuclear debate
By Gareth Porter

WASHINGTON - Western officials leaked stories to the Associated Press and Reuters last week aimed at pressuring the outgoing chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, to include a summary of intelligence alleging that Iran has been actively pursuing work on nuclear weapons in the IAEA report due out this week.
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The most important such document to be denied to the IAEA and Iran is a one-page letter from an Iranian engineering firm to an Iranian private company, Kimia Maadan, which is identified as having participated in the alleged Iranian nuclear weapons project.

The letter reportedly had handwritten notes on it referring to studies on the redesign of a missile re-entry vehicle, and is thus a primary piece of evidence for the claim that the missile re-entry documents were genuine.

However, Iran turned over to the IAEA a copy of the same May 2003 letter with no handwritten notes on it, as Heinonen confirmed in a February 2008 briefing for member states.

That suggested that the copy of the letter with handwriting on it was a fabrication done by an outside intelligence agency to prove that Iran was working on nuclear weapons.

There were other problems with the one-page flowsheets showing a plan for a "green salt" conversion facility, which were attributed to Kima Maadan and said to be part of the military-run nuclear weapons project.

According to a February 22, 2008, IAEA report, Iran submitted documentary evidence to the IAEA showing that Kimia Maadan had been created in 2000 solely to plan and construct a uranium ore processing facility under contract with Iran's civilian atomic energy agency, and that it was in financial difficulty when it closed its doors in 2003.

The IAEA, which had been investigating whether the company was working for the Iranian military, as charged by the United States and other Western countries, declared in its February 2008 report that it "considers this question no longer outstanding at this stage".

Furthermore, Iran pointed out that the flowsheets for a "green salt" conversion facility portrayed in the documents as done by Kimia Maadan have "technical errors", and IAEA safeguards director Heinonen conceded that point in his February 2008 briefing.

Questions had also been raised about the technical quality of the alleged Iranian designs for a missile re-entry vehicle that was apparently aimed at accommodating a nuclear weapon. Experts at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico who ran computer simulations on the studies determined none of them would have worked, according to Washington Post investigative reporter Dafna Linzer in February 2006.

After the new information surfaced, some IAEA officials, including experts involved in the investigation, argued privately that the agency should now state publicly that it could not authenticate the documents, according to a Vienna-based source close to the IAEA.
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Zitat:'Tehran keeps right to not sign additional protocol'

TEHRAN, Sept. 1 (MNA) – Dr. Akbar Etemad, the founder and first president of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) from 1974 to 1978 has said that Iran has a right not to implement the additional protocol to the NPT.

“At the peak of tension in Iran-West relations it is hard to imagine why Iran should implement the additional protocol and allow the (International Atomic Energy) Agency inspectors to visit anywhere they want. This is a kind of interference in Iran’s internal affairs” he said in a program on Press TV.

He said, “We should not forget that the agency has asked on several occasions to inspect Iran’s military sites while other countries have never opened such sites to inspectors. They are seeking to push Iran… to sign this protocol but I think that Tehran has a right not to sign it because Iran signed the (nuclear) safeguard agreements but it did not help it, therefore why should it sign the additional protocol. This will never help ease the current situation.”
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Zitat:Father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb tells just how easy it is

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"Nobody sought me out," Khan told the interviewer. "After the Indian nuclear test in 1974, which caused hysteria in Pakistan, I thought I had to speak to Bhutto and tell him about my ability to create a bomb. I had first-hand experience with the technology and I knew how it worked. Pakistan's technology infrastructure was nonexistent. Bhutto asked me to supervise the work."

Whose decision was it to produce the bomb?

"Bhutto's."

Where did the money come from?

"The program was not expensive. Our annual budget was $20 million to $25 million and included purchasing land, building the [centrifuge] facility in Kauta, hiring scientists and purchasing materials abroad. The overall budget over 25 years was less than half a billion dollars."

When did you develop the centrifuges?

"On April 6, 1978, we succeeded for the first time in enriching uranium."

Was this enriched uranium weapons grade?

"No, it was a low level of enrichment. But it was sufficient to make us understand that we were capable of enriching uranium."

When did you begin to believe that you had fissile material for nuclear weapons?

"We achieved 90 percent enrichment in early 1983."

And when was the bomb ready?

"In December 1984, I wrote a letter to General Zia [then president of Pakistan] and told him that the bomb was ready and we could test it with a week's advance warning."

Why did you decide at the time not to carry out a test and detonate the bomb?

"We were allies of the United States in the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. We asked Zia and his people to approve the test. But they explained that it would have harsh consequences. Because the U.S. turned a blind eye to our nuclear program so that we would support the war in Afghanistan, an opportunity was created to continue developing the program. They said the tests could be carried out at some later date."

And that's what happened. Only in 1998 did Pakistan carry out nuclear tests, in response to India's nuclear tests.


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When did you begin to produce the delivery systems?

"We planned them back in 1981, even before the bomb was ready. But General Zia did not allow us to produce them because of the war in Afghanistan. It happened only in 1988 - with the first government of Benazir Bhutto [Zulifkar's daughter]."

From whom did you acquire the missile know-how?

"From China." Later, he said, from North Korea too.

And what about Iran?

"Iran was interested in obtaining nuclear technology. And because Iran is an important Islamic country, we wanted it to have the technology. The Western countries pressured us on this issue, and it wasn't fair. If Iran can have nuclear technology, we will have a strong regional bloc that will repel international pressures. Iran's nuclear capability will neutralize Israel's power. We advised Iran to make contact with the suppliers and to purchase the equipment from them."

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The conclusion that emerges from the interview is that a country determined to obtain nuclear weapons will do so, even if it has poor technological infrastructure. There are enough suppliers who will secretly provide what is required. It is not overly expensive to produce nuclear weapons. It took Pakistan nine years.

Iran's situation is similar to Pakistan's. It began to enrich uranium in 2002, and today it already knows how to do it and has the quantity necessary to produce fissile material. The Iranians also already have missiles for launching a bomb.

Zitat:IAEA sieht keine Beweise für Atomwaffen-Programm im Iran

WIEN: Die Internationale Atomenergie-Behörde -IAEA- hat mitgeteilt, sie verfüge über "keine konkreten Beweise" für ein militärisches Nuklearwaffen-Programm des Iran. Die Organisation wies damit Berichte zurück, ihre Experten stimmten überein, dass Teheran die Mittel zum Bau von Atombomben habe und an Trägerraketen arbeite. Dies hatte die Nachrichtenagentur AP gemeldet und sich dabei auf ein geheimes IAEA-Papier berufen. Unterdessen erklärte der iranische Präsident Mahmud Ahmadinedschad im US-Fernsehen, sein Land sehe keine Notwendigkeit für Atomwaffen. Allerdings werde der Iran die Urananreicherung für friedliche Zwecke niemals aufgeben, sagte Ahmadinedschad dem Sender NBC.
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Zitat:IAEA weist Berichte über Atomwaffenprogramm des Iran Zurück
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Die IAEA habe keine konkreten Beweise dafür, dass es ein geheimes Nuklearwaffen-Programm in der Islamischen Republik gebe oder gegeben habe, teilte die UN-Organisation am Donnerstag mit.
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Schneemann schrieb:Flüsternd: Revan, bringe mir schnell mal das Aripiprazol und die Beruhigungsmittel, er hat einen starken Schub.

Zitat:The Leaking Game

By GARETH PORTER

Western officials are leaking stories to the Associated Press and Reuters aimed at pressuring the outgoing chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, to include a summary of intelligence alleging that Iran has been actively pursuing work on nuclear weapons in the IAEA report due out this week.
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Zitat:Iran Can Build Nuclear Weapon, Says Secret IAEA Document

An undisclosed International Atomic Energy Agency report asserts that Iran has developed the technological capacity to build a nuclear weapon, the Associated Press reported yesterday

"The agency ... assesses that Iran has sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable implosion nuclear device (an atomic bomb) based on HEU (highly enriched uranium) as the fission fuel," states the paper, titled, "Possible Military Dimension of Iran's Nuclear Program."

One high-level international official claimed the document was a "secret annex" containing incriminating evidence on Iran's nuclear program. Such a document has been cited recently by several Western powers concerned that Iran's atomic activities might be aimed at weapons development, but the U.N. nuclear watchdog has denied the existence of such a report

Iran made progress toward engineering a ballistic missile capable of accommodating a warhead "that is quite likely to be nuclear," the document states.

"It is likely that Iran will overcome problems" in modifying its Shahab 3 missile to carry a nuclear warhead, the paper says, adding that Iran could already deliver a nuclear warhead to a target using "methods of unconventional delivery" such as a truck or cargo vessel.

The paper also refers to Iran's "probable testing" of a "full-scale hemispherical explosively driven shock system," an explosive component used to detonate a nuclear weapon. Tehran worked to produce a means "for initiating a hemispherical high-explosive charge" of the type used to detonate a nuclear warhead core, the report adds.

Much of the information in the report has not been released to the public, noted an official from an IAEA member state who provided a 67-page version of the paper produced between six months and one year ago. A second version of the paper extends for more than 80 pages and continues to be updated


"With respect to a recent media report, the IAEA reiterates that it has no concrete proof that there is or has been a nuclear weapons program in Iran," the Vienna-based organization said in a response to the AP report.

Two diplomats with ties to the U.N. nuclear watchdog yesterday reaffirmed their position that the agency has no "smoking gun" that Iran is now working on a nuclear-capable missile, Reuters reported.

Agency officials have not prepared any "secret annex" on Iran's nuclear program, but they continue to update an undisclosed paper outlining the agency's findings on the effort, according to one diplomat close to the agency.

"It's a work in progress. It's an assessment of where the probe stands. It's more than a listing of evidence about the alleged military dimensions the IAEA has published so far," said the source.

"We are not in a state of panic" about Iran's atomic ambitions, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said last week.

"That is because we have not seen diversion of nuclear material (from declared civilian uses), we have not seen components of nuclear weapons. We do not have any information to that effect," ElBaradei said (Mark Heinrich)

Meanwhile, Iran's ambassador to the agency said Wednesday that upcoming multilateral talks between Iran, the five permanent U.N. Security Council member nations and Germany would present "a real, new window of opportunity," the Washington Post reported (Joby Warrick, Washington Post I, Sept. 18).

The six world powers accepted an Iranian offer last week to engage in discussions on nuclear matters and other issues. The nations hope that Iran will accept political and financial incentives to halt nuclear activities that could support weapons development; Tehran has long ruled out such a settlement, insisting its atomic ambitions are strictly peaceful.

"If [the six powers] have the political will, and goodwill, if they will go beyond simply reading the text and read between the lines, they can understand that the whole thing is being done with good intentions. This is the best course of action, and this is a real, new window of opportunity that is being opened by the Iranian nation. And they should immediately and promptly seize this opportunity," Iranian Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh told the Post (Washington Post II)

"If you use the policy of the carrot and stick, if you use the dual track of sanctions and dialogue, this is counterproductive -- this is humiliation, if you really know Iranian culture," he said. "If you tell me, 'You must,' I say, 'No.' If you say 'please,' the answer might be 'yes' or 'maybe.'"

Iran previously agreed to suspend its uranium enrichment program and permit heightened monitoring by the U.N. nuclear agency, "not as an obligation but as a confidence-building measure ... in order to help and to remove ambiguities," he said. The enrichment process can generate nuclear power plant fuel but also nuclear-weapon material.....

Zitat:IAEA-Chef: Übertriebene Angst vor iranischer Atomgefahr

Die Ängste vor Irans Atomprogramm sind laut dem Generaldirektor der Internationalen Atomenergie-Behörde (IAEA), Mohammad ElBaradei, stark übertrieben.

Es gebe keine Beweise dafür, dass die Islamische Republik bald Atomwaffen bauen kann, sagte ElBaradei in einem Interview für die amerikanische Wissenschaftszeitschrift „Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists“.
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Zitat:The history of Iran's nuclear energy program
By William Burr | 19 January 2009

.. Today, most of the debate about Iran concerns the purpose of its ongoing nuclear activities. But Tehran's interest in nuclear technology dates back more than 30 years to when Shah Mohammed Rez Pahlavi sought a "full-fledged nuclear power industry" with the capacity to produce 23,000 megawatts of electricity.
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Zitat:ElBaradei slams Western allegations against Iran and opposes sanctions
by Abbas Edalat (source: CASMII)
Thursday, September 3, 2009

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“Nobody is sitting in Iran today developing nuclear weapons. Tehran doesn’t have an ongoing nuclear weapons program. But somehow, everyone in the West is talking about how Iran’s nuclear program is the greatest threat to the world. In many ways, I think the threat has been hyped.
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