And some of the participants are still wearing those black sport pants with the white stripe down the side that they (Fedeyeen)were wearing on the onset of Iraqi Freedom. I see them via cable breaking news everytime there is a bombing, explosion in Iraq.
Wed Mar 31,11:05 AM ET
By Louis Charbonneau
VIENNA (Reuters) - New intelligence on Iran has fueled suspicions the Islamic Republic has a secret uranium- enrichment program, possibly aimed at producing fuel for an atom bomb program, Western diplomats say.
The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has been investigating Iran's atomic program ever since an exiled opposition group reported in August 2002 that Tehran was hiding a massive enrichment plant at Natanz.
Under fire over U.S. suspicions that its nuclear power program is a front for building atomic weapons -- a charge Iran denies -- Tehran agreed last year to submit to tougher IAEA inspections and suspend all enrichment-related activities.
But a group of Western diplomats who follow the IAEA said recent intelligence has provoked suspicion that Tehran moved enrichment activities away from Natanz to smaller sites that are part of a parallel program U.N. inspectors have not uncovered.
"We've got lot of intelligence about small enrichment plants (in Iran) for some months, going back to the November (IAEA) board meeting," one Western diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity. The diplomat gave no details about the form of this intelligence.
Iran's ambassador to the United Nations in Vienna, Pirooz Hosseini, told Reuters in a telephone interview that the latest charges were "baseless" and "an attempt to destroy the fruitful cooperation between the IAEA and Iran."
An IAEA spokeswoman declined to comment.
"HIDE-AND-SEEK"
Allegations that Tehran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, may be hiding facilities from the IAEA are nothing new. However, the specific allegation that Tehran had shifted enrichment activities away from Natanz to smaller sites was first made publicly by an Iranian exile last month.
Alireza Jafarzadeh, formerly a spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and now president of the Washington-based Strategic Policy Consulting, Inc., told Reuters on March 9 about a "recent meeting" of top Iranian officials who decided to shift enrichment activities to small, secret plants.
He said the group, which included Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had also decided to "speed up the nuclear weapons program" to get a bomb by the end of 2005 and that Tehran "would pursue a deliberate game of hide and seek with the IAEA."
Washington lists the NCRI as a terrorist organization and shut down its offices last year.
However, the NCRI has a good track record on Iran's atomic program. Jafarzadeh said his latest information came from the same "well-informed sources inside Iran" that told him about Natanz and a heavy-water production facility at Arak in 2002.
Jafarzadeh's allegations appeared to receive support from a recent intelligence report, an analysis of which was obtained last week by the Los Angeles Times. This analysis, seen by Reuters, said Iran had set up a committee last year whose task was to hide activities from the IAEA's nuclear sleuths.
Among the allegedly hidden sites are some 300 plants making parts for centrifuges, which spin at supersonic speeds to purify uranium for use as fuel for power plants or in bombs.
Iran had suspended IAEA inspections on March 12, ostensibly in retaliation against an IAEA resolution that "deplores" Iran's failure to inform the U.N. of sensitive research on items like "P2" centrifuges capable of producing bomb-grade material.
Two weeks later Tehran let the inspectors return, though several Western diplomats said the retaliation may have been an excuse to buy more time to hide activities from the IAEA.
One Western diplomat said that the intelligence could not be considered the "silver bullet" that proved these allegations about a parallel enrichment program beyond any doubt.
"Intelligence gives you well-founded suspicions," said the diplomat, who is convinced the suspicions about Iran's secret enrichment sites "are well-founded."
All the diplomats said that if Tehran had decided to hide enrichment facilities from the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the IAEA would have great difficulty finding them without specific leads.
"An enrichment facility can be the least visible part of the fuel cycle. It looks like any other industrial site," one said.
House to house searchs showing this clothing in their possession should mean they go directly to jail - do not pass GO - no exceptions.