Iranian Alert -- August 28, 2003 -- LIVE THREAD PING LIST

The Iranian Student Movement Up To The Minute Reports ^ | 8.28.2003 | DoctorZin

[DoctorZIn]

The regime is working hard to keep the news about the protest movment in Iran from being reported.

From jamming satellite broadcasts, to prohibiting news reporters from covering any demonstrations to shutting down all cell phones and even hiring foreign security to control the population, the regime is doing everything in its power to keep the popular movement from expressing its demand for an end of the regime.

These efforts by the regime, while successful in the short term, do not resolve the fundamental reasons why this regime is crumbling from within.

Iran is a country ready for a regime change. If you follow this thread you will witness, I believe, the transformation of a nation. This daily thread provides a central place where those interested in the events in Iran can find the best news and commentary.

Please continue to join us here, post your news stories and comments to this thread.

Thanks for all the help.

DoctorZin

[DoctorZIn]

Discover all the news since the protests began on June 10th, go to:

[DoctorZIn]

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[F14 Pilot]

Iran says ready to talk on IAEA checks

28.08.2003 - 07:30
By Linda Sieg

TOKYO (Reuters) - Iran has told Japan it is ready to start negotiations with the United Nations' atomic watchdog on snap inspections of its
nuclear programme, a move that could help clear the way for Tokyo to clinch a deal on a $2 billion (1.3 billion pounds) contract to develop a
giant oil field.

Resource-poor Japan has been juggling its desire to clinch the contract to develop the Azadegan oil field with pressure from the United
States -- its main security ally -- to back off because of concerns that Tehran is developing nuclear weapons.

Iran says its programme is for peaceful purposes only.

Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi that Tehran wanted to broaden cooperation with the U.N.'s
International Atomic Energy Agency and begin talks on signing an Additional Protocol, allowing snap inspections of nuclear sites, a Japanese
Foreign Ministry official said on Thursday.

Iran had said on Tuesday it was ready to sign the IAEA's Additional Protocol but wanted clarification on "the preservation of its sovereignty"
under the enhanced inspection programme, a reservation analysts said could delay final agreement.

Speaking to reporters after his meeting with Koizumi, Kharrazi declined to discuss details of talks on the contract to develop Azadegan,
one of the world's largest untapped oil fields.

A Japanese-backed consortium missed a June 30 deadline and lost exclusive rights to the deal.

"Japan and Iran have been discussing this for a long time and those talks are continuing," Kharrazi said.

"We produce and sell energy. If Japan invests in Iran, that will help it secure stable energy supplies," Kharrazi added.

Japan's trade minister, Takeo Hiranuma, said earlier this week that progress had been made in the talks, but officials have offered no
timetable for when a deal might be finalised.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry official said Azadegan had not come up in Kharrazi's talks with Koizumi.

The Japanese consortium includes the government-backed Japan Petroleum Exploration (JAPEX) and INPEX as well as trading house
Tomen Corp.

DOUBTS AND TIMING

Fears that Tehran wants nuclear weapons were stoked by a new IAEA report that showed Iran had repeatedly failed to inform the U.N.
nuclear watchdog of its atomic activities, Western diplomats in Vienna, where the agency is based, said on Wednesday.

Japan, though, has never been comfortable with Washington's inclusion of Iran -- Tokyo's third largest oil supplier -- as part of an "axis of
evil" with Iraq and communist North Korea.

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi reiterated on Wednesday that Tokyo viewed the oil deal and the nuclear concerns as
separate matters, and some diplomatic experts said that ultimately Tokyo was likely to finalise the contract.

The timing, however, could well be affected by progress toward Tehran's signing the Additional Protocol.

"There is a public presentation issue with regard to how it chimes with the nuclear problem and that obviously has a bearing on when this
(the oil deal) can be done," a Western diplomat said.

"I think Japan will go ahead and take the contract, but the way it will be done is to spread over a period of time, and fudged in various
ways," he said.

http://www.swisspolitics.org/en/news/index.php?section=int&page=news_inhalt&news_id=4174286

[F14 Pilot]

Meeting people`s demands guarantees strong voter turnout: Khatami

Tehran, Aug 27, IRNA -- President Mohammad Khatami here on Wednesday
said people`s demands must be supported to guarantee their strong
participation in the upcoming Majlis elections.
Khatami, addressing a meeting of university lecturers, said the
people`s participation in the political arena would help thwart the
threats against the country, stressing that the officials must try not
to frustrate people`s hope in the affairs of the country.
"The prudent people of Iran still persist on their supreme
aspirations that were manifested in the Islamic Revolution, and want a
guarantee for supporting their demands and respecting their votes. And
they will make no mistake in that regard," he said.
Khatami further stressed that the Iranian people will march toward
the ideals of the Revolution while considering the priorities [of the
country], adding that Iranians will always stress moderation and will
avoid extremism in their struggle toward that end.

http://www.irna.ir/#2003_08_2712_06_085

[F14 Pilot]

Khatami vows gov`t will spare no effort in serving people

Tehran, IRNA -- President Mohammad Khatami here on Wednesday
stressed that the government will spare no effort in serving the
people.
Khatami, addressing the weekly cabinet meeting, underscored the
need to continue the path of the martyrs of the Islamic Revolution by
struggling to defend the values of the system, to protect Iran`s
territorial integrity and to serve the people.
He recalled the gap between the people and the state before the
Islamic Revolution of 1979, stressing that the Revolution had filled
the gap to bring the government and the people closer to each other.
Khatami added that Iran belongs to the Iranian nation and that
the Islamic Republic drives its mandate from the people.
"There is no doubt that whatever we have is from the Iranian
nation, and the government has done its best to serve the people and
is determined to continue this," he said.
"Still, the officials must adapt their mentality to people`s
demands, and it is not appropriate to raise our own mentality in the
name of the people."

http://www.irna.ir

[onyx]

BTTT

[F14 Pilot]

Iran Ready to Start Talks on Snap Nuke Inspections

LONDON (Reuters) - Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said on Thursday the Islamic Republic was ready to start talks on allowing snap U.N. inspections of its nuclear sites which Washington says are used to develop weapons.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&ncid=586&e=1&u=/nm/20030828/wl_nm/nuclear_iran_dc

[F14 Pilot]

Ottawa scolds Iran for secrecy

Controversial Tehran prosecutor refuses to release Kazemi report

Michael Friscolanti
National Post
Thursday, August 28, 2003

Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister yesterday scolded Iran for refusing to disclose key details about the murder of Zahra Kazemi, saying he is "profoundly disappointed" with the country's continuing secrecy over the case.

Bill Graham's stern rebuke came after what turned out to be a fruitless meeting at the Canadian Embassy in Iran between consular officials and Tehran's chief prosecutor -- the man many believe personally delivered the beating that ultimately killed the Montreal photojournalist.

For a tense and often confrontational 90 minutes, Gilles Poirier, the embassy's chargé d'affaires, sat across from General Saeed Mortazavi, pressuring him to release the official report into Ms. Kazemi's death.

Gen. Mortazavi's adamant refusal came as little surprise to observers, many of whom suspect he has extremely personal motives to hide the truth.

"Although Canada has made repeated requests, the Iranian government has yet to provide us with the investigative report on Ms. Kazemi's death," Mr. Graham said in a statement yesterday. "This is not the co-operation and transparency that Canada has insisted on and that I have been promised."

Mr. Graham, who was in Denver for a NORAD-related meeting, said the government will continue to push Iran.

"The matter isn't over," his statement read. "Canada will continue to use every opportunity to see that justice is done for Ms. Kazemi and that the wishes of her family to have her remains returned to Canada are respected."

During yesterday's meeting, Mr. Poirier asked the prosecutor for information about two female intelligence agents who have been charged in connection with the case. He also asked if Judge Javad Esmaeili, who is conducting an inquiry into the murder, has completed his probe.

Gen. Mortazavi was largely evasive. He indicated the report could be completed sometime in September, but provided few other details.

"He didn't give any information," said France Bureau, a spokeswoman for Mr. Graham. "He didn't confirm anything."

Reports have suggested Gen. Mortazavi, known as "the butcher of the press," was present during the assault that plunged Ms. Kazemi into a coma and eventually led to her death.

Mr. Poirier, however, did not question Gen. Mortazavi about his alleged personal involvement in the beating -- highlighting the dubious situation in which the Canadian government finds itself: It is desperate to know what happened to the 54-year-old freelance journalist, but one of its primary sources of information is a man many have linked to her death.

Ms. Kazemi, an Iranian ex-patriot and Canadian citizen, was arrested on June 23 for snapping pictures of Tehran's Evin prison.

After a violent 77-hour interrogation by several levels of the Iranian government, she was transported to hospital with a brain hemorrhage. She died on July 10 and was later buried -- against the wishes of her family -- in her hometown of Shiraz.

Iranian officials initially denied any responsibility for her death, insisting she suffered a stroke. They later confirmed she was killed.

Ms. Kazemi's murder, which triggered international outrage, has strained relations between Tehran and Ottawa. Canada recalled its ambassador in protest.

The case has also exposed the escalating rift between Iran's hardline conservative judiciary and its elected reformists -- a battle that has intensified with allegations of cover-up.

On Monday, Gen. Mortazavi's office said two women at the reformist-controlled Intelligence Ministry were to stand trial for the Ms. Kazemi's murder.

Yesterday, several reformist MPs insisted the women were being sacrificed as scapegoats to protect officials in the judiciary. One, Mohsen Armin, did not outright accuse Gen. Mortazavi of being involved, but he did point out the chief prosecutor questioned Ms. Kazemi for more than four hours after her arrest.

Reformist legislator Naser Qavami told The Associated Press yesterday a top Intelligence Ministry official advised a closed meeting of the Iranian parliament a judiciary official working in the prison had beaten Ms. Kazemi, leading to her death.

The legislator said ministry officials also accused the judiciary of moving prison officers who witnessed the beating to different positions and pressuring them not to say what they saw.

During the closed parliament session, the officials also accused the judiciary of tampering with prison records and forcing Intelligence agents to accept responsibility for the murder.

Hamid Mojtahedi, a Toronto-based lawyer who met with Gen. Mortazavi this week, said such accusations are not surprising.

"Mortazavi himself is implicated in all of these issues and he is trying very hard to push it under the table and hide the facts," said Mr. Mojtahedi, of the human rights group Lawyers Without Borders.

Mr. Mojtahedi said Gen. Mortazavi even threatened to arrest him. "His exact words were: 'If you really are interested to know how our legal system works, I can give you a close look at it by locking you up,' " Mr. Mojtahedi said.

Observers described yesterday's developments as unprecedented, but they doubt the reformists would go so far as actually release what they claim to be the truth behind the beating. Such a disclosure would crumble the entire regime, they said, forcing Iran to reveal what really happened to hundreds of other people who have been secretly murdered in the country.

"If such a thing happened, it would be one of the biggest, incredible things that could happen," said Aryo Pirouznia of the Dallas-based Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran, a group aiming to replace the current Islamic regime. "If such a report is released, then, my God, it's going to create a Pandora's box. The whole system would come undone."

Marlys Edwardh, a Toronto-based lawyer who represents Ms. Kazemi's only son, Stephan Hachemi, said she is also amazed by the events in Iran over the past day.

http://canada.com/national/story.asp?id=20E7E047-2412-424A-9CD8-BF47A8CC7FEF

[F14 Pilot]

Iran to Start UN Talks Over Checks at Nuclear Sites (Update2)

Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said his government will begin talks with United Nations' officials over allowing UN inspectors to make spot checks on Iran's nuclear facilities.

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000101&sid=aUcmu0hb9fDc&refer=japan

[F14 Pilot]

Mind Over Mullah

There has been a sudden surge in debates across the world on whether or not Islam is compatible with democracy. Like it or not, there is no consensus yet on this issue. Indeed, the very concept of democracy is still hotly contested, with systems as varied as Turkey, the United States of America, Israel and South Africa each calling themselves democracies.

http://www.iranian.ws/news/publish/article_345.shtml

[F14 Pilot]

Iranian Said Held in Belgium for Buenos Aires Bomb

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) - Police in Brussels arrested on Wednesday a second Iranian official facing extradition to Argentina for his alleged role in a 1994 Jewish center bombing that killed 85 people, an Interpol official in Argentina said.
"His name is Saied Baghban. He is among those Judge (Juan Jose) Galeano issued international arrest warrants for on Aug. 13. He is being held in Brussels and he had worked as a diplomatic courier," Inspector Alfredo San Martin of the Interpol office in Buenos Aires told Reuters.

Former Ambassador Hadi Soleimanpour, another of the eight Iranian officials facing extradition, has been in British custody since last Thursday. He was Iran's ambassador in Buenos Aires when the AMIA Jewish community center was attacked.

The United States and Israel have long suspected Iran of being behind the attack, while Tehran has repeatedly denied involvement.

Iran cut economic and cultural ties with Argentina following the diplomat's arrest, and Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said Iran would take "strong action" on the matter.


http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=3344782

[F14 Pilot]

Iran 'asked France for nuke parts'

VIENNA, Aug 27 (AFP) - Iran tried to buy nuclear equipment that can be used for both civilian or military purposes from several countries including France, according to an official French report obtained by AFP.
The report says Iran's shopping list included equipment used to reprocess plutonium, a substance which is used to build atomic weapons.

"The list of Iranian purchasing attempts in the French nuclear industry and dual goods manufacturers clearly points to the development of large capacities in terms of reprocessing and spent fuel manipulation."

The French government presented the report at a meeting in South Korea in May of the Nuclear Supplier's Group (NSG), a group of 40 countries that seeks to curb nuclear weapons proliferation.

Iran insists that its controversial nuclear programme is strictly for civilian purposes but has been accused by the United States of using it as a cover to develop nuclear weapons.

The UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a report circulated to its board of governors Tuesday that it was concerned about several aspects of Iran's atomic programme.

The French report said Tehran tried to buy 10 high-density radiation shielding windows from a French manufacturer in late 2000.

In 2002 an Iranian company based in the United Arab Emirates tried to buy 28 remote manipulators, half of which had the capacity to produce material with radioactive levels "above the NSG threshold", from another French supplier.

These could notably be used to reprocess and manipulate plutonium, the report said.

It added that Iran also tried to purchase documents in France on generators and tubes for flash radiography used in nuclear testsing.

A diplomat told AFP Wednesday that it was known Iran has for some time been trying clandestinely to buy nuclear equipment abroad.

The NSG, whose members include France, Britain, the United States, Russia and Germany, was founded in 1974 with the aim of preventing the export of technology that can be used to develop nuclear arms.

http://www.expatica.com/france.asp?pad=278,313,&item_id=33762

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Thanks for this post, and I cannot say that I am surprised that the Iranians sought out the French.

[nuconvert]

"Gen. Mortazavi was largely evasive. He indicated the report could be completed sometime in September, but provided few other details.
"He didn't give any information," said France Bureau, a spokeswoman for Mr. Graham. "He didn't confirm anything."

As I said yesterday, if this meeting takes place, there won't be any revelations.

("Hamid Mojtahedi, a Toronto-based lawyer who met with Gen. Mortazavi this week,...")
"Mortazavi himself is implicated in all of these issues and he is trying very hard to push it under the table and hide the facts," said Mr. Mojtahedi, of the human rights group Lawyers Without Borders.
Mr. Mojtahedi said Gen. Mortazavi even threatened to arrest him. "His exact words were: 'If you really are interested to know how our legal system works, I can give you a close look at it by locking you up,.. "

This guy is really out of control, and the Regime needs to get rid of him before elections in Feb. I think there's a chance they might. Now, firing squad, hanging, stoning, or just plain old torture...?

[DoctorZIn]

Why Iran Protects Al-Qaeda

August 28, 2003
The Daily Star
Nawaf Obaid

Cooperation between international intelligence agencies has proven one of the most effective tools in thwarting terrorist attacks. That is why Iran’s refusal to grant access to over a dozen senior Saudi-born Al-Qaeda suspects is disturbing.

On Monday, press reports, citing Iran’s ambassador in Riyadh, suggested that Iran had handed over to Saudi Arabia a number of Al-Qaeda members. However, the individuals, like the 16 Saudis Iran turned over last year, are merely foot soldiers. What the Saudis want are the ringleaders of one of the last functioning Al-Qaeda cells with regional command and control powers.

Intelligence officials also believe that members of this group know the identities of dozens of Al-Qaeda operatives dispersed in Saudi Arabia, Europe and the United States. That is why Saudi officials are keen to interrogate the suspects. In the last few months, however, Iran has hindered this effort.

To be more precise, radical Iranian clerics have hindered these efforts.

Iran’s moderate president, Mohammad Khatami, has promised to hand over the Saudi Al-Qaeda suspects. However, Saudi security officials were twice rebuffed when arriving to pick them up.

In the most recent attempt, Prince Mohammad bin Nayef, the assistant minister of interior for security affairs (the highest civilian administrator of the Saudi Arabian General Security Service), was told he would not be allowed to see the prisoners. A senior general in the Saudi General Intelligence Presidency who oversees coordination with Iran’s Intelligence Ministry was furious. According to him: “(supreme leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei’s people are holding up the extradition because they fear they’ll be implicated.”
This episode highlights the strength of Khamenei and the radical clerics who follow him. Khamenei controls several powerful state security organs, including Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and the newly created Foreign Intelligence Service. Both report directly to Khamenei’s Office of the Supreme Leader, entirely bypassing Khatami’s government. In the past few years, American, Saudi and other regional intelligence services have compiled a detailed dossier on the extremists within these institutions and their connections to international terrorism.

The 1996 Khobar bombing in Saudi Arabia serves as an example. Ali Fallahian, the former Iranian intelligence minister who is believed to have orchestrated the attack, now serves as a top adviser to Khamenei. General Ahmad Sharifi, the “case officer” who oversaw the group that carried out the bombing, is an adviser to the Revolutionary Guards military operations chief. And Ibrahim al-Mughassil, the Saudi Shiite who organized the operation from Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, has found refuge in Iran with his two main accomplices.
Since the demise of the Taleban, Iran has become a sanctuary for Al-Qaeda, making it the only place in the world where both Shiite and Sunni terrorists have found haven. US, Saudi and Pakistani intelligence officials have concluded that the radical wing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has harbored numerous top Al-Qaeda operatives, of which the three most dangerous are Said al-Adel (Osama bin Laden’s chief of global operations), Saad bin Laden (Osama’s son and a regional Al-Qaeda leader) and a third man who is yet to be identified. With help from Revolutionary Guards radicals, the so-called “Tehran trio” masterminded the recent suicide bombings in Riyadh that killed 34 and injured over 200.

Since the bombing, Saudi intelligence officers have uncovered much information about Al-Qaeda’s operations within the kingdom and the group’s connections to Iran. One of the leaders of the cell that carried out the attacks, Ali Fagasi al-Ghamdi, has been talking to Saudi agents since he turned himself in last June. Ghamdi identified the Tehran trio as the masterminds of the bombing and Turki al-Dandani as the main leader of his cell (a cousin of Dandani is the unidentified third of the trio). Dandani was killed in the northern Saudi province of Jouf while attempting to flee to Iraq. Saudi intelligence officials believe he was heading to Iran, to reunite with his comrades.

Ghamdi has provided an inside view of the structure and operations of the Al-Qaeda cells, of which eight to 10 are now believed to be operating in Saudi Arabia. Supposedly, Ghamdi and Dandani were sent to establish a new cell because Al-Qaeda’s ranks had thinned and it lacked the manpower to carry out attacks in the kingdom. But since Al-Qaeda cells are purposely kept isolated from each other, only those who recruited and dispatched the operatives know their identities and plans. Perhaps dozens of militants can be traced back to the Tehran trio, and this explains why Saudi authorities are extremely anxious to interrogate them.

Unfortunately, Iranian “custody” of these individuals puts them effectively under the protection of the extremists. This may for a time shield Revolutionary Guards officers with blood on their hands, but in the long run an alliance between Iranian officials and Al-Qaeda cannot hold. International pressure and domestic anger will eventually break the bond, especially if another terrorist attack can be attributed to the actions or inaction of Iranian officials. In that case, they may meet the same fate as the last group of radicals who made common cause with Al-Qaeda, the repressive Taleban thugs in Afghanistan.

Nawaf Obaid is a Saudi oil and security analyst. He is the author of a forthcoming book, Saudi Arabia Since 9/11. He wrote this commentary for THE DAILY STAR.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/opinion/28_08_03_b.asp

[DoctorZIn]

Why Iran Protects Al-Qaeda

August 28, 2003
The Daily Star
Nawaf Obaid

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/971810/posts?page=15#15

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail me”

[McGavin999]

I hope someone gets their hands on this report and leaks it to the western press. Of course, as corrupt as the press is, they might not ever reveal what's in it. Maybe they'll be able to find an honest journalist.......hmmmm......

[DoctorZIn]

Nuclear Evidence in Iran Forces Proliferation Questions

August 28, 2003
The Christian Science Monitor
Peter Grier and Faye Bowers

WASHINGTON – International inspectors haven't proved that Iran has a secret nuclear weapons program - but they're getting close.

In one of the most troubling disclosures yet about Tehran's atomic intentions, a new International Atomic Energy Association report says that an IAEA team recently found traces of two types of highly enriched uranium at an Iranian facility.

Iran has denied producing weapons-grade fissile material. Particles of any such uranium must have been on the equipment in question when purchased, said Iranian officials.

But analysts outside the IAEA said such an explanation strains credulity, especially given that Iran delayed inspectors' access to two other uranium sites. At the least, they say, Tehran has a lot of explaining to do. "Iran needs to provide a lot more information very quickly," says David Albright, an expert on nuclear proliferation at the Institute for Science and International Security.

Disclosure of the new IAEA findings comes at a sensitive time for the international community. The next meeting of the IAEA's board of governors is scheduled for Sept. 8, and many expect that the US will push for the board to find Iran in violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

A chain of referrals

The IAEA would then refer the matter to the UN Security Council, which could vote for economic sanctions against Iran.

"In terms of next steps, the US has been putting pressure on the IAEA," says Paul Kerr, a research analyst at the Arms Control Association.

To this point the US has been content to let the IAEA take the lead in the world's efforts to investigate Iran's suspected nuclear-weapons program.

A litmus test of international action

In some ways US officials see the situation as a test not just of Iran but of the rest of the world's intentions. Russia, Japan, Germany, France, and other nations have long complained about the US predilection for unilateral action in global affairs. Now they're being presented, step by step, with evidence that Iran is cheating on its international agreements.

Thus the US attitude about the IAEA's and UN's role is, to an extent, to ask "what are you all going to do about this?"

"It's a really big test because if these institutions don't prevent Iran from going nuclear, what do they have to complain about the US taking actions on its own?" says Brenda Shaffer, an expert on Iran and Central Asia at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

The fact that IAEA inspectors found evidence of possible clandestine work at the Natanz uranium enrichment plant is a good indication that Tehran is further down the road toward obtaining nuclear weapons than many analysts and intelligence agencies had predicted.

Environmental samples taken by the IAEA at the facility between March and June 2003 "indicate the possible presence in Iran of high enriched uranium, material that is not on its inventory of declared nuclear material," says the restricted-distribution report, a copy of which was obtained by the Monitor.

The key ingredient for nuclear nukes

Uranium enrichment is a purification process which creates either fuel for civilian reactors or the fissile core of nuclear weapons. Bomb-grade material must be more highly enriched than its civilian counterpart. Iran says that its nuclear infrastructure is intended to support power-generating reactors. Most of the rest of the world suspects that this is just a cover story, and that Iran really has a multitrack effort under way to obtain a nuclear arsenal.

Report arouses other suspicions

Some analysts found another part of the IAEA report almost as worrisome as its disclosure about finding trace elements of weapons material.

Iran has admitted doing work on enrichment centrifuges at a second site, known as the Kalaye Electric Co., according to Mr. Albright of ISIS.

The existence of this facility was revealed by an Iranian resistance group, and, until recently, Tehran rebuffed IAEA efforts to enter what it first called a watch factory.

Inspectors found fresh paint and other signs of hurried refurbishment upon their visit. Environmental samples taken at Kalaye have yet to be conclusively analyzed, according to the IAEA report.

Given the context of what the IAEA has discovered it's "legitimate to worry that the [Kalaye] refurbishment is to hide past uranium-enrichment activities," says Albright.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0828/p02s01-usfp.html

[DoctorZIn]

Nuclear Evidence in Iran Forces Proliferation Questions

August 28, 2003
The Christian Science Monitor
Peter Grier and Faye Bowers

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/971810/posts?page=18#18

"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail me”

[DoctorZIn]

Another from Debka. I can't confirm its accuracy but it is being widely published. -- DoctorZin

Russia Sells Iran AVLIS System for Advanced Uranium Enrichment

August 28, 2003
DEBKAfile
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA – put out a disturbing report this week confirming earlier DEBKAfile revelations that traces of uranium enrichment activity were found in samples at Natanz nuclear facility in Iran, 290 km south of Tehran, evidence that Iran was in the process of building a nuclear arsenal.

Agency officials admit that Tehran is in clear non-compliance with its nuclear safeguard obligations and may even have laid itself open to a complaint to the UN Security Council and the threat of sanctions.

In issue Number 120, published on August 8, DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s military sources reported exclusively that in the second week of July Russia secretly delivered the components of the AVLIS (atomic vapor laser isotope separator) system aboard unmarked military transports.

This accelerated and environmentally clean process of uranium enrichment was first developed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California, for the US Department of Energy in the 1970s. In 1998, the Iranians were reported working on their own AVLIS. The version supplied by Russian is apparently based on more advanced technology. While the US energy department suspended AVLIS development in 1998, the Russians appear to have stepped up production, counting on an expanding future exports to governments bent on acquiring nuclear weapons, such as Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria, North Korea, India and Pakistan.

The Russian components came with Russian technicians for assembling the apparatus and teaching Iranian nuclear technicians how to use it.

According to the information obtained by DEBKA-Net-Weekly , AVLIS has been installed at two of Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities, Natanz and Moallen Kalayeh. The latter is Iran’s most secluded subterranean nuclear plant, buried under the Albroz Mountains 40 km north of Tehran. In its tall tunnels, Iran carries out its most secret tests.

Moallen Kalayeh used to be a small rural village. Today it is a closed township populated by hundreds of scientists and technicians. It is also one of the most heavily protected places in the country. The Iranians are putting the new equipment to work at top speed at the peak of their effort to build up a stock of enriched uranium sufficient for a nuclear device before September 8, when the Nuclear Atomic Energy Agency’s board convenes in Vienna to discuss the Iran report.

Tehran has also been racing against the clock to forestall decisions at the six-nation talks on North Korea’s nuclear program that began in Beijing August 27, before they impede Iran’s related progress towards a nuclear weapon. Attending the talks are the US, the two Koreas, Japan, Russia and China, the host.

According to our Moscow sources, Russian military circles as certain that without that AVLIS would not have been consigned to Iran without the okay of President Vladimir Putin. He would have seen the delivery as a means of getting round his promise to President George W. Bush not to send Iran spent nuclear rods to fuel the Bushehr nuclear reactor and a way of compensating Iran for this letdown.

http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=549