Free Republic

There has been much discussion and conflicting opinions on how much damage the U.S. “Operation Midnight Hammer” strikes did to Iran’s nuclear facilities, especially the underground site Fordow. President Trump and his team claim that the 14 bunker-busting bombs destroyed the place and left it inoperable, while the mainstream media has been working aggressively to say the attacks only set Iran’s nuclear dreams back by a few months. Now there is fresh evidence that the late-night B-2 stealth bomber-led strikes caused plenty of destruction, and the Iranians are already trying to clean it up:NEW FORDOW SATELLITE IMAGESOngoing activity includes cranes,...

Saudi news outlet Al Hadath reported on Tuesday, citing an anonymous Israeli security source, that Israel “knows exactly” where Iran is keeping its stockpiles of enriched uranium. The official who spoke to Al Hadath further claimed that “most of the enriched uranium is buried under the rubble in Iran." The status of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium remained a matter of speculation among officials since Israel launched preemptive strikes, including on various Iranian nuclear facilities, in the 12-day war that began June 13. Such speculation continued following American strikes on Iran’s three main nuclear facilities: Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. IDF...

Trump administration officials on Tuesday slammed a leaked preliminary intelligence assessment of the damage done to Iran’s nuclear facilities by weekend US airstrikes that the president has touted as a massive success. The classified Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) bomb damage assessment — deemed a “low confidence” estimation of the effectiveness of Saturday’s strikes on the Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz sites — reportedly determined that Iran could bring its nuclear program back online as quickly as within one to two months, according to Fox News. On the high end, estimates indicate that Iran could restart uranium enrichment within a year, according...

Newly released satellite images showcase the aftermath of the 30,000 pound “bunker-buster” bombs the United States dropped on Iranian nuclear facilities. The U.S. operation, known as “Midnight Hammer” occurred on Saturday night, utilizing over 125 aircraft including seven 8-2 stealth bombers, multiple fighter jets, dozens of air refueling tankers, as well as a guided missile submarine and multiple reconnaissance aircraft, according to Joint Chiefs Chairman Air Force Gen. Dan Caine in a Sunday briefing. The attack struck three Iranian nuclear facilities including Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan. Before and after images reveal the entire topography of the mountain protecting Iran’s Fordow...

The war with Iran proves once again the importance for Israel to have an American strategic bomber as part of the Israeli Air Force's aircraft arsenal. B-52 Stratofortress Strategic Bomber The war with Iran proves once again the importance for Israel to have an American strategic bomber as part of the Israeli Air Force's aircraft arsenal. Twice, in 2013, during my tenure as Ambassador in Washington, and later, as a Member of Knesset in 2018, I asked the United States to sell us a strategic bomber. I understood that the U.S. would not be willing to sell us one of...

Toll from Tehran’s terrorism and proxy attacks are a serious factors in Trump’s decision on whether to support or even join the Israeli war effort. Three years after 19 Americans died in a bombing at a Saudi Arabian apartment complex, then-President Bill Clinton sent a cable that told Iran’s president a secret that the 42nd president wasn’t even willing to tell the American public: U.S. intelligence had ample evidence that Tehran was behind the deadly Khobar Towers terror attack. “Message to President Khatami from President Clinton: The United States Government has received credible evidence that members of the Iranian Revolutionary...

Israel’s national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, said Tuesday that Israel will not stop fighting the war before it has damaged Iran’s Fordow (or Fordo) nuclear facility, which is buried deep within a mountain. The Times of Israel reported:Israel’s operation against Iran “will not end without damaging the Fordo nuclear facility,” promises National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi in an interview with Channel 12.The site, 90 meters (295 feet) underground, houses thousands of centrifuges to enrich uranium. Israel’s conventional munitions can’t reach that deep, and it would take the US joining the fight to knock it out from the air.“I don’t know...

Iran has two known underground nuclear enrichment sites, the one Israel attacked on the first day of its assault at Natanz, and another at Fordo. Both sit south of Tehran in central Iran, but Fordo has long been the Iranian nuclear facility of most concern to international monitors and experts. Buried deep in a mountain, Fordo is where many analysts believe Iran has concealed clandestine efforts to work toward a nuclear weapons capability. There have been no reported Israeli strikes on the Fordo enrichment facility. -snip- "Fordo has always been a major concern because of its location and because of...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran said Saturday it plans to enrich uranium up to 20% at its underground Fordo nuclear facility “as soon as possible,” pushing its program a technical step away from weapons-grade levels as it increases pressure on the West over the tattered atomic deal.The move comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. in the waning days of the administration of President Donald Trump, who unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran’s nuclear deal in 2018. The International Atomic Energy Agency acknowledged Iran had informed its inspectors of the decision by a letter after news leaked...

Iran said Saturday it plans to enrich uranium up to 20% at its underground Fordo nuclear facility “as soon as possible,” pushing its program a technical step away from weapons-grade levels as it increases pressure on the West over the tattered atomic deal.

The chief of the U.N. atomic agency says Iran has complied with a key commitment of its nuclear deal with six world powers by removing sensitive equipment from a strategic underground site. Yukiya Amano of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday that Tehran has met a deadline and taken “excess centrifuges and infrastructure” from what used to be the Fordo uranium enrichment facility. …

According to the London Times, the arch Conservatives at World Net Daily finally got one right. On Friday, WND reported the destruction of Iran’s top secret uranium enrichment facility at the Fordow nuclear installation. Fordow, buried deep under ground, is reported to have completely collapsed in a massive explosion, trapping 200 workers in the ruins of the facility. WND published a report on the explosion written by a former Iranian Revolutionary Guard officer and CIA agent named Reza Kahlili, An author of several alarmist books and dozens of articles, Kahlili claims Iran intends to bring about a nuclear apocalypse in...

Meanwhile, Tehran's official news agency calls WND 'mouthpiece of CIA' The explosions at Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility Jan. 21 killed at least 40 people, including two North Koreans, WND learned Sunday. Meanwhile, the Islamic regime is labeling WND a “mouthpiece of the CIA” for its exclusive reporting of the blasts. The bodies of 11 of the technicians and scientists are beyond recognition, a member of the security forces at the facility told WND. According to the source, 60 others are in critical condition and have been transferred to the central base of the 27th Division of Mohammad Rassool Allah. The...

The UN atomic watchdog made clear on Tuesday it had seen no sign of any explosion at one of Iran's most sensitive nuclear plants, backing up Tehran's denial that such an incident had taken place last week. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in an unusual move, made a brief statement following media reports at the weekend of significant damage at the underground Fordo uranium enrichment site. ....

Reports of an explosion at Iran's Fordow nuclear facility have surfaced and are being both confirmed and denied by multiple sources. The Jerusalem Post cites a report by Reza Kahlili that says: “The blast shook facilities within a radius of three miles. Security forces have enforced a no-traffic radius of 15 miles, and the Tehran- Qom highway was shut down for several hours after the blast.” Kahlili's report says the Fordow nuclear facility was severely damaged in an explosion and up to 240 workers trapped inside. The explosion was reportedly confined to the plant, suggesting that if it were an...

What We Know.  Fordow has become 'Iran's most heavily fortified facility', officials say. APReza Kahlili reported Friday 25 that there had been an underground explosion at the secret Fordo nuclear enrichment facility in Iran.  The details included the closure of a major roadway nearby following the event.  The report also mentioned many technicians trapped underground, perhaps more than 200.   Reza Kahlili and I then discussed the report earlier in the week of an emergency meeting in Ahmadinejad's office in Tehran.  We reported on Wednesday evening 23 January that the meeting in Tehran was in anticipation of a covert operation by Israel or...

Yediot Ahronot reported. on Friday that former Iranian intelligence officials who defected to the West claim that Iran’s underground Fordo uranium enrichment facility has been almost completely demolished, and hundreds of staff members are at this moment trapped underground, This has to be the worst blow to Iran’s nuclear ambitions so far. WND, an American news website affiliated with the right, reported Friday that a mysterious explosion has destroyed a significant portion of Iran’s Fordo nuclear facility – considered Tehran’s most fortified facility.

An unnamed senior U.S. official responded to a report that Iran is building out the Fordow enrichment plant by describing the facility “as a ‘Potemkin’ plant, a façade that could not operate and was under close watch by the International Atomic Energy Agency,” according to NBC News. That characterization is grossly misleading. Iran has accelerated its uranium enrichment activities at the Fordow facility, the once covert site buried into a small mountain outside of Qom, since the last IAEA report that detailed the regime’s weaponization work. It began producing uranium enriched to 20 percent there earlier this year, according to...

Explosive blasts destroyed power lines to Iran's underground nuclear facility at Fordo last month, the head of Iran's atomic agency said at a meeting of UN atomic agency member states Monday. "On ... 17th August 2012, the electric power lines from the city of Qom to the Fordo complex ... were cut using explosives," Fereydoon Abbasi Davani told the 155-nation International Atomic Energy Agency gathering in a speech. Davani did not accuse anyone of sabotage, but in the past Iran has claimed both Israel and the United States were behind the assassinations of nuclear scientists and computer viruses targetting its...

Diplomats on Monday confirmed a report that Iran has begun uranium enrichment at an underground bunker and said the news is particularly worrying because the site is being used to make material that can be upgraded more quickly for use in a nuclear weapon than the nation's main enriched stockpile.