Secret Iranian nuke facility revealed; showdown may loom
President Barack Obama, flanked by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, warn of a push for stern new sanctions against Iran after discovery of a secret nuclear research facility. (AP photo)
VIENNA – Iran has revealed the existence of a secret uranium-enrichment plant, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday, a development that could heighten fears about Tehran’s ability to produce a nuclear weapon and escalate its diplomatic confrontation with the West.
President Barack Obama and the leaders of France and Britain demanded Friday that Iran fully disclose its nuclear ambitions “or be held accountable” to an impatient world community. They threatened new sanctions after the disclosure of a secret Iranian nuclear facility.
“Iran is breaking rules that all nations must follows,” Obama said in the opening moments of the G-20 economic summit….
Two officials told the AP that Iran revealed the existence of the second plant in a letter sent Monday to International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei.
IAEA spokesman Marc Vidricaire confirmed receipt of the letter, saying the agency was informed “that a new pilot fuel enrichment plant is under construction.” The letter said that the plant would not enrich uranium beyond the 5 percent level suitable for civilian energy production. That would be substantially below the threshold of 90 percent or more needed for a weapon.”
Iranian leaders reportedly revealed existence of the plant only after learning that Western intelligence was onto them. The discovery of such blatant cheating by Iran may force countries such as Russia and China to finally show their hand regarding sanctions against Iran. And given the Iranian government’s precarious grip on power, the power of those sanctions to force change may never be greater.
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215 comments Add your comment
RW-(the original)
September 25th, 2009
11:09 am
Enter your comments here—-please repair this
We knew about this before the UN meeting but our “leader” decided to wait until he got to Pittsburgh to mention it.
Truth
September 25th, 2009
11:12 am
Something must be done. I am not saying they need to be attacked because I am not an expert on the issue, but diplimacy isn’t working.
Zip
September 25th, 2009
11:18 am
Didn’t we learn anything from our dealings with the No Koreans? And Supreme Leader is just shocked! How dare they lie!
joe matarotz
September 25th, 2009
11:23 am
Time for Obama to appoint an Iranian-Nuclear-Weapons Czar. Yeah, that’s the ticket!
Mrs. Godzilla
September 25th, 2009
11:25 am
I love the fact that we knew about it before they admitted to it….
means somebody is on the ball.
Diplomacy isn’t working? I don’t know…..we are being diplomatic,
we have learned the truth, the world is behind us and nobody has been blown up yet. Sounds like it is working.
Truth
September 25th, 2009
11:27 am
They continue to build. The object of diplomacy was to stop them from building.
godless heathen
September 25th, 2009
11:27 am
More Sanctions! That has them quaking in their boots.
But I don’t understand the concern. If we have nukes, why can’t they? Besides, when Obama gets rid of ours, they will destroy theirs, because Obama is going to ask them nicely.
RollerGirl
September 25th, 2009
11:28 am
Bookman must be as naive as B.Hussein believes the rest of us to be. China and Russia won’t have to support sanctions, there is always an out..thats why our Unilateralism , now abandoned, was important ..it allowed us to act to get our way, even when otherswere dead set against helping and indeed, profiting from status quo(Russia is BUILDING their nuclear infrastucture in Iran). Netanyahu, do your business…I hope before you leave office, Ahmedinijad is dead And the Bashir site is spewing thick black smoke from a cratered centrifuge bunker. If carter had had the guts and the wisdom to assassinate Khomeini in Paris in exile, none of this would ever have been necessary. Jimmy Carter was a loser who’s failures continue to reverberate.
getalife
September 25th, 2009
11:31 am
This is why it is treason to out an undercover CIA agent for Iranian nukes but they still caught it .
Nice work.
Mrs. Godzilla
September 25th, 2009
11:31 am
Seems we’ve been tracking this location for years…..
Mrs. Godzilla
September 25th, 2009
11:32 am
Good job by our intelligence community!
How about a round of applause?
USinUK
September 25th, 2009
11:33 am
godless –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_parties_to_the_Nuclear_Non-Proliferation_Treaty
when you’re scrolling and get to the H’s … slow down
Dave R.
September 25th, 2009
11:33 am
This is the kind of Hope & Change we get when the leader of the free world pees in his pants. More sanctions that haven’t worked.
Pokey
September 25th, 2009
11:33 am
What???!!! No way!
I am sure the Iranians are afraid of BHO, et al.
USinUK
September 25th, 2009
11:33 am
Mrs. G -
(golf clap)
Mrs. Godzilla
September 25th, 2009
11:33 am
read this!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/26/world/middleeast/26nuke.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp
Mrs. Godzilla
September 25th, 2009
11:34 am
UsinUK
NYT says Obama was briefed on this after elecetion so the previous administration knew about it as well…..
USinUK
September 25th, 2009
11:35 am
getalife –
“This is why it is treason to out an undercover CIA agent for Iranian nukes but they still caught it”
well said!
Dave R.
September 25th, 2009
11:36 am
If we have been tracking this location for years, Mrs. G., wouldn’t that have been Bush’s intelligence community? You know, the one that wasn’t afraid of government-sponsored witch hunts exposing everything they did and how they did them?
USinUK
September 25th, 2009
11:36 am
Mrs. G –
“NYT says Obama was briefed on this after elecetion so the previous administration knew about it as well…..”
shocked … gambling … blahblahblah
stands for decibels
September 25th, 2009
11:38 am
You know, the one that wasn’t afraid of government-sponsored witch hunts exposing everything they did and how they did them?
It’s not very nice to talk about Dick Cheney like that.
AmVet
September 25th, 2009
11:43 am
Personally I’m a big fan of the Reverse Cheney Doctrine:
If there’s a 1% chance that that the neo-conned are attempting to regain power, we have to treat it as a certainty in terms of our response. It’s not about our analysis … It’s about our response.
GEORGE AMERICAN
September 25th, 2009
11:44 am
BOTH PLANTS COULD BE EASILY TAKEN OUT WITH A COUPLE OF WELL PLACED DAISY CUTTER – PROBLEM SOLVED!!!
BUT WHY DO WE CARE WHAT FRANCE THINKS – THOSE ANTIE-AMERICAN SURRENDER MONKEYS!!!
USinUK
September 25th, 2009
11:45 am
george – you forgot “cheese-eating”!!!
stands for decibels
September 25th, 2009
11:46 am
George @ 11.44, who is this “Daisy” you speak of, and how would you propose to weaponize her flatulence?
jconservative
September 25th, 2009
11:48 am
RW-(the original)
“We knew about this before the UN meeting but our “leader” decided to wait until he got to Pittsburgh to mention it.”
If you are interested in the facts. We new about it last fall. Bush’s NSC people briefed Obama just after the election.
There is an advantage gained when you know something about the other side that they do not know you know. The Iranians only found out a few days ago that we (US, UK, Fr & Ger) had been onto them for a year. That is why they wrote their “confessional” letter to the IAEA.
Nothing is Free
September 25th, 2009
11:49 am
AMvet
**If there’s a 1% chance that that the neo-conned are attempting to regain pow**
Do you have any idea about what is going to happen to the democrats in Congress in 2010? Obama can’t even get them to act like a majority because they are so terrified of losing their jobs. They should be very worried. Other than others like you: the unthinking far left, no one supports what they are trying to do.
Bye, bye, dims.
USinUK
September 25th, 2009
11:49 am
(shouldn’t have brought up cheese … skipped lunch and starving … )
jconservative
September 25th, 2009
11:50 am
GEORGE AMERICAN – When we went into Afghanistan the French we the first on the ground after the US.
USinUK
September 25th, 2009
11:51 am
“That is why they wrote their “confessional” letter to the IAEA.”
dear iaea …
I never thought I’d write a letter like this …
jconservative
September 25th, 2009
11:53 am
RollerGirl September 25th, 2009 11:28 am
“..thats why our Unilateralism , now abandoned, was important…”
What unilateralism? Give us an example.
Nothing is Free
September 25th, 2009
11:54 am
USinUK
*shocked …**
You shouldn’t be. We had a real CIA back then. Obama will learn nothing other than what Bush’s administration was able to find out.
USinUK
September 25th, 2009
11:56 am
NiF –
“We had a real CIA back then”
that’s right … so it was important that Cheney out them (especially the ones working on Iran and their nuclear capabilities) for being the real CIA that they were … or something like that …
mike
September 25th, 2009
11:57 am
The idea that China and Russia are going to back serious sanction is naive.
The question is what do we do when they don’t.
AmVet
September 25th, 2009
11:57 am
Antie?
I believe you mean the French are Auntie American Surrender Monkeys, Georgie.
You know, married to Uncle American Surrender Monkeys.
Nothing, I agree that the chances for another epic, record-breaking neo-con slaughterfest – which would make three in a row – are not that good.
With a lot of hard work and huge piles of dirty money your beloved fraud conservatives loss rate won’t yet again be an almost unimaginable 94%.
OUCH!!!
That’s gotta hurt.
I’m guessing the Republidolts will lose around 65 – 80% of all contested national seats from sea to shining sea in 2010.
Which is still great news for the nation.
And immense pleasure for the rest of us…
stands for decibels
September 25th, 2009
11:58 am
I never thought I’d write a letter like this …
Y’know, if you’re fighting hunger pangs, the visual of Ahmadinejad penning a Penthouse Forum letter oughta do the trick.
USinUK
September 25th, 2009
11:59 am
dB –
sadly, no … I’ve gone past the point of no return … even picturing Dick Cheney writing a letter like that doesn’t put me off my feed at the moment …
oh … waitaminnit … I may have spoken too soon …
Nothing is Free
September 25th, 2009
11:59 am
USinUK
Cheney outed them? Hmmm. but what about the trials that the Obama crew are planning. Do you have a problem with any of that?
BTW, I left you an answer to the climate change post downstairs. Better stay away from it. Pretty logical stuff. You are not going to like it at all.
Mrs. Godzilla
September 25th, 2009
12:01 pm
isn’t Dick Cheney still evil?
Wyld Byll Hyltnyr
September 25th, 2009
12:01 pm
Mrs. Godzilla
September 25th, 2009
11:31 am
“Seems we’ve been tracking this location for years…..”; or, more appropriately, President Bush and Vice President Cheney have been tracking it for years. G-d bless you President Bush, you kept us safe in a dangerous world.
The other truth to jump forth from this episode is equally clear, now we know why experienced, smart leaders, such as President Bush and Vice President Cheney, would not offer to meet “without preconditions” with a bunch of animals like the leaders of Iran. Our dufus, Obumbler, did, however.
Finally, G-d bless Netanyahu for speaking a truth that the world had to hear even though our callow, inexperienced community organizer abdicated our world authority. I guess, at least when it come to freedom and moral clarity, the leader of Yisrael, rather than the POTUS, is the leader of the free world. Change we can’t believe happened. Could we have put a dumber, more ignorant smuck into the Whitehouse than its current resident?
Palin/Liz Cheney 2012 – before its too late.
jconservative
September 25th, 2009
12:02 pm
USinUK
“dear iaea …
I never thought I’d write a letter like this …”
You got it just about right.
————-
Mrs. Godzilla – Give a tip of the hat the intelligence services of UK, Fr & Ger. Since they have people on the ground they probably had more to do with uncovering the Qom facility than we did.
mike
September 25th, 2009
12:02 pm
LOL. Looks like old George American has nothing to say.
Look, bro. Spare us the shouting in bolded caps and just write “Conservatives are bad”. That’s all your pathetic rhetorical skills are capable of.
USinUK
September 25th, 2009
12:04 pm
mike –
(pssst … george american … eeees joke … not to take seriously … )
USinUK
September 25th, 2009
12:05 pm
NiF –
“Do you have a problem with any of that?”
yes. if they broke the law, yes, I most definitely have a problem with that. as should anyone who supposedly loves their country and supports their troops.
Doggone/GA
September 25th, 2009
12:06 pm
“not to take seriously …”
Awhhh…give Mikey a break. He can’t help it. His Pavolvian resonse just TAKES OVER and he sends that complaint before he can stop himself. He just can’t help it.
Say What??
September 25th, 2009
12:11 pm
So how’s that “Hope and Change” been working out for you guys?
Mrs. Godzilla
September 25th, 2009
12:11 pm
Byll….
Preconditions? what the hell does that have to do with anything?
looks to me that keeping it under wraps in order to drop it on the international stage was a brilliant idea.
marvelous timing
good for the inteligence community from both administrations and France and the UK and everybody else!
TW
September 25th, 2009
12:13 pm
Early Christmas for the right -
“A Fulton County Superior Court judge this morning cancelled a temporary restraining order that had stopped Grady hospital from closing its outpatient dialysis clinic.”
Be more humane to gas them, wouldn’t it?
Ah, but not as cheap…
The rightwing was better back when they thought Jesus was cool….
AmVet
September 25th, 2009
12:14 pm
(pssst … george american … eeees joke … not to take seriously … )
What a hoot, USinUK,
Reminds me of the slap the Jap humor prevalent in the 80s.
Not to be confused with Slap Funk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7AfJkD8mh8
Mrs. Godzilla
September 25th, 2009
12:15 pm
Say what
actually the Hope and Change are working out quite well for me.
I really wish it does for you too.