New York Times: Iran Hands Over Guide to Making Nuclear Bomb Parts

[PhilipShore]

New York Times
Iran Hands Over Guide to Making Nuclear Bomb Parts
By ELAINE SCIOLINO and WILLIAM J. BROAD
Published: February 1, 2006

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/01/international/middleeast/31cndiran.html?hp&ex=1138770000&en=aaaa849fe089404b&ei=5094&partner=homepage

VIENNA, Jan. 31 — The International Atomic Energy Agency says it has evidence that suggests links between Iran's ostensibly peaceful nuclear program and its military work on high explosives and missiles, according to a confidential agency report provided to member countries today.

The four-page report, which officials say was based at least in part on intelligence provided by the United States, refers to a secretive Iranian entity called the "Green Salt Project," which worked on uranium processing, high explosives and a missile warhead design. The combination suggests a "military-nuclear dimension," the report said, that if true would undercut Iran's claims that its nuclear program was solely aimed at producing electrical power.

The report will be debated by the 35 countries that make up the international agency's board when they meet in emergency session on Thursday to decide whether Iran should be reported to the United Nations Security Council for its nuclear activities.

The agency says it has repeatedly confronted Iran with the accusations, which Tehran dismissed as "baseless," adding that "it would provide further clarifications later," the report said. Iran also reiterated that all its nuclear projects were conducted under the authority of its national atomic energy agency and not the military.

[hadrons]

1. did Judith Miller write this???

[Up2Late]

2. So. Why don't they go after guy who gave it to them? A.Q. Kahn...

...from our friend, Pakistan!

[corporatemedia]

3. Yeah, but is it the OFFICIAL Guide? Or just a cheap imitation? n/t

[Newsjock]

4. Remember the Taliban's "nuclear bomb" from late 2001?

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,48523,00.html

Osama's Nuclear Plans Half-Baked
02:00 AM Nov, 20, 2001 EST

In 1979, a smart-aleck writer at the science humor publication the Journal of Irreproducible Results drew up a simple recipe for world destruction.

This fellow's obviously facetious piece -- called Let's Make a Thermonuclear Device! in the Journal's "Weekend Scientist" series -- purported to detail the ten steps involved in making an atom bomb, from obtaining "weapons grade Plutonium at your local supplier" to "hiding the completed device from your neighbors and children."

To anyone's knowledge, these plans do not accurately specify how to make a nuclear weapon. But British reporters searching through an abandoned "al-Qaida safe house" in Kabul, Afghanistan, last week apparently found the document, and reported that they'd stumbled upon the terrorists' nuclear intentions.

[Karmakaze]

5. Based on intelligence provided by the US?

Then the report should be dismissed out of hand simply because US intelligence can not be trusted after the Powell UN speech.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

6. I doubt that the IAEA trusts US intelligence...

...unless it can verify it. Remember the Niger documents?

[LizW]

8. Well, we should know

the U. S. gave Iran nuclear plans years ago. It is in James Risen's book, "State of War". The CIA hired a former Russian nuclear scientist to pretend to sell Iran plans for a nuclear bomb. The plans were real, but the CIA had them altered so they wouldn't work, in hopes of screwing up the Iranian's nuclear program. Problem was, the Russian defector they hired to deliver the plans looked at them, immediately saw the mistake, and, without telling the CIA, attached a cover letter telling the Iranians that something was wrong and offering to help them fix it for a price!

[fasttense]

7. Yeah right, like Iraq had WMDs. Fool me once shame on you.

Fool me twice shame on me. (brush couldn't say it correctly because he could never say "shame on me".)