More on revelations of Irans nuclear program

Exiles Add to Claims on Iran Nuclear Arms

By ELAINE SCIOLINO, Published: November 18, 2004 (NY Times)

This is the announcement that was promised yesterday. Despite my skepticism yesterday, this group was responsible for the initial unveiling of the story that Iran is enriching Uranium to make bomb-grade material. That gives them some credibility, no matter how "convenient" it is for the neocon war plans.

This is the group

The claims, made in separate news conferences in Paris and Vienna by a group known as the National Council of Resistance, the political front for the People's Mujahedeen, could not be independently verified, and independent nuclear experts were divided about whether they could be true.

These new charges come two days after the agreement was reached, and

The charges also come eight days before the 35-country ruling board of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations nuclear watchdog, opens meetings in Vienna to decide whether Iran has curbed its nuclear activities or should be referred to the Security Council for censure.

The timing couldn't have been more dramatic, huh?

David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a nonpartisan arms control group in Washington, said, "The timing of these revelations raises suspicions that the group is attempting to derail Iran's deal with the Europeans, particularly since there is no evidence to back up any of these claims."

Yup, couldn't have said it better myself.

This is troubling, but probably very true

The nuclear agency has long suspected that Iran, like Libya, received bomb blueprints from the secretive network set up by Abdul Qadeer Khan, known in Pakistan as the father of the country's nuclear bomb. Among the Mujahedeen's charges on Wednesday was that the Iranian blueprints came from the Khan network.

In September, the agency revealed that as early as 1995, Pakistan was providing Tehran with the designs for advanced centrifuges capable of making bomb-grade nuclear fuel. The Iranians have never acknowledged that the source was Pakistan.

I.A.E.A. inspectors were able to nail down the connection between Iran and Pakistan because of similar centrifuge packaging material they found in Libya and Iran.

It was revealed last year that Pakistan was actively selling their nuclear technology, and that the head of their nuclear program (named above) was in charge of the sales. Now .. consider the reason the U.S. invaded Iraq. Among them was this dubious claim of nuclear proliferation in Iraq, which has since been proved false. At the same time we are treating Pakistan as a valued ally. At the same time it is Pakistan that is the worst offender you could possibly imagine in nuclear proliferation, namely they were involved in selling nuclear technology to Libya, Iran and probably North Korea.

Why, then are we treating Pakistan as an ally?

Not that I know ... but let me offer a few clues

1. Pakistan is on the oil pipeline route: This is the oil pipeline that Michael Moore talks of in
   Fahrenheit 9/11. If you haven't been following the news, there's
   been a bunch of U.S. activity north of Afghanistan that is conveniently along the route of the proposed pipeline. The pipeline would go from the Caspian Sea, across the north side of Iran, through Afghanistan and Pakistan, and thence to the sea. It must avoid Iran for political reasons.
2. Pakistan was the staging ground for the U.S. previous "work" in Afghanistan, and needed to be a staging ground for the current work there: In the 1980's the U.S. was waging a proxy war against the USSR to oust them from Afghanistan. The only foothold we had then was Pakistan, and we used Pakistan as an intermediary point to give weapons and training to, er, Osama bin Laden's troops.
3. The U.S. needed in strategic terms to encircle Iran as much as possible: Ever since the overthrow of the Shah of Iran in 1977, the U.S. and Iran have been enemies. The U.S. administration under Reagan supplied weapons and training to Iraq to help Iraq contain Iran, Iraq at the time being led by Saddam Hussein (yes, in the 80's, the U.S. was feeding the guy we now label a devil).

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