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Intelligence Services Believe the Natanz Site is a Front (Iran)
AP/USA Today via IranvaJahan ^ | January 11, 2007

Posted on 01/12/2007 5:43:01 AM PST by nuconvert

Intelligence Services Believe the Natanz Site is a Front

January 11, 2007 Associated Press USA Today

VIENNA -- Iran's uranium enrichment program appears stalled despite tough talk from the Tehran leadership, leaving intelligence services guessing about why the country has not made good on plans to press ahead with activities that the West fears could be used to make nuclear arms, diplomats said Thursday. Outside monitoring of Iran's nuclear endeavors is restricted to International Atomic Energy Agency inspections of declared sites, leaving significant blind spots for both the agency and intelligence agencies of member countries trying to come up with the full picture.

Still, Tehran's reluctance to crank up activities at its declared enrichment site at Natanz when it seems to have the technical know-how for at least experimental work is puzzling the diplomatic and intelligence communities — with some saying it was potentially worrisome.

Diplomats accredited or otherwise linked to the Vienna-based IAEA said some intelligence services believed the Natanz site is a front.

While the world's attention is focused on Natanz, Iranian scientists and military personnel could be working on a secret enrichment program at one or more unknown sites that is much more advanced, the diplomats, who demanded anonymity in exchange for discussing restricted information, said.

(Excerpt) Read more at iranvajahan.net ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: iran; natanz; nukes

1 posted on 01/12/2007 5:43:04 AM PST by nuconvert
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To: nuconvert
“ ...the diplomats, who demanded anonymity in exchange for discussing restricted information

Exactly the point where I stopped reading...

2 posted on 01/12/2007 5:48:33 AM PST by johnny7 ("We took a hell of a beating." -'Vinegar Joe' Stilwell)
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To: johnny7

You may have stopped reading, but you shouldn't totally disregard the notion.
Those anonymous diplomats aren't the only ones who think this


3 posted on 01/12/2007 5:54:03 AM PST by nuconvert ([there's a lot of bad people in the pistachio business] (...but his head is so tiny...))
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To: johnny7

You should have kept reading for a good laugh:

"The diplomats said that suggests possible Iranian hesitancy to provoke U.N. Security Council sanctions harsher than the relatively mild penalties agreed last month in response to Tehran's refusal to heed an August council deadline to suspend enrichment."

LOL...the IAEA/UN folks are delusional!!


4 posted on 01/12/2007 6:01:09 AM PST by penelopesire
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To: nuconvert

"....you shouldn't totally disregard the notion."

I don't think anyone disregards the notion, just disregards 'anounymous' sources (imho). Let's hope that our intelligence agencies have taken the possibility into account years ago!


5 posted on 01/12/2007 6:04:59 AM PST by penelopesire
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To: penelopesire

You can think that this is all a joke, (and some of it may be ridiculous) but using Natanz as a diversion from the real site would be standard operating procedure for the mullahs.


6 posted on 01/12/2007 6:06:12 AM PST by nuconvert ([there's a lot of bad people in the pistachio business] (...but his head is so tiny...))
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To: johnny7
"Exactly the point where I stopped reading..."

Good call.

7 posted on 01/12/2007 6:07:08 AM PST by Earthdweller (All reality is based on faith in something.)
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To: penelopesire

"Let's hope that our intelligence agencies have taken the possibility into account years ago!"

I seriously doubt that, but I hope they're on to it now.


8 posted on 01/12/2007 6:07:33 AM PST by nuconvert ([there's a lot of bad people in the pistachio business] (...but his head is so tiny...))
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To: All
Who knows what evil lurkes in the heart of Iran? The Moosad knows!
9 posted on 01/12/2007 6:15:19 AM PST by Bringbackthedraft
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To: nuconvert
the question is: how would the Iranians build/excavate a massive underground complex, in such a manner that no one would detect the activity....millions of tons of rock to moved and stored, heavy traffic on isolated roads, heavy equipment being dispatched to remote areas...new electrical power lines to supply enormous capacity...tunneling requires specialized equipment, sources??
10 posted on 01/12/2007 6:24:06 AM PST by thinking
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To: Bringbackthedraft

This bluff could be a bluff. Their leader is pretty much the politician. The islamofascists have stones to throw, lets hope their aim isn't as good as David's was.


11 posted on 01/12/2007 6:46:41 AM PST by huldah1776 (Worthy is the Lamb.)
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To: nuconvert
...a diversion from the real site would be standard operating procedure for the mullahs.

You may know something that others don't, so please tell us what the mullahs have done or are doing that would give any indication that this is a standard operating procedure. I dare say that we really don't have enough inormation to deduce what their standard operating procedure is.

12 posted on 01/12/2007 7:05:47 AM PST by webheart
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To: nuconvert
This is a strategy the Iranians have been using since the Iraqi nuclear reactor was destroyed. To disperse there nuclear program so that no single attack can take it all out. The real question for the west and Israel is finding the real key sites and targeting them.

This reminds me of the old hidden pea under the walnut con. The solution is to take out the pea hidden in the Carny's pocket.

13 posted on 01/12/2007 7:59:47 AM PST by 2001convSVT ("People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence")
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To: webheart

SOP by the regime : create a diversion so no one sees what you're really doing.
I don't think that's a big secret.


14 posted on 01/12/2007 9:29:04 AM PST by nuconvert ([there's a lot of bad people in the pistachio business] (...but his head is so tiny...))
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To: 2001convSVT

"To disperse there nuclear program so that no single attack can take it all out."

Yup. And they've built underneath major cities, so that an attack would result in large losses of life.


15 posted on 01/12/2007 9:31:46 AM PST by nuconvert ([there's a lot of bad people in the pistachio business] (...but his head is so tiny...))
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To: penelopesire

lol- the U.N might impose a 'no soup for you' sanction against them - that'll teach em


16 posted on 01/12/2007 9:40:53 AM PST by CottShop
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To: thinking

If there are dozens of these underground complexes and tunnels, who's to say what they are? There's nothing illegal about subterranean building projects.
What if it's done underneath cities and they say they're building subways or installing underground pipes or whatever?
And mining is big business in Iran. Who's to say it doesn't have to do with that?

They've been building these tunnels, etc for many yrs and mining for many yrs more so they have the equipment.


17 posted on 01/12/2007 9:43:19 AM PST by nuconvert ([there's a lot of bad people in the pistachio business] (...but his head is so tiny...))
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To: thinking
Good thinking......no pun intended.

I was wondering if Ah-ma-nut-job's recent popularity (sarcasm-actually his party was completely routed)in the previous elections that if their reactor was to be taken out and a nuclear cloud was to move say.....easterly over the populated countryside "killing allah's true believers indiscriminately" that perhaps the populus would revolt and hold both Ah-ma-nut-job and his Mullah buddies from the end of a rope that was attached to their necks for public display.

It's just a theory........

18 posted on 01/12/2007 9:55:50 AM PST by thingumbob (Dead terrorists don't make more terrorists!)
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To: CottShop

lol...or maybe institute another 'Oil For Food' program...(rolling eyes)


19 posted on 01/12/2007 9:57:55 AM PST by penelopesire
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To: thingumbob
that perhaps the populus would revolt and hold both Ah-ma-nut-job and his Mullah buddies from the end of a rope that was attached to their necks for public display.

You mean that they would disregard the key SHia thought: i.e., Armageddon is a good thing, because if everyone is wiped out including the Shiites, only the Shiites (the True Believers) will enjoy paradise; with infidels and bad Muslims as their slaves forever and presumably ever?

20 posted on 01/12/2007 11:20:50 AM PST by Kenny Bunk
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