Iranian Alert -- September 17, 2003 -- IRAN LIVE THREAD PING LIST

IRANIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS' SUPPORTERS STAGE HUNGER STRIKE.

Relatives and supporters of Iranian political prisoners ended a hunger strike on 15 September (reports did not specify when the prisoners' supporters started their hunger strike) with a meeting at the central office of the reformist Islamic Iran Participation Party (IIPP), ISNA reported on 16 September. In addition to the families of Abbas Abdi, Hashem Aghajari, Said Razavi-Faqih, and Mohsen Sazgara, senior figures in the IIPP and the mujahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization were present at the meeting. Deputy Speaker of Parliament and IIPP Secretary-General Mohammad Reza Khatami expressed concern about the prisoners' health and the situation in the country's prisons, and he suggested that the killing of Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi while she was in custody is indicative of this situation. Reformist cleric Mohsen Kadivar called for the unconditional release of the prisoners and described the meeting as a protest against the judiciary's method of operating. National-religious activist Ezatollah Sahabi described fasting as a symbolic way of giving hope to the prisoners. BS

Source: RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 7, No. 177, Part III, 17 September 2003

Dissident Calls for Elections in Iran

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Associated Press Writer

September 17, 2003, 11:09 AM EDT

QOM, Iran -- In his first public speech in six years, Iran's leading dissident cleric criticized the country's hard-line Islamic leaders Wednesday, saying they should submit to elections and allow the country's young people to choose their future.

Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri addressed his followers after five years of house arrest and several months of illness.

About 300 students crowed into a small building in central Qom, a holy city 80 miles southwest of Tehran, to listen to the 81-year-old cleric, who was once the designated successor of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Montazeri recalled the late Khomeini's saying that the people should make their own decisions.

"The same applies now," Montazeri said, "the majority of our population is now dissatisfied with the ruling establishment. The matter should be put to popular vote."

In Iran's Islamic government, unelected bodies controlled by hard-liners hold the levers of power, including the judiciary, military and police -- and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the final word in all matters. Hard-liners have used that power to prevent social and political changes pushed by the elected president and the reformer-dominated parliament.

Speaking to The Associated Press after his speech, Montazeri said the path to reform in Iran is "to allow the people to choose their rulers. If people are not satisfied, the establishment is not legitimate."

Montazeri was placed under house arrest in 1997 after telling students that Khamenei was incompetent to rule. He accused the ruling clerics of monopolizing power and ignoring the democratic ideals of the revolution. The clerics denounced him as a traitor.

In January, Iran's Supreme National Security Council lifted the house arrest. By then Montazeri's health had deteriorated and the move was believed to have been prompted by fears of an uprising if Montazeri were to die while under restrictions.

Montazeri is one of a few grand ayatollahs, the most senior theologians of the Shiite Muslim faith. He enjoys huge followings in Qom and Isfahan, his birthplace. He fell out with Khomeini, and lost his position as successor, shortly before the leader's death in 1989.

In an interview with the AP, Montazeri said: "The authorities should increase their tolerance ... and allow the new generation to choose their future."

In his speech, Montazeri criticized the conservatives' crackdown on intellectuals and writers, dozens of whom have been detained and had their publications banned.

"It is a disgrace that university teachers are humiliated and detained," he said. "This is against Islamic teachings."
Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/sns-ap-iran-dissident-cleric,0,6087301.story?coll=ny-worldnews-headlines

Leader stresses IRGC's role in Iran

IRIB News
Tehran- Iran

Tehran, Sept 16 - The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said here on Monday that all necessary financial and moral means should be provided for consolidating the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), which is the distinguished pillar of the immense building of the Islamic establishment.

Addressing a group of senior IRGC commanders, Ayatollah Khamenei said that with God Almighty's grace Iranian nation would continue to be prepared for resistance and perseverance against enemies.

Ayatollah Khamenei recalled God's irrevocable promise for absolute victory of Muslims and said resistance against enemies would make them disappointed in overcoming the Iranian nation.

The Supreme Leader said the past two centuries marked efforts by the arrogant powers and colonialists to plunder interests and resources of nationals and establish an international tyrannical systems in global communities but the Islamic Revolution of Iran derailed the process of pillaging by international dictatorship, sparking strong hostility towards Iranian nation.

Ayatollah Khamenei said that on threshold of the victory of Islamic Revolution, the US and Israel tried to completely violate the rights of the Palestinian nation so as to put an end to the issue of Palestine but thanks to Iran's Islamic Revolution, Palestinian youth with empty hands have brought the most ill-nature element of Zionist Regime, i.e. the criminal Sharon, to his kneels.

He said the Zionist regime is now badly engaged in the occupied lands thanks to the blessings of the Intifada.

He added that had the greedy Zionists not been gripped with Intifada they would have undoubtedly acted to dominate Egypt, Syria and Lebanon and other Middle East states.

Ayatollah Khamenei said the arrogant powers come across with problems upon invasion on any Muslim states as they do in Iraq thanks to the nations' Islamic vigilance.

He added that Iranian nation is not surprised at the continued hostility of hegemonistic US and international Zionism as well as other powers that bully Islamic system.

He said materialization of holy Quran's prediction on continuation of the hostility has made the faith of the Iranian nation stronger.

"The invasion and hostility would continue as long as enemies have not been disappointed; so, efforts should be made to have pessimism in dominating the Iranian nation cast its shadow on the enemy camp," said Ayatollah Khamenei.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Ayatollah Khamenei referred to the IRGC as a divine gift for Iranian nation and the country's history and said blessings of the auspicious institution would remain everlasting both at present and future in Iran.

The Ayatollah highlighted the IRGC's success in passing difficult eras in the past quarter a century and said abundant and rich experience and a team of resistant and faithful personnel have turned the IRGC into a highly honorable and powerful establishment.

The IRGC commander general Yahya Rahim Safavi and the leadership's representative at the IRGC Hojatoleslam Movahedi Kermani had prior to the Supreme Leader's speech voiced the IRGC's readiness to defend Iranian nation and the Islamic establishment.

http://www.iribnews.com/Full_en.asp?news_id=188153

Dissident Iran cleric's warning

Wednesday, 17 September, 2003

The dissident Iranian cleric who was once designated as Ayatollah Khomeini's successor says the country's rulers may lose their legitimacy.
In his first public speech for six years, Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri said most people were dissatisfied and that the issue should be put to a vote.

Ayatollah Montazeri was released from house arrest early this year.

It is a decision the authorities may come to regret, says the BBC's Tehran correspondent Jim Muir.

About 300 students crowded into a small meeting room at Ayatollah Montazeri's house in the holy city of Qom about 130 kilometres (80 miles) south-west of Tehran.

Despite his poor health, the 81-year-old seems to have decided to break his silence to play a more public role, our correspondent says.

The cleric recalled the late Ayatollah Khomeini's dictum that the people should make their own decision about who rules the country.

"The same applies now," the cleric said, "the majority of our population is now dissatisfied with the ruling establishment. The matter should be put to popular vote."

Cause celebre

Ayatollah Montazeri was also strongly critical of the longstanding crackdown by the hardline judiciary on liberal intellectuals and reformist publications, describing it as un-Islamic and a disgrace.

Although he was one of the authors of the Islamic Republic's constitution, Ayatollah Montazeri is not an enthusiast for religious control of politics.

This was the main reason for his house arrest after he criticised the current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

In his speech he argued that the Islamic seminaries should be independent and not funded by the state authorities.

It was for speaking his mind thus that Ayatollah Montazeri lost favour as Ayatollah Khomeini's successor in 1989, our correspondent says.

It is thought that the current authorities may have decided to lift the restrictions on him in January because they feared he might become a cause celebre if he were to die under house arrest, he says.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3117102.stm

Iran Accuses US

September 17, 2003
Neftegaz
Neftegaz.RU

Iranian officials claimed that the US sees the Islamic word as a serious threat for its interests around the world.

Therefore the US would fight Iran’s nuclear programme in order that no Islamic country would ever receive sophisticated technology.

But Iran will soon complete the acquisition of nuclear technology and keep up with recent advances.

http://www.neftegaz.ru/english/lenta/show.php?id=39936

Montazeri Calls for Elections in Iran

September 17, 2003
The Associated Press
Ali Akbar Dareini

QOM -- In his first public speech in six years, Iran's leading dissident cleric criticized the country's hard-line Islamic leaders Wednesday, saying they should submit to elections and allow the country's young people to choose their future.

Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri addressed his followers after five years of house arrest and several months of illness.

About 300 students crowed into a small building in central Qom, a holy city 80 miles southwest of Tehran, to listen to the 81-year-old cleric, who was once the designated successor of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Montazeri recalled the late Khomeini's saying that the people should make their own decisions.

"The same applies now," Montazeri said, "the majority of our population is now dissatisfied with the ruling establishment. The matter should be put to popular vote."

In Iran's Islamic government, unelected bodies controlled by hard-liners hold the levers of power, including the judiciary, military and police and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the final word in all matters. Hard-liners have used that power to prevent social and political changes pushed by the elected president and the reformer-dominated parliament.

Speaking to The Associated Press after his speech, Montazeri said the path to reform in Iran is "to allow the people to choose their rulers. If people are not satisfied, the establishment is not legitimate."

Montazeri was placed under house arrest in 1997 after telling students that Khamenei was incompetent to rule. He accused the ruling clerics of monopolizing power and ignoring the democratic ideals of the revolution. The clerics denounced him as a traitor.

In January, Iran's Supreme National Security Council lifted the house arrest. By then Montazeri's health had deteriorated and the move was believed to have been prompted by fears of an uprising if Montazeri were to die while under restrictions.

Montazeri is one of a few grand ayatollahs, the most senior theologians of the Shiite Muslim faith. He enjoys huge followings in Qom and Isfahan, his birthplace. He fell out with Khomeini, and lost his position as successor, shortly before the leader's death in 1989.

In an interview with the AP, Montazeri said: "The authorities should increase their tolerance ... and allow the new generation to choose their future."

In his speech, Montazeri criticized the conservatives' crackdown on intellectuals and writers, dozens of whom have been detained and had their publications banned.

"It is a disgrace that university teachers are humiliated and detained," he said. "This is against Islamic teachings."

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20030917_739.html

Iran Not Willing to Comply with IAEA Resolution

September 17, 2003
Middle East Online
middle-east-online.com

TEHRAN - Iranian officials gave fresh signals Wednesday that they do not intend to comply with a resolution passed by the UN's nuclear watchdog giving Tehran until the end of next month to come clean on its atomic programme.

"At the beginning of the 1979 Islamic revolution, we stood up to identical pressure and we are used to it. The Islamic republic has no intention of giving in to pressure," powerful former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was quoted as saying in his latest comment on the deadline.

On Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) gave Iran until October 31 to clear up widespread suspicions it is using an atomic energy programme as a cover for nuclear weapons development.

The resolution, passed by the IAEA's board of governors after intensive US lobbying, demands Iran answer all the IAEA's questions regarding its enrichment activities, provide unrestricted access to IAEA inspectors and provide a detailed list of its nuclear-related imports.

One of the IAEA's demands is that Iran sign an additional protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which would allow inspectors to make surprise visits to suspect sites.

Failure to satisfy the IAEA could see Iran declared in violation of the NPT on November 20, when the board convenes again in Vienna. The issue could be referred to the UN Security Council, leading to the possible imposition of sanctions.

Even some key reformists have rejected the ultimatum.

Parliamentary speaker Mehdi Karrubi, a close ally of President Mohammad Khatami, said the IAEA resolution was "political".

"The Iranian people will not accept giving in to the logic of force," he was quoted as saying by the official news agency IRNA.

And a prominent conservative, justice chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi, qualified the resolution as "unjust".

"The US and their allies want to stop Iran from accessing new technology," he was quoted as saying on state radio. He said the "only solution was to resist".

Embattled President Khatami, however, on Wednesday maintained his silence on the crisis when asked for his reaction to the resolution.

Iran's official position on the resolution has been spelled out by the foreign ministry, which stated that "the nature of our cooperation with the IAEA is under consideration."

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=7036http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=7036

Iran Not Willing to Comply with IAEA Resolution

September 17, 2003
Middle East Online
middle-east-online.com

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/984010/posts?page=27#27

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September 17, 2003 at 11:53:46 PDT

State Dept. Official Warns of Iran Threat
By KEN GUGGENHEIM
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) -

Iran's nuclear program is a threat to the Middle East as well as the United States, a State Department official told U.S. and Israeli lawmakers Wednesday.

Paula DeSutter, assistant secretary of state for verification and compliance, told the U.S.-Israel Joint Parliamentary Committee that Iran is likely to develop missiles capable of reaching the United States or Western Europe.

DeSutter's comments were echoed by the four U.S. lawmakers and four Israeli Knesset members on the panel.

Israeli lawmaker Yuval Steinitz warned that Iran's nuclear program could reach the "point of no return" by next year. "Time is running out," he said.

U.S. analysts believe Iran is years away from a nuclear weapon, even with significant foreign assistance.

Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., said he has provided intelligence agencies with information from contacts outside of Iran that Iran may have sent three emissaries to North Korea because of the North's "desire to work with Iran on nuclear capability."

He said he is "desperately concerned about what's happening in Iran."

Iran has until the end of October to prove to the International Atomic Energy Agency that it does not have a nuclear weapons program. Iran insists its nuclear program is for civil energy purposes, but the discovery of weapons-grade enriched uranium and other evidence suggests it could be intended for weapons.

The United States has maintained that Iran is developing nuclear weapons and DeSutter said Iran's program, if unchallenged, could weaken the IAEA and the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty

"Already faced with North Korea's brazen disregard for its treaty obligations, the (treaty) would be undermined still further if Iran were able to disregard its treaty obligations in a similar way," she said.

North Korea has withdrawn from the treaty and said it is making nuclear weapons.

Responding to lawmakers' questions, DeSutter expressed confidence in the IAEA's proceedings.

"It would be difficult for me to imagine that the IAEA findings would be sharply contrary to what we could live with," she said.

If the IAEA finds Iran violated the treaty, the matter would likely go to the U.N. Security Council. DeSutter did not say what action she expected from the Security Council.

Questioned about U.S. relations with Iranian opposition groups, DeSutter said the U.S. role is to encourage them without being directly involved. She said they "may be the best hope" for changing Iran's policies.

When an Israeli lawmaker alluded to Secretary of State Colin Powell's order closing two offices of an Iranian opposition group last month, DeSutter said he was obliged to do so because the group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, was associated with the Mujahedeen Khalq, which the State Department considers a terrorist organization.

The parliamentary panel was formed to enhance U.S.-Israeli relations. It was meeting for the second time in five years.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2003/sep/17/091702892.html

Iranian Power Project Generates Tension

September 17, 2003
The Financial Times
Andrew Jack

With its 50 metre penthouse swimming pool, French marble-clad exterior, Grecian pillars and fountain, one of Moscow's first modern office buildings looks as though it should have been built for a private oil magnate rather than a branch of Russia's Ministry of Atomic Energy.

The $40m headquarters, completed in 1996 for Konverse Bank, a bank controlled until recently by "MinAtom", is testament to the financial flows of a nuclear industry spun out of the Soviet Union's military machine.

Today it generates export revenues of more than $3bn a year. MinAtom's sales of nuclear expertise - notably to Iran - are an important source of export earnings. But they are also a problem for Moscow's fledgling partnership with the US and they will be on the agenda of John Bolton, US deputy secretary of state, who arrived in Moscow on Wednesday for a conference on proliferation.

For the past decade, after western suppliers withdrew from the construction of Iran's Bushehr nuclear power station, MinAtom has taken up the slack. The deal, worth about $1bn, should lead to Bushehr's launch in 2005, but has triggered fears of its misuse.

"Iran is not a stable country politically, and you don't know who will be in charge in three or five years. Stopping the programme would help global security," says Vladimir Slivyak from Ecodefence, a Russian anti-nuclear lobby group.

The US has long pushed Moscow to stop its co-operation on Bushehr, as well as on a broader series of arms and technology deals. It has even imposed sanctions on Russian research institutes and companies involved in exports to Iran.

The pressure may be working: a senior US official told the FT that Russia had decided to put off the first shipment of nuclear fuel to Bushehr to next spring. The delivery had been scheduled for late this year.

Earlier this month, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, passed a resolution giving Iran until October 31 to give full details of its nuclear programme.

The direct danger from Bushehr is still under debate. "Neither Iran nor Russia has violated any agreement, and we are in line with the guidelines of the IAEA," says Alexander Rumyantsev, head of MinAtom.

He stresses that as a condition for completion of the power station, Iran must first finalise a contract committing it to return all spent nuclear fuel to Russia for reprocessing and storage, further limiting any prospect for proliferation.

While the IAEA has been pushing for Iran to sign an "additional protocol" to provide for supplementary nuclear inspections, Mohammed ElBaradei, the head of the agency, himself says he sees no risks of proliferation from Bushehr itself.

However, the US argues that it could be used as a cover for a military nuclear programme, if only through training specialists.

"The Russians have too much faith in their nuclear skills and don't believe the Iranians are capable of replicating them," says one senior US diplomat.

The recent discovery of undisclosed fuel enrichment facilities in Iran, despite continued official assurances that it has no interest in helping a military nuclear programme, has sparked fresh concern in Russia as well as the US and the EU.

President Vladimir Putin's own statements and actions in recent months indicate a change in tack on nuclear co-operation, suggesting a shift away from a purely commercial logic.

He replaced Sergei Adamov, the former head of MinAtom accused of corruption, with Mr Rumyantsev, and installed others from his own circle in key positions.

"Before, the position on Iran depended not just on the president but on the atomic industry. Now the managers listen to the political orders and obey," says Mr Slivyak, who argues that there has been a significant increase in Russian caution towards Tehran in the past six months.

Mr Putin and other senior officials have stepped up their calls for Iran to comply with the IAEA's additional protocol, even while refusing to making it a condition for Bushehr's completion. The result, combined with the US's preoccupation with Iraq, seems set to ensure that Bushehr will not be a "relationship-breaker" with Moscow.

While its refusal to complete the power station could put additional pressure on Tehran to comply with the IAEA, Alexander Pikaev, an academic from the Carnegie Moscow Centre, argues that going ahead could be wiser: Russia supplying its own fuel on condition it is returned afterwards would be safer than pushing Iran to develop its own supplies, which would be far more difficult to track.

Russia may be hoping that continued "technical delays" in signing its own long-delayed contract for the return of spent fuel with Iran at Bushehr will win it time for the US and others to persuade Tehran to comply with the IAEA's additional protocol.

Mr Putin could then be seen to have supported Iran and not given in to international pressure.

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1059479914477

Rafsanjani Calls for "Fatwa Council"

September 17, 2003
AFP
IranMania

"Conducting a regime can not be founded on the fatwa or a single person," Rafsanjani said, using the Islamic term for religious edicts.

"If there is council or councils which focus on important questions and issue a fatwa, that would be a basis for the constitution's Council of Guardians to approve or reject laws passed by parliament," he said at a meeting with clerics late Tuesday in the northeastern city of Mashhad.

The Council of Guardians, composed of six ayatollah appointed by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and six jurists named by the judiciary chief, examines parliamentary legislation to ensure it conforms with the constitution and Islamic precepts.

"Any given law could turn the country upside-down ... could decide between peace or war, could isolate us, humiliate us in the eyes of the world, or, on the other hand, honour us," said Rafsanjani.

He did not specify the criteria for selecting members of his proposed fatwa council, nor give a timing for its possible formation.

The Council of Guardians normally reaches its verdicts on the advice of conservative clerics rather than religious reformers in the Islamic republic with an eye on public opinion.

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=18083&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

Rafsanjani Calls for "Fatwa Council"

September 17, 2003
AFP
IranMania

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/984010/posts?page=31#31

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Revealing.
An honest look at the difficulties of being a reporter with a conscience.
A rare thing these days.

"About 300 students crowded into a small building in central Qom, a holy city 80 miles southwest of Tehran, to listen to the 81-year-old cleric,..."

Brave man.
Brave students.

"That is because if the people are in the arena, military forces, which enjoy popular support, will smack all aggressors in the mouth."
"Khatami stressed the need for supervising elections but added that this does not imply an absence of choice. Furthermore, people should exercise free will in selecting their parliamentary representatives."

One humorous statement after another.

I doubt we know just how much enriched uranium was smuggled into Iran from Iraq in the years leading up to the war.

Perhaps the contents of the al Tuwaita facility:

OPERATION: IRAQI FREEDOM
Marines find tunnels under nuke complex
Weapons-grade plutonium possibly found in network of rooms beneath atomic facility

Posted: April 9, 2003
7:00 p.m. Eastern

U.S. Marines have located a complex of tunnels underneath an Iraqi nuclear complex – apparently missed by U.N. weapons inspectors – discovering a vast array of warehouses and bombproof offices that could contain the "smoking gun" sought by intelligence agencies, reported the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

The Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission's Al-Tuwaitha facility is located 18 miles south of Baghdad.

Fox News Channel is reporting that the tunnels may contain weapons-grade plutonium.

"I've never seen anything like it, ever," said Marine Capt. John Seegar. "How did the world miss all of this? Why couldn't they see what was happening here?"

Marine nuclear and intelligence experts say that at least 14 buildings at Al-Tuwaitha indicate high levels of radiation and some show lethal amounts of nuclear residue, according to the Pittsburgh daily. The site was examined numerous times by U.N. weapons inspectors, who found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction.

"They went through that site multiple times, but did they go underground? I never heard anything about that," said physicist David Albright, a former International Atomic Energy Agency inspector in Iraq from 1992 to 1997.

In a 1999 report, Albright said, "Iraq developed procedures to limit access to these buildings by IAEA inspectors who had a right to inspect the fuel fabrication facility."

"On days when the inspectors were scheduled to visit, only the fuel fabrication rooms were open to them," he said in the report, written with Khidhir Hamza, an Iraqi nuclear engineer who defected in 1994. "Usually, employees were told to take to their rooms so that the inspectors did not see an unusually large number of people."

Chief Warrant Officer Darrin Flick, the battalion's nuclear, biological and chemical warfare specialist, said radiation levels were particularly high at a place near the complex where local residents say the "missile water" is stored in mammoth caverns.

"It's amazing," Flick said. "I went to the off-site storage buildings, and the rad detector went off the charts. Then I opened the steel door, and there were all these drums, many, many drums, of highly radioactive material."

Noting that the ground in the area is muddy and composed of clay, Hamza was surprised to learn of the Marines' discovery, the Tribune-Review said. He wondered if the Iraqis went to the colossal expense of pumping enough water to build the subterranean complex because no reasonable inspector would think anything might be built underground there.

"Nobody would expect it," Hamza said. "Nobody would think twice about going back there."

Michael Levi of the Federation of American Scientists said the Iraqis continued rebuilding the Al-Tuwaitha facility after weapons inspections ended in 1998.

"I do not believe the latest round of inspections included anything underground, so anything you find underground would be very suspicious," said Levi. "It sounds absolutely amazing."

The Pittsburgh paper said nuclear scientists, engineers and technicians, housed in a plush neighborhood near the campus, have fled, along with Baathist party loyalists.

"It's going to take some very smart people a very long time to sift through everything here," said Flick. "All this machinery. All this technology. They could do a lot of very bad things with all of this."

Seegar said his unit will continue to hold the nuclear site until international authorities can take over. Last night, they monitored gun and artillery battles by U.S. Marines against Iraqi Republican Guards and Fedayeen terrorists.

The offices underground are replete with videos and pictures that indicate the complex was built largely over the last four years, the Tribune-Review said.

Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clark told reporters she has no specific information about the discovery.

"I'm only aware of the report from the embedded reporter," she said.

Clark was asked about the timeline of testing the material found.

"Every situation is different," she said. "You often have different circumstances. Sometimes things test positive and then it turns out to be negative. We're taking our time and we remain focused on the primary task of winning the war. It doesn't mean we can't do other things; we do. But we will take our time and do it properly."

Iraq began to develop its nuclear program at Al-Tuwaitha in the 1970s, according to the Institute for Science and International Security. Israel destroyed a French-built reactor there in 1981, called "Osiraq," and a reactor built by the Russians was destroyed during the 1991 Gulf War.

In his 2000 book "Saddam's Bombmaker," Hamza revealed Saddam's secret plans for the nuclear complex at Al-Tuwaitha:

From my office window in the Nuclear Research Center, I could see just a slice of what Saddam's oil money had built in less than a decade: a sprawling complex of nuclear facilities, scattered over ten square miles, poised to deliver us the bomb. It was called al-Tuwaitha, in Arabic "the truncheon."

… Below my floor was fifty thousand square feet of office space and laboratories, sparkling with new equipment, where hundreds of technicians were running nuclear experiments. Outside to my left was our chemical reprocessing plant, where we would enrich fuel for a plutonium bomb. Down the street was our domed Russian reactor, newly renovated with Belgian electronic controls, which made it capable of generating radioactive material for nuclear triggers. Past that was our French-supplied neutron generator, and next to that our electronics labs, and then a four-story building that handled spent nuclear fuel, full of hot cells and new remote-controlled equipment overseen by platoons of white-jacketed technicians. All this was a long, long way from the dining room table where we'd scratched out our first memo for a bomb in 1972.

Rising up behind my office, however, was al-Tuwaitha's jewel in the crown, the aluminum dome of the French reactor, glittering in the blue desert sky. Osiraq was the most advanced reactor of its kind, crammed with such up-to-date equipment and technology that visitors were amazed that the French had ever agreed to sell it to us. Little did they know that the acquisition of Osiraq, an incredible feat on its own, was merely a decoy: Saddam wanted us to copy the French design and build another, secret reactor, where we would produce the bomb-grade plutonium beyond the prying eyes of foreign spies and inspectors – the same thing to him.

But it was not to be. On June 7, 1981, Israel sent eight F-16 warplanes almost 700 miles over Jordanian, Saudi and Iraqi air space for hours without detection. By flying in tight formation, they generated a radar signal resembling that of a commercial airliner. Upon identifying the Osiraq nuclear plant, and catching Iraqi defenses by surprise, the Israeli pilots managed to demolish the reactor in one minute and 20 seconds.

At the time, Israel's audacious preemptive strike was almost universally condemned, but later praised by many for helping thwart Iraq's development of nuclear weapons.

Despite this and other setbacks, says Hamza, Saddam persisted in his quest for a nuclear bomb. In testimony before Congress last August, Hamza – the architect of Iraq's atom bomb program – said that if left unchecked, Iraq could have had nuclear weapons by 2005.

Iran Nuclear Issue Discussed at Washington Forum

Deborah Tate
Washington
18 Sep 2003,

A group of U.S. Congressmen and Israeli Knesset members met in an unusual session in Washington, Wednesday, to discuss Iran. The lawmakers heard testimony about dangers posed by Iran's nuclear program.
A panel of experts told a meeting of the U.S.-Israel Joint Parliamentary Committee on Capitol Hill that Iran is developing nuclear weapons.

Gary Mulholland is director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control. "Iran is in fact emerging rapidly as the new mass destruction weapon threat in the Middle East. It is clear to me, at least, from what I know that if Iran continues down its present path, we will be looking at a new nuclear weapons power within the next few years," he said.

Mr. Mulholland said Iran is also developing long-range missiles capable of reaching Europe or the United States. He said there is only one aim to such missiles: to deliver nuclear weapons.

That prompted a response from Yuval Steinitz, a member of the Israeli Knesset. "The Iranian nuclear program is really a military nuclear program with the aim of threatening not just the Middle East or Israel, but NATO and Europe, and maybe to be able to target the United States of America," he said.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Paula De Sutter warned that Iran's nuclear program, if allowed to continue, could weaken the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

"If left unchallenged, Iran's development of a nuclear weapons' program will seriously weaken the NPT and the IAEA. Already faced with North Korea's brazen disregard for its treaty obligations, the N-P-T would be undermined still further if Iran were able to disregard its treaty obligations in a similar way," he said.

North Korea has withdrawn from the treaty and says it is making nuclear weapons.

The IAEA is giving Iran until the end of next month to prove that it does not have a nuclear weapons program. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

Ms. De Sutter said if the IAEA finds Iran violated the treaty, the issue would be referred to the U.N. Security Council, which could decide to impose sanctions. Ms. Sutter did not say what action the United States would support in the Security Council.

Senator Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican, said he is considering introducing a Senate resolution on the matter.

"What it would essential say is that the Congress is strongly of the view that Iran needs to come into compliance with the agreements it has signed," he said.

Senator Kyl says his Senate colleagues have reacted positively to the idea of such a resolution.

http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=DFB1C4C8-1818-482F-AC062C4BFAF729BF

Iran rejects any EU precondition

2003/09/18

Tehran, Sept 18 - Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi expressed regret here Wednesday over statements made by the Italian representative to the European Union (EU) regarding Iran's nuclear program.

The envoy from Italy, which heads the rotating presidency of the EU, speaking at a public session of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said that EU's cooperation with Iran depends on Tehran's acceptance of the additional protocol to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

These statements which have been made under duress from some countries, provide no help to strengthen constructive Iran-IAEA cooperation, Asefi underlined.

"They will not deter Iran from its legitimate rights to have access to peaceful nuclear technology either."

Iran and EU have started their diplomatic and economic dialogue based on mutual respect, Asefi said adding "But, as Iran did not accept any precondition for these talks, it will not accept any preconditions for their continuation."

He also expressed hope that the EU will put pressure on Israel to come clean on its nuclear arsenal as well as clarify its position on efforts to prevent production and stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction to preserve international peace and security.

Speaking at a press conference, Italian Deputy Foreign Minister said the immediate and unconditional signing of the additional protocol by Iran is EU's condition for continuation of economic dialogue with Tehran.

http://www.iribnews.com/Full_en.asp?news_id=188315&n=31

"Conducting a regime can not be founded on the fatwa or a single person," Rafsanjani said, "unless it is a person such as myself."

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