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Here's an object lesson that shows just how far some press—and even Israeli government officials—have gone down the rabbit hole on Iran issues by propagating a story reported on a conspiracy website. The dubious tale goes like this:there was a huge explosion at Iran's main nuclear facility at Fordow, near the city ofQom, leaving hundreds of workers trapped in the underground facility. The facility is the source of much trepidation in Israel, where fears of insufficient military capabilities make the nuclear plant impenetrable to Israeli attack. The report came from a completely unreliable character writing for none other than World...

What We Know.  Fordow has become 'Iran's most heavily fortified facility', officials say. APReza Kahlili reported Friday 25 that there had been an underground explosion at the secret Fordo nuclear enrichment facility in Iran.  The details included the closure of a major roadway nearby following the event.  The report also mentioned many technicians trapped underground, perhaps more than 200.   Reza Kahlili and I then discussed the report earlier in the week of an emergency meeting in Ahmadinejad's office in Tehran.  We reported on Wednesday evening 23 January that the meeting in Tehran was in anticipation of a covert operation by Israel or...

US doesn't believe reports of blast at Iran nuclear plant By REUTERS 01/28/2013 20:13 WASHINGTON - The United States does not believe media reports about an explosion at an Iranian uranium enrichment plant, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Monday. The reports had said there had been an explosion early last week at the underground Fordow bunker near the holy Iranian city of Qom. "We have no information to confirm the allegations in the report and we do not believe the report is credible," Carney said. "We don't believe those are credible reports."

Iran has denied reports that surfaced over the weekend about an explosion at its at its underground Fordow nuclear plant. According to a report in the Iranian IRNA news agency, the deputy head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, Seyyed Shamseddin Barbroudi, said on Sunday that that there has been no explosion whatsoever in the Fordow nuclear facility. The chairman of the Iranian parliament’s Committee for Foreign Policy and National Security, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, said that the reports of the blast were nothing but “Western-made propaganda,” according to IRNA. On Friday, the American WND website reported that an explosion had occurred...

Former Revolutionary Guard tells 'Post' that such a blow to Fordow nuclear facility would harm Iran drastically. ranian dissident-turned CIA operative Reza Kahlili told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that an alleged blast at the Fordow nuclear installation in Iran is "the largest case of sabotage in decades." Although it has not yet been verified, a report by Kahlili, according to which a massive blast rocked Iran's key Fordow nuclear installation last week, continued to spread on Monday.

An Israeli intelligence source has confirmed Iran’s Fordow underground nuclear uranium enrichment facility sustained major damage in a “mega explosion” that occurred last week. Fordow, which contains at least 2,700 centrifuges for uranium enrichment, is located deep beneath a mountain near the Iranian city of Qom. Some 200 workers were trapped inside the facility at the time, according to a report published Monday by The Times, a UK-based newspaper.

A massive explosion rocked Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility last Monday, January 21, destroying huge parts of the installation and trapping as many as 240 personnel deep underground, according to a former Iranian intelligence official. Some mystery surrounds the truth of the reports, which emerged through conservative website WorldNetDaily last week and were recently backed up by the Jerusalem Post, which quoted Israeli intelligence officials confirming the attack. The blast occurred at 11:30 a.m. on Monday morning and shook buildings within a radius of three miles. Fordow’s nuclear plant is buried some 300 feet beneath a mountain, and is immune to...

Israeli intelligence source confirms underground nuclear facility sustained major damage in a “mega explosion” last week. An Israeli intelligence source has confirmed Iran’s Fordow underground nuclear uranium enrichment facility sustained major damage in a “mega explosion” that occurred last week. Fordow, which contains at least 2,700 centrifuges for uranium enrichment, is located deep beneath a mountain near the Iranian city of Qom. Some 200 workers were trapped inside the facility at the time, according to a report published Monday by The Times, a UK-based newspaper. The report quoted an Israeli official as saying “We’re still in the early stages of...

Yediot Ahronot reported. on Friday that former Iranian intelligence officials who defected to the West claim that Iran’s underground Fordo uranium enrichment facility has been almost completely demolished, and hundreds of staff members are at this moment trapped underground, This has to be the worst blow to Iran’s nuclear ambitions so far. WND, an American news website affiliated with the right, reported Friday that a mysterious explosion has destroyed a significant portion of Iran’s Fordo nuclear facility – considered Tehran’s most fortified facility.

An explosion deep within Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility has destroyed much of the installation, trapped about 240 personnel deep underground, according to a former intelligence officer of the Islamic regime, and reported by Reza Kahlili on Thursday. The previously secret nuclear site has become a center for Iran’s nuclear activity because of the 2,700 centrifuges enriching uranium to the 20-percent level. A further enrichment to weapons grade would take only weeks, experts say.“The level of enrichment has been a major concern to Israeli officials, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly has warned about the 20-percent enriched stockpile. The explosion occurred...

<p>An explosion deep within Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility has destroyed much of the installation and trapped about 240 personnel deep underground, according to a former intelligence officer of the Islamic regime.</p> <p>The level of enrichment has been a major concern to Israeli officials, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly has warned about the 20-percent enriched stockpile.</p>

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran is set to sharply expand its uranium enrichment in an underground plant after installing all the centrifuges it was built for, a U.N. report said, a move likely to increase Western alarm about Tehran's nuclear course. It also showed that Iran's stockpile of its most sensitive nuclear material - which could relatively quickly be processed further to bomb-grade uranium - had grown and was getting closer to an amount that could be sufficient for a nuclear weapon. The latest quarterly International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iran came 10 days after the re-election of U.S....

Explosive blasts destroyed power lines to Iran's underground nuclear facility at Fordo last month, the head of Iran's atomic agency said at a meeting of UN atomic agency member states Monday. "On ... 17th August 2012, the electric power lines from the city of Qom to the Fordo complex ... were cut using explosives," Fereydoon Abbasi Davani told the 155-nation International Atomic Energy Agency gathering in a speech. Davani did not accuse anyone of sabotage, but in the past Iran has claimed both Israel and the United States were behind the assassinations of nuclear scientists and computer viruses targetting its...

Explosive blasts destroyed power lines to Iran's underground nuclear facility at Fordo last month, the head of Iran's atomic agency said at a meeting of UN atomic agency member states Monday. "On ... 17th August 2012, the electric power lines from the city of Qom to the Fordo complex ... were cut using explosives," Fereydoon Abbasi Davani told the 155-nation International Atomic Energy Agency gathering in a speech. Davani did not accuse anyone of sabotage, but in the past Iran has claimed both Israel and the United States were behind the assassinations of nuclear scientists and computer viruses targetting its...

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards discovered an electronic monitoring device near the Fordow nuclear site in northern Iran last month, The Sunday Times reported Sunday, citing western intelligence sources. Soldiers were checking on communications terminals at Fordow when they discovered a rock, according to the report. When the soldiers attempted to move the rock, it exploded, presumably self-destructing. The device was reportedly capable of intercepting data from computers in Fordow. The Iranians did not report the discovery, according to the Times. Iran uses the Fordow facility to enrich uranium to a fissile concentration of 20 percent, the part of its work...

Americans are being played for fools by Iran—and fooling themselves. There is no case to be made that Iran is not pursuing a nuclear weapons capability. There is no evidence that Iran's decision-makers are willing to stop the nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions or anything else. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported on Friday that it has made no progress in its negotiations with Iran and that Iran continues to accelerate its enrichment operations, which are in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and agreements with the IAEA. Yet the policy discussion in the U.S. is confused. Former...

An unnamed senior U.S. official responded to a report that Iran is building out the Fordow enrichment plant by describing the facility “as a ‘Potemkin’ plant, a façade that could not operate and was under close watch by the International Atomic Energy Agency,” according to NBC News. That characterization is grossly misleading. Iran has accelerated its uranium enrichment activities at the Fordow facility, the once covert site buried into a small mountain outside of Qom, since the last IAEA report that detailed the regime’s weaponization work. It began producing uranium enriched to 20 percent there earlier this year, according to...

Iran has started moving the machines that enrich uranium for nuclear fuel from its main atomic complex in the central city of Natanz to an underground bunker near the holy city of Qom, its top nuclear official was quoted as saying on Monday. "Transferring Natanz centrifuges to Fordow (near Qom) is under way with full observance of standards," Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani told state broadcaster IRIB, adding "Fordow's facilities are being prepared and some centrifuges have been transferred."

‘Iran outdoes N. Korea's long-range missile development' By YAAKOV KATZ 15/07/2011 Uzi Rubin says Tehran's new ballistic missile Fateh-110 that has been converted to be used against ships is "a significant breakthrough." Iran has overtaken North Korea in the development of long-range sophisticated missiles, as demonstrated by the recent launch of a number of new missiles during military maneuvers in Iran, Uzi Rubin, the former head of Israel’s Homa Missile Defense Agency, said on Thursday. According to Rubin, during the Great Prophet War Games held earlier this month, Iran displayed a new ballistic missile that has been converted to be...