Anttech said:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5346524.stm
Here we go again
the neocons seem to be setting the stage for "Spread Democracy in the ME, stage 2" Perhaps they should fix the mess in Iraq first.
I just got back an hour and a half ago from talk given by Frank Pabian, former IAEA chief inspector in Iraq from 1996-1998.
From the satellite imagery of the faciilities, the records from the IAEA's own reports of Iran's deceit regarding the facilities, one of which was razed to the ground and paved over with an asphalt soccer field for 'public use' after being revealed by the NCRI (Iranian dissident group), it was clear that Iran is not being honest, and not complying with the NPT (blatantly).
The general procedure for each site the IAEA has tried to inspect has been this:
1) NCRI announces existence of site.
2) IAEA gets commercial satellite photos of sit.
3) Inspectors go to site.
4) Inspectors are told outlandish lies about purpose of site. One enrichment facility run by a front company (Kalaye Electric) claimed to be a watch factory. Some time later when inspectors returned, the site had been completely cleared, repainted, and retiled. The found traces of enriched uranium all over the place.
In another case involving a 'laser research center' doing just 'laser research', the inspectors find a large array of lasers all aligned at a central point, where something had clearly been 'hastily removed'. When pressured the Iranians claim 'nothing' had been there. Then it was a faulty piece of equipment that had been sent back to the manufacturers. Then it was a faulty piece of equipment in a crate, still on site waiting to be sent back the manufacturers, but that had been never used. When inspected it was a chamber with--you gueesed it--traces of enriched uranium.
5) Go back to step 1.
The Iranians have been getting better at clearing the sites--one was completely demolished, the Earth was scraped, all vegetation removed, the whole site paved over with an asphalt soccer field, basketball courts with no hoops (even two years later) all for 'public use'. Site still behind a guard fence, with armed guards.
Iran has been building almost exactly the same facilities in the same sequence as what was used by Pakistan to produce their nuclear weapons.
Pabian made it clear that there was no doubt in his mind what Iran was doing, and that the deceit is not motivated by a desire to protect the nuclear weapons program, as much as to keep the economic benefits of the NPT without the restrictions. The key basis for the conclusion was not so much the facilities themselves, which he clearly stated could just as easily be used for a peaceful program, but the pattern of extreme and ridiculous deceit and concealment. Why have front companies? Why claim that the enrichment facility is a watch factory? Why, boast about imprisoning 'nuclear spies' after every time the NCRI (dissdent group) reveals another one of your facilities, if its just a peaceful power program? Spies are something you worry about with a weapons program. Ahmadinejad announced the successful progress of work on P-2 centrifuges shortly inspectors had been told that Iran was not in any way interested in P-2 centrifuges.
The main reason I post this is that the article you linked, which I had seen makes it seem that the IAEA doesn't think Iran is building weapons, which is not the case.
Of course, none of this excuses the report from that congressman, but this situation is not Iraq.