Showing posts with label Fordow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fordow. Show all posts

Monday, March 11, 2013

IRAN NUKE-SITE BLASTS CONFIRMED, SABOTAGE SUSPECTED





http://www.wnd.com/2013/03/iran-nuke-site-blasts-confirmed-sabotage-suspected/

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The European intelligence community and the U.S. government have received corroboration that explosions rocked Iran’s nuclear facility at Fordow, but are unclear if they were due to mechanical failure or sabotage, WND has learned.
The Jan. 21 explosions killed at least 76 people and injured scores more, said one source, who later told WND that many rescue and security personnel were sickened by radiation poisoning in the aftermath of the disaster.
Certain European countries in the 5-plus-1 talks with Iran over its illicit nuclear program had demanded inspection of Fordow before any agreement might arise from the negotiations held last month in Kazakhstan, a source within the European intelligence community said. The 5-plus-1 countries are the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany.
As part of those talks, Iran was offered the chance to “halt activity” out of Fordow and take steps to ensure that any restart of activity would take time, allowing for the eventual easing of sanctions as a face-saving exit for Iran, the source said. President Obama at a recent White House meeting with Jewish American leaders quoted a Chinese proverb in his dealings with Iran about building a “golden bridge” for the opponent to retreat.
The European countries in the 5-plus-1 were more aggressive in the talks than their American counterpart, the source said. Knowing that Fordow had taken a hit, they told the Iranian delegation that just agreeing to halt activities at Fordow wasn’t good enough, he said. The Europeans demanded an inspection of the site before finalizing any agreement that would ease some sanctions. The Iranians, for their part, used the gambit that Fordow was still operable to get a better response from the West, but they have yet to allow any inspection after the incident.
WND reported exclusively on Jan. 24 that explosions rocked Iran’s nuclear facility at Fordow on Jan. 21, with updates on Jan. 27293031, and Feb. 361323 and 24. The blasts at first trapped 219 workers, including 16 North Koreans. One of the fatalities was a North Korean.
Iran denied the incident and within days the White House said it had no corroborating information and did not find the WND report credible. The International Atomic Energy Agency backed Iran’s denial based on what it called its “observation,” although after the release of its Feb. 21 report, it was clear its inspectors had not been at the site since December. WND’s source said that the IAEA had requested to see the site but was turned down by Iran. Then it asked for a written response but none was given, so it relied on Iran’s verbal response that no incident had taken place.
Fordow fuel enrichment plant - DigitalGlobe image on day of reported explosion, Jan. 21, 2013
A source with long-standing national security ties reported back to WND after attending a recent social event in the U.S. with people who are informed on international security matters. He claimed one of the attendees said reports from associates in Iran confirm something extraordinary happened at Fordow.
The source further said the denial of a Fordow catastrophe by authorities here and abroad focuses on saying there was no “explosion,” while not ruling out an industrial breakdown triggered by a Stuxnet-like cyberattack. The North Korean contingent in Iran may have delivered the trigger in software/hardware newly linked to Fordow’s closed system.
WND reported on Jan. 29 that 36 North Korean technicians and military officers arrived in Tehran Jan. 15 and 17, and 16 of them carried new equipment to Fordow to start an operation on cascades.
The source for that report, a high-ranking member of the security forces at Fordow who originally reported the explosions, told WND that many Iranian scientists working for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran know of the incident but do not dare talk. He said some of the scientists have privately speculated the new equipment delivered to Fordow was bugged and disrupted the operation of the centrifuges, ultimately creating an explosive chain reaction.
Gen. Morteza Ghorbani
The Islamic regime believes it was sabotage and many Iranians have been arrested, the source said, adding there has been minimal activity at the site since late February after the initial rescue mission.
The Ministry of Defense, which oversees Iran’s nuclear program, has assigned two top commanders, Gen. Morteza Ghorbani and Gen. Ahmad Vahid Dastjerdi, to oversee all security for the country’s nuclear program. Both are major figures within the regime on intelligence and counterintelligence.
Iran has yet to refute the Feb. 24 WND story that released some of the names of the dead in the explosion, and its media is in a total news blackout about any activity at Fordow. The next 5-plus-1 talks will be held on the expert level in Turkey on March 17-18 before both sides reconvene in Kazakhstan on April 5-6.
Gen. Ahmad Vahid Dastjerdi
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, last week criticized the West for not offering enough concessions in recent talks. This is while, the source said, the regime is trying to complete its nuclear bomb program at several secret sites.

R

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

New details surface on Iran nuclear explosion - Many said to be trapped underground012913




http://www.wnd.com/2013/01/new-details-surface-on-iran-nuclear-explosion/


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Sixteen North Koreans, including 14 technicians and two top military officers, are among those trapped after a Jan. 21 explosion destroyed much of Iran’s Fordow nuclear site, a source reveals.
The source who provided the initial information on the explosion at Fordow has now provided details of the explosion and the degree of the destruction at one of Iran’s most important nuclear sites.
The report, published exclusively on WND on Jan. 24, is being covered internationally by major media, with independent intelligence sources confirming the explosion for the Times of London and the German Die Welt.
But White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Monday: “We have no information to confirm the allegations in the report and we do not believe the report is credible.”
The short White House response, the source said, is an indication that the United States wants to steer away from the subject as any covert operation against the regime’s nuclear installations will have consequences, including retaliation.
Get the inside story in Reza Kahlili’s “A Time To Betray” and learn how the Islamic regime “bought the bomb” in “Atomic Iran.”
The Islamic regime’s media, in a coordinated effort, reflected a similarly short response Sunday night in its denial, and Monday remained silent.
A senior researcher and director of the Centre for Arab & Iranian Studies in London, Dr. Ali Reza Nourizadeh, who has many contacts in Iran, confirmed that the explosion had trapped many inside.
According WND’s source, a member of the security forces protecting Fordow, 36 North Korean technicians and military officers arrived in Tehran on Jan. 15 and 17 and subsequently visited two Iranian nuclear sites under heavy security. One site, still unknown to the West with its vast installation of centrifuges, will be revealed soon on WND. At the other, the Fordow site, the North Koreans were to witness the startup of six cascades of 174 new-generation, speedier centrifuges.
Hamidreza Zakeri, a former member of the regime’s Intelligence Ministry, said 17 technicians and two military supervisors are stationed at the secret site and 14 technicians and two military officers were at Fordow.
The source said a log on closed-circuit cameras installed by the regime to monitor the site’s three centrifuge chambers and two highly enriched uranium reserves gave this account:
  • On Jan 21, 14 members of the North Korean team and two military officers now stationed at Fordow along with Iranian scientists started the process of feeding uranium gas into the newly set-up cascades at 9:15 a.m. Tehran time
  • At 10:43 a.m., due to a drop in power pressure, system warning signs went off, but everything went back to normal after two minutes.
  • At 11:36 a.m., five explosions occurred concurrently in the centrifuge chambers, two explosions in the uranium reserve enclosures and a subsequent explosion in the main hallway close to the exit.
  • At the time of the explosions, a very bright red and purple light distorted the image and an extremely loud noise could be heard. Before the explosions knocked out the cameras, interior walls could be seen coming down within the centrifuge chambers. All the explosions seemed to have been initiated from the ceilings.
  • All cameras on the lowest floor (about 300 feet deep under a mountain) and the floor above it (about 250 feet deep) were knocked out, and only two cameras above the installation where security personnel are stationed were working.
  • Security forces immediately informed their superiors, who ordered them to remain in the monitoring room and avoid further communication with the outside world until counterintelligence forces arrived. Twenty-one personnel were gathered in a conference room to await further instruction.
  • Security forces were then told to close down all surrounding roads.
  • Approximately two hours after the explosions, counterintelligence agents arrived and, after interviewing personnel and reviewing tapes, initially concluded that explosives may have been placed in ceiling lamps with some kind of trigger mechanism controlled by a power voltage frequency.
  • The last images show eight personnel in anti-radiation clothing trying desperately to secure one of the rooms.
The regime believes the technology used with the explosives is unknown to their forces, the source said.
Iranian authorities fear that opening the site from the outside in a rescue mission could possibly release radiation and uranium gas or cause further explosions, which could contaminate thousands of people living nearby, the source said.
As of Monday, the regime had not come up with any concrete rescue plan, though more than 200 people remain trapped, including the North Koreans, he said. He added that an agreement reached last September between North Korea and Iran called for further collaboration on Iran’s nuclear bomb project and the arming of missiles with nuclear warheads.
Another source in the Intelligence Ministry said that in a meeting Monday among top officials, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, it was decided that the international community would be kept in the dark about the disaster because any validation would undermine their current negotiating power with the 5+1 world powers.
It would also undermine the regime from within should Iranians react to its illicit nuclear activity and the international sanctions it caused, which are being felt deeply.
The source added that the regime is contemplating showing old images of the interior of the site to buy time until it can accurately estimate the extent of damage and possible loss of lives. Ahmadinejad will hold a parliamentary meeting behind closed doors on this issue on Thursday.
Despite severe international pressure and sanctions, Iran had refused to halt the 20 percent uranium enrichment process at Fordow. It takes only weeks to further enrich the stock at the 20 percent level to weaponization grade for a nuclear bomb.
R