Iran denies any nuclear activity at Parchin (Agence France-Presse)

[Bucky]

http://news.inq7.net/world/index.php?index=1&story_id=11467

Iran denies any nuclear activity at suspect site Parchin

VIENNA, Austria -- Iran denied Thursday that it had carried out any nuclear-related activity at the Parchin military site near Tehran as the United States suspects.

"We categorically deny any nuclear-related testing at Parchin," a huge military complex 30 kilometers (19 miles) southeast of Tehran, Hossein Mousavian, head of Iran's delegation to a meeting of the UN atomic agency in Vienna, told Agence France-Presse.

A senior US official told Agence France-Presse the United States was concerned about high-explosives testing in Parchin that may be nuclear-related and "amounts to weapons intent."

Mousavian also denied reports that the International Atomic Energy Agency had asked to visit Parchin as part of its investigation of Iran's nuclear program.

The worst part of this latest Bush Administration saber-rattling toward Iran is that, as convenient as the timing is, I'm kinda inclined to think that there's really a threat there. Iraq was always a stupid war to fight, principally because it was not a threat of any kind to us. Iran and North Korea actually are problem states (altho North Korea is the greater threat to stability). Neither is a threat to the Western Hemisphere, but Iran is certainly an aggressive, power hungry, regional opponent of US interests.

I don't buy into this al-Qaeda-connection crap, but they did manage to use their agent Chalabi to trick our unelected boobs into invading and taking out their hated enemy, Saddam Hussein. They're not crazy dangerous like Kim Jong-Il, but they're a crafty kind of dangerous and no doubt would very much like to have a big bomb to back up their opposition to us and Israel.

This is a very dangerous situation. If Bush is reelected I give a 65% chance we'll be at war with them by election time 2006 and a 30% we'll have a military draft, cleverly concealed somehow, by 2007.

[Owlet]

1. Parsing the Iranian statement

"We categorically deny any nuclear-related testing at Parchin," Well, that may be true, but the original compaint was in regard to "high-explosives" testing - you know, like the kind North Korea use to blow the top off one of their mountains ostensibly as part f a dam construction project.

Here's a link that describes Parchin.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/iran/parchin.htm

"On 11 September 2004 it was reported that the IAEA had requested a
visit to Parchin, but the Iranians had not yet agreed to the
inspection. The IAEA questioned whether Iran might be doing nuclear
weapons work there. The agency had requested to send inspectors to
Parchin, but this was not mentioned in the IAEA report on Iran
published 01 September 2004.

One area at Parchin may be assessed as a "probable" nuclear weapons
development facility. The extensive weapons development activity at the rest of the complex makes it an entirely logical location for weaponization work for Iran's atomic bomb program. The overall Parchin
complex represents is the leading center of Iran's munitions industry,
so a nuclear weapons program would already have all the expertise
needed within commuting distance. The suspect site is physically
isolated from the rest of the complex, suggesting that it is not part
of the conventional ammo, poison gas or missile programs. The recent
construction activity is also consistent with the recent construction
activity at other parts of Iran's bomb program, and the recent
completion is consistent with estimates of when Iran would get the
bomb."