U.S.: Newly revealed 'covert' Iran facility not nuclear

Source: Reuters via Harretz

U.S. backs Iran's insistence that site 'exposed' by Iranian dissident group alleging secret uranium enrichment was in fact not a nuclear facility.

By Reuters

The United States took a surprising stance on Friday supporting Iranian claims that it was not building a new secret uranium enrichment facility, after an Iranian opposition group exposed satellite imagery on Thursday allegedly proving the existence of a secret nuclear site some 120 kilometers from Tehran.

The Iranian dissident group said on Thursday the information came from a network of sources inside Iran affiliated with the exiled opposition group the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI).

Washington, which along with its European allies accuses Iran of trying to build nuclear bombs, said it had known about the facility for years and had no reason to believe it was nuclear.

Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/u-s-newly-revealed-covert-iran-facility-not-nuclear-1.313154

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Here is the original accusation by terrorist organization The People's Mujahedeen of Iran:

Iran accused of building secret underground nuclear plant
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/7992723/Iran-accused-of-building-secret-underground-nuclear-plant.html

Also:
Iran denies 'secret atomic plant'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11263827

I note that DUers didn't buy the original accusation.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4535269

Nooooo, never!

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/mek.htm

The United States, which lists National Council of Resistance of Iran as a terrorist organization, closed the NCRI's Washington office in 2003. . . .

The group has targeted Iranian government officials and government facilities in Iran and abroad; during the 1970s, it attacked Americans in Iran. While the group says it does not intentionally target civilians, it has often risked civilian casualties. It routinely aims its attacks at government buildings in crowded cities.


http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2008/12/31/58809/cult-like-iranian-militant-group.html

The group was founded in the mid-1960s to oppose the Shah of Iran and western imperialism. It was instrumental in the November 1979 occupation of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, where 52 American hostages were held for more than a year. Ultimately, the group had an ideological split with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who had become Iran's supreme leader after the Shah was ousted, and its new cause became overthrowing Iran's Islamic revolution.

The group is accused of orchestrating a series of bombings inside Iran, including one attack that left the current supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, partially paralyzed. The group is also linked to the assassination of U.S. military personnel in Iran in the 1970s and helping Saddam quash Kurdish and Shiite uprisings. . . .

Rajavi's followers live an almost monastic existence. They dress in khaki green. The women and men live separately, and sexual relationships are forbidden out of concern that they'll distract from the mission to overthrow the Iranian regime.

Residents have no access to the outside world. They rarely leave camp, and their television viewing is limited to an Iranian resistance TV channel that spoofs President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and plays orchestra performances by members of the group.

...recognized him. Damned good point!

PB

had weapons of mass destruction. Just sayin'.

You'd think the neocons could come up with something new.

I smelled a rat the first time round.

What a disappointment. :sarcasm:

I have no doubt the Dick Cheney would have used this terrorist group's "evidence" for nefarious purposes and the other little man would have spouted some idiocy like "I don't know what further proof we need!"