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Iran Agrees To Inspections But Test Fires Missiles Anyway

(During an Interview with a TIME magazine reporter, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became very nervous and defensive when asked about concealing additional Nuke plants.)

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Iran Test Fires Short-Range Missiles

Iran said it successfully test-fired short-range missiles during military drills Sunday by the elite Revolutionary Guard, a show of force days after the U.S. warned Tehran over a newly revealed underground nuclear facility it was secretly constructing.

Gen. Hossein Salami, head of the Revolutionary Guard Air Force, said Iran also tested a multiple missile launcher for the first time. The official English-language Press TV showed pictures of at least two missiles being fired simultaneously and said they were from Sunday's drill in a central Iran desert. In the clip, men could be heard shouting "Allahu Akbar" as the missiles were launched.

"The message of the war game for some arrogant countries which intend to intimidate is that we are able to give a proper, strong answer to their hostility quickly," state television quoted Salami as saying. He said the missiles successfully hit their targets.

The powerful Revolutionary Guard controls Iran's missile program.

The tests came two days after the U.S. and its allies disclosed that Iran had been secretly developing a previously unknown underground uranium enrichment facility and warned the country it must open the nuclear site to international inspection or face harsher international sanctions. The drill was planned in advance of that disclosure.

The newly revealed nuclear site in the arid mountains near the holy city of Qom is believed to be inside a heavily guarded, underground facility belonging to the Revolutionary Guard, according to a document sent by President Barack Obama's administration to lawmakers.

After the strong condemnations from the U.S. and its allies, Iran said Saturday it will allow U.N. nuclear inspectors to examine the site.

Nuclear experts said the details that have emerged about the site and the fact it was being developed secretly are strong indications that Iran's nuclear program is not only for peaceful purposes, as the country has long maintained.

By U.S. estimates, Iran is one to five years away from having a nuclear weapons capability, although U.S. intelligence also believes that Iranian leaders have not yet made the decision to build a weapon.

Iran also is developing a long-range ballistic missile that could carry a nuclear warhead, but the administration said last week that it believes that effort has been slowed. That assessment paved the way for Obama's decision to shelve the Bush administration's plan for a missile shield in Europe, which was aimed at defending against Iranian ballistic missiles.

Salami said Iran would test medium-range Shahab-1 and Shahab-2 missiles on Sunday night and long-range Shahab-3 missiles on Monday, during the military drill set to last several days.

Salami said Fateh, Tondar and Zelzal missiles were test fired on Sunday, but did not give specifics on range or other details. All are short-range, surface-to-surface missiles.

He told reporters Iran had reduced the missiles and their ranges and enhanced their speed and precision so they could be used in quick, short-range engagements. He also said they are now able to be launched from positions that are not as easy to hit.

He said the current missile tests and military drills are indications of Iran's resolve to defend its national values and part of a strategy of deterrence and containment of missile threats.

Iran has had the solid-fuel Fateh missile, with a range of 120 miles (193 kilometers), for several years. Fateh means conqueror in Farsi and Arabic. It also has the solid-fueled, Chinese-made CSS 8, also called the Tondar 69, according to the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, a private group that seeks to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction. The Tondar, which means thunder, has a range of about 93 miles (150 kilometers.)

Iran has previously tested the Zelzal missile, versions of which have ranges of 130-185 miles (210-200 kilometers. In July 2006, Israeli military officials said their jets had destroyed a missile in Lebanon named Zelzal, which they said Hezbollah had received from Iran and could reach Tel Aviv. Zelzal means earthquake.

Iran's last known missile tests were in May when it fired its longest-range solid-fuel missile, Sajjil-2. Tehran said the two-stage surface-to-surface missile has a range of about 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) – capable of striking Israel, U.S. Mideast bases and Europe.

The revelation of Iran's secret site has given greater urgency to a key meeting on Thursday in Geneva between Iran and six major powers trying to stop its suspected nuclear weapons program.

The U.S. and its partners plan to tell Tehran at the meeting that it must provide "unfettered access" for the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, within weeks.

The facility is Iran's second uranium-enrichment site working to produce the fuel that could eventually be used in a nuclear weapon.

A close aide to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday the site will be operational soon and would pose a threat to those who oppose Iran.

"This new facility, God willing, will become operational soon and will blind the eyes of the enemies," Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani told the semi-official Fars news agency.

Evidence of the clandestine facility was presented Friday by Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the G-20 economic summit in Pittsburgh. On Saturday, Obama offered Iran "a serious, meaningful dialogue" over its disputed nuclear program, while warning Tehran of grave consequences from a united global front.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Saturday the revelation was firm proof Iran was seeking nuclear weapons.

Israel considers Iran a strategic threat with its nuclear program, missile development and repeated calls by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Israel's destruction. It has not ruled out a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear sites.

In 1981, Israeli warplanes bombed Iraq's Osirak nuclear reaction and in 2007, Israel bombed a site in Syria that the U.S. said was a nearly finished nuclear reactor built with North Korean help that was configured to produce plutonium – one of the substances used in nuclear warheads.

Israel's Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment on the missile tests.

Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who heads Iran's nuclear program, said Saturday that U.N. nuclear inspectors could visit the nuclear site but did not provide a timeframe. On Sunday, he told Press TV Iran and the IAEA would work out the timing of the inspection.

The small-scale site is meant to house no more than 3,000 centrifuges – much less than the 8,000 machines at Natanz, Iran's known industrial-scale enrichment facility, but they could still potentially help create bomb-making material.

Experts have estimated that Iran's current number of centrifuges could enrich enough uranium for a bomb in as little as a year. Washington has been pushing for heavier sanctions if Iran does not agree to end enrichment.





Iran To Allow UN Inspection Of Nuclear Site

Iran said Saturday it will allow U.N. nuclear inspectors to examine its newly revealed, still unfinished uranium enrichment facility as world criticism mounted over the underground site that was developed secretly.

The presence of a second uranium-enrichment site that could potentially produce material for a nuclear weapon has provided one of the strongest indications yet that Iran has something to hide – despite its repeated assertions that its program is only to generate electric power.

That impression was reinforced by a close aide to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said the site will be operational "soon" and would pose a threat to those who oppose Iran.

"This new facility, God willing, will become operational soon and will blind the eyes of the enemies," Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani told the semi-official Fars news agency.

The existence of the secret site was first revealed by Western intelligence officials and diplomats on Friday. It is located in the arid mountains near the holy city of Qom, inside a heavily guarded, underground facility belonging to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, according to a document sent by the Obama administration to lawmakers.

The revelation of the secret site has given greater urgency to a key meeting on Thursday in Geneva between Iran and six major powers trying to stop its suspected nuclear weapons program.

The U.S. and its partners plan to tell Tehran at the meeting that it must provide "unfettered access" for the International Atomic Energy Agency to its previously secret Qom enrichment facility within weeks, a senior Obama administration official said Saturday in Washington.

The U.S., Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia also will present in the meeting a a so-called transparency package – including access to scientists, documents and computers – covering all of Iran's nuclear activities across the country, the official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss plans that are not yet ready to be announced.

The six powers will demand that Iran prove to the increasingly skeptical group that its intentions with its various sites are peaceful and energy-related, as Iran claims, and not for weapons development, as the West believes, the official said Saturday.

These nations now agree that they are less inclined to listen to suspect arguments or incomplete evidence – viewing it as a stall tactic, the official said.

But beyond the timeframe of "weeks" for coming clean on Qom, the six countries will not give Iran a specific deadline to provide the information about its overall program, the official said.

The development of such a timeframe will depend on the Iranians' actions in the meeting and directly after it, the official said.

Earlier Saturday, President Barack Obama in his weekly radio and Internet address offered Iran "a serious, meaningful dialogue" over its disputed nuclear program, while warning Tehran of grave consequences from a united global front.

Evidence of the clandestine facility was presented Friday by Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the G-20 economic summit in Pittsburgh.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the revelation was firm proof Iran was seeking nuclear weapons.

"This removes the dispute whether Iran is developing military nuclear power or not and therefore the world powers need to draw conclusions," Lieberman told Israel radio. "Without a doubt, it is a reactor for military purposes not peaceful purposes."

Israel considers Iran a strategic threat due to its nuclear program, missile development and repeated references by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Israel's destruction.

Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who heads Iran's nuclear program, said on national television that inspectors from the IAEA could visit the site, though he did not specify when.

Salehi said there was nothing secret about the site and that Iran complied with U.N. rules that require it to inform the world body's nuclear agency six months before a uranium enrichment facility becomes operational.

"Under (NPT) rules, we are required to inform the IAEA of the existence of such a facility 180 days before introducing materials but we are announcing it more than a year earlier," he said.

The Iranians claim to have withdrawn from an agreement with the IAEA requiring them to notify the agency of the intent to build any new nuclear facilities and instead are now only subject to the six-month notification requirement before a facility becomes operational.

But the IAEA says Tehran cannot unilaterally withdraw from that bilateral agreement and still should have announced its plans to build the facility.

The statement by Khamenei's aide that the facility will be operational "soon" seemed to suggest that it could be ready even ahead of the 18-month figure cited by Salehi.

The small-scale site is meant to house no more than 3,000 centrifuges – much less than the 8,000 machines at Natanz, Iran's known industrial-scale enrichment facility, but they could still potentially help create bomb-material.

Experts have estimated that Iran's current number of centrifuges could enrich enough uranium for a bomb in as little as a year. Washington has been pushing for heavier sanctions if Iran does not agree to end enrichment.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed grave concern about the facility and said "the burden of proof is on Iran," in a statement by his office released after he met privately with Ahmadinejad Friday night.

Salehi said construction of the Qom facility was a "precautionary measure" to protect Iran's nuclear facilities from possible attacks.

"Given the threats we face every day, we are required to take the necessary precautionary measures, spread our facilities and protect our human assets. Therefore, the facility is to guarantee the continuation of our nuclear activities under any conditions," he told the television.

Hans Blix, the former chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq, however, told Sky News television that Iran was clearly bucking the international community's demand that it keep its activities transparent.

Blix, speaking from Stockholm, told the broadcaster that the clerical regime was clearly going against the spirit of the international community's demands.

"The revelation of a second plant shows that they are not exactly transparent, as the IAEA has asked them to be," he said. "This has not been an exercise in openness."

If Iran were developing nuclear weapons, it would be at precisely such a place, noted Mark Fitzpatrick, of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

"If they were to develop a nuclear weapon they would probably do it at a clandestine facility so that they wouldn't trigger the obvious trip wire," he said.

While an actual weapon is several years away, said Paul Rogers a security expert at the University of Bradford in northern England, something rudimentary could be rigged up within a year if Iran stepped up its enrichment activity.

"If it were to re-enrich its low-grade uranium to weapons-grade for an experimental device it would take about a year," he said. "That would almost be a demonstration to show it had the capability."

The key Western powers at the United Nations have given Tehran until year's end to cease enriching uranium or face new sanctions.



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Sources: Huffington Post, MSNBC, TIME, AP, Google Maps

Weekly Address: G20 Summit Progress, Warning To Iran

Weekly Address: Progress with the G-20 in Pittsburgh




Sources: Whitehouse.gov

Pres. Obama Demands Iranian Gov't Submit To Nuke Plant Inspections

(Leaders from U.S., Britain and France hold a press conference to discuss Iran's nuclear facility.)

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Pres. Obama demands Iran open plant to inspectors


President Barack Obama demanded Friday that Iran open up a previously covert nuclear fuel facility to international inspectors, saying "Iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow."

Hours later, Iran's nuclear chief confirmed the existence of a new plant, which he said was still under construction, and suggested that U.N. inspectors could be allowed to visit the facility.

Obama, flanked by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, said the site "deepens a growing concern" that Iran has failed to live up to its international obligations.

Obama said the "size and configuration" of the site was inconsistent with a peaceful facility, which is a direct challenge to Tehran's claim that its nuclear plants are designed for civilian purposes.

The three leaders made the announcement before the opening of the Group of 20 economic summit in Pittsburgh.

Line in the sand

Speaking after Obama, Sarkozy said Iran must comply with international demands by December or face a new round of sanctions. "Everything must be put on the table now," the French leader said.

Brown bluntly accused Iran of engaging in "serial deception" that would "shock and anger" the world.

The Western powers had "no choice but to draw a line in the sand" on Iran's nuclear program, Brown said.

Separately, Russia said Friday that Iran's construction of a second uranium enrichment plant violated U.N. Security Council decisions and should be investigated immediately by the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

A statement by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called on Iran to cooperate with the proposed probe and said Moscow remained committed to dialogue with Tehran on nuclear issues. He urged Tehran to prove that its program is intended for peaceful purposes.

The statement made no mention of sanctions. However, earlier this week, Medvedev opened the door to backing potential new sanctions as a reward to Obama's decision to scale back a U.S. missile shield in Eastern Europe.

A senior administration official said Obama told Medvedev about the facility during their meeting this week in New York. The Chinese were informed about 48 hours ago and are "just absorbing these revelations," the official said.

Before the scheduling of the Oct. 1 meeting, the U.S. had long avoided direct talks with Tehran over its nuclear program.

Raising the pressure

The Obama administration wants to ratchet up pressure on Iran on the eve of the talks to make clear that Tehran has not been forthcoming about its nuclear activities, officials told NBC.

Earlier, senior administration officials noted that the nuclear non-proliferation treaty requires countries to disclose such facilities at the beginning of construction. This plant, located about 20 miles from the holy city of Qum, would also be in violation of U.N. resolutions requiring Iran to halt enrichment activities.

U.S. officials said that the proximity to Qum would make a strike on the facility very difficult politically as it would likely spark an uproar in the Muslim world.

Later Friday, Ali Akbar Salehi, who heads the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, confirmed that Tehran was "now in the process of building" what he called "a semi-industrial plant for enriching nuclear fuel," according to the state news agency IRNA.

But Salehi, who said the plant would "be in the framework of the measures" of the International Atomic Energy Agency, gave no details on the facility, including its name or location.

Iran had previously said it was operating only one plant, which is being monitored by the IAEA.

Disclosure on Monday

Iran has kept the facility, 100 miles southwest of Tehran, hidden from weapons inspectors until a letter it sent to the IAEA on Monday, which was publicly disclosed for the first time Friday.

But the U.S. has known of the facility's existence "for several years" through intelligence developed by U.S., French and British agencies, a senior White House official said. Obama decided to gather allies to talk publicly about it after Iran's letter made clear it had become aware that Western intelligence knew of the project, officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to let the statements from Obama and the leaders remain the focus.

The plant would be about the right size to enrich enough uranium to produce one or two bombs a year, but inspectors must get inside to know what is actually going on, the official said.

Obama hopes the disclosure will increase pressure on the global community to impose new sanctions on Iran if it refuses to stop its nuclear program.

Beyond sanctions, the leaders' options are limited and perilous; military action by the United States or an ally such as Israel could set off a dangerous chain of events in the Islamic world. In addition, Iran's facilities are spread around the country and well-hidden or buried, making an effective military response logistically difficult.

The leaders did not mention military force. But Sarkozy said ominously, "Everything, everything must be put on the table now. We cannot let the Iranian leaders gain time while the motors are running."

The disclosure comes on the heels of a U.N. General Assembly meeting at which Obama saw a glimmer of success in his push to rally the world against Iranian nuclear ambitions. And it comes just days before Iran and six world powers are scheduled to discuss a range of issues including Tehran's nuclear program.

Grave development

Germany is one of those six powers, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters Friday that her country views the revelation of the second nuclear site as "a grave development" and called on Iran to answer IAEA questions about it "as quickly as possible."

She said Germany, Great Britain, France and the United States had consulted on the issue and agreed to a joint response. Merkel did not appear with Obama, Sarkozy and Brown because she had an already-scheduled meeting with Russian President Medvedev at the same time.

Address to U.N.

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, made no mention of the facility while attending the U.N. General Assembly in New York this week. But he insisted that his country has fully cooperated with international nuclear inspectors. Iran denies that it is enriching uranium to build a nuclear bomb — as the West suspects — and says it is only doing so for energy purposes.

However, Iran is under three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions for refusing to freeze enrichment at what had been its single publicly known enrichment plant, which is being monitored by the IAEA.

Officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was confidential, said that Iran's letter to the IAEA contained no details about the location of the second facility, such as when — or if — it had started operations or the type and number of centrifuges it was running.

But one of the officials, who had access to a review of Western intelligence on the issue, said it was underground and is the site of 3,000 centrifuges that could be operational by next year. The U.S., British and French officials provided detailed information to the IAEA on Thursday, Obama said.

"The size and configuration of this facility is inconsistent with a peaceful program," he said.

Iranian semiofficial new agency ISNA on Friday confirmed reports on a second enrichment plant.

An August IAEA report said Iran had set up more than 8,000 centrifuges to produce enriched uranium at the first facility, also underground and located outside the southern city of Natanz. The report said that only about 4,600 centrifuges were fully active.

The Islamic Republic insists that it has the right to the activity to generate fuel for what it says will be a nationwide chain of nuclear reactors.

But because enrichment can make both nuclear fuel and weapons-grade uranium, the international community fears Tehran will use the technology to generate the fissile material used on the tip of nuclear warheads.



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Iran Has A Second Nuke Station....Surprise!...U.S. Publicly Accuses Of Hiding

(President Obama and the leaders of Britain and France will reportedly accuse Iran of building a secret underground nuclear plant. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell and Savannah Guthrie report.)

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

(How does the world fix Nuke problems? Andrea Mitchell reports.)

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Iran Reveals Existence of Second Uranium Enrichment Plant

The government of Iran has told the International Atomic Energy Agency that it is building a second uranium enrichment plant for making fuel, the nuclear watchdog agency said Friday.

President Obama will call attention to the existence of the underground facility in an early-morning statement to reporters here before the opening of the G-20 economic summit in Pittsburgh, and will say that Western intelligence agencies have been tracking the facility for years.

Pres. Obama's statement, which will be made jointly with the leaders of France and Great Britain, was added to his schedule late Thursday night. It comes a day after Obama chaired a United Nations Security Council session on halting the spread of nuclear weapons throughout the world.

Although Pres. Obama referred to the nuclear ambitions of both Iran and North Korea during the session, diplomatic maneuvering kept any mention of the two countries out of a resolution that the council unanimously approved. The omission prompted passionate criticism from French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who will join Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Friday morning to decry Iran's newly disclosed facility.

"How, before the eyes of the world, could we justify meeting without tackling them?" Sarkozy scolded Thursday, referring to Iran and North Korea. "We live in the real world, not a virtual world. And the real world expects us to take decisions."

Iran was previously known to have one enrichment plant.

Iran's Sept. 21 letter to the IAEA stated "that a new pilot fuel enrichment plant is under construction in the country," agency spokesman Marc Vidricaire said. "The letter stated that the enrichment level would be up to 5 percent."

Vidricaire said the Vienna-based agency responded by asking Iran to quickly provide more specifics about the facility -- "to assess safeguards verification requirements." He said Iran told the IAEA "that no nuclear material has been introduced into the facility."

Pres. Obama and other Western leaders have been trying to increase pressure on Iran to disclose more about its nuclear ambitions in advance of international talks next week about Iran's nuclear program. On Oct. 1, a senior Iranian diplomat will meet counterparts from the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany in Geneva.

"We expect a serious response from Iran," during the talks, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said this week in a statement approved by the six nations. If such a response is not forthcoming, he said, the six nations will decide on "next steps."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in an interview this week that he is willing to have Iran's nuclear experts meet with scientists from the United States and other world powers as a confidence-building measure.

Ahmadinejad insisted that Iran is using nuclear technology only for energy and medical purposes and has no interest in acquiring nuclear weapons. He said he wants to buy enriched uranium from the United States that would be used for medical purposes.

The nuclear material Iran is now producing is 3 to 5 percent enriched and suitable only for energy purposes. Nuclear material for medical purposes must be 20 percent enriched -- purchasing such material would require a waver of international sanctions. While weapons-grade material is more than 90 percent enriched, making material for the medical reactor could put Iran on the next step to reaching that level.

In Tehran Friday, Iranian state television revealed the Sept.21 letter on its Arabic language news channel, Al-Alam, which is often used to transmit important official Iranian foreign policy decisions. The report quoted an unnamed source who described the letter as further evidence of Tehran's transparency in dealing with the IAEA about its nuclear program. It repeated Iran's long-held assertion that it is acquiring nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.



Pres. Obama to accuse Iran of hiding 2nd nuke plant

President Barack Obama on Friday will urge Iran to come clean about its nuclear activities amid reports that Tehran is building a secret underground plant to manufacture nuclear fuel, officials told NBC News.

The administration wants to ratchet up pressure on Iran on the eve of talks set for next week and make clear that Tehran has not been forthcoming about its nuclear activities, officials said.

Senior administration officials noted that the nuclear non-proliferation treaty requires countries to disclose such facilities at the beginning of construction. This facility, known as the "Qum facility," would also be in violation of U.N. resolutions requiring Iran to halt enrichment activities.

Pres. Obama, along with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, will make the information on the covert facility public at around 8:30 a.m. ET, before the opening of the Group of 20 economic summit in Pittsburgh.

Iran revealed the existence of the plant earlier this week in a letter sent to Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, officials told The Associated Press.

It had previously said it was operating only one plant, which is being monitored by the IAEA.

The New York Times reported Friday that Tehran disclosed the existence of the facility after learning that its secrecy had been breached by Western intelligence agencies.

Iran is under three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions for refusing to freeze enrichment.

The Islamic Republic insists that it has the right to the activity to generate fuel for what it says will be a nationwide chain of nuclear reactors.

But because enrichment can make both nuclear fuel and weapons-grade uranium, the international community fears Tehran will use the technology to generate the fissile material used on the tip of nuclear warheads.

Fresh sanctions?

American officials told The Times that the latest revelations would make it easier to build a case for new sanctions against Tehran in the event Iran prevents inspections or rules out halting its nuclear program.

“They have cheated three times,” The Times quoted a senior administration official with access to the intelligence saying of the Iranians. “And they have now been caught three times.”

The references to cheating stem from the discovery of the underground plant at Natanz in 2002 and after U.S. intelligence agencies uncovered evidence in 2007 that the country had sought to design a nuclear warhead, the newspaper said.

Pivotal talks

The revelations further burden the chances of progress in scheduled Oct. 1 talks between Iran and six world powers.

At that planned meeting — the first in more than a year — the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany will be pressing Iran to scale back on its enrichment activities. But Tehran has declared that it will not bargain on enrichment.

Officials told The AP that Iran's letter about the enrichment plant contained no details about the location of the facility, when it had started operations or the type and number of centrifuges it was running.

The government officials — one speaking from his European capital outside Vienna, the other a diplomat in Vienna from a country accredited to the IAEA — demanded anonymity Friday because their information was confidential. One said he had seen the letter. The other told the AP that he had been informed about it by a U.N. official who had seen it.

While Iran's mainstay P-1 centrifuge is a decades-old model based on Chinese technology, it has begun experimenting with state-of-the art prototypes that enrich more quickly and efficiently than its old model.

U.N. officials familiar with the IAEA's attempts to monitor and probe Iran's nuclear activities have previously told The AP that they suspected Iran might be running undeclared enrichment plants.

The existence of a secret Iranian enrichment program built on black market technology was revealed seven years ago. Since then the country has continued to expand the program with only a few interruptions as it works toward its aspirations of a 50,000-centrifuge enrichment facility at the southern city of Natanz.

The last IAEA report on Iran in August said Iran had set up more than 8,000 centrifuges to churn out enriched uranium at the cavernous underground Natanz facility, although the report said that only about 4,600 of those were fully active.


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Sources: Washington Post, NY Times, Bloomberg.com, MSNBC, Ynetnews.com, Google Maps

Protester Mayhem At G20 Pittsburgh Summit...Police Use Tear Gas

Teargas used on protesters at G20 summit in Pittsburgh

Police used teargas in clashes with protesters as leaders gathered at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh tonight.

About 300 protesters attended the march, which was not authorised by the city police. Police numbered several hundred.

Protesters rolled trash bins toward police and officers fired teargas in return. Some protesters used pallets and corrugated steel to block a road.

Protesters exposed to the gas were coughing, complaining of eyes watering and stinging.

The march does not have a city permit and police have declared it an unlawful assembly.

Several hundred protesters, many loudly denouncing capitalism, had been trying to march toward the site of the summit.

The group split into smaller groups after being confronted by police.

The gathering of G20 nations represents 90% of the world's economic output and two thirds of the global population. Leaders were greeted by huge signs declaring "Pittsburgh welcomes the world" in multiple languages.

On the city's heavily fortified streets, soldiers in armoured Humvees were posted at most major junctions and scores of shops, restaurants and businesses were boarded up. The city's downtown area, known as the "golden triangle", was virtually deserted with most local people opting to stay home from work.



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Sources: Guardian.co.uk, WTAE, Google Maps

Pres. Obama To Attend Second G20 Summit ... Rekindling Pittsburg's Economy

(Today Pres. Obama and at least 85% of other World Leaders will attend the second G20 Summit. Location: Pittsburgh, PA. Theme: Global Economy. Hopefully this historic event will be able to rekindle Pittsburgh's dwindling economy.)

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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Sources: MSNBC, Pittsburgh G20.org, BBC, Google Maps

Weekly Address: Pres. Obama Pledges Real Wall Street Reform...Is It Possible?

Weekly Address: Progress in the Global Economy

Pres. Obama discusses the impact of the Recovery Act, and pledges that "Lobbyists for big Wall Street banks" will not prevent real reform for the future, including a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency.





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Sources: Whitehouse.gov, FTC, Recovery.gov, Google Maps

First Lady Michelle Obama's U.K. Wardrobe Makes U.S. Proud!

Last week during her trip to London with hubby President Obama, Michelle (his better half) created quite a buzz and wowed everyone she encountered with her Style, Beauty, Grace and Intelligence.

Yes Michelle is a First Lady all women can be proud of, not just the privileged few.

This rings especially true among African-American women who for too long have been wrongly stereotyped as Angry, Militant, Hard to get along with, Bitter members of lower society.

She is a Wife, Mother, Daughter, Sister, Friend, Businesswoman, Confidante', etc., however notice I did NOT say Maid, Superwoman or "Baby Mama".

Not only that she's also TALL and Slim! Darn it!

No wonder Prez. Obama smiles so bright whenever he's seen with her and just because he's a Politician no I don't think his smile is fake when appearing with his wife.

Michelle is so admired that all the world clamored to know what she was wearing while in Europe.

Its no secret the Media just can't get enough of Mrs. Obama.

Can you blame them? After all she broke protocol by hugging Queen Elizabeth and in the world of PR still came forth smelling like a rose.

Face it people, Michelle Obama is gorgeous! Am I jealous? Let's just say that I'm over it now and free to celebrate her success with the rest of mankind.

Go on Michelle and keep it up girl with your bad self!

P.S.

For more of the world's love affair with Michelle Obama check out her latest interview in the May issue of Essence magazine.

Sources: MSNBC, Fabsugar, Telegraph.uk.co, Jack and Jill Politics, NY Times, Miami Herald, News-record.com

Is G20 Equivalent to a One World Order System?

During this week's G20 Summit meeting in the U.K. with some of our Global Leaders (including President Obama), a nine-page, $1.1 Trillion dollar deal was laid which helped to set the foundation for a New World Order Financial System.

Come on I'm sure you've heard about it. You know the One World Order System that all of the Conservative Christian people talk about from the Bible? Yes, its one in the same.

In a nutshell New World Order just basically means as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown sums it up "a coming together of the world to create an International Monetary Fund for the purpose of Global Recovery and Reform".

Included in the deal were tighter regulations against Tax Havens looking to bilk the IRS out of millions in revenue, by hiding their money in Foreign banks.

I guess this means there will be no more storing huge chunks of cash in Swiss Banks.

Hello Ken Lewis are you listening??

In addition to the U.K. and America, leaders from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey and the EU were also in attendance at the summit.

I published some photos from the event at the top of this post. Notice Secretary of State Hillary Clinton having a grand old time. You go Hillary!

For those of you wanting more info. regarding what our Leaders actually agreed to in this deal, check it out below.

• New reforms of the global banking system, including institutions like hedge funds, and other parts of the so-called "shadow banking system" coming under global regulatory control for the first time.

• Tighter regulation for credit rating agencies, to prevent conflicts of interest.

• A list of tax havens to be published immediately, and sanctions to be deployed against countries that do not comply with anti-secrecy regulations.

• Completion of the creation of international colleges of supervisors for national regulators.

• An agreement to do whatever is necessary to promote growth in individual countries, allowing for the possibility of the further use of fiscal stimuli in the future.

• The injection of an additional $1tn into the global economy through measures including a $500bn increase in the funding available to the IMF, an increase in the availability of money for developing countries through the IMF's "special drawing rights" to $250bn and a total of $250bn being set aside for trade assistance.

• Reform of institutions like the IMF to allow countries like China to have greater influence. Senior posts at the IMF and the World Bank will open to candidates from the developing world.

• Renewed commitment to the Millennium Development Goals.

• $50bn for the world's poorest countries.


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U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown announces the New World Order System during the G20 Summit.



Sources: Guardian.co.uk, BBC, TPM, Jeremiah Project, Youtube, CNN, Google Maps, mlive.com