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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2009
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Iran Confirms Secret 2nd Nuclear Lab

Tehran preempts Obama accusation, admits to underground enrichment site

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(Newser) – Iran confirmed today that it has built a second uranium enrichment site in an underground facility hidden from weapons inspectors—a revelation coming just hours before Barack Obama and other Western leaders were prepared to disclose it. The US has been tracking the secret project for years, officials say, but Obama decided to go public, before the G20 summit opens today, after Iran discovered that Western intelligence agencies had unearthed the site. This morning an anonymous Iranian official said that "reports by some foreign news agencies" about a "second enrichment center" were correct.

Iran has told the UN nuclear watchdog little, but Western officials tell the New York Times that the nuclear site is buried inside a mountain near Qom, the holy city about 100 miles from Tehran. It is supposedly not yet complete, although it can hold about 3,000 centrifuges for enriching uranium—enough to produce one nuclear bomb a year. One senior US official says the revelation will make it easier to obtain agreement on new sanctions: "They have cheated three times. And they have now been caught three times."

Barack Obama chairs a Security Council meeting at UN headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009. To his left are British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Barack Obama chairs a Security Council meeting at UN headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009. To his left are British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.   (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
A group of demonstrators shout during a protest against Iran's perceived threat of nuclear weapons, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009, in Washington.
A group of demonstrators shout during a protest against Iran's perceived threat of nuclear weapons, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009, in Washington.   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, waves following his address to the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2009.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, waves following his address to the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2009.   (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Barbed wire and a missile emplacement on the perimeter of a nuclear power plant in Bushehr, Iran, Wednesday Feb. 25, 2009.
Barbed wire and a missile emplacement on the perimeter of a nuclear power plant in Bushehr, Iran, Wednesday Feb. 25, 2009.   (AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian)
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15 comments
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guanlob
Sep 25, 09 6:38 AM CDT
So? Reply
Vote up! Vote down!
-7
IN RESPONSE:
Citrixguy
Sep 25, 09 6:45 AM CDT
This comment has been removed by Newser’s community. You must be logged in to view this comment.
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IN RESPONSE:
Wraith
Sep 25, 09 6:57 AM CDT
@ Citrix, your reply is/was totally out of line and uncalled for, the language may belong in a bar but not an open forum, please grow up. @ guaniob, at least this Administration gathered all facts to present at an open discussion to several other leading countries before going off half cocked as previous administrations and bombing countries that happened to have brown people in them and that being the only thing that was a fact since WMD's Links to Terrorists and all other claims were figments of the administrations tiny minds. This time it is being handled in proper steps and still if nothing is done I am sure there are more than one country that will bust up the party if need be, Israel is looking for an excuse and now they will have what they desire if the UN balks again at action,
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+1
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Corona_Kinq
Sep 25, 09 8:45 AM CDT
HAHAHA, dirty bomb? You do realize those things don't work right? Both the Department of Energy and the Russians did experiments on this and there you can't concentrate the material enough to be fatal to a large amount of people...and if it's dispersed over a large area it's severely weakened.
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IN RESPONSE:
shonangreg
Sep 25, 09 11:43 AM CDT
Come on, Citrix's reaction is normal. Guanlob just endorsed shirking a deep responsibility we all depend on -- resulting in openness to relatively untraceable atomic attacks on any of us. ...---///. .\\\---... alternatively, it is hard to see sarcasm in a one-word post. At least there was a devilish smirk to Cheney's utterance of the same single word.
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