| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran racing to build up nuclear defenses |
| 2006-01-25 |
| Iran is racing to dig a network of tunnels and upgrade its air defences to protect its nuclear facilities from possible attacks by America or Israel, it was reported yesterday. Israel this week issued thinly-veiled warnings that it has drawn up plans for pre-emptive strikes against Iran. The United States insists it will not take the military option "off the table". Seeking to avoid a repeat of Israel's 1981 air raid on Osiraq, Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has issued orders for the underground complexes to be completed by the beginning of July, Jane's Defence Weekly reported. It said the network of facilities deep underground or in the sides of mountains has been built with help from North Korean designers. Atomic inspectors discovered in 2003 that Iran was building a vast underground complex to enrich uranium near the town of Natanz. But other facilities, such as the uranium conversion plant in Isfahan, are still above ground and exposed to attack. Iran insists it only seeks to develop a nuclear industry for "peaceful" purposes, but the West is convinced it is trying to build nuclear weapons. Teheran provoked an international crisis earlier this month when it restarted the enrichment programme, under the guise of "research", after it had been frozen for two years during negotiations with European countries. At an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna next week, western countries will seek to report Teheran to the United Nations for possible sanctions. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #10 Old Spook Remember %75 of the people (and likely more senators) have an IQ less then 110 |
| Posted by: 3dc 2006-01-25 23:42 |
| #9 Every congresscritter that voted to kill the US burrowing nuke program should be hanged from the nearest light pole in DC. We need those weapons NOW. Sometimes politicians can just be SOOO da$$$$ Stuck on Stupid. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2006-01-25 23:20 |
| #8 yeah, but it was HIS spider hole....ownership means somethin' :-) |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-01-25 20:10 |
| #7 Remember when Saddam's vast underground Baghdad bunker was in the news before the war? Didn't do him much good, did it? He ended his career in a spider hole. |
| Posted by: Darrell 2006-01-25 19:44 |
| #6 "It said the network of facilities deep underground or in the sides of mountains has been built with help from North Korean designers." That's cuz North Korea wants Iran to have lots of energy to power their cities and stuff. |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2006-01-25 19:39 |
| #5 BigJ, you're behind the curve |
| Posted by: Baldy 2006-01-25 14:50 |
| #4 Iran insists it only seeks to develop a nuclear industry for "peaceful" purposes, but the West is convinced it is trying to build nuclear weapons. If I read this one more goddamned time I think I'm going to pull my hair out. This line has been in every article about Iran for the past year. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2006-01-25 09:36 |
| #3 It doesn't matter how deep you bury your complex if its entrance and exit tunnels can be collapsed. |
| Posted by: Botec 2006-01-25 07:00 |
| #2 The problem with holes is 2 fold. Someone can fill them in and you at some point must come out. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom 2006-01-25 02:45 |
| #1 they could spend $100 billion and they still cannot stop us. Clueless bunch. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2006-01-25 01:47 |