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@@ After 2 years of intrusive go-anywhere see-anything ask-anybody inspections! @@

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Arash

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Oct 4, 2005, 6:38:34 AM10/4/05

AntiWar
October 4, 2005

Pleading incompetence

Dr. James Gordon Prather
Nuclear weapons physicist
Nuclear bomb tester at Lawrence Livermore
Technical director of nuclear bomb testings at Sandia
Chief scientist of the U.S. Army
U.S. Navy veteran

No one – including the Iranians at their (non-existent) equivalent of our Los Alamos
Nuclear Laboratory (http://www.lanl.gov) – can make a nuclear weapon until they have
managed to acquire multi-kilogram quantities of almost pure uranium-235
(http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/nucene/u235chn.html), uranium-233
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium-233) or plutonium-239
(http://www.ccnr.org/breeding_ana.html).

[Around 99.3% of naturally occurring uranium is uranium-238 (cannot be used in
weapons), and only 0.7% of naturally occurring uranium is uranium-235 (useful for
nuclear weapons)]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enriched_uranium
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon_design

For that reason, the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) required
all signatories not already having nuclear weapons to conclude a Safeguards Agreement
with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), with a view to preventing
diversion of "source or special fissionable material" to the production of nuclear
weapons.

"Source" material is natural uranium in any form. "Special fissionable" material
includes Plutonium-239 and "enriched" uranium in any form.

Pursuant to a Safeguards Agreement, IAEA inspectors perform periodic on-site
inspections and continuous on-site monitoring to verify that "declared" source and/or
special fissionable materials are not diverted to a "military purpose".

After the second Persian Gulf War (1991), the IAEA Action Team – reporting directly
to the U.N. Security Council – discovered that Iraq had had a multi-billion dollar
"undeclared" (and unsuccessful) program to enrich uranium for military purposes.

(This Iraqi nuke program of the late 1980s had gone completely undetected by U.S. and
Israeli intelligence agencies. However, the U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies
did detect the non-existent Iraqi nuke program of the late1990s).

Hence cometh the Additional Protocol to the Safeguards Agreement
(http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Infcircs/Others/infcirc214.pdf), which
provided IAEA inspectors much more authority, resulting in much greater transparency
to nuclear programs and nuclear-related activities.

Iran signed an Additional Protocol in December 2003, and voluntarily agreed to abide
by it, pending ratification by the Iranian Parliament.

Iran's original Safeguards Agreement merely required the disclosure of information on
new Iranian facilities that would be processing safeguarded nuclear materials a few
months before the materials were actually introduced.

The Additional Protocol requires disclosure of that design information as soon as
Iranian authorities decide to construct, authorize construction or modify such a
facility.

Iran's Additional Protocol also provided for "voluntary reporting on imports and
exports of nuclear material and exports of specified equipment and non-nuclear
material".

As a result of their voluntary compliance with the reporting requirements of the
Additional Protocol, Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei was then able to report to
the IAEA Board of Governors a year later
(http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Board/2004/gov2004-83_derestrict.pdf)
that Iran had "failed in a number of instances over an extended period of time to
meet its obligations under its Safeguards Agreement with respect to the reporting of
nuclear material, its processing and its use, as well as the declaration of
facilities where such material had been processed and stored".

It should be noted that most of these "failures" were formally disputed by the
Iranians as being subject to interpretation.

However resolved, ElBaradei was also able to report that within that year Iran had
taken "corrective actions" with respect to most of those "failures".

Finally, a few weeks ago ElBaradei reported that "Since October 2003, good progress
has been made in Iran's correction of the breaches" that had been discovered in its
basic Safeguards Agreement "and in the Agency's ability to confirm certain aspects of
Iran's current declarations" made under the Additional Protocol.

In fact, ElBaradei reported that the remaining issues under the Iranian Safeguards
Agreement and its not-yet-ratified Additional Protocol "will be followed up as a
routine safeguards implementation matter".

So, there you have it. As of a few weeks ago, not only had Iran corrected the
"breaches" that occurred before it signed the Additional Protocol in 2003, but those
"issues" that had arisen since as a consequence of their voluntary adherence to the
Additional Protocol were being routinely "followed-up".

After more than two years of INTRUSIVE GO-ANYWHERE SEE-ANYTHING ASK-ANYBODY
inspections under the Additional Protocol, the IAEA has yet to find any indications
that there are now in Iran any "undeclared" materials or activities that should have
been "declared", nor any indications that any declared materials have been diverted
for a military purpose.

Wonderful!

The Additional Protocol concept was a success in its first serious application. The
IAEA was now not only able to verify the non-diversion of "declared" nuclear
material, but also to provide some assurances of the absence of "undeclared" nuclear
materials and activities.

So, why did the IAEA Board then plead incompetence
(http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Board/2005/gov2005-77.pdf), "finding"
that ElBaradei's positive reports on Iran's Safeguarded programs had, nevertheless,
resulted in an "absence of confidence" on the Board's part "that Iran's nuclear
program is exclusively for peaceful purposes" and ought to be referred to more
competent authority "as a threat to international peace and security"?

Well, one thing seems certain; the Iranian Parliament will NEVER ratify those
incompetents' Additional Protocol.

* Physicist James Gordon Prather has served as a policy implementing official for
national security-related technical matters in the Federal Energy Agency, the Energy
Research and Development Administration, the Department of Energy, the Office of the
Secretary of Defense and the Department of the Army. Dr. Prather also served as
legislative assistant for national security affairs to U.S. Sen. Henry Bellmon,
R-Okla. --ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee and member of the Senate
Energy Committee and Appropriations Committee. Dr. Prather had earlier worked as a
nuclear weapons physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
(http://www.llnl.gov) in California and Sandia National Laboratory
(http://www.sandia.gov) in New Mexico. http://www.antiwar.com/prather

IAEA and Iran
http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/Focus/IaeaIran/index.shtml

West does not seek the elimination of nukes, but rather the establishment of nuclear
monopoly
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/502efbdfaa7622f7?hl=en

Unratified additional protocol
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/1b2b77819b38d9e3?hl=en

The high price of hounding Iran
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/7c854d944d6e061d?hl=en

Such a Blot
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/43ee2e2149e17310?hl=en

Weapons of Mass Murder
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/0f3f87b645a72fde?hl=en

Neocrazies Foiled
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/86df9c0e9c38d475?hl=en

Iran knocks Europe out
By Pepe Escobar
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/497a81cb3c315c65?hl=en

UN opens a Pandora's Box of "Iran exceptionalism"
Dr. Kaveh Afrasiabi
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/24bfe5a318d9a222?hl=en

There is Nothing to refer to UN Security Council
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/76824d9387903d4a?hl=en

WMD Postmortem
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/0d02537756cafca8?hl=en

No wonder the West is so mad at Iran
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/83e63797f1a1af3b?hl=en

Bolton in a China Shop
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/9927bb4f65924e34?hl=en

JEW media sycophants & 36% HEU - IRAN told the truth, yet JEW keeps lying
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/f90a6eef507f10a0?hl=en

Past Arguments Don't Square With Current Iran Policy
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/f53d3a05bc5403c1?hl=en

The fuel behind Iran's nuclear drive
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/2fcf81313deb4ae0?hl=en

The U.S. and Iran: Democracy, Terrorism, and Nuclear Weapons
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/0d0dcf76abbaafb1?hl=en

NO Nuclear double standards
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/8e41f4a8a1a3e04c?hl=en

Backlash Builds Against Cheney's 'Guns of August'
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/8286b2b389247d0a?hl=en

An offer Iran MUST refuse
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/743b96400831f8a1?hl=en

Zero Tolerance
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/1641ae424fde5b89?hl=en

Sino-Russian Guarantees?
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/bd8f5389ab0e8956?hl=en

More neo-crazy media sycophant LIES about Iran
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/d3fe84a9b64d20bc?hl=en

What The Neo-Crazies Knew
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/6b45fabf57726a03?hl=en

EU vs. Iran - Who's Right?
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/cbce70a3093360fb?hl=en

Iran should refer U.S. to Security Council for violating UNSCR-984
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/0d54ef8e41b971bf?hl=en

Castration of NPT - U.S. instantly tore up NPT for India, so why should Iran obey a
torn up agreement!
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/2c234f4a148cd298?hl=en

U.S. ripped NPT into pieces; Iran must withdraw from this annulled treaty
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/fbf55e939908b2c2?hl=en

U.S. proliferation rhetoric and reality
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/7d8c268ee51c07be?hl=en

Ambassador Bolton's Agenda
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/1ca916601b7a7bc8?hl=en

Iran's INALIENABLE RIGHT to uranium enrichment
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/245f6081b4e3d019?hl=en

A Palliative for Neo-Crazy Lies
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/1b7968f98173938d?hl=en

Inalienable right without discrimination
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/5012a673328fa044?hl=en

U.S. doesn't want to disarm even though it promised to do so
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/c0b86cad11cb9413?hl=en

UN Referral – Not
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/bddc928154c8c96a?hl=en

What Iranian obligations? What breaches? America's lies, lies, lies...
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/9535c4a90df98471?hl=en

Memo to slimy senators
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/7065ffd57b51a959?hl=en

U.S. promised in 2000, to get rid of it's nukes!
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/1e23bafecdac9e82?hl=en

U.S. has violated Iran's NPT rights!
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/02f1f48fafcac2b6?hl=en

Iran's diplomatic masterpiece
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/f532352654efee1d?hl=en

Bush to sabotage NPT
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/6386adef83860d3e?hl=en

West's repeated violations of "Article IV & I" against Iran
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/0123ceb12dd47321?hl=en

Israel guns for Iran - Why?
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/2c0274540f3957b7?hl=en

U.S. wants definition of NPT 'noncompliance' changed!!!
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/2abab5a7b8bce4c5?hl=en

NTP for dummies
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/f317bb918ca244da?hl=en

CNN's Wolf Blitzer & David Albright: Jews global campaign against Iran
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/44fcd2a53218eb52?hl=en

The Real Threat From John Bolton
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/16fb61c3cca32703?hl=en

81-mm smoking rockets
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/fb2c580ba00d79a6?hl=en

U.S. plans to destroy NPT
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/760abaff1d8ac7c2?hl=en

Nuts to Bush
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/de936f823b4dfb11?hl=en

Iran's logic proven correct to the entire World
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/a5798de678dad2a9?hl=en

Sandbagging the NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group)
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/238000abe8fe032e?hl=en

What Noncompliance?
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/32f537772749ecc2?hl=en

Sandbagging the EU
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/bb437d1ee00ad1e9?hl=en

Bye-Bye, NPT
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/eb8e9f617d0e0867?hl=en

Jew tells Bush to lie about Iran
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/c96849f55f92353e?hl=en

Targeting Non-existent Nukes?
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/e25e86754767e3ef?hl=en

Blindly Backing Israel Against Iran
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/ca49370dcc1f41a4?hl=en

Condi Desperate to Stop EU-China-Iran Chain Reaction
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/26e6a24b43339654?hl=en

The Impossible Dream in the State of the Union Address
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/74938ea7958d0764?hl=en

Targeting Iran
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/dbb46af7ff3f0b66?hl=en

Bay of Pigs part 2, CIA-Israeli-MEK
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/b58f2a1d8b2290ff?hl=en

Threatening Iran - despite the evidence
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/ce6e09919da68cbb?hl=en

Virtual Nukes
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/c245e595ad17ae57?hl=en

Iran's having the capability to enrich uranium is not even tantamount to having the
capability to produce the essentially pure uranium-235 required to make a nuke
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/303c3ca53b67c0a7?hl=en

Dangerous Delusions About Iran
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/42c57f2ae0cdb3b0?hl=en

Thwarting the Neo-Crazies
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/66c79d721fd588d4?hl=en

Trashing the IAEA Again
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/f8c610f6cc9e1fda?hl=en

U.S. keeps lying about Iran again & again
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/e9f480b192bd425e?hl=en

Iran's Stealthy Nukes
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/e47cc87d2b268368?hl=en

Uranium-Enrichment Myths Busted
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/f7ebc6f4bed9d13a?hl=en

Iran Plays by the Rules - No Fair!
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/25be300601cc8984?hl=en

Nuclear Bait and Switch
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/0a0dc80ca3b8e98f?hl=en

The myth of Iranian nukes
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/bf78503a661673e9?hl=en

North Korea has what Iraq didn't
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/56f613221080276e?hl=en

Iran has absolute right to enrich uranium
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/0a8ac2dc599976ba?hl=en

Iran is in full compliance with NPT & IAEA
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/737b74e86ba897cb?hl=en