U.S. looking into NCRI’s revelation of secret Iran nuclear site, Kerry says

Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Wednesday that a final nuclear deal with Iran could be derailed if new allegations from an Iranian dissident group that Iran is running a secret uranium enrichment operation at a facility near Tehran prove true,” The Washington Timesreported.

Mr. Kerry told lawmakers that U.S. officials knew of charges related the site prior to this week, but that “it has not been revealed yet as a nuclear facility.”

“It is a facility that we are well aware of, which is on a list of facilities we have,” the secretary of state said during a Capitol Hill budget hearing on Wednesday morning. “I’m not going to go into greater detail.”

“But these things are obviously going to have to be resolved as we go forward,” he said.

Mr. Kerry made the comments during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, in which lawmakers raised questions about the revelations Tuesday by the National Coalition of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), exposing a secret facility has never before been revealed to international officials.

On Wednesday, a State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: “We have seen these claims and we take all such reports seriously”, according to The Washington Post.

The NCRI revealed on Tuesday the details of Lavizan-3 top-secret site currently used by Iranian regime for research & development on nuclear field using advanced centrifuges for uranium enrichment. 

The NCRI announced that the explosive revelation was result of several years of detailed work by the network of the Iranian opposition movement, the People’s Mojahedin Organization in Iran (PMOI/MEK).

Rep. Brad Sherman, California Democrat, said in the hearing: “They [PMOI (MEK)] are the ones that told the world about the Iranian nuclear program.” “They now say that there’s a secret facility at Lavizan-3.”

PMOI's sources established that since 2008 the Iranian regime has secretly engaged in research and uranium enrichment at this site.

The NCRI provided Satellite imagery of the site, its entrance, and overview of the site in the press conference.

The NCRI representatives ripped the Iranian regime’s claim regarding transparency in the nuclear talks and went on to say the Iranian regime is deceiving international community.

They pointed out that research and development with advanced centrifuges in highly secret sites are only intended to advance the nuclear weapons project.

The NCRI stressed if US is serious about preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, it must make continuation of the talks predicated on the IAEA’s immediate inspection of the site before the regime gets a chance to destroy the evidence.

Iran news in brief, 25 February 2015

Iran regime's hysteric reaction to NCRI revelations of nuclear sites

Some 30 hours after the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) unveiled for the first time details of a secret nuclear site has resorted to a hasty, desperate and pathetic propaganda blitz against the Iranian Resistance.

At a news conference at the National Press Club on Tuesday, February 24, 2015, the U.S. Representative Office of NCRI, unveiled information about Lavizan-3 site, where research and testing with advanced centrifuge machines for the purpose of uranium enrichment were being conducted.

Instead of addressing the concerns of the international community about the nature at the site and instead of providing access to the International Atomic Energy Agency, resorted to the pathetic propaganda blitz.

On Sunday, February 22, the NCRI-US announced that it intends to hold a press conference on "Secret, Parallel Nuclear Program in Iran – Details to Be Unveiled." The next day, the regime's president Hassan Rouhani and the head of the expediency council, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, attempted to preemptively cast doubt on what was going to be made public, describing it as a "big lie." Following the press conference on Tuesday, February 24, the Iranian regime's envoy to the UN, Gholamali Khoshroo, and Mansour Haqiqat-pour, the deputy chair of the national security and foreign policy committee of the regime's parliament, side stepped NCRI's intelligence entirely, and instead cried out that the NCRI was "anti-humanitarian" and a "spent, mercenary force."

If that were not enough, a website in an article written by an unidentified individual claimed that the image of the 40 cm thick and radiation-proof doors of the four-hall underground Lavizan-3 site, which was presented at the news conference and included in the NCRI report, was fabricated and was actually taken from the website of a company in Iran called Ganjineh Mehr Pars (GMP). One other discredited website, whose collaboration with the Iranian regime has been common knowledge for the past 10 years, posted the same story.

The NCRI-US offers the following clarification:

1. The Iranian Resistance reiterates most emphatically its call on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to demand immediate access to Lavizan-3 and see the centrifuge machines in-situ.

2. Instead of beating around the bush, the Iranian regime must grant immediate access to the IAEA to conduct a thorough inspection of Lavizan-3. However, by engaging in such publicity stunts, Tehran is trying to buy time to destroy the evidence of its decade-long illicit activities at Lavizan-3. This ruse is simply a pathetic and desperate smokescreen on the part of the Iranian regime to conceal the truth and to overshadow the impact of the exposure of its secret uranium enrichment research using advanced centrifuges in an underground site.

3. At the news conference on Tuesday, the NCRI showed the image of the door and identified it as one of the doors that had been installed at one of the underground halls at Lavizan-3 site. The NCRI, through its sources within Iran, was fully aware that these doors had been built by GMP Company for the purpose of being installed at Lavizan-3.

4. The image displayed at the press conference had been provided to the NCRI by its sources in Iran and was not grabbed from the GMP website. In fact, that image was posted on the Company's website recently as a product sample, whereas the NCRI had been working on compiling information on Lavizan-3 for the past several years and thus possessed the image long before it was posted on the GMP website.

5. This is the image of one of the doors installed at one of the underground halls at Lavizan-3. It was taken after its construction at GMP workshops and prior to being transferred to Lavizan-3 for installation. In its report, NCRI did not specify the name of the company that had built the doors, and it chose not to show the full picture for security reasons and to protect the source(s) of the information.

6. In 2005, Kalaye Electric Company ordered 4 of these doors from GMP. The individual who referred the GMP Company to Kalaye Electric was named […] Shahbazian, who is a friend of Farrokh Esfandiari, the Director General of GMP. At the time, the cost for building each door was about $30,000 and it took about three months to build them.

7. GMP installed the doors at Lavizan-3. Trucks transported the doors to the site. They were then lowered into the tunnel, using cranes, through the elevator shaft area (because the elevator had not yet been installed). Once underground, the doors were moved around by small manual cranes and mounted on a roller pulled by a Land Rover pick-up, which had also been lowered to the underground site.

8. GMP built a number of vault doors for the Natanz site in the same year. This company is currently engaged in manufacturing doors for weapons depots of the Intelligence Ministry to be installed in the [Iran-Iraq] border region. In 2014, GMP built explosion-proof doors for Pars Garma Company (affiliated with the Ministry of Defense) to be installed in Gachsaran in Khuzistan Province.

9. In a marketing booklet published by GMP, it boasts that "highly advanced technology is used in the construction of these doors," and that "GMP Company is the sole producer of this product inside Iran in compliance with international standards." "This product will probably be used in Iran's nuclear energy program, and as such is under [international] sanctions and cannot be practically procured from abroad…," the booklet adds. Two of its six utilities listed in the booklet include, "nuclear energy centers and nuclear facilities," as well as "military capabilities in nuclear and laser testing systems." (The marketing booklet written in Farsi language is available)

FBI Arrests 3 New York Men Planning to Join IS in Syria

NEW YORK – The FBI on Wednesday arrested three New York residents who allegedly were planning to join the jihadist Islamic State and commit terrorist acts in the United States, officials with the agency and the Justice Department said.

Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev and Abror Habibov, both citizens of Uzbekistan, and Akhror Saidakhmetov, a citizen of Kazakhstan, are facing charges of conspiracy for supporting that terrorist group.

The arrests of the three men, all residents of the New York borough of Brooklyn and who had been under observation by law enforcement for several months, were made in New York and Florida.

The FBI investigation revealed that Juraboev, 24, and Saidakhmetov, 19, were planning to travel to Syria via Turkey to join the Islamic State, while Habibov, 30, helped finance Saidakhmetov in his efforts but had no plans to leave the country.

Saidakhmetov was arrested Wednesday morning at JFK international airport in New York as he was getting ready to board a flight to Istanbul, while Juraboev had bought a ticket for next month to travel to the same destination and was arrested in Brooklyn.

According to local media, Habibov was arrested in Florida.

In the indictment, prosecutors say Juraboev first came to the attention of law enforcement authorities last August when he posted a message on an Uzbek-language website that propagates the Islamic State ideology saying he and his companions wanted to “pledge our allegiance” to the IS “and commit ourselves.”

In the same post, he offered to assassinate President Barack Obama if the terrorist group ordered him to do so. He also threatened to plant a bomb on New York’s Coney Island.

Meanwhile, Saidakhmetov intended to carry out an attack on U.S. soil if he was unable to travel to Syria to join the IS, and recently he expressed his intention to buy a pistol to shoot police officers and FBI agents if they learned of his plans.

“The flow of foreign fighters to Syria represents an evolving threat to our country and to our allies,” said the U.S. attorney for Eastern New York, Loretta E. Lynch, in the statement announcing the arrests.

Most Jailed Teachers Freed after Deadly Clash with Police in Mexico Port City

Most Jailed Teachers Freed after Deadly Clash with Police in Mexico Port City

MEXICO CITY – Authorities have released the vast majority of the more than 100 teachers arrested after clashes with police in the southern Mexican port city of Acapulco, an incident that left one protester dead, union officials said Wednesday.

A member of the State Coordinator of Education Workers of Guerrero, or CETEG, told Radio Formula that 65-year-old retired teacher Claudio Castillo Peña died as a result of Tuesday night’s crackdown on the protest.

“He lost his life at 4:00 a.m. (Wednesday) due to the blows he received,” said Manuel Salvador Rosas, who added that Castillo Peña was one of the detained protesters who were taken to hospitals in Acapulco, a Pacific port located in the southern state of Guerrero.

The deputy secretary of the Guerrero emergency management office, Raul Miliani, confirmed the death of the retired teacher to Radio Formula, saying his office took him by ambulance to a hospital for treatment for head trauma.

Vidulfo Rosales, the attorney for the relatives of 43 teacher trainees who disappeared nearly five months ago in Iguala, Guerrero, after coming under attack by police, told Efe that 99 of the 106 teachers jailed after the clashes have been released.

“We’re aware that 99 have been released, which would leave seven (still in custody),” said Rosales, who accused the police of using “irrational and excessive” force.

“There was no need to kill a person. They already had the situation under control,” he added.

After CETEG members blocked the road to the Acapulco airport for several hours and engaged in a fruitless dialogue with the authorities, a bus was driven into a line of federal police who were barring access to the air facility.

CETEG accepts no responsibility for “that truck that rammed into not only the Federal Police grenadiers but also teachers” who had formed a human wall to “avoid provocations,” Rosas said.

The riot police responded by using clubs and tear gas against the protesters, who fought back with sticks, pipes and rocks.

At least seven police and five teachers were injured in the clashes, Mexico’s Government Secretariat said in a statement Tuesday night, adding that arrests were made but not giving the precise number.

Guerrero Gov. Rogelio Ortega said the teachers “crossed the line” and that police were “tolerant to the extreme” in clearing the entrance to the airport.

The teachers began the protest at around 11:00 a.m. Tuesday to press demands for unpaid wages; they were dispersed by Federal Police around eight-and-a-half hours later.

CETEG has carried out numerous pretests, some of them violent, against a 2013 education overhaul.

The union also has joined protests over the case of the 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School, a teacher’s college, who went missing last September in Iguala.

Federal authorities say corrupt local cops handed those teacher trainees over to drug-cartel enforcers who killed them and burned their bodies at a dump.

Another teachers union, the CNTE, which represents a third of Mexico’s public school educators, has mounted numerous protests against President Enrique Peña Nieto’s 2013 education initiative, which subjects teachers to a comprehensive regime of evaluation.

That union says it does not object in principle to teacher evaluation, only to the “punitive” scheme devised by the government, seen by the CNTE as setting the stage for massive layoffs.

Vatican: Pope Francis Did Not Intend to Offend Mexico with His Remarks

VATICAN CITY – The Holy See on Tuesday said that the words of Pope Francis regarding the risk of the “Mexicanization” of Argentina had no “stigmatizing intent toward the people of Mexico” and acknowledged the effort being made by Mexico City in the fight against drug trafficking.

“The Holy See feels that the term ‘Mexicanization’ in no way should (be thought to) have a stigmatizing intent toward the people of Mexico and even less so should it be considered a political opinion to the detriment of a nation that is continuing to make a serious effort to eradicate violence and the social causes that give rise to it,” said the Mexican Embassy to the Holy See.

The Mexican Embassy to the Vatican on Tuesday sent a communique to the media after Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi sent a letter with these observations to Mexico’s envoy to the Holy See, Mariano Palacios Alcocer.

In the missive, according to the Mexican Embassy, “the Holy See acknowledged the excellent ... relations with Mexico” and confirmed that Pope Francis “at no time intended to injure the feelings of the Mexican people or the efforts of the country’s government.”

In the press release sent to the media, the Latin American country emphasized that “the Holy See acknowledged that the programs implemented by the Mexican government to preserve social peace and tranquility carry with them confronting the causes that give rise to them.”

The remarks of the Holy See come one day after the pontiff expressed his concern over the advance of drug trafficking in his native Argentina in a private letter directed to Buenos Aires lawmaker Gustavo Vera in which he asked that “the Mexicanization (of Argentina) be avoided.”

The letter was a response to an earlier message sent by Vera in which he had warned the pope about the “ceaseless” growth of drug trafficking in Argentina and reported to him on complaints that he is going to initiate via the La Alameda non-governmental organization, which he heads and which combats human trafficking and slavery.

Iranian Resistance reveals secret nuclear site in Iran used for uranium enrichment with advanced centrifuges

National Council of Resistance of Iran revealed on Tuesday the details of an underground top-secret site currently used by Iranian regime for research & development on nuclear field using advanced centrifuges for uranium enrichment.

Ms. Soona Samsami, the Representative of the NCRI in the US and Alireza Jafarzadeh, the Deputy Director of the NCRI US Representative Office made the revelation in a press conference at Press Club in Washington D.C.

Existence of the site, known as Lavizan-3, was unknown until now and had been kept secret for years by the Iranian regime.

The NCRI announced that the explosive revelation was result of several years of detailed work by the network of the Iranian opposition movement, the People’s Mojahedin Organization in Iran (PMOI/MEK).

The PMOI has obtained the intelligence from sources inside of Iranian regime, vetting info from scores of sources independently.

PMOI's sources established that since 2008 the Iranian regime has secretly engaged in research and uranium enrichment at this site.

The NCRI provided Satellite imagery of the site, its entrance, and overview of the site in the press conference.

The NCRI representatives ripped the Iranian regime’s claim regarding transparency in the nuclear talks and went on to say the Iranian regime is deceiving international community.

They pointed out that research and development with advanced centrifuges in highly secret sites are only intended to advance the nuclear weapons project.

The NCRI stressed if US is serious about preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, it must make continuation of the talks predicated on the IAEA’s immediate inspection of the site before the regime gets a chance to destroy the evidence.

It underscored that if the US and its partners seek to block Tehran’s pathway to the bomb, any agreement should include complete implementation of all Security Council Resolutions, immediate halt to any enrichment and closure of related facilities, including Natanz, Fordo and Arak, signing the Additional Protocol and start of IAEA’s snap inspection.

The NCRI has exposed some of the most significant dimensions of the Iranian regime’s nuclear weapons program, including the Natanz uranium enrichment and Arak heavy water sites in August 2002, Kalay-e Electric centrifuge assembly and testing facility in February 2003, the Lashkar-abad Laser enrichment and Lavizan-Shian sites in May 2003, the Fordo underground enrichment site in December 2005, and the Defensive Innovation and Research Organization, SPND, in July 2011.