Iran's Machinations

Iran continues to expand its nuclear facilities, all while the UN and EU dither and fret and issue useless statements.

According to an Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) report on Sunday, new satellite imagery shows mounds of earth next to the new entrance at Esfahan, suggesting a recent excavation.

In February of 2005, ISIS published satellite imagery of the construction of a tunnel facility with only two entrances.

The new tunnel, according to the report, is indicative of either a new underground facility or the further expansion of the existing one.

The Iranians have also made progress in building the Natanz site, it was written in the report, while as of early January 2006, at the end of the suspension in uranium enrichment activities, the site held a "considerable number of centrifuge components and assembled centrifuges, and a great deal of key centrifuge manufacturing and assembling equipment."

This meshes with the Iranian statements that Iran will vastly expand their centrifuge program from 164 currently to 3,000 by the end of the year and 54,000 in the near future.

And Iran is looking to buy favors from the Palestinians. They're giving $50 million to Hamas. Go figure. Terrorist-funding regimes funding terrorists. Mind you, this is a drop in the bucket as the West is slowly cutting off aid to the Palestinians that amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars a year but it is nonetheless an important development that bears watching.

UPDATE:
Iran claims that 200 volunteers have come forward to act as suicide bombers if the US attacks Iran's nuclear program/facilities.

Some 200 Iranians have volunteered in the past few days to carry out "martyrdom missions" against U.S. and British interests if Iran is attacked over its nuclear program, a hardline group said on Sunday.

The United States and other Western nations accuse Iran of seeking to master enrichment technology to build atomic weapons, a charge Iran denies. Washington says it wants a diplomatic solution, but has not ruled out a military option.

Mohammad Ali Samadi, spokesman for the Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign, said fresh fears over a possible U.S. attack on Iran's nuclear sites helped attract volunteers during its latest recruitment drive.


"Because of the recent threats, we have started to register more volunteers since Friday," Samadi told Reuters by telephone.

"Some 200 people have registered to carry out operations against our enemies. America and Britain are definitely considered enemies."

Chanting "Death to America" and "Nuclear technology is our right", volunteers registered their names at the former American Embassy in southern Tehran on Sunday.

We know how much damage a small, but determined, group of terrorists can do. The Iranians appear to be preparing for a conflict with the US and attempting to learn the lessons from North Korea and Iraq (the other members of the Axis of Evil). They are preparing for an insurgency should the US engage in a land-based invasion. They're preparing terrorists to attack US targets should they present themselves. And they're moving ahead on their nuclear program at the same time. Samadi claims that there are 40-50,000 people who are already registered to be suicide bombers. That isn't just a piece of propaganda, as we know that the Iranians were more than willing to blow themselves up in their 8-year war with Iraq acting as human mine detectors or human bombs so that other soldiers could attack Iraqi forces.

That doesn't mean that the Iranians will be able to deploy such forces against the US, but the US has to take it into account.

And the Iranians are also stating that they're going to cause regional discord should the US attack. As if that's any different than the situation we're now facing? Iran is already assisting the insurgency in Iraq, funding Hamas, backing the Hizbullah in Lebanon, and providing safe harbor to terrorist groups including al Qaeda. Do we need more reason?

Mark Steyn sees the problem. Too bad too many others in the media don't.

UPDATE:
Others blogging: Secular Blasphemy, Roger L. Simon, AbbaGav, and Stop the ACLU who thinks that Iran is picking up left wing talking points.

Posted to Point Five, Samantha Burns, and third world county.