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New Documents Show Iran Still Working on NukesThursday, March 6, 2008 8:11 AMBy: Kenneth R. Timmerman Article Font Size New documents shown at a dramatic closed-door briefing to diplomats in Vienna by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s chief nuclear inspector, Olli Heinonen, provided new evidence that Iran continues to work on developing a nuclear warhead for its long-range ballistic missiles, despite a recent report to the contrary from the U.S. intelligence community.The documents, whose contents were described to Newsmax by persons present at the closed-door briefing on Feb. 25, included an internal Iranian government PowerPoint report detailing progress on a missile re-entry vehicle from July 9, 2003 through Jan. 14, 2004.The progress report on the re-entry vehicle, known as Project P111, contradicts the latest U.S. National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, released in December, which concluded that Iran had shut down its nuclear weapons work in the fall of 2003.The board room fell silent when Heinonen showed the Iranian PowerPoint presentation. Participants sat transfixed by the stunning new evidence of Iran’s secret nuclear weapons work, diplomats present during the briefing told Newsmax.Heinonen didn’t say how he had obtained the PowerPoint, but noted that “several member states” had assisted his investigation.Heinonen traveled to Iran last month to confront the Iranians with the new evidence he had gathered. The Iranians dismissed the documents as “fabrications” and “baseless allegations.”Heinonen also showed an analysis from the U.S. intelligence community of Iran’s Green Salt Project that has not been shared with top U.S. government officials.According to IAEA reports, the Green Salt Project refers to studies to build a clandestine facility to convert uranium yellowcake into UF4. This process is vital uranium enrichment to produce uranium metal. Uranium metal can be machined to form hemispherical “pits” or weapon cores.The U.S. intelligence community report was shared with the Iranian representatives to the IAEA during the Feb. 25 meeting in Vienna, but has not been briefed to senior U.S. government officials involved in tracking Iran’s nuclear weapons program, Newsmax has learned.At one point, Heinonen showed a videotape of a “mock-up chamber and internals” of the missile re-entry vehicle, as well as laboratory preparations to test them, which could only have been obtained from sources inside Iran.He also showed an Iranian animation demonstrating how a Shahab-3 missile could be programmed to detonate at about 2,000 feet over a target. Heinonen noted that detonation at that altitude only made sense for a nuclear warhead.
