[Mb-civic] FW: Iran builds a secret underground complex as nuclear tensions rise

[Golsorkhi]

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From: Samii Shahla <shahla at thesamiis.com>
Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2006 12:37:25 -0500
Subject: Iran builds a secret underground complex as nuclear tensions rise

Telegraph

Iran builds a secret underground complex as nuclear tensions rise

By Philip Sherwell in Washington

12/03/2006

Iran's leaders have built a secret underground emergency command centre in
Teheran as they prepare for a confrontation with the West over their illicit
nuclear programme, the Sunday Telegraph has been told.

The complex of rooms and offices beneath the Abbas Abad district in the
north of the capital is designed to serve as a bolthole and headquarters for
the country's rulers as military tensions mount.

The recently completed command centre is connected by tunnels to other
government compounds near the Mossala prayer ground, one of the city's most
important religious sites.

Offices of the state security forces, the energy department and the
Organisation of Islamic Culture and Communications are all located in the
same area.

The construction of the complex is part of the regime's plan to move more of
its operations beneath ground. The Revolutionary Guard has overseen the
development of subterranean chambers and tunnels - some more than half a
mile long and an estimated 35ft high and wide - at sites across the country
for research and development work on nuclear and rocket programmes.

The opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) learnt about
the complex from its contacts within the regime. The same network revealed
in 2002 that Iran had been operating a secret nuclear programme for 18
years.

The underground strategy is partly designed to hide activities from
satellite view and international inspections but also reflects a growing
belief in Teheran that its showdown with the international community could
end in air strikes by America or Israel. "Iran's leaders are clearly
preparing for a confrontation by going underground," said Alireza
Jafarzadeh, the NCRI official who made the 2002 announcement.

America and Europe believe that Iran is secretly trying to acquire an atomic
bomb, although the regime insists that its nuclear programme is for civilian
energy purposes.

As the United Nations Security Council prepares to discuss Iran's nuclear
operations this week, Teheran has been stepping up plans for confrontation.
Its chief delegate on nuclear talks last week threatened that Iran would
inflict "harm and pain" on America if censured by the Security Council.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the hardline president who has called for Israel to be
"wiped off the map", also said that the West would "suffer" if it tried to
thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions. As the war of words intensified, President
George W Bush said that Teheran represents a "grave national security
concern" for America.

In Iraq, which Mr Ahmadinejad hopes will develop into a fellow Shia Islamic
state, Iran is already using its proxy militia to attack British and
American forces, often with Iranian-made bombs and weapons. As tensions
grow, Teheran could order Hizbollah - the Lebanese-based terror faction that
it created and arms - to attack targets in Israel.

The regime is also reviewing its contingency plans to attack tankers and
American naval forces in the Persian Gulf and to mine the Strait of Hormuz,
through which about 15 million barrels of oil (about 20 per cent of world
production) passes each day. Any action in the Gulf would send oil prices
soaring - a weapon that Iran has often threatened to wield.

The Pentagon's strategic planning is focused on the danger that Iran might
try to mine the strait and deploy explosive-packed suicide boats against its
warships. In May, American vessels in the Gulf will take part in the Arabian
Gauntlet training exercise that deals with clearing mines from the strait,
which has a navigable channel just two miles wide.

The naval wing of the Revolutionary Guard has in recent years practised
"swarming" raids, using its flotilla of small rapid-attack boats to simulate
assaults on commercial vessels and United States warships, according to Ken
Timmerman, an American expert on Iran.

The Pentagon is particularly sensitive to the dangers of such attacks after
al-Qaeda hit the USS Cole off the Yemen with a suicide boat in 2000, killing
17 American sailors. Last month the White House listed two foiled al-Qaeda
plots to attack ships in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.

US intelligence believes that if Iranian nuclear facilities were attacked by
either America or Israel, then Teheran would respond by trying to close the
Strait of Hormuz with naval forces, mines and anti-ship cruise missiles.

"When these systems become fully operational, they will significantly
enhance Iran's defensive capabilities and ability to deny access to the
Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz," Michael Maples, the director of
the Defence Intelligence Agency testified before the Senate armed services
committee last month.

A senior American intelligence officer said that the US navy would be able
to reopen the strait but that it would be militarily costly. Hamid Reza
Zakeri, a former Iranian intelligence officer, recently told Mr Timmerman
that the Iranian navy's Strategic Studies Centre has produced an updated
battle plan for the strait.

Its most devastating options would be to use its long-range Shahab-3
missiles to attack Israeli or American bases in the region or to deploy
suicide bombers in Western cities under its strategy of "asymmetric"
response.

"The price to the West for standing up to Iran is clear," Gen Moshe Ya'alon,
the former Israeli defence chief said last month in Washington. "It includes
terror attacks, economic hardshipŠ and consequences resulting from
fluctuations in Iranian oil production. Indeed, the regime believes that the
West - including Israel - is afraid to deal with it."
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