The news from Iran keeps getting worse. The latest report is that Iran has already constructed an extensive network of secret underground tunnels for a nuclear weapons program.
According to an Iranian resistance group, citing "reliable sources" within Iran, underground nuclear weapons facilities have been built in at least 14 sites near Tehran, Isfahan, and Qom. Mohammad Mohaddessin, chairman of the opposition National Council of the Resistance, said at a news conference in Paris that the tunnels "are particularly used for hiding research centers, workshops, nuclear equipment, and nuclear and missile command and control centers." Building the tunnels reportedly started as early as 1989.
According tin Mohaddessin, some tunnels have been dug into mountains and then separate into several smaller cavities. Some go down vertically into the ground and branch out at a certain depth. Others are trenches cut into the surface of the ground and covered with cement and camouflaged to resemble hills. Lead has been used to line the tunnels to stop any leakage of radiation and sound to the surrounding environment and to prevent detection by IAEA investigators, Mohaddessin said.
More alarming details at Gateway Pundit.
The sources are anonymous at this point, and the resistance group reporting on the tunnels is just that -- a group resisting the regime in Iran -- but the level of detail that the group provides would be surprising if the stories were made up. Time will tell the truth.
The important take-away point is that the world's civilized nations must wake up now and attend to Iran, or they will suffer the consequences soon enough. It's extremely tempting for the world to hit the snooze button and go back to sleep, but it's a risk we can ill afford at this point.
Even before this report, it was clear that Iran has been moving forward full speed ahead on a nuclear program, and that it has been doing so with malicious and destructive intentions toward the United States and Israel. It is no accident that Iran's legislature has chanted "Death to America" more than once, including during the session in which it decided to resume uranium enrichment. It is no coincidence that this is the same Iran whose president has said that Israel is a "disgraceful blot" that should be "wiped off the map."
It is not difficult to connect the dots here. A preschooler could do it with one big, fat line.
The question is whether the civilized nations of the world will demonstrate the common sense to stop Iran before the consequences to innocent people become catastrophic.
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Update 12/30/05: More commentary on the threat from Iran and Israel's options at All Things Beautiful
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