Fredrik Dahl of Reuters reports that the IAEA has satellite images, including one dated May 25, that show “two side buildings had been dismantled and other possible clean-up work” described as “ground-scraping activities” at Parchin. (The sourcing is “diplomats who attended a closed-door briefing by U.N. nuclear agency officials.”) We don’t have the images (yet) …
US/ROK SOF in the DPRK?
by | 2012-05-29 | 23 Comments
Last week, BG Neil H. Tolley, Commander of Special Operations Command, Korea, participated on a panel at the 2012 SOFIC (Special Operations Forces Industry Conference) with other theater special operations commanders. He was talking about the challenges in dealing with underground facilities in North Korea when he said something like this: “The entire tunnel infrastructure …
Iranian HEU Traces: Don’t Panic
by | 2012-05-29 | 32 Comments
By now everyone has seen the latest IAEA Iran report, GOV/2012/23. Among other bits that have drawn attention is paragraph 28, concerning swipe samples taken at the subterranean enrichment facility outside of Qom in mid-February. These samples “showed the presence of particles with enrichment levels of up to 27% U-235,” more than the level that’s …
Memorial Day
by | 2012-05-28 | 6 Comments
My Dad was one of five brothers — first generation American citizens whose parents emigrated from Kiev. During World War II, he worked at the Watertown (Massachusetts) Arsenal making munitions. The metallic substances he ingested there most likely caused his kidney cancer, which eventually took his life at age 48. Two of his brothers, Mickey …
