The Institute for Science and International Security has determined that Iran’s nuclear program has been dispersed, protected and concealed. The Washington-based institute said this would rule out a limited air strike on Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities.

“An attack on Iran’s enrichment program could not just rely on a single strike,” the report, titled “Can Military Strikes Destroy Iran’s Gas Centrifuge Program?” “Probably Not,” it said. “It would need multiple strikes against many sites.”

Authored by David Albright, Paul Brannan and Jacqueline Shire, the report contrasted Iran’s nuclear program with that of Iraq and Syria. ISIS said Teheran’s uranium enrichment program was based on gas centrifuges, which could be dispersed throughout Iran. Iraq and Syria had sought to develop nuclear weapons based on reactors.

“Following an attack, Iran could quickly rebuild its centrifuge program in small, easily hidden facilities focused on making weapon-grade uranium for nuclear weapons,” the report, dated Aug. 7, said.

The two leading Iranian nuclear facilities were identified as Isfahan and Natanz. ISIS said the destruction of these two facilities would require “far more military ordinance than that used” to bomb Iraq’s Osirak reactor or Syria’s Al Kibar. Israel destroyed Osirak in 1981 and Al Kibar in 2007.

“Because gas centrifuge plants can have few tell-tale signatures, they can be very difficult to detect,” the report said. “Given sufficient suspicion of an impending military strike, Iran could quickly remove key centrifuge components, equipment and materials from its existing sites. It may have already done so with certain items as part of a strategy to protect its centrifuge program.”

ISIS said Western intelligence remains uncertain of the precise locations and vulnerabilities of Iranian nuclear facilities. Isfahan was said to contain more than 300 tons of uranium hexafluoride, or UF6, a feeder gas that could facilitate the production of more than 30 nuclear weapons.

Moreover, Albright, a former United Nations weapons inspector, said the International Atomic Energy Agency has failed to locate Iranian facilities that produce centrifuge components. He suggested that the U.S. intelligence community has not been significantly helped by information provided by Israel.

“Based on interviews with knowledgeable government officials, intelligence agencies simply lack reliable information on the full-scope of Iran’s centrifuge facilities and activities,” the report said.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com. His Web site is www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com

©The Bulletin 2008

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David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.