Israeli intelligence on Iran....

An interesting report from the former head of IDF intelligence...

He said Iran became aware in August 2002 that the US, UK, Germany, France and Israel "had strong information that under its broad civilian cover Iran was conducting a clandestine nuclear program." This program, he said, covered all aspects of nuclear weapons development and delivery, and was conducted under the auspices of the Iranian Defense Ministry and Atomic Energy Agency. Missile development, uranium enrichment, plutonium production and other activities were pursued at several sites, including R&D centers in Teheran itself. The work was conducted under cover names, including a Program for the Cultivation of the Desert.

Recognizing that the international community had discovered the covert program, Ze'evi-Farkash said, the Iranians set about hiding its traces, but then resumed their activities. For instance, he said, weapons system development at the Lavizan site, identified by Iranian opposition groups, was halted and moved elsewhere, and all traces of activity were removed.

Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency sought permission to visit the site in 2002, and were finally granted that permission in 2003.

"We took satellite pictures [of Lavizan] in 2002 and in March 2003," Ze'evi-Farkash said. "In March 2003 Lavizan disappeared. We saw a garden and a soccer field. They dug down more than two meters" to remove traces of the activity there.

The former Military Intelligence chief then detailed the extent of Iranian missile development, noting that the Shihab-3, with a range of 1,500 kilometers and the capacity to carry a 700-kilogram warhead, was already operational. "We saw [such] missiles, in Iranian maneuvers, pointed at Tel Aviv and at Riyadh," he said.

Ze'evi-Farkash cited longer-range missiles, with larger potential warheads, also in development, gradually bringing Europe into range and even, by 2010, the east coast of the United States.

Listing specific criticisms of the NIE report, he said flatly that, in contrast to its headline-making opening assertion, "the Iranian clandestine military program is continuing." The NIE's "distinction between military and civilian programs is artificial," he added, since enrichment of uranium - which all agree Iran is doing - "is critical to both."

He stressed that the surface-to-surface missile program is continuing, adding, "No other country would invest so many billions of dollars in surface-to-surface missile programs without nuclear military intentions."