PROPAGANDA WATCH

Washington Times: Iran Army Given Control Of Entire Nuclear Program
by David R. Sands

Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has placed the military firmly in control of his nation's nuclear program, undercutting his government's claim that the program is intended for civilian use, according to a leading opposition group.

"The military under the new president is firmly in control of the nuclear program and the nuclear negotiations with the United Nations and the West," said Mohammad Mohaddessin, chairman of the NCRI's foreign affairs committee, in a telephone interview yesterday.

The NCRI is the political arm of the People's Mujahadeen, a secular Iranian bloc that broke violently with the Islamic leaders of the revolution shortly after the ouster of the U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

The opposition group has had a checkered and at times contradictory role. Branded a terrorist group by U.S. and European governments, it also has proven to be the single best intelligence source on Iran's clandestine nuclear programs, exposing in recent years massive research and testing sites inside Iran unknown to U.N. and Western monitors.

"As Mr. Sands tells us late in the article, the MEK are actually regardet as Terrorist Group by the the US State Department. I wonder if he would call Al-qaida or Hamas an leading opposition group too. He doesn't tell us why they are branded by him as "single best intelligent source on Iran's "clandestine" Nuclear program. They are probably the single best source because there are no others. Anybody remembering Chalabis INC?

Irans Nuclear program is not "clandestine". Iran is under severe IAEA inspections and has the right to develop the nuclear fuel cycle for civilian purposes."