US Intel Officials Say Netanyahu’s Claims Of “New” Iranian Atomic Facility Are Not True

During his speech at the UN General Assembly on Thursday, Netanyahu focused on Iran (as usual), this time using his props to ‘prove’ that the Islamic republic is hiding a secret atomic facility.

The Israeli prime minister held up and waved visuals to illustrate his points as he spoke about evidence proving that Iran has yet another secret warehouse holding nuclear-related material. His evidence was in the form of an aerial photo of the Iranian capital marked with a red arrow pointing to a large building.

Zero Hedge reports: Though this was perhaps a step up from the cartoon bomb performance at the UNGA in 2012, the act is now a fixture and entirely predictable after many others spanning years, barely eliciting much media excitement compared to six years ago.

But unlike the last number of similar speeches, US intelligence officials have told Reuters that the claims are not true.

“I am disclosing for the first time that Iran has another secret facility in Tehran, a secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amounts of equipment and materiel from Iran’s secret nuclear program,” Netanyahu said as if breathlessly leading a breaking news press conference.

He said the site had previously held some 15 kilograms (33 pounds) of radioactive material that has since been moved in a curiously specific claim that would now seem very hard if not impossible to prove — given that… well it’s all been moved according to the claims. He called on the UN atomic agency to initiative immediate inspection with Geiger counters.

“Since we raided the atomic archive, they’ve been busy cleaning out the atomic warehouse. Just last month they removed 15 kilograms of radioactive material. You know what they did with it?” he said. “They took it out and they spread it around Tehran in an effort to hide the evidence.”

And on Twitter the Israeli prime minister began making a public appeal in parallel to his speech, asking people to “Google it” and offering the coordinates “35.5022 51.2997. It’s Iran’s secret nuclear warehouse in Tehran. Look for it and share it asking people to.”

Iranian officials were quick to seize upon his once again attempting to persuade through ample use of props and visuals, with Foreign Minister Javad Zarif mocking, “No arts & craft show will ever obfuscate that Israel is only regime in our region with a *secret* and *undeclared* nuclear weapons program – including an *actual atomic arsenal*. Time for Israel to fess up and open its illegal nuclear weapons program to international inspectors.”

And elsewhere foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said, “The world will only laugh loudly at this type of false, meaningless and unnecessary speech and false shows,” according to Fars news.

Netanyahu accuses Iran of having secret atomic warehouse https://t.co/8QTAyDxpte pic.twitter.com/ZAYEKhmIFa

— RT (@RT_com) September 28, 2018

Considering this usual run of events anytime Netanyahu address the UN, the only surprise came later in the day, when Reuters cited US intelligence officials who immediately contradicted the content of his speech.

Reuters called the claims of the freshly revealed purported atomic facility “nothing new” to the Americans, according to an unnamed intelligence source:

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States is aware of the facility Netanyahu announced and described it as a “warehouse” used to store “records and archives” from Iran’s nuclear program.

And further citing a second intelligence official, the report continued:

A second U.S. intelligence official called Netanyahu’s comments “somewhat misleading. First, we have known about this facility for some time, and it’s full of file cabinets and paper, not aluminum tubes for centrifuges, and second, so far as anyone knows, there is nothing in it that would allow Iran to break out of the JCPOA any faster than it otherwise could.”

A separate Israeli media report also noted the contradiction between Netanyahu’s speech and US intelligence: “The claims gainsay the remarks made by Netanyahu, who said that the site, which sits a short distance from Shourabad, contained some 15 kg (33 pounds) of radioactive material that has since been moved.”

“A second U.S. intelligence official called Netanyahu’s comments “somewhat misleading. https://t.co/ki233P9Wld pic.twitter.com/DqzXA8mhpy

— Golnaz Esfandiari (@GEsfandiari) September 28, 2018

Thus it appears the media — including Israeli media — aren’t so lockstep in uncritically repeating Netanyahu’s talking points anymore.

• About
• Latest Posts

Niamh Harris

Writer at The People's Voice

Latest posts by Niamh Harris (see all)

• Researchers Pitch ‘One-And-Done’ Single Shot Covid-Flu Vaccine For Babies - April 19, 2024
• Former Russian President Says West May Be Plotting To ‘Liquidate’ Zelensky - April 19, 2024
• Erdogan Says Israel Has Outdone Hitler By Killing Over 14,000 Children In Gaza - April 19, 2024