WASHINGTON - National security officials are increasingly worried that Iran, with help from Russia, may be closer than previously believed to producing nuclear weapons.

Among the chief concerns, said administration officials, is the continued flow of technology to Tehran, primarily from Russia.

U.S. officials reacted with alarm to reports over the weekend that Iran may order an additional three nuclear reactors from Russia. Russian engineers are already building one reactor at a site in Iran under an existing contract.

As recently as last year, intelligence-community officials told congressional intelligence panels that Iran might be able to test a missile that could reach targets in the United States by 2010. Officials now suggest the timetable might have to be shortened in light of recent developments.
 

CIA Not Ruling Out 'Possibility' Iran Can Build Nuclear Bomb, The Washington Post, January 18

An intelligence report indicating an Iranian official had said his country had enough nuclear materials to build a bomb has led agency analysts recently to hedge their bets about whether Tehran can produce such a weapon, according to administration sources…

A senior administration official who follows nuclear weapons activities said yesterday that when the CIA report on the Iranian's remark first circulated last year, "it was not viewed as very significant." It is only recently that the agency has "made it an asterisk" in their analysis, he added….

… U.S. intelligence is also aware of several failed efforts by Iran to purchase nuclear materials from Russian traders, and at least twice Iranians have been caught in stings while attempting to acquire weapons grade materials, according to administration officials.
 

Students Attacked After Talk, Associated Press, January 15

TEHRAN - Vigilantes assaulted students, injuring several, as they left a rare public lecture by a controversial figure who has questioned religious rule by hard-line clerics, newspapers reported Saturday.

The lecturer escaped unhurt in the attack Thursday in the northeastern city of Mashhad, but the vigilantes smashed the windscreen of his car as he was being driven away, the daily Asr-e-Azadegan reported.
 

More Public Hangings in Iran, Iran Zamin News Agency, January 18

According to Monday edition of the state-run Kayhan daily, Gholamali Mardani, 45, was hanged in public Sunday in Najafabad, central Iran.

Last Saturday, another state-run daily, Jomhuri-ye Eslami, reported that Jasem Ebrahimi, 17, was publicly hanged in Gonaveh, in southern Iran, on Friday after his death sentence was confirmed by the supreme court.
 

"Butcher" Of Revolution Rallies to Khatami, Agence France Presse, January 14

PARIS - The man responsible for hundreds of executions after Iran's Islamic revolution, Sadeq Khalkhali, told a French newspaper Friday that he was returning to politics on the side of Khatami.

Khalkhali, notorious as a ruthless hanging judge in the early years of the revolution, said he had been sick with heart problems, but now at the age of 73 he was putting his weight behind Khatami's Association of Combatant Clerics.

"I am in complete agreement with the president," Khalkhali told Le Figaro in an interview.

"I very much like his idea of a dialogue between civilizations, and also of the development of civil society."

Khalkhali said: "I have never changed my point of view.... All those I condemned to death were killed according to Islamic law."

He told Le Figaro he regretted nothing: "if my victims came back down to earth again, I would execute them all once more, without exception."
 

Khatami Criticized by Supporters for Silence, Inaction, Agence France Presse, January 11

TEHRAN - Candidates barred from standing in next month's parliamentary elections called on Mohammad Khatami Tuesday to end his silence over their wholesale rejection by a vetting body dominated by his opponents.

"We expect the president to be faithful to his oath of office and protect the constitution by acting against the injustices committed" by the Council of Guardians, said Mohammad Maleki.

"Khatami must end his silence and take action," said Maleki.
 

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