Chris Charlier, who headed up a team of 15 IAEA inspectors tasked with inspecting Iran’s nuclear program since 2003, is breaking his earlier vow of silence.  Vow isn’t the best word to describe what has happened though.  According to Charlier, Mohammad El-Baradei, the head of the IAEA, dismissed Charlier from this case after the Iranian government asked El-Baradei to relieve Charlier of his duties.  El-Baradei complied with the Iranian request and now Charlier is revealing the conditions that he and his team worked under within Iran.

“Wherever we went, whatever we did, they always followed us, monitoring us with video cameras and capturing every single one of our conversations. Never letting us out of their sight for a second, watching everything over our shoulder.”

“How the devil were we supposed to rationally do our work” comments the 64-year old Belgian.

That hardly comes as a surprise to anyone.  Even El-Baradei has alluded in the past to Iranian interference in the IAEA’s inspections.

The issue of the Iranian nuclear program is rather complicated, but only complicated in that what we don’t know is what we must know.  For their part, Iran insists they are completely open with the IAEA, but a steady stream of reports from Iranian opposition groups determine ‘openess’ in regards to the inspections is another word for deceit.  According to Charlier:

“I am not a politician, I am a technician and as such the only thing which interests me is whether Iran’s nuclear program is a civil or military one”, Charlier states. “The inspections have to reach an unambiguous conclusion”.

“I believe they are hiding what they are doing with their nuclear activities. It is probable they are doing things of which we have no knowledge.”

What was the startling conclusion Charlier made that led to Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, to make the ultimatum to El-Baradei to relieve Charlier of his duties?

Inside countless memos and work reports, Charlier notes the results of inspections and lists the tricks and deceptions of the Tehran rulers, which leads the inspectors in Vienna to a single conclusion: based on pieces of the puzzle gathered by Charlier, “Tehran is obviously making a bomb.”

Charlier is now off the project and El-Baradei has, essentially, put the IAEA inspections into the hands of the Iranian government.  Upon the German publican Die Welt wanting to publish this information, the IAEA tried to put a stop to it claiming in part that the story would jeopardize Charlier and any other IAEA inspections.

But what exactly has been jeopardized here?  Hasn’t the integrity of the IAEA been gravely wounded by an Iranian demand to remove the leader of a 15-person team tasked with inspecting Iran’s nuclear program since 2003?  Hasn’t the integrity of Mohammed El-Baradei taken a massive shot against his own brow due his caving in of his presumed principles of objectivity?

We question Iran’s motives with respect to the nation’s nuclear program, but as I have pointed out countless times, the discussion regarding the true intentions of Iran has changed within this past six months.  Just six months ago, or even less depending on which source we use, the international community was trying to determine what Iran’s intentions were.  Now we seem to be resigned to the fact that Iran is indeed building a nuclear weapon and now discussions revolve around what must be done to stop the nation from acquiring such a weapon, if anything.

Even Larijani’s own brother understands the true intentions of the Iranian nuclear program.

Iran’s news agency ILNA quoted him as saying “the nuclear non-proliferation treaty is dead. Iran’s dispute with the West does not hinge on that but on whether we cease enriching uranium. It has nothing to do with whether we have the right to make bomb. We are not fighting with Europe about enrichment. If our bloodthirsty enemies like America and Israel threaten us, we have the right to defend ourselves with nuclear weapons and we are not going to give up this right”.

Let that sink in a bit, but notice that his quote was reported in an Iranian government controlled media outlet thus putting aside any initial beliefs the quote might have been taken out of context or not properly vetted by the Iranian government.  Taking his words as truth, and since they come from the brother of Iran’s chief negotiator and were published in an Iranian government contolled media outlet we must, the dismissal of Charlier by El-Baradei at the behest of Larijani should ring alarm bells.

Read the full translated report at Regime Change Iran.

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