Iran’s secret lab

New York Post: This ordinary-looking industrial complex in a suburb northeast of Tehran is at the center of the global nuclear showdown with Iran. New York Post

By NILES LATHEM Post Correspondent

February 6, 2006 — DISSIDENT GROUP IDS NUCLEAR SITE

WASHINGTON — This ordinary-looking industrial complex in a suburb northeast of Tehran is at the center of the global nuclear showdown with Iran.

It is called the Modern Defensive Readiness and Technology Center — or Lavisan II — and sits on 60 acres, with three entrances protected by members of the Revolutionary Guards, the shock troops of the ayatollahs.

A well-placed Iranian opposition group charges that for the past 15 months, Lavisan II has been a major center of Iran’s nuclear program. The group says as many as 11 projects related to weapons research are under way there.

For the past 15 months, the plant has also been central to Iran’s high-stakes shell game with the United Nations.

“We believe this is one of the key centers of suspicious and illegal activity,” said Alireza Jafarzadeh, an Iranian expert connected to the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which has delivered revelations about Iran’s nuclear program. “And we believe this is an important example of how the regime [of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad”> has succeeded in cheating, evading and denying access while it continues with its nuclear program.”