Obama knew of Iran plant before U.N. assembly President silent about revelation during major address, security council

By Jerome R. Corsi

President Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy make remarks about Iran prior to the morning plenary of the G-20 Pittsburgh Summit today (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

The Obama administration

reportedly knew about the second secret Iranian uranium enrichment program prior to the United Nations meeting, yet the president chose to say nothing about the revelation, either during his address to the General Assembly or yesterday, when he chaired a Security Council session.

Since the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama has maintained his determination to engage in direct negotiations with Iran over the Iranian nuclear

program. A meeting between Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council – the U.S., Britain, France, China and Russia – plus Germany is scheduled for Oct. 1 in Geneva.


The success of that meeting is now called into question by the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency's announcement today confirming the existence of Iran's new enrichment plant after receiving a letter from Iran Monday that confirmed the facility's existence.

U.S. officials in Washington said Western governments have been aware of Iran's second enrichment plant for some time and decided to reveal their intelligence assessments when the Iranians realized the plant's secrecy was compromised, BBC News reported.

Obama first learned of the plant as president-elect, before his inauguration Jan. 20, the officials said.That Obama said nothing about the second Iranian enrichment plant gave the impression the administration was surprised by the disclosure, as suggested by a top headline on the Drudge Report that proclaimed under a photo of Obama, "Caught by surprise: Iran has second nuke plant."

Iran's second nuclear facility is reportedly built underground on a military base near Qom and is capable of handling up to 3,000 centrifuges. .... Obama's comments were restrained compared with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who accused Iran of "serial deception" said the disclosure builds the case for imposing "further and more stringent" U.N. sanctions. ....