Clem’s Chronicles: Iran’s secret nuclear facility/Terror Plots/Leadership PAC abuse

Howdy folks-Clem Lane here. Hope you have a nice restful weekend. Here's some of what's going on this evening…….

US/IRAN-A day after the UN Security Council unanimously passed a nuclear non-proliferation resolution, word that Iran has built a secret nuclear facility in direct violation of international law. President Obama, standing with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, said today in Pittsburgh “The Islamic Republic of Iran has been building a covert uranium enrichment facility near Qom for several years.” While the news of the facility is new to the public, Jake Tapper notes that “senior Administration officials say President Obama has known about the underground nuclear facility since late last year.” As for the timing of the announcement, Tapper adds that “(the President) waited until now to present it because they wanted to make the best case possible.” The facility itself? Tapper: “a site (intelligence agency officials) say is underground, in a mountain, on a military base about 100 miles southwest of Tehran.” Martha Raddatz explains how the US and its allies came to the conclusion that the site was built to manufacture fuel for nuclear bombs:
“1)through satellite imagery, it was clear a facility was being constructed underground and heavily disguised.
2)satellites show it is built on a military base and protected by armed guard 24/7
3)intelligence that may include spies on the ground shows it is designed to hold only about 3000 centrifuges to enrich uranium which is not enough to fuel a civilian power plant which would need more like 50 thousand centrifuges.”
And Iran? Tapper again: “it was only in the last week-after Iran realized the facility had been discovered US officials said-that the Iranians wrote a letter to the IAEA disclosing the facility’s existence and claiming that it was being built for innocent purposes.”
So what’s next? Tapper: “(Presidents Obama, Sarkozy and PM Brown) today demanded:
1)that Iran comply with inspections
2)fully disclose their nuclear program at a meeting with the US and other nations next Thursday.
3)and fully comply with UN resolutions by December or face further international sanctions.”
As for what happens should Iran not comply, Tapper notes that “The President said today that he was not ruling out a military response but that he was hopeful about diplomacy.”
THIS WEEK anchor George Stephanopoulos interviewed  Secretary of Defense Robert Gates today for this Sunday’s broadcast. WORLD NEWS anchor Diane Sawyer asked Stephanopoulos why the US thinks that sanctions might work this time. Stephanopoulos: “Gates said there are two reasons they could work now when they haven’t worked in the past. Number one, the political divisions we saw crop up in Iran over the summer, the turmoil after those elections. Secondly, he says in part because of that turmoil, Iran is economically more vulnerable than they have ever been in the past. Unemployment is very high and if we crack down especially on gasoline, that could have a real bite.” Stephanopoulos also asked Gates “if we had any evidence of other secret sites…that was the only point in the interview where he clammed up. All he would say is we are watching very closely with a very tight smile which made me think he suspects they do.”

LEADERSHIP PACS-Remember those ethics reform laws that Congress passed back in 2007 that was supposed to make it harder for politicians and corporate lobbyists from cozying up together? Brian Ross, reporting for WORLD NEWS this evening, pronounces the practice may not be gone altogether. Take House Republican leader John Boehner and Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia for example. Ross notes that “accompanied by top corporate lobbyists, the two golf-loving Republicans spent a luxurious weekend at the Greenbrier (resort in West Virginia), the kind of cozy gathering new ethics reform laws were supposed to curb.” And paying for the weekend? Ross: “all paid for with money Boehner and Chambliss raised supposedly to be given to other politicians’ campaigns.” How can that be? Ross: “A loophole in the law allows the money, in what are known as leadership political action committees, pacs, to be spent for almost any purpose, including golf.” Senator Chambliss likes golf. Ross notes that “in the 2008 election cycle, Chambliss spent more money on golf outings $225K, than he gave to political campaigns $204K.” Perhaps not surprisingly, Senator Chambliss did not want to discuss the matter when approached by Ross. And this abuse of leadership pac money was not limited to Republicans alone. Ross: “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) used his leadership pac money to throw a $39K inaugural party. And John Edwards used leadership pac money to pay his mistress $114K to produce a series of videos.” “More than 400 members of Congress now have opened their own leadership pacs. There is virtually no limit on how much they can raise from lobbyists or how they spend it” Ross noted in his close, and added “it should come as no surprise that there is no effort on Capitol Hill to change that.”

TERROR PLOTS:  Najibullah Zazi was put aboard a US Marshals Service jet in Colorado earlier in the day and flown to New York where he has a court appearance next Tuesday.  Zazi is accused of receiving bomb-making instructions during a trip to Pakistan last year, then buying and preparing chemicals for use in home-made explosives similar to those used in the 2005 London bombings.  Then there is the case of Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, a 19- year-old Jordanian, who lives in Texas.  Smadi appeared in court in Dallas today.  Federal officials said Smadi parked what he thought was a truck filled with explosives in a parking garage beneath a 60-story office building in Dallas.  It was actually an FBI sting.  Yet another FBI sting took place in Illinois where Michael Finton, 29, was picked up after federal officials said he attempted to detonate what he believed to be explosives in a van outside a federal courthouse in the Springfield.  Pierre Thomas says all of this begs the question:  “Are there more terrorists or is the government getting better at finding them? The answer, sources tell us, is YES. and YES.  U.S. officials are increasingly concerned about radicalized Americans receiving terrorist training overseas and returning home to plot attacks. Which is why, right now the FBI is using an army of informants to infiltrate communities in the U.S.   A top priority – targeting  hundreds of angry young men it suspects of being radicalized in prisons, places of worship and on the internet. This is why the FBI put the tools in the hands of suspects in Texas and Illinois—to see if they would do more than talk. In both cases, officials say, they were stunned by the enthusiasm of the suspects to see their mission through to the very end.” (thanks to Ed Bailey for this entry)

HOMELAND SECURITY/FBI INTEL NOTE ON DALLAS AND SPRINGFIELD PLOTS-From Jason Ryan: “FBI and DHS have issued an intelligence note to law enforcement agencies around the US about the FBI sting operations in Dallas and Springfield IL . The bulletin notes that the want to be bombers in the US were inspired by terror groups overseas. In a statement tonight a DHS spokeswoman said, "An unclassified homeland security note was produced to inform our partners as they go about their daily duties; it was not intended for the general public or the media. DHS and FBI have no information regarding the timing, location or target of any planned attack. In light of recent arrests in Illinois and Texas, we believe it is prudent to remind our state and local law enforcement partners of the threats posed by violent extremists seeking to commit violent acts in the United States that may be inspired by overseas terrorist organizations with which they are not affiliated. As always, the American people should remain vigilant, be aware of their surroundings, and report any suspicious activity to the authorities.”

CENSUS WORKER HANGED-From Associated Press: “One of the witnesses who found a part-time census worker's body hanging in a Kentucky cemetery says the man was naked and his hands and feet were bound with duct tape. Jerry Weaver of Fairfield, Ohio, told The Associated Press on Friday that he was among a group of relatives who discovered the body of Bill Sparkman on Sept. 12. Sparkman was a substitute teacher who worked part-time for the census. Law enforcement officials have released very few details on his death, only saying he died from asphyxiation. Weaver says the man also was gagged and had duct tape over his eyes and neck. He says something that looked like an identification tag was taped to the side of his neck.”

OTHER STUFF-
–AIRLINE/HOLIDAY SURCHARGE- Delta/Northwest and US Airways have now joined United Airlines in matching a move initiated by American Airlines earlier this week that will add a $10 "miscellaneous" surcharge to three specific travel dates. Those dates are Nov. 29 – the Sunday after Thanksgiving – and Jan. 2 and 3. (Lisa Stark)
–BANK CLOSURES- Regulators have shut down Atlanta-based Georgian Bank, the 95th U.S. bank to fail this year amid the recession and rising loan defaults. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over Georgian Bank, with about $2 billion in assets and $2 billion in deposits as of July 24. First Citizens Bank and Trust Co., based in Columbia, S.C., agreed to assume the assets and deposits of the failed bank. The failure of Georgian Bank is expected to cost the federal deposit insurance fund an estimated $892 million.