'Trib' Reports US Started Iran Down the Road to Nuclear Capability

Hat's off to the Chicago Tribune for digging into the past for a classic example of the US digging itself into another hole.

In the heart of Tehran sits one of Iran's most important nuclear facilities, a dome-shaped building where scientists have conducted secret experiments that could help the country build atomic bombs. It was provided to the Iranians by the United States.

The Tehran Research Reactor represents a little-known aspect of the international uproar over the country's alleged weapons program. Not only did the U.S. provide the reactor in the 1960s as part of a Cold War strategy, America also supplied the weapons-grade uranium needed to power the facility--fuel that remains in Iran and could be used to help make nuclear arms.

As the U.S. and other countries wrestle with Iran's refusal this week to curb its nuclear capabilities, an examination of the Tehran facility sheds light on the degree to which the United States has been complicit in Iran developing those capabilities.

The Trib also delves into the US' murky meddling in decades of Iranian politics, as well as the less-than-stellar operation of Iran's nuclear program. Nice things to keep in mind while the drums of war begin anew after a House report Recognizing Iran as a Strategic Threat (29-page pdf) called Iran a significant danger to the US.