yup. The MSM (example here,here,here) and the blogosphere (example here, here,here,here) is all abuzz today with the incredible news that the President authorized releasing classified information to the press (aka he declassified it). SO WHAT.

In the mean time Con Coughlin’s headline in todays Telegraph reads: UN officials find evidence of secret uranium enrichment plant

What do you think is more important?

Here is the real story of the day:

United Nations officials investigating Iran’s nuclear programme say they have found convincing evidence that the Iranians are working on a secret uranium enrichment project that has not been officially declared.

Suspicions were raised after officials from the UN-sponsored International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) travelled to Pakistan at the end of last year to interview A Q Khan, the atomic scientist who masterminded the successful development of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons arsenal.

Khan is known to have sold Teheran the technical expertise to develop an atomic bomb, together with key components, such as sophisticated equipment for enriching uranium. During the interview with IAEA inspectors, Khan is said to have provided a full disclosure of the nuclear dossier he gave the Iranians. The inspectors compared Khan’s material against the documentation the Iranians have so far provided.

“There are a number of glaring inconsistencies between what the Iranians are telling us and the information the IAEA got from Khan,” said a diplomat closely involved in the IAEA’s negotiations with Teheran. “Consequently the IAEA inspectors are now convinced that the Iranians have another, small-scale uranium processing and enrichment project that is being kept secret from the outside world.”

IAEA officials are trying to establish whether Iran has what they call “parallel” nuclear enrichment facilities, which they suspect are being developing at closed military bases around the country.

Coughlin has a second article titled: Iran has missiles to carry nuclear warheads

Now with the mullahs recent claims of “flying steath boats” I am a little more skeptical of this story but we can not afford to just laugh off stories like this. Make no mistake if Iran’s current ruling Islamofascists develop nuclear weapons they are going to use them. We can not allow that to happen.

Here is an excerpt from the missle story:

Iran has successfully developed ballistic missiles with the capability to carry nuclear warheads.

Detailed analysis of recent test firings of the Shahab-3 ballistic missile by military experts has concluded that Iran has been able to modify the nose cone to carry a basic nuclear bomb. The discovery will intensify international pressure on Teheran to provide a comprehensive breakdown of its nuclear research programme.

Iran denies it is trying to acquire a nuclear arsenal. But ballistic missile experts advising the United States say it has succeeded in reconfiguring the Shahab-3 to carry nuclear weapons.

The Shahab-3 is a modified version of North Korea’s Nodong missile which itself is based on the old Soviet-made Scud.

The Nodong, which Iran secretly acquired from North Korea in the mid-1990s, is designed to carry a conventional warhead. But Iranian engineers have been working for several years to adapt the Shahab-3 to carry nuclear weapons.

“This is a major breakthrough for the Iranians,” said a senior US official. “They have been trying to do this for years and now they have succeeded. It is a very disturbing development.”

Apart from modifying the nose cone, Iranian technicians are also trying to make a number of technical adjustments that will enable the missile to travel a greater distance.

Western intelligence officials believe that Iran is receiving assistance from teams of Russian and Chinese experts with experience of developing nuclear weapons. Experts who have studied the latest version of the Shahab have identified modifications to the nose cone.

Instead of the single cone normally attached to this type of missile, the new Shahab has three cones, or a triconic, warhead. A triconic warhead allows the missile to accommodate a nuclear device and this type of warhead is normally found only in nuclear weapons.

According to the new research, the Iranian warhead is designed to carry a spherical nuclear weapon that would be detonated 2,000 feet above the ground, similar to the Hiroshima bomb.