Antiwar Radio - Muhammad Sahimi - 9/10/2010 - 2 of 4

Muhammad Sahimi, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Southern California, discusses new accusations -- from the NCRI (or MEK) terrorist group -- that Iran is building secret nuclear enrichment facilities near Tehran, the moderate interpretation of the accusations from the usually-alarmist Institute for Science and International Security, current claims of obstructionism that ignore Iran's legal rights under their safeguards agreement and the limitations of IAEA authority, how numerous debunking attempts have failed to kill the "smoking laptop" narrative, how Iran's crisis of theocracy (the government's challenge to the ayatollah's monopoly on religious authority) is misinterpreted by the West as an aspiring global Islamic Caliphate and why a clear understanding of modified Code 3.1 (of the Subsidiary Arrangements of the Safeguards Agreement) perfectly refutes the Qom facility "gotcha" stunt.

MP3 here. (5410)

Dr. Muhammad Sahimi is a political columnist for Tehran Bureau. He is a professor of chemical engineering and materials science, and the NIOC Chair in petroleum engineering at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. In addition to his scientific research, which has resulted in four books and nearly 300 published papers, he has been writing about Iran's nuclear program and its internal developments for many years.

His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, the International Herald Tribune, the Wall Street Journal, Harvard International Review, the Progressive, Antiwar.com and Huffington Post. Muhammad has been a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists since 1986, and a contributor to its Partners for Earth program.