100 Percent Enrichment

The story has been buried by the Western press, but Patrick Clawson of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy brings it out in an important policy paper.

On two occasions within recent months, key Iranian officials have talked about enriching uranium to 100 percent, a degree of purity well beyond what is required to make an atomic bomb.

One such official is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  Clawson has the details, drawn from the website of the Mehr News Agency, which is affiliated with the supreme leader's Islamic Propagation Organization:

According to Mehr's website,[presidential chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim] Mashai discussed Ahmadinejad's February 7, 2010, speech at the National Center for Laser Science and Technology. Mashai reportedly said, "One of the points Dr. Ahmadinejad announced during his visit to this center was the possibility of enriching to 100 percent, which means building an atom bomb [ke maani an sakht-e bomb-e atomi ast]. But it was interesting that not even one foreign media made a hullabaloo or an uproar. And this shows that they are not worried about an atom bomb. And essentially Dr. Ahmadinejad had said this to test them in order to see what degree of worry they have about Iranian production of an atom bomb" (translation by Patrick Clawson).