{"id":47810,"date":"2011-12-15T23:11:12","date_gmt":"2011-12-15T21:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=47810"},"modified":"2023-07-25T13:31:32","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T10:31:32","slug":"newts-iffy-claim-iran-hides-nukes-under-mosques","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2011\/12\/15\/newts-iffy-claim-iran-hides-nukes-under-mosques\/","title":{"rendered":"Newt\u2019s iffy claim: Iran hides nukes under mosques"},"content":{"rendered":"

Explosive charge appears to be pure speculation<\/h3>\n

BY\u00a0JUSTIN ELLIOTT<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Is Iran hiding nuclear weapons facilities under mosques?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Newt Gingrich says yes \u2013 but experts say there is no evidence to back up the assertion.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gingrich made the claim at a\u00a0debate\u00a0with Jon Huntsman in New Hampshire on Monday. \u00a0Here,\u00a0via\u00a0Michael Crowley, is the key moment:<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have huge underground facilities. Some of the underground facilities are under mosques,\u201d<\/em><\/strong> Gingrich said. \u201cSome of them are in cities.\u00a0<\/strong>The idea that you\u2019re going to wage a bombing campaign that accurately takes out all the Iranian nuclear program I think is a fantasy.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s an extremely significant charge, one made by a man who now has a real shot at being the next president of the United States.<\/p>\n

An extensive search of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)\u00a0reports\u00a0on Iran found no mentions of the terms \u201cmosque\u201d or \u201choly site.\u201d We do know that\u00a0some of\u00a0Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities are underground; but I found no media mentions of them being under mosques.<\/p>\n

(Also worth noting: it\u2019s not a given that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, rather than nuclear power. The question of Iran\u2019s intentions is complex and remains\u00a0unresolved.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no evidence [for that],\u201d said David Albright, an expert on Iran\u2019s nuclear program and\u00a0president\u00a0of the Institute for Science and International Security, when asked about the mosques issue. \u201cI don\u2019t know where Gingrich gets this, but it sounds like he is just repeating rumors.\u201d<\/p>\n

I also asked Ken Pollack, a Mideast specialist at the Brookings Institution, if he has heard of anything like Gingrich\u2019s mosques claim.<\/p>\n

\u201cNope,\u201d Pollack said in an email. \u201cNever heard that they have underground facilities beneath mosques.\u00a0 They do have extensive tunnels at some sites, and I guess some of those tunnels may run under mosques, but I have never heard that they purposely built them under mosques as this seems to suggest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gingrich\u2019s spokesman did not immediately respond to an inquiry about his source for the claim.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also at least a bit ironic that Gingrich made the iffy mosques assertion after specifically questioning the ability of the CIA to determine what the Iranians are doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis idea that somehow we have magically accurate intelligence \u2026 is baloney,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Justin Elliott is a Salon reporter. Reach him by email at jelliott@salon.com and follow him on Twitter\u00a0@ElliottJustinMore Justin Elliott<\/p>\n

www.salon.com, 14 Decmeber 20011<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Explosive charge appears to be pure speculation BY\u00a0JUSTIN ELLIOTT Is Iran hiding nuclear weapons facilities under mosques? Newt Gingrich says yes \u2013 but experts say there is no evidence to back up the assertion. Gingrich made the claim at a\u00a0debate\u00a0with Jon Huntsman in New Hampshire on Monday. \u00a0Here,\u00a0via\u00a0Michael Crowley, is the key moment: \u201cThey have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":47811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,34,922],"tags":[2819],"class_list":["post-47810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iran_","category-usa","category-world","tag-mosques"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}