The Natanz nuclear enrichment facility is located in central Iran, thirty kilometers northwest of the city of Natanz in the Isfahan Province. It is an expansive area that covers approximately ten square kilometers. The Karkas mountain chain with elevations of three thousand, nine hundred meters forms a natural barrier to the southwest of Natanz. Satellite intelligence photographs indicate that the Iranians are starting to build roads and tunnels into the sides of these mountains to better protect their nuclear enrichment development from an aerial attack. The photos also note numerous anti-aircraft batteries that surround the fenced perimeter.
These photos show that the Iranian Air Defense Forces has moved their newly acquired Russian Almaz S-300PMU-1 (SA-15 Gargoyle) mobile batteries to an area between the Natanz and the Fordo/Qom nuclear facilities. These batteries are the latest mobile long range Surface to Air Missiles (SAM) that were purchased from the Russians in 2005 and finally delivered after much persuasion and secrecy. The biggest tactical advantage for these mobile platforms is that they will be hard to find and track. The other problem for an attacking force is that the Russians claim that the S-300 has the ability to destroy any aircraft flying at fifteen meters and above. This includes cruise missiles and UAVs.
Colonel Behnam Radan, of the IRGC Pasdaran, is in command of the security forces inside the perimeter of the nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz. He is in charge of the IRGC Pasdaran forces that defend the facility and internal security of the personnel that are working there. His detachment is part of the Isfahan Provincial Corps.
He is a hard man, a veteran of the ten years Iran-Iraq War. He has spent his entire life in the military. His father was an officer in the Shah’s Imperial Army when Behnam was a young man. He entered military school at age six and performed brilliantly in his studies.
When the Islamic Revolution took place in 1979, Behnam was a young officer in the Iranian Army. He and his father were given a choice to join the IRGC or be shot for treason. His father refused. The bitterness of his lost has never left him but his love and duty to his country has helped him overcome his feelings. His father, a true patriot of the Shah’s Iran, had taught Behnam about duty and honor.
During the Iran-Iraq War, Lieutenant Radan was sent to the front lines and fought valiantly against the invading Iraqis. Soldiers on either side did not know why they fought each other. Both of the governments of Iran and Iraq wanted the southern oil fields and terminals. The soldiers on both sides just obeyed the orders that came from their governments’ leaders.
Saddam Hussein believed that Iraq should own the oil fields and the valuable waterways that gave access to the Persian Gulf. He wanted to take them from Iran and sacrificed over a million Iraqis trying to obtain them. He did not succeed and both sides lost many brave soldiers. Then he turned his attention to Kuwait and its valuable resources. He needed the Kuwaiti oil to pay for the war with Iran. That invasion did not work either.
During the Iran-Iraq war, Lieutenant Radan was wounded in the leg. He had to wait for three days before he received medical treatment. The agony that he felt lying in the cold damp trenches waiting to receive help turned him into a hard man. He subsequently lost his leg to infection and has walked with a prosthesis ever since. He was waiting at the helipad when the helicopters arrived.
After the helicopters shutdown their engines on the helipad, the Israeli engineers are taken off the aircraft and assembled before Colonel Radan. Their hands were still bound behind them and their mouths taped.
“Gentlemen, welcome to Natanz. My name is Colonel Radan. “You are being held here to prevent your government and the Americans from attacking this facility. You will be kept here only as long as is necessary. I will try to make your stay as comfortable as I can as long as you cooperate with me. If you try to escape, you will be shot. Do I make myself, clear?” No one responds. “The government of Iran has no quarrel with you personally. I trust that you will find your accommodations suitable. Your belongings will be returned to you after they have been searched.”
Colonel Radan says to the Captain of the Guards, “take them to the holding room.”
The Captain orders his soldiers to take the captives to the holding room inside the underground nuclear facility.
After the Israelis are taken away, the colonel thinks about the implications of the actions of the Supreme Leader and the Supreme National Security Council leadership. Colonel Radan has a sense of foreboding about this kidnapping of the Israelis. He is a soldier and Iran is not at war with the Israelis. But, he must follow his orders. He believes that someday, Iran will return to the beautiful country that it once was and he will not have to compromise the beliefs that his father instilled in him. He turns to the Captain and orders him to increase the patrols around the fenced perimeter of the compound. He knows that this action will probably result in some type of reaction from the Israelis and Americans. How is he going to respond?
The captives were led into the entrance of the tunnel. The tunnel leads to the two underground laboratories of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO). It is a wide entrance that can accommodate a large truck. It is designed with a 180 degree turn about half way down. This will prevent severe damage from a bomb or rocket attack. These two large underground structures house the gas centrifuges cascades. There is also a support building located between them. The hostages are led down the tunnel. They pass the first building that contains two thousand of the new IR-4 and IR-2M centrifuges that are processing the uranium hexafluoride (UF6) to the highly enriched (90%) weapons grade Uranium 235. The entire nuclear enrichment facility is buried approximately eight meters below the surface with three to five meters of reinforced concrete as the protection against bombardment. The prisoners and guards continue to the support building.
The Iranians have set up a steel reinforced storage room in the southwestern corner of the support building as the holding cell for the Israelis. There is only one door, a bathroom and shower area. The door is made from harden steel. Even the one ventilation/ air conditioning duct had been reinforced with steel bars. The room has been equipped with twenty-four beds and lockers. Close circuit cameras are set in the ceiling to watch the interaction among the Israelis. The chances of escape seem to have diminished when the engineers and Yosef entered their prison.
The guards move the prisoners into their new home. The guards cut the plastic ties from the engineers’ hands and remove the tape from their mouths. Colonel Radan has arranged some food for the men to eat. Their arrival was planned and anticipated. These accommodations are similar to the military barracks that these men have all experienced when they served in the Israeli Defense Force. The men begin to claim the beds and eat their food.
Colonel Radan has his men search the hostages’ baggage and removes the weapons, satellite telephones and passports. All of the passports are brought to Colonel Radan’s office.
All this activity did not go unnoticed by a particular worker inside the Natanz facility compound. The IAEO is still constructing buildings on the compound’s grounds and tunnels in the adjacent mountains. The agency has to use local laborers for most of that work. The PMOI (People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran sometimes referred to as MKO) has been watching the progress of the Natanz facility for years. It has infiltrated some of their cadre back into Iran to keep an eye on the developments there and at the Fordo nuclear facility near Qom.
The PMOI/MKO is part of a coalition of Iranian exiles that are dedicated to a democratic and secular government in Iran. Some of its members took refuge in Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war. Saddam Hussein welcomed the organization to Iraq. When the Americans invaded Iraq in 2003, they sequestered the PMOI/MKO at a facility called Camp Ashraf, northeast of Bagdad. They have been held there ever since and given a limited amount of protection from the American military.
The members still have close ties within Iran and many have returned to Iran to help the
cause of the PMOI. They have reported the observations from their operatives within Iran to the Americans since 2003. Even though the American government has “officially” listed the PMOI/MKO as a terrorist organization, its information has helped form American policy towards the sanctions against the government of Iran.
Faisal has been working at the Natanz facility since 2005. Although an educated man, he is an Iranian construction laborer and a secret member of the PMOI. He infiltrated back into Iran to work at the nuclear facilities that were being developed.
He watches as the Israelis are being led through the tunnel’s opening. He needs to report this unexpected development to his contacts in Tehran but will have to wait until he finishes his shift tonight. His contacts in Tehran have been supplying the CIA operatives in Iran with information about the nuclear development activities within the Islamic Republic of Iran.