Only a third of the centrifuges at Fordow are operating, the inspectors reported, leaving open the question of whether Iran had run into technical difficulties or had made a political decision not to tempt its adversaries by rushing ahead in moving production of fuel to its best-protected facility.
Accompanying a crew operating the track geometry vehicle, one inspector reported that workers told him that previously, they were able to complete an entire track inspection in one outing.
We first divided pipeline accessibility into three categories: (1) visual accessibility the visibility for an inspector to view; (2) approachable accessibility the difficulty for an inspector to approach; and (3) operational accessibility the pipeline that can be operated by the inspectors.
Yet for months Iran has insisted it would not co-operate in the inspectors' quest until its case was returned from the Security Council to the IAEA.The agency's director-general, Mohamed ElBaradei, professes himself encouraged by the apparent change of heart.
Mr Bush claims that Mr Hussein had ordered Iraqi scientists who co-operate with the inspectors to be killed, along with their families, and that Iraqi intelligence officers are posing as scientists.
France and Russia, both sympathetic to Iraqi oil returning to the market (which under the council's 1991 ceasefire resolution should happen automatically when the weapons programmes are scrapped), advised him sharply not to trifle with the Security Council.For the past six years, Iraq has co-operated with the inspectors only when its attempts to deceive or block them failed to work.
While the number of Border Patrol agents has virtually doubled since 2004, to 23,306 from 11,684, the number of customs inspectors, who operate the ports of entry, increased by only 12 percent, to 21,893 from 19,525, according to federal statistics.
The commission, which operates independently of the inspector general, countered in a statement that it "has a variety of other regulations that effectively encompass reporting all defects".
Operating as an inspector general of sorts, the OCE has "won praise for reviving the House's notoriously moribund and secretive ethics process".
Yet this week President Vladimir Putin for the first time publicly warned Iraq that Russia's position would toughen if it failed to co-operate with the inspectors.
