Frontline/World - Iran: Going Nuclear

Frontline/World will air a special on Iran's nuclear program, May 23, 2005, Iran: Going Nuclear.

BBC reporter Paul Kenyon traveled to Iran with U.N. inspectors to uncover the secrets of Iran's nuclear program. He states:

Do I think Iran actually has weapons? There is no smoking gun, there's no evidence that Iran has nuclear weapons. But there's obviously a pattern of behavior, which has led to suspicion. It's a fact that they deceived the world for 18 years.

But when it came time to leave Iran...

We got to the Tehran airport at about three in the morning with all our tapes and notebooks, got through customs and immigration, and were sitting in a large room waiting for the flight. Suddenly a door opened and about half a dozen guys in black suits started running straight at us shouting "BBC! BBC!" and pointing at us. It was scary -- only a year before, a Canadian journalist had been beaten to death in Iranian detention, and we had no idea what would happen. You find your legs shaking.

So they opened our cases, started throwing our stuff around. There were six guys, apparently from the security services, and they confiscated our phones and told our translator to leave. I was really worried, protesting through our translator that we needed him to be able to communicate, and one of the men laughed at me. "Mr. Kenyon," he said, "We all speak English."

I was presented with a weird kind of social etiquette question: do you laugh back, or don't you? I decided to be completely formal. "Why don't you speak English with us, then?" I asked.

"We hate the English," he said.

Finally they took all our tapes and sent us back to our hotel.

While the reporter received special permission to film Iran's nuclear program because Iran wanted to present its perspective, it still provides a unique opportunity to see first hand the people and facilities that may bring an international crisis, perhaps war.

To find a station in your area, or to view it online, Tuesday, click here.