Well shit, this is not something we really need right now.Iran has sentenced an American citizen to death and reports have emerged that the country has started enriching uranium underground in a show of defiance against Western sanctions.
Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, an Iranian-American born in Arizona in 1983, was shown on Iranian television in December confessing to being a CIA agent, sent to gain the trust of the Iranian government by pretending to offer US state secrets.
Mr Hekmati's father said he had gone to Iran to visit his grandmother.
The US condemned the sentence.
"We have seen Iranian press reports that Mr Hekmati has been sentenced to death by an Iranian court. If true, we strongly condemn such a verdict and will work with our partners to convey our condemnation to the Iranian government," National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said on Monday.
The ruling further ratcheted up a war of words between Iran and the United States as tensions flare over Tehran's nuclear program and an Iranian threat to close the crucial Gulf of Hormuz oil transit route.
"The Iranian regime has a history of falsely accusing people of being spies, of eliciting forced confessions, and of holding innocent Americans for political reasons," Mr Vietor said.
He called on Iran to offer immediate access for Swiss diplomats who take care of American consular issues in Iran to Hekmati, and for him to be provided with legal counsel and released.
Hekmati has 20 days to appeal the verdict, ISNA quoted chief prosecutor Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei as saying, without specifying when the sentence was handed down.
The announcement on Monday of Mr Hekmati's death sentence came as Keyhan, a newspaper with close connections to the conservative clerical establishment, reported that Iran had started enriching uranium at the Fordow plant, a heavily fortified site dug under a mountain near the city of Qom.
Iran acknowledged the existence of the site only in September 2009, after it had been identified by Western intelligence agencies.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reported that Iran has recently installed centrifuges at the site, and Western officials have said that the plant was ready to start functioning.
"Keyhan received reports yesterday that show Iran has begun uranium enrichment at the Fordow facility amid heightened foreign enemy threats," the newspaper said in a front-page report.
It was not immediately clear whether the centrifuges were being used to produce 3.5 per cent or 20 per cent enriched uranium. The latter is of more concern to Western governments, as it is much closer to weapons-grade.
The West suspects Iran is seeking the capacity to make nuclear weapons - a charge Tehran rejects.
US Congress has passed financial sanctions aimed at Iran's oil trade, due to come into effect in June, and EU foreign ministers are expected to agree to an embargo on imports of Iranian oil at the end of the month, which are also due to take effect after a few months' delay.
Disregarding whether or not he was CIA (it wouldn't really surprise me either way) this is bad, because either the US or Iran will look weak here, and neither of them think they can afford to.
. Am I paranoid? 
