Thursday, December 06, 2007

A Political Reversal

THE JERUSALEM POST - Opinion: We assess that Teheran is determined to develop nuclear weapons - despite its international obligations and international pressure. It is continuing to pursue uranium enrichment and has shown more interest in protracting negotiations than reaching an acceptable diplomatic solution.

This is a grave concern to the other countries in the region whose security would be threatened by Iranian nuclear weapons.
Any such development could prompt dangerous and destabilizing countermoves in a volatile region that is, because of its energy reserves, critical to the global economy.... - Annual Threat Assessment of the US Director of National Intelligence, January 11, 2007

We assess with moderate confidence Teheran had not restarted its nuclear weapons program as of mid-2007, but we do not know whether it currently intends to develop nuclear weapons. - National Intelligence Estimate, dated November 2007 (released December 3)


If one were looking for a new definition of chutzpa, it would be hard to do better than the latest US National Intelligence Estimate on Iran. This document declares that Iran successfully hid its military nuclear program from the US for years, while claiming "moderate confidence" that Iran is not hiding such a program now.

On what basis can the US intelligence community declare that it knows, with any of degree of confidence, that Iran has no covert weapons program? A political reversal >>>

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