IAEA Reports Iran Actively Working to Develop Nuclear Weapons

Color me shocked:

U.N. Report: Iran Suspected of Working on Nuclear Arms

Associated Press

VIENNA–The United Nations atomic-energy agency said Tuesday for the first time that Iran is suspected of conducting secret experiments whose sole purpose can be the development of nuclear arms.

Hold on a second there.  Didn’t the Director of National Intelligence issue an NIE (National Intelligence Estimate) in 2007 stating that Iran had ceased it’s nuclear program and was no longer developing nuclear weapons?  Why yes, yes he did.  And those of us who were paying attention at the time scoffed, and within a few months found ourselves justified in that scoffing:

Intelligence Fiasco Footnote

The authors of the 2007 Iran NIE have some explaining to do.

Review and Outlook, The Wall Street Journal

When it comes to politicized intelligence in the Bush years, the critics may finally have a point. Perhaps the work of America’s intelligence agencies was manipulated to suit the convenience of a small group of willful officials, intent on getting their way against the better judgment of their colleagues.

Except the intelligence was about Iran, not Iraq, and the manipulators weren’t conniving neocons but rather the Administration’s internal critics on the left.

That’s one way to look at last month’s revelation that Iran is building a secret second site to enrich uranium, among other emerging intelligence details. The Qom site—too small for civilian purposes but ideal for producing weapons-grade uranium—is supervised by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and was only declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency after Tehran got wind that the nuclear watchdogs knew about it.

Note that the IAEA has had this information for in excess of three years, and is only now reaching the conclusion that those Iranians just might be up to something in the nuclear weapons line.  The bright lights of the U. N.’s IAEA further inform us:

A 13-page attachment to the agency’s Iran report details intelligence and IAEA research that shows Tehran working on all aspects of research toward making a nuclear weapon, including fitting a warhead onto a missile.

Why would the peace loving Iranian regime be doing that?

Well, dread naught for the [P]resident will surely do naught until after the elections in November of 2012, and the Iranians are certainly (per that NIE of 2007) incapable and unwilling to complete their project any time soon.

Shortlink:

Posted by Rodney Graves on November 8, 2011.
Filed under Iran, WMD.
Tagged with: 2007 NIE • Iran's WMD Program.


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