In about turn, U.S. says Iran may be able to make nukes by 2009

IMRA/Haaretz ^ | 2-8-08 | Amir Oren

[SJackson]

The head of American intelligence said Tuesday that it is unclear whether Tehran has returned to its production of nuclear weapons in the past six months, and warned that Iran "would be technically capable of producing enough highly enriched uranium for a weapon" by the end of next year.

Speaking two months after an American intelligence report cast doubt on Tehran's nuclear ambitions, National Intelligence Director John Michael McConnell made his remarks during an appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee to present an annual report on threats to the U.S.

A National Intelligence Estimate report released in December said that Iran halted its nuclear weapons development program in the fall of 2003.

"We remain concerned about Iran's intentions and assess with moderate-to-high confidence that Tehran at a minimum is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons," the report said.

"We assess with high confidence that Iran has the scientific, technical and industrial capacity eventually to produce nuclear weapons," it said, adding that the only realistic way to prevent Iran from producing such weapons was "an Iranian political decision to abandon a nuclear weapons objective."

[AU72]

Too late. The ‘make nice with Iran’ train has already left the Foreign Policy Station.

[Slapshot68]

Something is seriously wrong with our intelligence community.

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]

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[ClearCase_guy]

I’m sure Hillary will be able to handle this.

[reg45]

Iranian Nukes - something for President O-Bomb-Us to deal with. “Oh please Mr. Mullah, don’t nuke Chicago, I’ll give you anything you want”.

[wolfcreek]

It’s called embedded *Socialism*

[Diogenesis]

Nothing is wrong since their goal is to subvert America
by continuing to leak vital US secrets to any reporter
they can find whom to brag about their own importance.

[Non-Sequitur]

Watch. By the time we reach late October the estimate will be Iran will have nukes by the second week in December.

[Victor]

Would these guys PLEASE make up their minds.

Or just simply believe Mossad...

[Victor]

"...Something is seriously wrong with our intelligence community..."

Yes.It was gutted or otherwise effectively dismantled from within by the Clintons, along with State, Justice, and a host of others...and all were kept from communicating with each other(remember the Gorelick Wall)...

[J40000]

what a schock. i am so suprized..... yawn...

[pfflier]

I’ll second that sentiment. It seem that the intelligence community is agenda driven rather than objective. Dulles and Donovan are rolling in their graves.

[stuartcr]

So are we to just keep believing whatever the latest is, or what we want to believe, or old intel?

[ShadowAce]

This is merely the first step towards invasion, or a pre-emptive strike by us or Israel.

[flowerplough]

Government intelligence community- often an oxymoron.

Keystone Cops, too much of the time.

[NonValueAdded]

OK, so Iran nukes Washington DC ... what’s the down side?

[USS Alaska]

I'm shocked, there is gambling going on here.

Here are your winnings, sir.

[SJackson]

So are we to just keep believing whatever the latest is, or what we want to believe, or old intel?

Recognize we don't really have a clue precisely what they're doing, but that they do have the ability to go nuclear in a relativily short period of time.

Recognize that the intelligence community won't provide the administration with a reason to act.

Prepare for the retaliation that will follow an Israeli strike.

[KarlInOhio]

It took under four years from the start of the Manhattan project until we broke New Mexico's will to fight by nuking it. Iran has a lot less to overcome since all the basic research has already been done, the design of atomic bombs is already known and they already have centrifuges. Anyone who comes up with a number over four years for a serious country with money to develop an atomic bomb is lying. Iran is a lot closer than that.