WASHINGTON \u2014 Even as the United Nations\u2019 nuclear watchdog said in a new report Friday that Iran had accelerated its uranium enrichment program, American intelligence analysts continue to believe that there is no hard evidence that Iran has decided to build a nuclear bomb.<\/p>\n
Recent assessments by American spy agencies are broadly consistent with a 2007 intelligence finding that concluded that Iran had abandoned its nuclear weapons program years earlier, according to current and former American officials. The officials said that assessment was largely reaffirmed in a 2010 National Intelligence Estimate, and that it remains the consensus view of America\u2019s 16 intelligence agencies.<\/p>\n
At the center of the debate is the murky question of the ultimate ambitions of the leaders in Tehran. There is no dispute among American, Israeli and European intelligence officials that Iran has been enriching nuclear fuel and developing some necessary infrastructure to become a nuclear power. But the Central Intelligence Agency and other intelligence agencies believe that Iran has yet to decide whether to resume a parallel program to design a nuclear warhead \u2014 a program they believe was essentially halted in 2003 and which would be necessary for Iran to build a nuclear bomb. Iranian officials maintain that their nuclear program is for civilian purposes.<\/p>\n
In Senate testimony on Jan. 31, James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, stated explicitly that American officials believe that Iran is preserving its options for a nuclear weapon, but said there was no evidence that it had made a decision on making a concerted push to build a weapon. David H. Petraeus, the C.I.A. director, concurred with that view at the same hearing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The “imminent Iran nuclear weapon phobia” upon which much of the pro-war sentiment is the worst kind of hokum. <\/p>\n
But perhaps, considering the pro-war slant of most Republican candidates, many senators, and much of the media, all that is necessary to launch another U.S. attack is an endlessly recycled, frequently debunked rumor. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The mainstream media has often been as craven regarding the warmongering against Iran as they were in 2002-03 on Iraq. But every now and then, a clear headline breaks through the claptrap. New York Times February 25 2012 U.S. Agencies See No Move by Iran to Build a Bomb By JAMES RISEN and MARK MAZZETTI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[659,22,13,43,672,662,31],"class_list":{"0":"post-3417","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"tag-attention-deficit-democracy","8":"tag-central-intelligence-agency","9":"tag-iran","11":"tag-lying","12":"tag-wool"},"yoast_head":"\n
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