Iran, The NIE, & Nuclear Weapons

So the 2003 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) stated that Iran halted nuclear weapons production in that year. Of course those with BDS will be have a field day with this. Al-Reuters was thrilled to turn it into a Bush-bashing article.

A new U.S. intelligence report says Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and it remains on hold, contradicting the Bush administration's earlier assertion that Tehran was intent on developing a bomb.

A lot of things could change in 4 years, including building and burying a reactor. I'm not sure how you can dispute satellite pictures of this event occurring.

Israel, which has a lot more human intelligence on the ground in the Middle East than the United States, said that Iran did stop production 4 years ago, but has since restarted the program.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that Iran was continuing in its efforts to produce a nuclear bomb despite the report. According to the minister, Iran had indeed stopped its program four years ago but has since renewed it.

For more information, read this assessment from a former member of the Intelligence community.

 

I don't really see the need for people to get worked up over this. Perhaps if more recent NIE's indicated that Iran had continued to halt production or acquirement of nuclear weapons, than there would be reason. But more recent NIE's state that Iran has resumed production.

However; Iran is still providing training and weapons to those in Iraq and Afghanistan who are killing American troops. If anything, this should be on the front burner for our government. This is happening now, the nuclear weapons may or may not happen later.

 

***UPDATE 12/6/07 12:30AM***

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, weighs in on the NIE report.

That such a flawed product could emerge after a drawn-out bureaucratic struggle is extremely troubling. While the president and others argue that we need to maintain pressure on Iran, this "intelligence" torpedo has all but sunk those efforts, inadequate as they were. Ironically, the NIE opens the way for Iran to achieve its military nuclear ambitions in an essentially unmolested fashion, to the detriment of us all.