Monday, December 03, 2007

ABC News - Iran halted Nuke program in 2003

h/t Ace of Spades

ABC News' Martha Raddatz, Jonathan Karl, Luis Martinez and Kirit Radia Report: In a stunning reversal of Bush administration conventional wisdom, a new assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies concludes Iran shelved it's nuclear weapons program over four years ago.

"We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program," reads a declassified version of the National Intelligence Estimate key findings.

"We judge with moderate confidence that the earliest possible date Iran would be technically capable of producing enough highly enriched uranium (HEU) for a weapon is late 2009."

...

The finding that Iran shelved its nuclear weapons program in 2003 is based on new intelligence gathered this year. The NIE report was scheduled to be completed in the spring and sent to Congress, but was delayed because of the new information.

source: ABC News


At first glance this looks like good news, but then when I think about it I get a little worried. After all this is the same intelligence community that missed the fall of the Soviet Union, failed to predict Saddam Hussien's invasion of Kuwait, missed the 9/11 attacks and insisted for 10+ years that Saddam had massive stockpiles of WMD.

With that track record I think we can expect a mushroom cloud over Jerusalem and two over Washington D.C. by close of business Friday.

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