US finds no Iran bomb program: Nuclear effort ended in 2003, report says

Please recommend this post..It's like REALLY important:

link:
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2007/12/04/us_finds_no_iran_bomb_program/

US finds no Iran bomb program
Nuclear effort ended in 2003, report says

By Bryan Bender and Farah Stockman

Globe Staff / December 4, 2007

"WASHINGTON - Iran halted its nuclear weapons program four years ago and there is no evidence it has enriched uranium to build an atomic bomb, according to declassified portions of a secret US intelligence assessment released yesterday - directly contradicting the Bush administration's portrayal of Iran as a terrorist state bent on developing an atomic arsenal.

The much-anticipated National Intelligence Estimate on Iran's nuclear program, ordered by Congress in 2006, concludes that Tehran's decision to halt its nuclear weapons program "suggests it is less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005." The Iranian government's decisions, according to the report, "are guided by a cost-benefit approach" rather than a rush to obtain a nuclear weapon "irrespective of the political, economic, and military costs."

The report - considered the collective judgment of the nation's 16 spy agencies - estimated the earliest Iran could produce a bomb is 2010 if it resumed its weapons program, but it is more likely that the ability to make a nuclear weapon "may not be attained until after 2015."

The conclusions contrasted sharply with recent statements of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and many of the top Republican presidential candidates. Most seem to regard Iran as a nation that wants a nuclear arsenal despite the cost - including a potential military confrontation with the United States."

http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2007/12/04/us_finds_no_iran_bomb_program/

another excellent article from the NYT:



An Assessment Jars a Foreign Policy Debate About Iran


link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/washington/04assess.html?ex=1354424400&en=1ca323f6a311fcec&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

"WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 — Rarely, if ever, has a single intelligence report so completely, so suddenly, and so surprisingly altered a foreign policy debate here.

A satellite image of the Natanz nuclear complex in Iran, taken this year, after military production had stopped.



An administration that had cited Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons as the rationale for an aggressive foreign policy — as an attempt to head off World War III, as President Bush himself put it only weeks ago — now has in its hands a classified document that undercuts much of the foundation for that approach.

The impact of the National Intelligence Estimate’s conclusion — that Iran had halted a military program in 2003, though it continues to enrich uranium, ostensibly for peaceful uses — will be felt in endless ways at home and abroad.

It will certainly weaken international support for tougher sanctions against Iran, as a senior administration official grudgingly acknowledged. And it will raise questions, again, about the integrity of America’s beleaguered intelligence agencies, including whether what are now acknowledged to have been overstatements about Iran’s intentions in a 2005 assessment reflected poor tradecraft or political pressure.

Seldom do those agencies vindicate irascible foreign leaders like President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who several weeks ago said there was “no evidence” that Iran was building a nuclear weapon, dismissing the American claims as exaggerated.

link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/washington/04assess.html?ex=1354424400&en=1ca323f6a311fcec&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

.

Then we could make something else up.

as if there is no such thing as manipulation, stovepiping, and nobody is pressuring nobody around here.

The sheeple aren't supposed to know about the Office of Special Plans and the Downing Street memo. Besides, the Revolutionary Guard is a terrorist organization.