WP: Strong Leads and Dead Ends in Nuclear Case Against Iran

[sabra]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/07/AR2006020702126.html

Strong Leads and Dead Ends in Nuclear Case Against Iran

By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 8, 2006; Page A01

Iranian engineers have completed sophisticated drawings of a deep subterranean shaft, according to officials who have examined classified documents in the hands of U.S. intelligence for more than 20 months.

...

By the estimates of U.S. and allied intelligence analysts, that day remains as much as a decade away -- assuming that Iran applies the full measure of its scientific and industrial resources to the project and encounters no major technical hurdles. But whether Iran's leaders have reached that decision and what concrete progress the effort has made remain divisive questions among government analysts and U.N. inspectors.

In the three years since Iran was forced to acknowledge having a secret uranium-enrichment program, Western governments and the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, have amassed substantial evidence to test the Tehran government's assertion that it plans to build nothing more than peaceful nuclear power plants. Often circumstantial, usually ambiguous and always incomplete, the evidence has confounded efforts by policymakers, intelligence officials and U.S. allies to reach a confident judgment about Iran's intentions and a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

Drawings of the unbuilt test site, not disclosed publicly before, appear to U.S. officials to signal at least the ambition to test a nuclear explosive. But U.S. and U.N. experts who have studied them said the undated drawings do not clearly fit into a larger picture. Nowhere, for example, does the word "nuclear" appear on them. The authorship is unknown, and there is no evidence of an associated program to acquire, assemble and construct the components of such a site.

[marmar]

1. Oy vey!

I'm picturing more bad drawings in front of the U.N.

[IndianaGreen]

2. Same script as the lead off to the Iraq war

Same lies, same liars, and same gullible public!

Go ahead, attack Iran, and you will be watching the collapse of our country, which is fine to those of us that want the death of American imperialism.

Goose step towards an American Waterloo!


:popcorn:

[radfringe]

9. so when does the mass media outlets

drag out the old Iraq WMD stories and do a cut/paste replacing Iraq with Iran and WMDs with Nukes?

meanwhile - all it's going to take is one terrattack on US soil and Iran will get the blame -- just in time for Nov. midterms?

[LynnTheDem]

3. "a decade away...ASSUMING" nothing whatsoever goes wrong and Iran

works flat out full speed.

OH MY GAWD I AM SO FWIGHTENED WIGHT NOW!!!

HOLD ME!!!

:eyes:

[Malikshah]

4. Duck and Cover!

aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
*soils himself*

Don't be fooled. There's a bad moon arisin.

I feel it in my bones.


Damn those lefty papers and their pesky reporters....;)

[LynnTheDem]

6. Don't soil yourself yet; Iran is a decade away from nukes IF they

decide they want nukes...and then they'd need a delivery system that could reach us...and looong before then we'd have actual real proof that they actually had a nuke & delivery system...but hey, Pakistan already does and they all hate our bloody guts and wanna nuke us as soon as they're successful at getting rid of dictator and bush-pal Mushie.

Let the freeps soil themselves in abject terror; they're used to the stench. :D

[daleo]

5. Bolton will be holding up a rough sketch of a tunnel

Claiming that this could be the end of life as we know it, if the Iranians finish their secret tunnel to hell.

[ugarte]

7. Maybe they're tunneling to North Korea

to physically consummate the evil axis.

[jpak]

11. Hey - they want a place to put their spent fuel

from their peaceful nucular program.

It's Yuccastan Mountain...

:)

[HuffleClaw]

8. "After more than a year of denials about shipments to Iran...

...in the 1990s, Tahir has changed his story and now claims to have recalled a previously forgotten sale, according to U.S. sources."

haahahhahhaha. gotta love their reliance on the type of source a judge would laugh out of any court. they are really desperate.

[Javaman]

10. I heard that Colin, I have an ass for a name, Powell has been called back.

for a command performance...

The oval office. Several uptight republicans gather around the desk of the prez*.

Uptight #1: so do you think he will do it?

Uptight #2: I don't know, he seemed pretty pissed off last time I spoke to him.

Uptight #3: Yeah, and now his assistant just came out and said he was part of a hoax.

prez*: I can get him back, you know with a little of my sweet talk...

The uptight repubs all exchange nervous looks.

Uptight #1: errr, sweet talk?

prez*: yeah, you know, I'll give him one of my pet names and he'll fall like a house of cards.

Uptight #2: and what if he still doesn't agree...

prez*: who are you? why are you here? you're fired!! I won't have such negativity in my office...

Uptight #2 walks out. Uptight #1 and #3 exchange nervous glances...

prez*: where was I, oh yeah. pet name...pet name, I got it, ass-fossil! because he's an old crust and his name colin well, that just writes itself! heh heh heh...

Uptight #1: you know, mr. prez*, colin was pretty pissed off last time, do you think it's right to use a pet name?

prez*: are you questioning me??

Uptight #1: I,er...

prez*: your fired! dang it, I'm going to give him a pet name or else.

Uptight #1 skulks out...

prez*: (to himself) see, I can command and stuff and that pissed of ass-fossil will just toe the line, otherwise I will fire his ass too...

Uptight #3: Um...you sort of already did...

The prez* gives #3 a narrow look.

prez*: What did you say???

#3 opens his mouth to say something. Shuts it and walks out.

The prez* walks over to the wall mirror and looks at himself...

prez*: I am benevolent. Yes, I am, I am benevolent...

[mom cat]

12. Of course fraudulent doctuments have NEVER surfaced regarding

any other country the US wanted to invade!
OK. Maybe just one
or two.
Well, maybe this time chickenhawk little is right? :sarcasm: