U.S., Israel Disagree on Iran Arms Threat

[babylonsister]

U.S., Israel Disagree on Iran Arms Threat
Senate Panel Told Tehran Has Not Made Decision to Pursue Nuclear Weapons


By Peter Finn
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 11, 2009; Page A04



Iran has not produced the highly enriched uranium necessary for a nuclear weapon and has not decided to do so, U.S. intelligence officials told Congress yesterday, an assessment that contrasts with a stark Israeli warning days earlier that Iran has crossed the "technological threshold" in its pursuit of the bomb.

Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair said that Iran has not decided to pursue the production of weapons-grade uranium and the parallel ability to load it onto a ballistic missile.

"The overall situation -- and the intelligence community agrees on this -- {is} that Iran has not decided to press forward . . . to have a nuclear weapon on top of a ballistic missile," Blair told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "Our current estimate is that the minimum time at which Iran could technically produce the amount of highly enriched uranium for a single weapon is 2010 to 2015."

The five-year spread, he explained, is a result of differences in the intelligence community about how quickly Iran could develop a weapon if it rekindled a weapons program it suspended in 2003.

Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the Senate panel that Iran is "keeping open that option."

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/10/AR2009031003626.html?hpid=sec-nation

[EFerrari]

1. I wonder if the next step is to force Blair out, too. n/t

[babylonsister]

3. I wonder when someone will tell them 'enough already'. nt

[pleah]

2. Hasn't Israel been trying to get us to bomb Iran for 3years now? n/t

[leveymg]

4. Fool me once (Iraq), shame on you. Fool me twice (Iran) . . .

Really, I can't think of a single good reason why the U.S. should continue treating Israeli intelligence assessments of third-country WMD programs as anything other than efforts at deception and influence.