What if the report had said Iran was closer to making a bomb?! I bet the same people ('rats and the Media) who are RIPPING Bush now for saying he overstated the problem would instead be saying he didn't "emphasize the problem enough and focused too much on Iraq!"
No fair... you’re connecting the dots!
If you place any credence at all in this questionable-sourced, custom-ordered-by-Harry Reid, piece of fiction written by political hacks in the State Department — then I guess your thesis might have some merit....
LLS
I think it is almost laughable.... almost.
Ii think their intent is to hamstring Bush..... thinking they’re so clever but..... they wind up hamstringing themselves.
Bush have just a tad over a year to go and till then, Bush will do all he can to keep Iran contained but this NIE will tie his hands and if the next guy in the Whitehouse is a dem... they’ll have to live with their own filth they’ve created.
It all makes me thankful to live in a small town.
The NIE dissemination was apparently a first step toward lowering oil prices.
Iran, US may meet on Iraq security in ‘few days’: Shiite leader
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g7lpvZRI-mpHbuzKaAhZGmbULu1w
It’s going to be really funny, BTW, as oil goes up and the dollar goes down anyway.
If you believe Iran Suspended it’s Nuclear Bomb Program. Fortunately, we have the truth detector around to do the media’s work and we’ll have to wait till he says it’s true.
Give me a break.
I think all those who believe this report are going to get one big surprise.
There is still something I am unclar about.
Just what does Iran plan to do with this enriched urnaium they are producing?
It is perfectly useless to them to use in a nuclear power reactor since the Iranians don’t have one. The Russians are building a power (ligth water) reactor for the Iranians, but the Iranians have to use Russian fuel in that one and the Russians are going to keep that control.
The Iranians could develop a reactor design of their own, but to do that and build suc a reactor will take them at least a decade, by which time the enriched uranium they are manufacturing today will have decayed.
So, what are they planning to use it for? Just a question, and I’m wondering if the NIE just issued addresses this question.
If Iran did suspend its nuke bomb program in 2003, why did they dis the IAEA at every turn and allow jerky boy to become President? If they want the world to believe they don’t want nukes, they are going about it all wrong!
stop thinking and using your brain...it is not the lib/dem way!!!!
My guess is that if they did stop, it was only to contemplate taking such actions as described above. They apparently decided that leaving themselves more or less defenseless, as Saddam had done, would give them the same results that Saddam had achieved. They fully realize that once they have a functional nuclear capability, they are untouchable. Reference North Korea for an example.
Hush. Lie quietly and wait. We’re letting Democrats run with the bait, recording every stupid thing they say before they have time to think about it. We’re collecting some nice gems. When the dust settles, there’s going to be some major ammunition for the campaign trail. A picture may say a thousand words, but a dozen words on videotape..well, that’s worth a career.
Yeah, Iran has no military nuke program, hasn’t had one in 4 years, and has no thoughts of re-starting warhead design and production once they have enriched enough uranium..... that uranium which has no plausible civilian purpose since it won’t work in the reactor the Soviets are building (and supplying the uranium) for them..... oh, and those Shahab-3 and Shahab-4 missile development projects and all the extreme secrecy and lies that Iran has engaged in for many many years..... all this is true because, what, some new “Curveball” type source says it’s true?? or was this NIE just pulled out of someone’s aXX in the State Dept.???
Question: if Iran truly stopped and forswears any military nuke program, WHY WON’T THEY LET THE IAEA OR USA FULLY AND COMPLETELY VERIFY THAT????
Think about that one, folks — Iran could get out of all threat of sanctions quite easily if this NIE were true, and they don’t have Saddam’s paranoid reasons for any pretence on WMD programs — all their advantages would come from openness and inspections, UNLESS THEY REALLY ARE TRYING TO PULL ONE OVER ON THE WORLD.
Didn’t War in Iraq Coincide with
Qadhafi giving up all his WMD’s?
Qadhafi gives vital information to the Coaltion Forces so he can get out of Sanctions.
Remember the Nuclear Scientist Dr. Khan?
Khan helped the Iranians.
http://www.parapundit.com/archives/2003_12.html
First “Curveball.” Now, “Knuckleball.” Or is it “Nuclurball”?
"nuclear program"
as something that is either definitively "started" or "ongoing" or "stopped". I had the same problems with most discussions of whether Saddam Hussein had "weapons programs" (chemical weapons "programs", bio weapons "programs", etc) or whether he "stopped" them.
Question: just what, exactly, is a "nuclear program" that it can be so easily "stopped"? Everyone seems to acknowledge, including Iran, that she is busy enriching uranium. This sort of uranium has only one plausible purpose, and that is for use in a nuclear weapon. So why isn't the action of enriching uranium considering a "nuclear bomb program"? How is it not, exactly? Does a nuclear "program" have a precise definition and enriching uranium doesn't count? why not?
Digging deeper, let me stipulate for sake of argument that Iran "had" a nuclear bomb "program" and then "stopped" it in 2003. Question. What exactly did the "stopping" of the program consist of. I mean, apparently prior to 2003, the state of Iran employed some number of scientists and workers in the development of a nuclear bomb. Those scientists studied, learned, went to conferences, bought pamphlets, whatever... they gained all or at least some of the knowledge of the development and logistics required to build such a bomb. That knowledge was in their heads, and their notebooks, and on their computers. Meanwhile the workers toiled. Presumably, prior to 2003, together they made at least some progress - in manufacturing, setting up facilities, purchasing parts, etc.
Does this knowledge and progress no longer exist because the "program" was supposedly "stopped"? Were the scientists executed or at least their brains washed clear? Were the computer hard drives formatted? Were the parts thrown away? Were the facilities destroyed? If not, then what the hell does "stopping" really mean? What exactly was "stopped" that couldn't be started again at a moment's notice? I mean are we talking about the scientists' paychecks? Was the Iranian Secret Nuclear Bomb Department officially disbanded and all former employees transferred to the Iranian Post Office? what?
Recall also that up until very very recently we were repeatedly told by anti-war types how "hardened" Iran's nuclear facilities were (!), which was considered at the time by them to be a tactically-clever argument for not bombing Iran ("it won't work anyway because their facilities are hardened").
But now I am left to wonder, what facilities? The ones that no longer exist and haven't existed since 2003 because the "program" was "stopped"?
If there's any truth to the "stopped" meme, it's the same as was presumably with Iraq: "stopped" really just means paused. For tactical reasons, logistical reasons, political reasons, whatever. For example, I could buy that Iran looked at the situation in 2003 and said "we're not going to make enough progress to get the bomb by 200x anyway, and our timeline is hung up on [such and such logistical benchmarks] anyway, so let's play it cool on the nuke thing for a while, and maybe it will even buy us some PR points against the Americans". I could buy that.
What I don't buy is that this somehow constitutes "stopping the program" in any meaningful way, i.e. in any way that an intelligent person could possibly conclude "therefore Iran isn't trying to and won't try to get the bomb".
I am going to apply gun control logic here. I think you have it backwards. The war did not cause the Iranians to stop their nuclear weapons program. Quite the opposite is true. The Iranians stopped their nuclear weapons program WHICH THEN CAUSED THE WAR IN IRAQ! (/gun control logic)