US intel report ends military option against Iran'

jp ^ | 12/8/07 | jp

[Flavius]

The new US report which assesses that Iran halted its nuclear weapons development program in 2003 has foiled any plans for military action against the Islamic republic, a cabinet official told Time on Thursday. [Bush addresses the new...]

"It looks like this ends the military option against Iran for now. Israel won't attack alone. Iran's facilities are too many and spread too far apart."

Conversely, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai suggested Friday that Israel would continue to consider a military strike in Iran, but said it would first seek to exhaust diplomatic efforts.

"No option needs to be off the table," Vilnai said on Army Radio when asked if he believed an Israeli strike was possible.

[Flavius]

"To carry someone's water" does indeed mean to occupy a subservient position, to do the bidding, the menial tasks, and frequently the dirty work, of a more powerful person, and is most often used in a political context. A junior member of Congress, for instance, who calls a press conference to vigorously denounce criticisms of party elders might be said to be "carrying water" for those criticized. The implication of "carrying someone's water" is that the underling is acting not on personal initiative but at the behest, either explicit or perceived, of more powerful figures. To describe a person as "carrying water for" someone else is pejorative and a subjective judgment, implying that the person is acting only as a proxy for a more important person, so one person's "water carrier" may well be another's "loyal ally."

"To carry someone's water" seems to have appeared in the late 1970s in the figurative sense in which it is now most often used, and almost certainly sprang from sports, where the position of "water boy," charged with catering to the players' comfort (including supplying them with water and the like), is the lowest rung in the team hierarchy.

[Perdogg]

ping

[ought-six]

The same authority that just months ago said Iran was enriching uranium for weapons purposes now says it isn.t, and in fact suspended all weapons-focused work some four years ago. I guess that authority got the Chamberlain memo, and that came from the top.

[Dr. Frank fan]

Iran's facilities are too many and spread too far apart.

Here's what I still don't get. How can Iran have "facilities" (something no one denies) but no "program"?

Anyway, I'm not sure why Israel need feel constrained by the internal intelligence report of a different country.

[bvw]

Lord Haw Haw, water-boy, water-carrier.

I guess your analogy makes the NIE drafters the modern Lord Haw Haw's for Iran and the Islamo-fascists.

[gondramB]

It is important to remember the Iran is the worlds leading state sponsor of terrorism.

[LibLieSlayer]

The only program that was suspended according to the NIE, is their Military program to actually make the device to sit atop a missile. The missile and enrichment programs are accelerating. That is what those that have read the full report are saying. It will take the iranians two or three months to activate and build a device, once the other two programs conclude. This NIE will be attacked and shown to be a political hit piece next week. A high ranking dim is supposed to join Republicans denouncing and showing evidence that this pos fake report is bogus. Schnitt was covering this two days ago.

LLS

[tobyhill]

It doesn’t take any options off the table. If Iran keeps toying in Iraq then that would be all the grounds needed to justify the military option according to our constitution.

[Thrownatbirth]

I recall that when tensions between the US and the Soviet would publicly ebb, like during detente, things on the cat-and-mouse side would get really hot operationally almost in inverse proportion. It's as if the illusion of a more peaceful world frees you up to be more agressive tactically.

I guess we’re now free to hit the Quds bases across the Iraqi border without the world having a heart attack.

[G8 Diplomat]

The NIE is a joke

[PaRepub07]

Here is the footnote on the NIE: For the purposes of this Estimate, by “nuclear weapons program” we mean Iran’s nuclear weapon design and weaponization work and covert uranium conversion-related and uranium enrichment-related work; we do not mean Iran’s declared civil work related to uranium conversion and enrichment.
____________________________________________________________

The Iranian (military) developed and perfected the Shehab III missile in 2004 & early 2005. This missile, can deliver a nuke payload and has a range in excess of 800 miles (1300 kilometers) that can reach Israel.

According to the footnote on the NIE, the Shehab III missile would fall under the classification (weaponization) which is defined as: make into or use as a weapon or a potential weapon; alter, change, modify - cause to change; make different; cause a transformation;

The footnote in the NIE is a deliberate distortion and misrepresentation of the facts. In essence, the Shehab III was completed after the 2003 date the new NIE states Iran halted is “weaponization” program.

Further, the so-called high level defector who claimed that “Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program” through the use of military notes could very well be a plant. I personally have no faith in their ability to qualify any defector after the curve-ball debacle.

source link to the public version NIE (pdf file): http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/international/20071203_release.pdf

[McGruff]

"It looks like this ends the military option against Iran for now. Israel won't attack alone."

We shall see.

[LibLieSlayer]

Thanks... It is exactly what I suspected. Rush stated much the same.

LLS

[shield]

Another bunch of BS...Bush will take care of Iran before he leaves office...

[Perdogg]

http://www.macsmind.com/wordpress/2007/12/07/gop-to-call-for-nie-hearings/