Iran Halted Its Nuclear Weapons Program In 2003?

Apparently they are still enriching uranium but the US now believes that they halted, though not dismantled, their efforts to weaponize it.

"We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program," reads a declassified version of the National Intelligence Estimate key findings.

"We judge with moderate confidence that the earliest possible date Iran would be technically capable of producing enough highly enriched uranium (HEU) for a weapon is late 2009."

The new intelligence report could create an embarrassing situation for the United States as it pushes for a third United Nations resolution against Iran for its nuclear activities.

…A senior U.S. official who has read the estimate told ABC News earlier this morning t.hat the NIE concludes "there has been a halt when it comes to weaponization" of Iran's nuclear weapons program.

The official adds: It's "an intentions judgment, not a capabilities judgment." In other words, the Iranians could restart this aspect of there program, but for whatever reason, they have halted it for now.

There’s a lot of reasons they might have stopped their program such as technical programs, the inability to get needed materials or maybe there was an event in 2003 that got their attention. And we can’t exactly dismiss out of hand the notion that our crack WMD experts are wrong.

No matter what the reason, you can bet the media and the Democrats (but I repeat myself) will spin this as more proof of the administrations disingenuousness when it comes to WMD issues. The idea that we might have delayed the Iranians ability to develop nuclear weapons without attacking them will never be mentioned. That would mean giving Bush credit and admitting that there were possibly some collateral benefits to taking on Iraq. Those are two things that may never happen.

Critics will also ignore the fact that just be caused the Iranians stopped doesn’t mean they won’t start again and that we shouldn’t have to live with that potential sword hanging over our head.

Perhaps Ahmadinejad and company are just waiting for a more ‘accommodating’ administration to take over.

posted by DrewM. at 02:52 PM

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