Report: IAEA Says Iran At Threshold Of Nuclear Weapons

Fantastic.

Intelligence provided to U.N. nuclear officials shows that Iran’s government has mastered the critical steps needed to build a nuclear weapon, receiving assistance from foreign scientists to overcome key technical hurdles, according to Western diplomats and nuclear experts briefed on the findings.

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Although the IAEA has chided Iran for years to come clean about a number of apparently weapons-related scientific projects, the new disclosures fill out the contours of an apparent secret research program that was more ambitious, more organized and more successful than commonly suspected. Beginning early in the last decade and apparently resuming — though at a more measured pace — after a pause in 2003, Iranian scientists worked concurrently across multiple disciplines to obtain key skills needed to make and test a nuclear weapon that could fit inside the country’s long-range missiles, said David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector who has reviewed the intelligence files.

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Albright said IAEA officials, based on the totality of the evidence given to them, have concluded that Iran “has sufficient information to design and produce a workable implosion nuclear device” using highly enriched uranium as its fissile core. In the presentation, he described intelligence that points to a formalized and rigorous process for gaining all the necessary skills for weapons-building, using native talent as well as a generous helping of foreign expertise.

And where did this "foreign expertise" come from? The usual suspects, Russia, Pakistan and North Korea.

I think this would be an appropriate moment to pause and remind ourselves that the collective judgement of the US intelligence community is that Iran stopped developing a military track to it's nuclear program some years ago.

In a better world this would lead to a massive investigation of the intelligence community and whether or not their judgments have been compromised by political considerations. Or perhaps accusations of "politicizing intelligence" is one of those things liberals only care about when it works for them.

Related: No need to actually worry about any of this, Ron Paul has the answer: Offer Iran "friendship".

Oh and by the by, the US and Israel just announced they will be holding their largest joint military exercise in history. Nothing to see here, move along.

posted by DrewM. at 10:15 AM

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