| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: WoT |
| U.S. Spy Chief Retreats on Iran Estimate |
| 2008-02-07 |
| The director of national intelligence is backing away from his agency's assessment late last year that Iran had halted its nuclear program, saying he wishes he had written the unclassified version of the document in a different manner. At a hearing yesterday of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the intelligence director, Michael McConnell, said, "If I had 'til now to think about it, I probably would change a few things." He later added, "I would change the way we describe the Iranian nuclear program. I would have included that there are the component parts, that the portion of it, maybe the least significant, had halted." Mr. McConnell was referring to the specific Iranian program to design potential nuclear warheads, which the December estimate said had halted in 2003. But in his opening testimony, Mr. McConnell noted that two other components of the nuclear program were moving ahead — the enrichment of uranium, which he said was the most difficult part of making a bomb, and the development of long-range missiles capable of hitting North Africa and Europe. The National Intelligence Estimate on Iran's nuclear program released on December 3 distinguished Iran's enrichment of uranium at Natanz and Arak from its formal nuclear weapons program, which it said had halted in 2003 after the American invasion of Iraq. Yesterday, Mr. McConnell struck a different tone. "Declared uranium enrichment efforts, which will enable the production of fissile material, continue. This is the most difficult challenge in nuclear production. Iran's efforts to perfect ballistic missiles that can reach North Africa and Europe also continue." He went on, "We remain concerned about Iran's intentions and assess with moderate-to-high confidence that Tehran at a minimum is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons." The release of the declassified estimate also contradicted Mr. McConnell's own stated policy of keeping intelligence estimates secret. On Tuesday he said that on November 27, when his analysts presented him with the new Iran estimate, he decided he had to make the conclusions public because both he and his predecessor had been on record warning of Iran's nuclear weapons program and the new intelligence in part contradicted that. The timing of Mr. McConnell's pivot is also significant. On January 22 in Berlin, all five permanent veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council plus the Germans agreed on a draft third resolution against Iran. Mr. McConnell predicted that it would pass the council this month. At the same time, other members of the Security Council, such as South Africa have recently warned against a third resolution. The Russians last month completed a deal to provide Iran with nuclear fuel for a separate reactor in Bushehr. |
| Posted by:Sherry |
| #11 I would define a finite limit of laws, i.e.: you write one, you propose two that should be removed to balance. There are surely enough obscure and single-lobbyist-assisting laws that the legislators can't resist, but, sooner or later, they run up against a limit...heh |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-02-07 21:48 |
| #10 I think we should do more than Chunky said. 1) Every 8 years (staggered per division) move government departments to different areas of the nation. Do not encourage workers to move with the departments with moving allowances or anything like that. That should provide a %90 or better clean slate renewing government departments. 2) Move the house and senate with no transfer of aides. Of course this would impoverish a certain Virgina Suburb but those folks could discover the joy of a real job. 3) Outlaw paid lobbyists. 4) Outlaw foreign lobbyists. 5) Require congress-critters to actually write their own laws. Maybe do automated authorship studies on bills to make sure an aide didn't write it. After all if we wanted the aide's opinion and views we would have elected them instead. More later. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2008-02-07 20:59 |
| #9 I'm votin for chunky. |
| Posted by: jds 2008-02-07 20:12 |
| #8 Close D.C. down completely and turn the place into parks and museums. Move the nations capitol to the center of the country. Outlaw all forms of lobbying and institute term limits. Get ready, and hold on, it's going to be a bumpy ride for the next few years, no matter who gets elected. |
| Posted by: Chunky Uleresing9244 2008-02-07 20:02 |
| #7 I demand clearing. Clarity will then come naturally. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2008-02-07 19:05 |
| #6 I demand clarity. |
| Posted by: newc 2008-02-07 17:31 |
| #5 Who needs enemies when you have friends like this? If I were boss, there'd be no begging for forgiveness after an act like this. |
| Posted by: gorb 2008-02-07 16:18 |
| #4 The damage is done. You petty D.C. game players made your nuclear ground zero, and lookie, you're living in it. |
| Posted by: ed 2008-02-07 15:37 |
| #3 WTF? Jeebus...we are well and royally screwed. We should just shut the whole thing down and outsource our intel to Israel while we clean house from the ground up. |
| Posted by: Rex Mundi 2008-02-07 14:44 |
| #2 Lead story on the network news tonight. I'm sure of it... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-02-07 14:19 |
| #1 saying he wishes he had written the unclassified version of the document in a different manner. I wish you did too and I wish you didn't wait so long to say your unclassified doc was not clear. The assumption that I got from the report was Iran has stopped everything but my gut feeling knows better. |
| Posted by: Gomez Crerenter7782 2008-02-07 13:39 |