Wonder what Dick Cheney would say about this? Good news if true. http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/03/iran.nuclear/index.html U.S.: Iran stopped nuclear weapons work * Story Highlights * U.S. releases intelligence estimate on Iran's nuclear work * Declassified summary of report released Monday * Estimate says Tehran "less determined to develop nuclear weapons" WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Iran halted work toward a nuclear weapon under international scrutiny in 2003 and is unlikely to be able to produce enough enriched uranium for a bomb until 2010 to 2015, a U.S. intelligence report says. A declassified summary of the latest National Intelligence Estimate found with "high confidence" that the Islamic republic halted an effort to develop nuclear weapons in the fall of 2003. The estimate is less severe than a 2005 report that judged the Iranian leadership was "determined to develop nuclear weapons despite its international obligations and international pressure." But it says Iran -- which declared its ability to produced enriched uranium for a civilian energy program in 2006 -- could reverse that decision and eventually produce a nuclear weapon if it wanted to. Enriched uranium at low concentrations can be used to fuel nuclear power plants, but much higher concentrations are needed to yield a nuclear explosion. "We judge with moderate confidence that the earliest possible date Iran would be technically capable of producing enough highly enriched uranium for a weapon is late 2009, but that this is very unlikely," the report states. A more likely time frame for that production is between 2010 and 2015, it concluded. Iran has insisted that its nuclear program is strictly aimed at producing electricity, and it has refused the U.N. security council's demand that it halt its enrichment program. U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley expressed hope after the announcement, but he said Iran remains a serious threat. "The estimate offers grounds for hope that the problem can be solved diplomatically -- without the use of force -- as the administration has been trying to do," Hadley said in a statement. "But the intelligence also tells us that the risk of Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon remains a very serious problem," Hadley's statement said.
First, this isn't an article it's the NIE. Second, no,j the 2002 NIE said the opposite, and Third, North Korea was pretty clear that it was going to restart its program when it did it when they dismantled the monitoring equipment that the UN inspectors had installed.
According to Hersh the 2002 NIE said NK was enriching uranium, however to this day the NK's claim that they didn't defy the treaty until after they withdrwe from the NPT in 03. Regardless- the NIE said the opposite of what DonkeyMagic was insinuating
From what I remember the Adminsitration has been delaying release of this, the official report of the National Intelligence authoritites. I guess we see why. It is curious that it has finally been released. Looks like their is still plenty of opposition to going to war against Iran in the bowels of the government. Good news as this should make it harder for the neocons to take us into war with Iran.
In addition to what others posted, it's also my understanding that the US didn't live up to it's obligations under the 1994 agreement either. North Korea likely would have broken it's obligations anyway, but it wasn't just them that failed in that regard. From what I know, the US was supposed to deliver various reactors to help North Korea's energy crisis and was many years late in doing so when we learned that North Korea was doing it's nuke work.
The basic treaty does not have any restrictions regarding enriching uranium, so both statements can be correct. Iran is currently doing enrichment openly at the 1000 centrifuge facility at Natanz which has been in the news so much lately.
i wasnt insinuating anything, really. i was honestly asking if other reports had made claims about N. korea.
I'm in a straight betwixt two: My round trip commute to work is 90-100 miles/day but the high oil greatly enhances what I do for a living. Guess I need to move to the north Houston area.
i think they'd do just fine at about $65/barrel. and would be less likely to have a huge bubble burst from irrational fear. but that's another thread....or 5.
besides, ask all the home builders in the suburbs or all the homeowners trying to sell their homes how the oil price is helping them? this isn't 1980, houston's economy is a lot more diversified. but I don't want to derail.
Here is the kicker: My wife might be starting a job in the airport area next month. It's about a 50/50 chance.
You should def. move, though I guess selling your house right now will not exactly fetch a kings ransom, but then buying another one won't be as expensive either.
You would be astonished at how many folks do that in Houston, Sam, and not just in Houston. People in Austin live out past Dripping Springs, Leander/Cedar Park, or Bastrop and make daily commutes. My wife knows someone who commutes from San Antonio to Austin everyday for work! It is nuts. I'd never consider it, and neither would my wife, who works a half a block from the Capitol and can see it from her office window (a priceless view). Like some other folks here, we live in SW Austin, in the Oak Hill area, and that commute seems shorter every year. (not shorter in time, lol, but in distance as Greater Austin grows) And people wonder why some of us are avid commuter rail advocates! Trim Bush!
How could this not be grounds for impeachment? Despite Knowledge That Iran Halted Nuke Program, White House Continued To Warn Of False Threat The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) released today concludes that “in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.” It adds that “Tehran had not restarted its nuclear weapons program as of mid-2007,” and the country is “less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005.” The assessment, which relies on data collected through Oct. 31, was reportedly completed in 2006, but was blocked by administration officials who wanted it to be more in line with Vice President Cheney’s hardline views. As The Washington Monthly’s Kevin Drum notes, the NIE’s “basic parameters were almost certainly common knowledge in the White House” at least by last year, when the document was finished. Yet even in the past two months, the administration has continued to push its faulty, inflammatory rhetoric and claim that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons. Some examples: http://thinkprogress.org/
