Special Report: Intel shows Iran nuclear threat not imminent

[Julian Englis]

Source: Reuters

The United States, European allies and even Israel generally agree on three things about Iran's nuclear program: Tehran does not have a bomb, has not decided to build one, and is probably years away from having a deliverable nuclear warhead.

Those conclusions, drawn from extensive interviews with current and former U.S. and European officials with access to intelligence on Iran, contrast starkly with the heated debate surrounding a possible Israeli strike on Tehran's nuclear facilities.

"They're keeping the soup warm but they are not cooking it," a U.S. administration official said.

Reuters has learned that in late 2006 or early 2007, U.S. intelligence intercepted telephone and email communications in which Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a leading figure in Iran's nuclear program, and other scientists complained that the weaponization program had been stopped.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/23/us-iran-usa-nuclear-idUSBRE82M0G020120323

[xchrom]

1. Du rec. Nt

[bluedigger]

2. I better go fill up my tank, before the next report comes out!

[Jamaal510]

3. LOLOLOL

[Botany]

4. The same people who brought us Iraq and the WMDs now are bringing us ....

..... Iran is building "the bomb."

[freshwest]

5. I wonder if the GOP chickenhawks will shut up now? Oh. I forgot. They're paid to start wars.

[RC]

10. No they won't. They will come up with some reason to bomb Iran before Iran gets the bomb now.

You're correct, they profit, either directly or indirectly from the wars they star.

[freshwest]

11. Gulf of Tonkin?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. But they do have oil, and evidently, that's a reason to attack them :sarcasm:

The bought-and-paid-for idiots in our government could have taken all the money they spend on oil wars and built or upgraded a world-class public transit system for every major city in the country, a world-class high-speed rail system linking all the major cities in each region, and modifications of existing suburbs to make non-automotive transportation possible.

The militarists would have fewer places to use their war toys. They would complain.

But consider this: about 1/3 of greenhouse gases are automobile exhaust.

[xtraxritical]

7. Occupy everywhere this spring!

[TBF]

17. Yep, pillaging resources and also

Goons just have to be goons - our military likes to be in charge. I blame PNAC and their "vision" for this and appreciate Obama has a hell of a problem dealing with these guys.

[jtuck004]

8. Something is wrong. M. Bachman was on Morning Joe ja couple hours ago, said info JUST

came across the Atlantic wire that they ARE working on nuclear WEAPONS in the Pashtun(?) facility (SE, NW?) of the city.

Proving once again that when you need some intelligence, first ask M. Bachman. Then seek the truth.

[sofa king]

13. That would be kind of funny.

The Pashtun people are a sub-culture which extends across the borders of Pakistan and Afghanistan, not Iran. Normally I might doubt your guess, but considering the source, I won't be surprised to find that Bachmann confused the Pashtun people with a city in Iran (perhaps Bushehr?).

The actual interest of the Republicans is not in the nuclear facilities at Bushehr, but in one of the last untapped major oilfields which lies underneath it. Using the nuclear facility as a pretext, oil interests want to bag Bushehr province, cut the Iranians off from the Persian Gulf, steal their oil, and fight off four million redneck zealots who will pour over the mountains into the coastal plains to take it back.

Put Mitt Romney in office, and it will happen by this time next year.

[Iliyah]

9. Exactly, yours truly

The God fearing who want to attack Iran, y'know, the Bushies and company, i.e., the GOP party.

[sofa king]

12. Oh, so we can expect prices at the pump to drop today.

Oh, wait. Increasing international tension results in instant price increases.

Lessening of tensions, however, does not lower prices overnight because every extra day that people get jacked at the pump is a day of pure profit for the industry (except of course for the station owners, who get virtually nothing).

Let's see how many weeks, months or years it takes for this good news to be reflected on the sign, eh?

[Comrade Grumpy]

14. This is all so transparently ridiculous.

Poor little ol' Israel with only a couple of hundred nukes is scared of mean ol' Iran.

And the Great Chicken, America, which has Iran surrounded with military bases and has thousands of nukes, is quaking in its boots at the Iranian threat.

It's like the whole world is Fox News.

[Dawson Leery]

15. The same chickenhawk neo-cons who brought us the Iraq war

are know propagating to start a war with Iran.

[aaronbrett1971]

16. Military hostilities with Iran should start on September the 19th, 2012.

Military hostilities with Iran should start on September the 19th, 2012.

[Ian David]

18. Is that a guess or a wish? n/t