News Alert: U.S. Says Iran Ended Nuclear Arms Work A new assessment by American intelligence agencies concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains on hold, contradicting a previous intelligence report. Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na I think a few on the board said something about the fact that the only reason we were fearing Iran was because we were simply told that they were working on nukes. Apparently, we're admitting that now. Comments? c
Since it was published in the NY Times, I am suspicious. Since the article quotes "American Intelligence" I am suspicious. I'm going to check with door greeter at Wall Mart and see what he thinks.
I honestly expected to see a reference to the source, but that doesn't mean that these are not truthful statements. I tend to question a bit more the more obviously biased sources on both sides, NYTimes, FoxNews, etc. Problem is, we never really know who is feeding us what these days, very sad state of affairs for the once honorable profession of Journalism. c
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/international/20071203_release.pdf they probably want to analyze the reaction
there are also other possibilities, including but not limited to: the cost of attacking was too much, but so no one thinks america is weak and chickened out, they changed their word, instead of saying "it's ok, iran is developing nuclear weapons because we can't do anything about it", they state that iran isn't they reached some type of an agreement with iran in the backstage the intention was to put enough pressure on iran and so iranians as to make them stand up and fight for a regime change, and since no one in iran was willing to die for the other person or any type of freedom, they just gave up iran was working in euros, and europe & china weren't working with US in sanctioning them, and so the only one losing was the US dollar
If only this NIE is correct. Unfortunately, the record of our intelligence agencies is remarkably poor in this sort of thing. India, Pakistan and North Korea were able to develop nuclear weapons without them suspecting a thing. Iraq's nuclear program was far more advanced than believed. We were dumbfounded at the level of corruption and outright graft in the Oil for Food program. Regarding Iran, it is doubtful we have much in the way of intelligence assets. Instead, this assessment probably is based on analysis spoon-fed to them by european allies, who do not want their commercial ties with Iran disturbed. There is a powerful political incentive as well to see Iran as benign. It removes the need to do something and gives political cover to those who advocate appeasement of iran but who don't want to appear soft on terrorism. That pretty much covers the political spectrum, so everybody has an incentive to close their eyes and pretend. We continue to underestimate the Iranians. They are tough, smart, capable and resilient. And most of all, patient.
"Problem is, we never really know who is feeding us what these days, very sad state of affairs for the once honorable profession of Journalism." __________________________ Just to step off topic for a moment re the media. In the book Bias in the Media, esp the chapter on the media and HIV. At one time I was following the stock OSUR, they have developed an oral HIV test, so I was up to speed on hiv issues. The parallels of the bias in the media and how this effects various industries is atrocious. In the end, skepticism is the word of life, everyone and everything has an agenda, so pervasive the lack of ethics. Btw, the stock just swirls around like a turd in a flushing toilet, great idea with proven technology but the gay agenda, fda, the media, over the counter hiv test kits doa. It is unfortunate.
Actually, it would be a very smart diplomatic stance. Iran has far more problems when everyone thinks they are NOT developing a nuclear weapon. The biggest problem recently was not the weapon itself but the prestige Iran gained from boasting it (indirectly). I wouldn't be surprised if they now would radically change their international attitude. Hmm, it is as if a thinking person woke up in the State departement.