CIA analysis finds no Iranian nuclear weapons drive: report

[Sapphire Blue]

CIA analysis finds no Iranian nuclear weapons drive: report
(AFP)
19 November 2006

WASHINGTON - A classified draft CIA assessment has found no firm evidence of a secret drive by Iran to develop nuclear weapons, as alleged by the White House, a top US investigative reporter said on Saturday.

Seymour Hersh, writing in an article for the November 27 issue of the magazine The New Yorker released in advance, reported on whether the administration of Republican President George W. Bush was more, or less, inclined to attack Iran after Democrats won control of Congress last week.

(snip)

But the administration’s planning of a military option was made ”far more complicated” in recent months by a highly classified draft assessment by the Central Intelligence Agency “challenging the White House’s assumptions about how close Iran might be to building a nuclear bomb,” he wrote.

“The CIA found no conclusive evidence, as yet, of a secret Iranian nuclear-weapons program running parallel to the civilian operations that Iran has declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency,” Hersh wrote, adding the CIA had declined to comment on that story.

A current senior intelligence official confirmed the existence of the CIA analysis and said the White House had been hostile to it, he wrote.


Continued @ http://www.khaleejtimes.com/SectionHomeL.asp?section=middleeast (scroll down & click on CIA analysis finds no Iranian nuclear weapons drive: report - )

(edited to change link)

[Vexatious Ape]

1. And I will now start holding my breath until the msm reports this

story as much as they blathered about the Tom Cruise wedding and the freaking OJ book.

[malaise]

2. No surprise here

the White House had been hostile to it. They're still trying to cook the evidence. Start the investigations Dems.

[Straight Shooter]

14. The White House is hostile to facts, period. n/t

[Kagemusha]

3. But the CIA has no conclusive evidence Iran isn't close to a bomb.

well-deserved :sarcasm:

[Eugene]

4. Cheney to Pentagon: We've got work to do.

The CIA isn't cooperating with us again.
We need an agency in the DoD to produce
intelligence we can use against Iran.

[magellan]

5. What's wrong with the CIA?

Don't they know yet what "find the evidence" means? Time to start "dunking" some Iranians, boys!

No worries. I'm sure there's an Iranian ex-pat who's willing to tell BushCo what they want to know. Somebody call Chalabi, see who he can dig up and how many US taxpayer dollars it'll cost us. Maybe he'll give us a discount this time, we've been such good customers in the past.

[bananas]

6. Does this link work?

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2006/November/middleeast_November354.xml§ion=middleeast&col=

[Sapphire Blue]

15. Your direct link works, but mine didn't.

This is the link that I originally posted (same as yours, but mine doesn't work for me :crazy:) : http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2006/November/middleeast_November354.xml§ion=middleeast&col=

[AntiFascist]

7. Whatever happened to AQ Khan...

and those top-secret plans for bulding a bomb that were published in Arabic on the internet. I thought our government was busy in the background trying to get Iran everything they could possibly need to build the bomb as quickly as possible? Could it be that they actually have scruples and aren't taking the bait? That would be preposterous! :sarcasm:

[grasswire]

8. Scott Ritter says the same.

He has an interesting piece in "In These Times" -- he's been in parts of Iran where most Americans would dare not go.

[no_hypocrisy]

9. Here we go again.

Why not take all the media reports and government docs from the pre-invasion Iraq days and just substitute Iran for Iraq globally?

[jarnocan]

10. so much on DU today concerning the big picture. nt

[annabanana]

11. k&r. . . .If this kind of infomation hadn't been "minimized"

about Iraq.. We might not be stuck in that bloody, illegal mess.

This must never go "below the fold".

[allemand]

12. Cheney prepared to circumvent Congress in order to attack Iran:

“If the Democrats won on November 7th, the vice president said, that victory would not stop the administration from pursuing a military option with Iran,” Hersh wrote, citing a source familiar with the discussion.

Cheney said the White House would circumvent any legislative restrictions “and thus stop Congress from getting in its way,” he said.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2006/November/middleeast_November354.xml§ion=middleeast

[Toots]

13. But they know exactly where the nukes are

They are North and South and East and West of Tehrain. There is no doubt.....

[oblivious]

16. The conspiracy theorists will dismiss this just as they dismiss similar IAEA findings.

It's one of those things you just have to "believe", no matter how strongly it is at odds with reality. "They're Moslem. They're our enemy. AP tells us over and over they want to destroy Israel. Of course they want the bomb. We would in their place, right?"

The US may have lost its might in many areas, but it is still the master of propaganda.

Thank goodness for a few independent sources like the New Yorker.

[oblivious]

17. IAEA Says Congress Report on Iran's Nuclear Capacity is Erroneous and Misleading

Published on Friday, September 15, 2006 by the Guardian/UK
IAEA Says Congress Report on Iran's Nuclear Capacity is Erroneous and Misleading

In a letter to the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives' intelligence committee, a senior director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the report was "incorrect" in its assessment that Iran had made weapons-grade uranium at a site inspected by the agency. Instead, the letter said, the facility had produced only small amounts of uranium, which were below the level necessary for weapons.

The letter, leaked to the Washington Post, also criticised the report for making the "outrageous and dishonest" claim that a senior inspector was removed "for concluding that the purpose of Iran's nuclear program is to construct weapons".

While the IAEA noted five major errors in the report, intelligence officials told the Washington Post that it contained a dozen assertions that were either wrong or impossible to substantiate.

...

The IAEA took "strong exception" to the report's assertion that Mr ElBaradei had removed an agency inspector, Chris Charlier, for breaking an "unstated IAEA policy barring IAEA officials from telling the whole truth about the Iranian nuclear program". He was removed at the behest of the Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, the letter says, under the terms of Tehran's agreement to allow inspectors into the country. The letter points out that this is routine and that Iran has accepted the presence of more than 200 IAEA inspectors. Mr Charlier remains head of the IAEA's Iran sanctions section.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0915-03.htm

[Sapphire Blue]

19. deja vu

[oblivious]

18. 2003: Iran cleared by UN of atomic ambition

Iran cleared by UN of atomic ambition
A confidential U.N. nuclear agency report criticized Iran for a "pattern of concealment" about its nuclear program but said no evidence has been found to back U.S. claims it tried to make atomic bombs, according to diplomats.

...The diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the AP that the IAEA report credited Iran for a change of heart since September, when the agency demanded it explain contradictions and ambiguities in its nuclear activities.
"To date, there is no evidence that the previously undeclared nuclear material and activities ... were related to a nuclear weapons program," said one of the diplomats, reading from the report. "However, given Iran's previous pattern of concealment, it will take some time before the agency is able to conclude that Iran's nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes."

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-11/11/content_280595.htm

[oblivious]

20. 2004: UN Sees No New Nuclear Signs in Iran

UN Sees No New Nuclear Signs in Iran
Los Angeles Times
November 16, 2004

Watchdog agency gives the country a qualified clean bill of health on covert activity. The report may thwart any U.S. push for sanctions.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog said Monday that inspectors had uncovered no new evidence of concealed nuclear activities or an atomic weapons program in Iran, though it cautioned that the agency could not rule out covert activities. The findings by the International Atomic Energy Agency were contained in a confidential report revealed the day after Iran's new pledge to suspend its uranium enrichment program.

The report's findings and Iran's promise to suspend enrichment could block U.S. attempts to refer Tehran to the U.N. Security Council for possible economic sanctions when the nuclear agency board meets later this month, diplomats said. Washington has accused Iran of using its nuclear program as a front to develop atomic weapons. The Iranian government has insisted that its goal is only to generate electricity. The new report issued by the IAEA constituted a qualified clean bill of health for Iran and represented a setback for the United States.
"All the declared material in Iran has been accounted for and therefore such material is not diverted to prohibited activities," according to a copy of the report provided to the Los Angeles Times by a Western diplomat.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/sanction/iran/1116nosigns.htm

[Little Wing]

21. weapons drive? is that like a telethon?

:D

[oblivious]

22. A bump for exposing the warmongers and their lies.