“A declassified summary of the latest National Intelligence Estimate found with “high confidence” that the Islamic republic stopped an effort to develop nuclear weapons in the fall of 2003.”
Hahahahahahaahahahahahaha
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Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
My god how could the infallible Fox News and republican base have been so wrong when they’re always right? Never the less, we should bomb their country to shit to free their oppressed people.
Where are all the Bushites ready to march to war to stop the evil Iranians from developing the bomb which they are so matter of factly doing?
It also claims Iran had an active and UNDECLARED nuclear weapons program, right? No, not a plan for civilian energy production, but an outright nuclear weapons program. So, for some reason they suspended their goal in 2003. Hmm, why would this cast a bad light on the US’s tough stance on Iran? What spooked Iran off such a course, I wonder. Could the US’s tough stance and military actions around that time have had an effect? Sort of like Libya? Anyone? Could it be that they knew they’d never get the oppurtunity to complete such a program?
Now, instead of trying to turn this into a partisan war, be thankful there is more reason for diplomacy. Let’s not forget that there’ll probably be a good amount of dual use techniques and technical knowledge mastered through their “civilian energy” pursuits. Meaning mastery of the one, could lead to a quick restart of the other. There’s still work to be done here, with what appears to be more time to do it in.
Did anyone notice the effect that bombshell is having on oil prices?
So invading Iraq put a scare into Iran and they halted their weapons program, meanwhile they continue to enrich uranium and could have a bomb ready by 2010 to 2015.
This does not vindicate Iran in the least. It proves that they didn’t start a weapons program to counter the invasion of Iraq as many have claimed.
As soon as we stop paying attention they will start up again.
[quote]lixy wrote:
Did anyone notice the effect that bombshell is having on oil prices?[/quote]
Looks like they dropped based on the possibility of OPEC increasing production and then bounced right back up when they decided they were not going to.
[quote]lixy wrote:
Did anyone notice the effect that bombshell is having on oil prices?[/quote]
To the extent that the administration has effective control over the content of the NIE, this may have been an implicit admission that the conditions necessary for an attack on Iran will not exist during the remaining year of this presidency and that domestic political and economic concerns- like the effects of oil prices- would have to take precedence.
The way it came off was somewhat bizarre though, if anyone heard that news conference.
bahahaha. It’s funny to see people (like zap) speak of the future and their off the wall theories like they really do exist. if the fact they are not making weapons now, or EVER have(actually started a program), is not proof enough to leave their oil alone; just make up some far fetched fictional short to ensure “they will do it in the future”. ultimately, WHO CARES. they are another country full of people and should be free to do whatever they want. i wish we could keep our grubby hands out of other people cookie jar. it’s not the United States of the world we live in, we dont have the right to decide who does what. NO MATTER THE CONSEQUENCES TO OUR WAY OF LIFE. the way of all life is to adapt and change, even if that means sucking up a few foreign bombs and the occasional suicide bomber on our soil. ther rest of the world has, we’re not that special.
[quote]mazilla wrote:
NO MATTER THE CONSEQUENCES TO OUR WAY OF LIFE. the way of all life is to adapt and change, even if that means sucking up a few foreign bombs and the occasional suicide bomber on our soil. ther rest of the world has, we’re not that special.[/quote]
mazilla,
Unless it’s your family member, you callous sob.
You should be banned and your family fined for subjecting the human race to your malevolence.
JeffR
[quote]Inner Hulk wrote:
“A declassified summary of the latest National Intelligence Estimate found with “high confidence” that the Islamic republic stopped an effort to develop nuclear weapons in the fall of 2003.”
Hahahahahahaahahahahahaha
…
…
…
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
My god how could the infallible Fox News and republican base have been so wrong when they’re always right? Never the less, we should bomb their country to shit to free their oppressed people.[/quote]
Good morning, slapnuts.
Since I’m on the payroll of Halliburton, GHBush, GWBUSH, Cheney, Karl Rove, I can speak for them.
I say that this report, if true, is a mixed bag.
I can say without hesitation that iran stopping production is great news.
However, now they’ve dropped the pretence of “peaceful” nuclear production.
That is not good news.
Further, as Zap is pointing out, it puts the lie to lixy’s assertion that iran is just responding to the U.S.'s invasion of Iraq.
That is also not good news.
Finally, any jagbag who thinks they won’t resume at some point, needs some adjustment.
JeffR
Bush denying knowledge of the report.
[quote]lixy wrote:
Bush denying knowledge of the report.
[/quote]
I don’t get it. What are we looking for in this video?
[quote]mazilla wrote:
bahahaha. It’s funny to see people (like zap) speak of the future and their off the wall theories like they really do exist. if the fact they are not making weapons now, or EVER have(actually started a program), is not proof enough to leave their oil alone; just make up some far fetched fictional short to ensure “they will do it in the future”. ultimately, WHO CARES. they are another country full of people and should be free to do whatever they want. i wish we could keep our grubby hands out of other people cookie jar. it’s not the United States of the world we live in, we dont have the right to decide who does what. NO MATTER THE CONSEQUENCES TO OUR WAY OF LIFE. the way of all life is to adapt and change, even if that means sucking up a few foreign bombs and the occasional suicide bomber on our soil. ther rest of the world has, we’re not that special.[/quote]
Yeah, we should just take those foreign bombs and suicide bombers. We wouldn’t want to piss off the barbarians if we actually defended ourselves. They might, you know, become radical, and use foreign bombs, and suicide bombers, and stuff.
Hey if it’s a good enough excuse for them, that we should just tolerate it, why not the other way around? Maybe they should tolerate our bombers, navy, army, and marines blowing them up.
…lol.
The fact is if some news came out saying Global Warming hasn’t begun yet, can you imagine what Zap and Jeff would say if someone claimed we should start doing stuff because it would in the future?
Imagine it guys, and lol with me.
Libya and Iran both halted their nuclear-weapons development programs in 2003. There must have been some sort of catalyst that happened then to cause that action, but I just can’t put my finger on it… what was that again?
PARIS, Dec. 4 �?? The International Atomic Energy Agency on Tuesday publicly embraced the new American intelligence assessment stating that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons effort, but in truth the agency is taking a more cautious approach in drawing conclusions about Iran�??s nuclear program.
A report last month by Mohamed ElBaradei, the international agency�??s leader, was less categorical than the American finding.
The International Atomic Energy Agency says it has “outstanding issues” about Iran�??s nuclear enrichment complex in Natanz.
�??To be frank, we are more skeptical,�?? a senior official close to the agency said. �??We don�??t buy the American analysis 100 percent. We are not that generous with Iran.�??
The official called the American assertion that Iran had �??halted�?? its weapons program in 2003 �??somewhat surprising.�??
That the nuclear watchdog agency based in Vienna is sounding a somewhat tougher line than the Bush administration is surprising, given that the administration has long criticized it for not pressuring Iran hard enough to curb its nuclear program.
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Interesting editorial in today’s WSJ on topic to this discussion:
[i]‘High Confidence’ Games
December 5, 2007; Page A24
In his press conference yesterday, President Bush went out of his way to praise the “good work” of the intelligence community, whose latest National Intelligence Estimate claims the mullahs of Iran abandoned their nuclear weapons program in 2003. “This is heartening news,” Mr. Bush said. “To me, it’s a way for us to rally our partners.”
We wish we could be as sanguine, both about the quality of U.S. intelligence and its implications for U.S. diplomacy. For years, senior Administration officials, including Condoleezza Rice, have stressed to us how little the government knows about what goes on inside Iran. In 2005, the bipartisan Robb-Silberman report underscored that “Across the board, the Intelligence Community knows disturbingly little about the nuclear programs of many of the world’s most dangerous actors.” And as our liberal friends used to remind us, you can never trust the CIA. (Only later did they figure out the agency was usually on their side.)
As recently as 2005, the consensus estimate of our spooks was that “Iran currently is determined to develop nuclear weapons” and do so “despite its international obligations and international pressure.” This was a “high confidence” judgment. The new NIE says Iran abandoned its nuclear program in 2003 “in response to increasing international scrutiny.” This too is a “high confidence” conclusion. One of the two conclusions is wrong, and casts considerable doubt on the entire process by which these “estimates” – the consensus of 16 intelligence bureaucracies – are conducted and accorded gospel status.
Our own “confidence” is not heightened by the fact that the NIE’s main authors include three former State Department officials with previous reputations as “hyper-partisan anti-Bush officials,” according to an intelligence source. They are Tom Fingar, formerly of the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research; Vann Van Diepen, the National Intelligence Officer for WMD; and Kenneth Brill, the former U.S. Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
For a flavor of their political outlook, former Bush Administration antiproliferation official John Bolton recalls in his recent memoir that then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage “described Brill’s efforts in Vienna, or lack thereof, as ‘bull – .’” Mr. Brill was “retired” from the State Department by Colin Powell before being rehired, over considerable internal and public protest, as head of the National Counter-Proliferation Center by then-National Intelligence Director John Negroponte.
No less odd is the NIE’s conclusion that Iran abandoned its nuclear weapons program in 2003 in response to “international pressure.” The only serious pressure we can recall from that year was the U.S. invasion of Iraq. At the time, an Iranian opposition group revealed the existence of a covert Iranian nuclear program to mill and enrich uranium and produce heavy water at sites previously unknown to U.S. intelligence. The Bush Administration’s response was to punt the issue to the Europeans, who in 2003 were just beginning years of fruitless diplomacy before the matter was turned over to the U.N. Security Council.
Mr. Bush implied yesterday that the new estimate was based on “some new information,” which remains classified. We can only hope so. But the indications that the Bush Administration was surprised by this NIE, and the way it scrambled yesterday to contain its diplomatic consequences, hardly inspire even “medium confidence” that our spooks have achieved some epic breakthrough. The truth could as easily be that the Administration in its waning days has simply lost any control of its bureaucracy – not that it ever had much.
In any case, the real issue is not Iran’s nuclear weapons program, but its nuclear program, period. As the NIE acknowledges, Iran continues to enrich uranium on an industrial scale – that is, build the capability to make the fuel for a potential bomb. And it is doing so in open defiance of binding U.N. resolutions. No less a source than the IAEA recently confirmed that Iran already has blueprints to cast uranium in the shape of an atomic bomb core.
The U.S. also knows that Iran has extensive technical information on how to fit a warhead atop a ballistic missile. And there is considerable evidence that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps has been developing the detonation devices needed to set off a nuclear explosion at the weapons testing facility in Parchin. Even assuming that Iran is not seeking a bomb right now, it is hardly reassuring that they are developing technologies that could bring them within a screw’s twist of one.
Mr. Bush’s efforts to further sanction Iran at the U.N. were stalled even before the NIE’s release. Those efforts will now be on life support. The NIE’s judgments also complicate Treasury’s efforts to persuade foreign companies to divest from Iran. Why should they lose out on lucrative business opportunities when even U.S. intelligence absolves the Iranians of evil intent? Calls by Democrats and their media friends to negotiate with Tehran “without preconditions” will surely grow louder.
The larger worry here is how little we seem to have learned from our previous intelligence failures. Over the course of a decade, our intelligence services badly underestimated Saddam’s nuclear ambitions, then overestimated them. Now they have done a 180-degree turn on Iran, and in such a way that will contribute to a complacency that will make it easier for Iran to build a weapon. Our intelligence services are supposed to inform the policies of elected officials, but increasingly their judgments seem to be setting policy. This is dangerous.[/i]
Eegads!!!
Hypothetically, possibly, maybe sometime in the future, theoretically, Iran could build a nuclear weapon.
You short sighted liberals and your “diplomacy”. Pfffft.
Shoot em all let god sort em out! Rar ! Yeah! Guns and stuff! Bombs! Tanks ratatatatat boom! Blood and guts fuck yeah! America fucking rocks!
Here’s the thing though. Technically, they may have suspended their weapons program, but they’re still intent on a civilian nuclear program. Does anyone here honestly believe this civilian program isn’t a cover for advancing nuclear capabilities for the purpose of developing a bomb? I’m sure the plan is to get as much dual use knowledge, equipment, and material lined up as possible. And then suddenly Iran’s testing a nuclear bomb no intel agency knew they had.
US actions against Saddam may have spooked them off of directly carrying on with a weapons program, but that’s still their intent. Hey, I can respect disagreement on allowing Iran to obtain nuclear weapons, sort of. But, let’s not play dumb and pretend their civilian program doesn’t have a dual purpose.
[quote]Inner Hulk wrote:
Eegads!!!
Hypothetically, possibly, maybe sometime in the future, theoretically, Iran could build a nuclear weapon.
You short sighted liberals and your “diplomacy”. Pfffft.
Shoot em all let god sort em out! Rar ! Yeah! Guns and stuff! Bombs! Tanks ratatatatat boom! Blood and guts fuck yeah! America fucking rocks![/quote]
It is obvious you don’t read the news, just the headlines.