A cleric speaks with students as they look at a scale model of the nuclear fuel cycle at an exhibition of nuclear industry achievements at Iran's Shahid Beheshti University. Photo from Radio Free EuropeFrom The Wall Street Journal:
'Work on nuclear weapons can be observed in Iran even after 2003'
President Obama has committed to trying diplomacy to stop the Iranian bomb. Time, though, is on the mullahs' side, not least because so much of it was wasted after the 2007 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate made the improbable case that Iran had suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003. This assessment not only contradicted previous U.S. intelligence consensus but -- as recent court documents show -- also the conclusions of a key U.S. ally with excellent sources in Iran -- Germany.
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My Comment: When the NIE report was released in 2007, it was in the middle of the debate on what we were doing in Iraq. Civil war was breaking out, and critics were vicious in their attack against President Bush and his policies in the Middle East.
Did this politicized atmosphere affect the final NIE report .... when one reads the German assessment of Iran's nuclear program, you cannot help but feel that it was.