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Iran: The facts on those "nukes"

George Bush and his VP, Dick Cheney - and of course, people like John Bolton, former US ambassador to the UN and the ever noisy neo-cons - are all agitating for action to be taken against Iran to stop its march toward becoming a nuclear power. Israel has also claimed that Iran's development as a nuclear power needs to be stopped.

This morning's news that Iran stopped development of nuclear weapons back in 2003, will come as a surprise to many - and hopefully bring restraint to those advocating some sort of attack on Iran. The Los Angeles Times reports:

"U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the threat of international sanctions has worked in compelling the Islamic republic to back away from its pursuit of the bomb.

These judgments were among the key findings of a long-awaited intelligence report in which U.S. spy agencies retreated from earlier assessments that were more hard-line in their view of Iran's nuclear ambitions and intentions.

The document, and the nuanced tone it strikes toward Iran, is likely to generate fierce new debate within the U.S. government, challenging the positions of officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, who have urged taking a hard line against Tehran.

The report also concludes that Iran "does not currently have a nuclear weapon," and that the country is unlikely to be capable of producing enough highly enriched uranium to make a bomb before 2009 at the earliest.

The findings were included in a National Intelligence Estimate titled "Iran: Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities" that represents a consensus view of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies.

"We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program," the report says. "We also assess with moderate-to-high confidence that Tehran at a minimum is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons."

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