The US is conceding that there is no proof Iran has a nuclear weapon program, but slipping in more misinformation that makes people believe Iran had a nuclear weapon program.
The IAEA nor anyone else has any evidence that Iran had a nuclear weapon program. If anyone has a link to this proof the the NIE based its assertion on that Iran had a nuclear weapon program, I'd like to see it.
Everything I've read about Iran appears to support their claims that they do not seek nuclear weapons.
You can pick up the NIE "report" over
here. In it such a statement as:
We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program;
which clearly implies that Iran had a weapons program with certainty equal to 1, but probably terminated it. Now people are stating, "Iran halted its weapons program in 2003," as if they were certain that there was a weapons program in 2002. No where in that NIE document does a statement like, "We estimate with X certainty that Iran had a nuclear weapons program," occur; the release is framed upon an assertion that it did. The evidence for these statements is never discussed and they are never earnest about the credibility of their intelligence on the history of the supposed nuclear weapons program.
There is also this quote from the
financial times,
Dana Perino, White House spokeswoman, revealed on Wednesday that President George W. Bush had been told in August the intelligence estimate would be delayed because “new information had been obtained just as they were about to finalise the report”. Mr Bush was told “Iran does in fact have a covert nuclear weapons programme, but it may be suspended.”
The focus has been completely wrong on this issue. Industrialized countries party to the nonproliferation treaty (NPT) refused to help Iran begin a civil nuclear program, in violation of their obligations. Iran was thus forced to deal with Pakistan, who not being a party to the nonproliferation treaty is considered a black market for nuclear technologies. Iran didn't disclose this to the nonproliferation treaty nations because it had no reason to divulge national objectives to unhelpful nations. Only when the NPT nations learn of this program did they offer to "help" Iran, contingent on Iran scrapping its own production chain would the NPT "legitimize" Iran by allowing Iran to be dependent for reactor technology and reactor fuels. This is all outlined in the Nov 17th IAEA board report.
How does alienating a nation in any way take steps towards building healthy relations with it? The aim of current policy is to weaken Iran, not strengthen relations. There are genuine concerns in Iran that will never be addressed so long as this prejudiced international hostility is considered the norm of relations.