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US Spies Are Voice of Caution in Iran Debate

Israelis, Europeans believe Tehran is developing warheads

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Sep 29, 2009 11:00 AM CDT

(Newser) – The global intelligence community is at odds over whether Iran is developing nuclear warheads, with US spies insisting it isn’t, and European and Israeli spies begging to differ. In what the New York Times calls a “mirror image” of the Iraq debate, the US say documents found by hacking Iranian computers prove the program halted in 2003. The Israelis, however, believe it was restarted in 2005, and the Germans say it never stopped.

US officials say those cases are flimsy and circumstantial. The key to the debate could be the recently uncovered Qom site. One US official says it’s probably “the big one,” bearing all the marks they’d expect from a weapons facility. The Christian Science Monitor notes that what we know thus far about Qom fits with what we'd expect of a covert facility: hidden, small, and likely constructed in 2005, perhaps a second attempt at creating a secret site after word of its first clandestine facility leaked in 2003.

This satellite image taken Sunday Sept. 27, 2009 shows a suspected nuclear enrichment facility under construction inside a mountain located about 20 miles north northeast of Qom, Iran.
This satellite image taken Sunday Sept. 27, 2009 shows a suspected nuclear enrichment facility under construction inside a mountain located about 20 miles north northeast of Qom, Iran.   (AP Photo/DigitalGlobe)
CIA Director Leon Panetta speaks at the Bint Jebail Cultural Center in Dearborn, Mich., Sept. 16, 2009 during the iftar, the evening meal that breaks the fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
CIA Director Leon Panetta speaks at the Bint Jebail Cultural Center in Dearborn, Mich., Sept. 16, 2009 during the iftar, the evening meal that breaks the fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.   (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
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COMMENTS
Showing 2 of 2 comments
Spudsy
Sep 29, 2009 7:24 AM CDT
If Israel wants to do it then they should do it. We shouldn't control them and they should not control us.
RockyPneumonia
Sep 29, 2009 4:30 AM CDT
...And will be condemned by fuzzy-thinkers, as they have been in the past.

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