There is so much rubbish said about the supposed Iranian nuclear weapons program that it is a good idea to “review the bidding” about this.
Iran does have a nuclear power program, but:
“In 2012, sixteen U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, reported that Iran was pursuing research that could enable it to produce nuclear weapons, but was not attempting to do so.[15] The senior officers of all of the major American intelligence agencies stated that there was no conclusive evidence that Iran has made any attempt to produce nuclear weapons since 2003.[16] In a 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, the United States Intelligence Communityassessed that Iran had ended all “nuclear weapon design and weaponization work” in 2003.[17] U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta stated in January 2012 that Iran was pursuing a nuclear weapons capability, but was not attempting to produce nuclear weapons” wiki on Iran and weapons of mass destruction.
As you can see from my 2017 post, I have long thought that Iran does not have a nuclear WEAPONS production program and has not had one since 2003 when US occupation of Iraq eliminated the possibility of the survival of some elements of the earlier Iraqi nuclear weapons program eliminated by the UN inspections regime acting on US intelligence (I was involved) after the 1st Gulf War. In 2003 the Ayatollah Khomeini ruled that an Iranian nuclear weapons program could no longer be justified as a deterrent in the absence of an Iraqi program. He then cancelled authorization for the program.
The IAEA has not found that Iran has a nuclear WEAPONS program. This is taken by the hawks as PROOF that the IAEA is not inspecting thoroughly enough. On that basis it can never be proven that Iran does not have a nuclear WEAPONS program.
If that is so why is it that the notion persists that Iran does or did have before JCPOA a nuclear WEAPONS program?
1. The Israeli terror at the thought that Iran might secretly be constructing the necessary one or two nuclear weapons needed to destroy Israel drives the media IO campaign for maximum means and levels of pressure. This has been an enormously successful campaign. It has made the image of an Iranian program vivid and enduring
2. Iranian cleverness. The Iranian perception seems to have been that if the West, especially the Gringos, wish to believe that there is an Iranian nuclear WEAPONS program, then let us negotiate with them over it. Before JCPOA, there was an immense amount of Iranian money impounded in the US. Now there is less. If Trump had not cancelled US participation in JCPOA, who knows what other benefits might have accrued to Iran.
JCPOA was probably a lot like Qaddafi surrendering his nuclear weapons program to earn good will from GW Bush. Libya’s nuclear program consisted of warehouses full of crates that the Libyans treated with superstitious awe.
Is there REALLY an Iranian nuclear WEAPONS program?
Reprinted with permission from SicSemperTyrannis.
