|
A senior international official refused to say directly whether Washington is providing intelligence that backs up such suspicions. He did say, however, that the United States is one of the main sources on Iran's atomic weapons work, and that the agency keeps "getting information about such activities after 2003 from all ... sources." He asked for anonymity because his information is confidential. Experts note that U.S. intelligence sees disagreement among Iran's leaders on whether to build a bomb or just work to reach that capacity. That, they say, might even mean that some groups may be working on weapons without the knowledge of others. "I'm not even sure the Iranians know themselves," says Bruno Tetrais, a senior research fellow with the French-based Foundation for Strategic Research. "There may be different factions with different objectives." There is more clarity about Iran's nuclear enrichment program. Iran has enriched tons of fuel-grade material since its clandestine program was discovered 10 years ago. More recently, worries have been compounded by its decision two years ago to start enriching at a higher level that can be turned into fissile warhead material much more quickly and easily than its low enriched uranium. Its total low and higher-level stockpile is now enough for four weapons
-- and is growing daily. In Washington last week U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, the former CIA director, said an Iranian decision to build a nuclear weapon "is the red line that would concern us and that would ensure that the international community, hopefully together, would respond," he said. "We will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon," he told the House Appropriations defense subcommittee. But nuclear proliferation expert David Albright said that any breaching of the U.S. red line may only become obvious "when Iran makes a move to break out" by kicking out IAEA inspectors and openly diverting its low-enriched uranium stockpile to produce weapons-grade uranium deep underground and safe from attack. "The warning time may not be great between such steps and the time they actually have the bomb," he said. For Yatom, the ex-Mossad head, the time to stop Iran through diplomacy may already have passed. "They have the know-how, the technology, the infrastructure, everything," he says. Once they decide to build a bomb, they will be able to build a bomb
-- unless somebody stops them."
[Associated
Press;
Associated Press writers Douglas Birch in Washington, David Stringer in London, Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Elaine Ganley in Paris contributed.
George Jahn can be reached at http://twitter.com/georgejahn.
Copyright 2012 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
News | Sports | Business | Rural Review | Teaching & Learning | Home and Family | Tourism | Obituaries
Community |
Perspectives
|
Law & Courts |
Leisure Time
|
Spiritual Life |
Health & Fitness |
Teen Scene
Calendar
|
Letters to the Editor