Israel believes Iran restarted nuclear arms work

Wow! I mean, wow! I sure didn't expect Israel to react this way to the NIE report.

Update below where Israel (Omert) admits to having nuclear weapons.

Of course, this is exactly how they could be expected to react. I was being facetious in the last paragraph. The NIE report doesn't say what Israel wants to hear. They need Iran as a bogeyman and aren't about to give it up. Cheney won't either. You just watch.

But China, Russia? They might think differently. They know the capabilities of US intelligence and will probably trust it. That's what got US into Iraq in the first fucking place. Bush presented a highly politicized NIE report to the world. People believed what they were told because the NIE has a record for accuracy. That is, if left alone to give honest independent assessments.

In fact, except for the date on the report, it is probably a carbon copy of the one which would have been produced without the meddling of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld. People were told what the report should say regardless of their analysis and they should throw in words like "probably", "likely" and such instead of stating they had a high degree of confidence.

My tendency is to trust this one because the 16 intelligence agencies which came to the same conclusion are no longer fearful of Dim Son. If the heads of all 16 agencies were replaced tomorrow, its only for 12 months because the next president can reinstate them.


All emphasis (read weasel words) are mine.

Israel said on Tuesday Iran had probably restarted its nuclear weapons programme and that a U.S. intelligence report saying the work was frozen in 2003 and remained on hold was incomplete.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said the U.S. report on Monday, which came in sharp contrast to an earlier assertion that Tehran was intent on developing a bomb, did not provide a full picture of Iran's weapons programme.

"It seems Iran in 2003 halted for a certain period of time its military nuclear programme but as far as we know it has probably since renewed it," Barak told Army Radio.

...

Israel is widely believed to have the only atomic arsenal in the Middle East, although it has never confirmed or denied that.

Someone came damn close.

A retired Israeli general said Thursday Israel is no longer trying to convince anyone that it has no nuclear arsenal.

You want close? How about an explicit comment from Olmert?

In a German TV interview aired Monday, Olmert said: "Iran, openly, explicitly and publicly threatens to wipe Israel off the map. Can you say that this is the same level, when they are aspiring to have nuclear weapons, as America, France, Israel, Russia?

Goddamn it, I didn't intend to post about the NIE because everyone has and then Israel forced my hand.

Via Reuters.