Source: Washington's Blog
Date: 1/25/2012
Iran Is NOT Building a Nuclear Bomb
Earlier this month, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta
said:
Are they [the Iranians] trying to develop a nuclear weapon? No. But we know that they’re trying to develop a nuclear capability. And that’s what concerns us.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper
confirmed
in a Senate hearing – following the release of the classified National
Intelligence Estimate in 2011 – that he has a “high level of confidence”
that Iran “has not made a decision as of this point to restart its
nuclear weapons program.”
Mohamed ElBaradei – who spent more than a decade as the director of the IAEA –
said that he had not “seen a shred of evidence” that Iran was pursuing the bomb.
Six former ambassadors to Iran within the last decade say that
there is no evidence that Iran is building nuclear weapons, and that Iran is complying with international law.
The International Atomic Energy Agency
states:
All nuclear material in the facility remains under the Agency’s containment and surveillance.
In other words, all nuclear fuel is accounted for and is being
controlled and monitored by the international agency tasked with nuclear
non-proliferation.
What about Iran’s enriching uranium to 20%? The IAEA
considers 20 percent enriched uranium to be low
-enriched
uranium and “a fully adequate isotopic barrier” to weaponization. In
other words, 20% is well within the legal guidelines for developing a
program of nuclear
energy.