Secret Report Says Iran Could Build a Bomb

Let’s see how the cable news channels cover this one: A “secret report” by the International Atomic Energy Agency suggests that Iran has “sufficient information” to make a nuclear weapon and has “probably tested” a key component, but the agency admits it has no hard evidence of a warhead program in Iran.

This report comes at a time when the NATO defense shield agreement has—thankfully—been rethought, and Mohamed ElBaradei, the esteemed director of the agency, is preparing to step down after more than a decade of service.

The Guardian:

The UN nuclear inspection agency believes that Iran has “sufficient information” to make a nuclear weapon and had “probably tested” a key component, it was reported last night.

The Associated Press said it had obtained a “secret annexe” to a report on Iran by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which suggests that the agency’s experts were more convinced Iran had been trying to make a bomb than its outgoing director, Mohamed ElBaradei, had admitted.

ElBaradei, a Nobel peace prizewinner, who leaves his post at the end of November, has said there is “no concrete evidence” the Iranians had worked on building a warhead. The agency repeated that position last night, in response to the AP report saying there was no “concrete proof that there is or has been a nuclear weapons programme in Iran”, and that “all relevant information and assessments” are presented to the IAEA member states.

Read more

AP / Hasan Sarbakhshian

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has thumbed his nose at U.N. sanctions and said Iran will continue to pursue what he calls a peaceful nuclear program.