An investigation by the LA Times has confirmed what Israel has been saying for the past few months: Iran is closer than ever to building a nuclear bomb.
After more than a decade of working behind layers of front companies and in hidden laboratories, Iran appears to be in the late stages of developing the capacity to build a nuclear bomb.
Iran insists that like many countries it is only building commercial nuclear reactors to generate electricity for homes and factories. “Iran’s efforts in the field of nuclear technology are focused on civilian application and nothing else,” President Mohammad Khatami said on state television in February. “This is the legitimate right of the Iranian people.”
But a three-month investigation by The Times – drawing on previously secret reports, international officials, independent experts, Iranian exiles and intelligence sources in Europe and the Middle East – uncovered strong evidence that Iran’s commercial program masks a plan to become the world’s next nuclear power. The country has been engaged in a pattern of clandestine activity that has concealed weapons work from international inspectors. Technology and scientists from Russia, China, North Korea and Pakistan have propelled Iran’s nuclear program much closer to producing a bomb than Iraq ever was.
No one is certain when Iran might produce its first atomic weapon. Some experts said two or three years; others believe the government has probably not given a final go-ahead. But it is clear that Iran is moving purposefully and rapidly toward acquiring the capability.
The article also makes mention of an alarming speech made by a former president of Iran:
Hashemi Rafsanjani, head of an influential government council and president of Iran from 1989 to 1997, gave a speech on Dec. 14, 2001, that has been interpreted widely as both a signal that Iran wants nuclear weapons and a threat to use them against Israel. Describing the establishment of the Jewish state as the worst event in history, Rafsanjani warned, “In due time the Islamic world will have a military nuclear device, and then the strategy of the West would reach a dead end, since one bomb is enough to destroy all Israel.”
While this is obviously an ominous development, it would be foolish for the Irans and Syrias of the world to mount an attack on Israel, especially of the non-conventional kind. I have been told by people who know people that Israel has weapons that make the mind boggle.
