SOME BAD NEWS, SOME GOOD NEWS

The neo-cons and Likudniks forced Charles Freeman to decline an intelligence position because he was not sufficiently keen on promoting Israel, so score one for them. The rest of us can take some solace in the fact that our other intelligence officials aren't backing down.

Officials: Iran does not have key nuclear material
Mar 10 12:47 PM US/Eastern
By PAMELA HESS
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Iran does not yet have any highly enriched uranium, the fuel needed to make a nuclear warhead, two top U.S. intelligence officials told Congress Tuesday, disputing a claim by an Israeli official.

U.S. National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Michael Maples said Tuesday that Iran has only low-enriched uranium—which would need to be refined into highly enriched uranium before it can fuel a warhead. Neither officials said there were indications that refining has occurred.

Their comments disputed a claim made last weekend by Israel's top intelligence military official, who said Iran has crossed a technical threshold and is now capable of producing atomic weapons.

The claim made by Israeli Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin runs counter to estimates by U.S. intelligence that the earliest Iran could produce a weapon is 2010, with some analysts saying it is more likely that it is 2015.

Maples said the United States and Israel are interpreting the same facts, but arriving at different conclusions.

"The Israelis are far more concerned about it," Maples told the Senate Armed Services Committee.