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Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/07/AR2011010703149.html
Buying Time with Iran
(Washington Post) David Ignatius - The Obama administration has concluded that Iran's nuclear program has been slowed by a combination of sanctions, sabotage and Iran's own technical troubles. Because of the delay, U.S. officials see what one describes as "a little bit of space" before any military showdown with Iran. What's increasingly clear is that low-key weapons - covert sabotage and economic sanctions - are accomplishing many of the benefits of military action, without the costs. The most direct confirmation that sabotage has paid off came from Iranian President Ahmadinejad, who said in November that the Stuxnet computer virus had damaged the Natanz operation. A fascinating (and remarkably detailed) account of the Stuxnet attack was published Dec. 22 by the Institute for Science and International Security. The study described how the virus was targeted to attack a key electronic control in the centrifuges, known as a "frequency converter," so that the spin of the rotors was increased and slowed in a way that would cause a malfunction. The virus may have been introduced in early or mid-2009. By late 2009 or early 2010, the study said, Iran decommissioned and replaced about 1,000 centrifuges - far more than normal breakage. The delays in the Iranian program are important because they add strategic warning time for the West to respond to any Iranian push for a bomb. U.S. officials estimate that if Iran were to try a "break out" by enriching uranium at Natanz to the 90% level needed for a bomb, that move would be detectable - and it would take Iran one to two more years to make a bomb.