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Iran Was Closer to a Nuclear Bomb than Intelligence Agencies Thought
(Foreign Policy) Michael Hirsh - A secret Iranian archive seized by Israeli agents earlier this year indicates that Tehran's nuclear program was more advanced than Western intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency had thought, according to David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector who runs the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington. If Iran restarts its centrifuges, it could produce weapons-grade uranium in 7 to 12 months, said Albright, who is preparing reports on the archive. "The archive is littered with new stuff about the Iranian nuclear weapons program," Albright told Foreign Policy. "It's unbelievable how much is in there." The Iranians "were further along than Western intelligence agencies realized." The trove of documents demonstrates that Washington and the IAEA were constantly underestimating how close Tehran was to a bomb.