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Skeptics Doubt U.S. Can Be Certain about Iran's Nuclear Progress

(Los Angeles Times) Ken Dilanian - Despite President Obama's assurances that the U.S. will know if Tehran begins to secretly build a nuclear bomb, some senior officials familiar with U.S. intelligence and spying capabilities in Iran are doubtful. Over the last decade, Western intelligence agencies have twice discovered large-scale clandestine Iranian facilities built to enrich uranium. "You have to assume that, if they went clandestine once, they could well go clandestine in other places," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee. A former senior U.S. intelligence official said Iran probably would move the clandestine project to multiple sites to lower the risk of discovery. "I think it would be very difficult" to learn if Iran began building a bomb, he said. "Not impossible, but difficult." Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, noted that U.S. intelligence agencies were unaware that Syria was secretly constructing a nuclear reactor until shortly before Israeli warplanes destroyed the partially built facility in 2007.
2012-03-12 00:00:00
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