Hysteria Now! (Facts Be Damned)

Plans for the 400-meter tunnel appear designed for an underground atomic-test detonation that one day might announce Iran's arrival as a nuclear power, the officials said.

By U.S. and allied intelligence estimates, that day remains as much as a decade away -- assuming Iran applies the full measure of its resources to the project and encounters no major technical hurdles. But whether Iran's leaders have reached that decision and what concrete progress the effort has made remain divisive questions among government analysts and U.N. inspectors. [...]

Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the IAEA, said he cannot judge Iran's program "exclusively peaceful". At the same time, Iran is "not an imminent threat", he said.

Until Iran operates an industrial-scale centrifuge cascade for the production of bomb-grade uranium, the country will remain as much as 10 years away from a weapon, say U.S. intelligence experts. [Emphases added.]

Posted by Eddie Tews at February 8, 2006 01:26 PM