Obama security adviser: Picture on Iran not good - You don't say!

"The news from Iran is not good," to paraphrase a statesman of an earlier generation. Actually, the picture regarding Iran was not good two years ago. Now it is approaching disaster. The fault did not begin in the Obama administration, but in the absurd National Intelligence Estimate that estimated with a low probability of certainty that there was a high probability that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon. There is a high probability, estimated with virtually absulute certainty, that the NIE report was a political fabrication.

 

At the time, the Bush administration could see no way forward in Iran if they were building a nuclear weapon other than attack. Since attacking Iran was out of the question, it was vital to "prove" that they were not building a nuclear weapon, and had no plans to do so, regardless of facts.

 

Last update - 17:28 06/12/2009       
Obama security adviser: Picture on Iran not good
By The Associated Press

 

U.S. President Barack Obama's national security adviser said Sunday that the door remains open for Iran to work with other countries on its nuclear program. But James Jones also said that "picture is not a good one."

 

The clock is ticking toward the end of the year, Jones said during an appearance on CNN's State of the Union. That is the deadline Obama gave with regard to when it would be clear if Iran was ready to work with the United States, other United Nations Security Council members and Germany to assure the world it was not trying to build a nuclear weapon.

 

So far, Iran has rejected calls to enter negotiations, and Obama is believed preparing to seek harsher international penalties against Iran. Jones said the door remains open for Iran to change course.
 
Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful and it has a right to enrich uranium to produce fuel for nuclear reactors to generate electricity.