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Inside the Ring: Controversial Iran Intel Estimate Revisited

Gen. Michael Hayden / AP
July 23, 2015

One of the enduring questions about Iran’s nuclear program, which could be answered under the nuclear deal reached in Vienna this month, is whether a highly debated 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Tehran’s nuclear program was accurate or off the mark.

The controversial NIE concluded that Iran had halted all work on nuclear arms in 2003. The report marked a dramatic and surprising shift by intelligence analysts. Two years earlier, another NIE report said Iran was building enriched uranium-based nuclear arms with help from the covert Pakistani nuclear supplier network headed by A.Q. Khan.

The 2007 estimate concluded, "We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program."

Read the full article at the Washington Times.

Published under: Iran