British spy chief says Iran is two years from nuclear bomb

[Eugene]

Source: Christian Science Monitor

British spy chief says Iran is two years from nuclear bomb

By Tom A. Peter, Correspondent / July 13, 2012

In a rare public remark, the head of Britain’s spy agency said that British agents had stopped Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons as early as 2008. But despite the spy agency's efforts, the Islamic Republic is two years from getting an atomic arsenal, MI6 chief Sir John Sawers said.

If this happens, Israel and the US are likely to take, or seriously consider, military action against Iran, he added.

“The Iranians are determinedly going down a path to master all aspects of nuclear weapons; all the technologies they need,” Mr. Sawers said, according to The Telegraph. “It’s equally clear that Israel and the United States would face huge dangers if Iran were to become a nuclear weapon state. … I think it will be very tough for any prime minister of Israel or president of the United States to accept a nuclear-armed Iran.”

Sawers – who was "once the ranking British diplomat on the Iranian nuclear issue," according to The New York Times – made the remarks at a recent gathering of 100 senior British civil servants in London. It was his second public address since taking the helm of MI6 in 2009, reports Agence France-Presse.

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Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/terrorism-security/2012/0713/British-spy-chief-says-Iran-is-two-years-from-nuclear-bomb

[KansDem]

1. Yeah? How much yellow cake does it have?

The Niger uranium forgeries are forged documents initially revealed by SISMI (Italian military intelligence). These documents seem to depict an attempt made by Saddam Hussein in Iraq to purchase yellowcake uranium powder from Niger during the Iraq disarmament crisis.

On the basis of these documents and other indicators, the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom asserted that Iraq had attempted to procure nuclear material for the purpose of creating what they called weapons of mass destruction, referred to as WMD, in defiance of the United Nations Iraq sanctions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger_uranium_forgeries

Here's Snopes take on it--
http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/yellowcake.asp

Really? They're really going to try this shit again?

C'mon, "world leaders!" You're not talking to children out here on the tubes!! We're not all fear-fearing Republicans!!!

I'm insulted just to think they think we'll fall for this scam again...

[OnyxCollie]

2. If they have a bomb, maybe the US won't attack.

That'd be nice.

[leveymg]

3. Another Dicey Dossier, Sir John?

While you were "once the ranking British diplomat on the Iranian nuclear issue," you didn't by any chance have anything to do with cooking up parts of falsified Iraq WMD that got inserted into this prime piece of propaganda?

http://www.blatantworld.com/speech/colin_powell_un_speech_which_led_to_iraq_war.html

[bemildred]

4. Wow, four Friedman units, that's a long way off.