Source:
CNNMANAMA, Bahrain (CNN) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has called on the international community to step up pressure on Iran to vow not to develop nuclear weapons, suspend uranium enrichment and open up its nuclear facilities for inspection.
Gates' address to a Gulf states' security conference Saturday came a day after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters at a NATO meeting in Belgium that the United States will continue to push for a new U.N. resolution to pressure Iran to halt its nuclear program.
Gates sarcastically noted that Iran celebrated the U.S. intelligence community's recent report -- the National Intelligence Estimate -- that said Iran suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003. He said it marks a "watershed" that "Iran has, for the first time, embraced as valid an assessment of the United States intelligence community -- on Iran's nuclear weapons program."
He said "since that government now acknowledges the quality of American intelligence assessments, I assume that it also will embrace as valid American intelligence assessments" that Iran is funding and training of militia groups in Iraq; deploying lethal weapons and technology to both Iraq and Afghanistan; supporting terrorist organizations -- like Hezbollah and Hamas -- that have murdered thousands of innocent civilians; and continued research and development of medium-range ballistic missiles that can carry weapons of mass destruction.
Read more:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/12/08/us.iran/index.html
So NOW the message is ... stop Iran from RESTARTING its nuclear program, "if it has not done so already"?!? These guys just got caught lying about Iran having a program in the first place, but they don't pause a beat -- they're out there fearmongering against a POSSIBLE, FUTURE program, and taking the line that the NIE largely CONFIRMS everything they had to say! Far from backing off, they want to INTENSIFY efforts against Iran. It's like admitting the dog didn't eat their homework after all, but they deserve an "A" because, in their opinion, they did a good job on it!