Iran War: Been there, done that - about to do it again?

Group Says Iran Has Secret Nuclear Arms Program by Douglas Jehl New York Times 11/17/04

An Iranian opposition group says it has new evidence that Iran is producing enriched uranium at a covert Defense Ministry facility in Tehran that has not been disclosed to United Nations inspectors.

The group, the National Council for Resistance in Iran, is planning to announce its finding in Paris on Wednesday. The group says that inspection of the site would demonstrate that Iran is secretly trying to produce nuclear weapons even while promising to freeze a critical part of its declared nuclear program, which it maintains is intended purely for civilian purposes.

The Iran connection by Edward Pound US News and World Report 11/22/04 issue

With the Pentagon's stepped-up efforts to break the back of the insurgency before Iraq's scheduled elections in late January, Iran's efforts to destabilize Iraq have received little public attention. But a review of thousands of pages of intelligence reports by U.S. News reveals the critical role Iran has played in aiding some elements of the anti-American insurgency after Baghdad fell--and raises important questions about whether Iran will continue to try to destabilize Iraq after elections are held. The classified intelligence reports, covering the period July 2003 through early 2004, were prepared by the CIA; the Defense Intelligence Agency; the Iraq Survey Group, the 1,400-person outfit President Bush sent to Iraq to find weapons of mass destruction; the Coalition Provisional Authority; and various military commands and units in the field, including the V Corps and the Pentagon's Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force. The reports are based on information gathered from Iraqis, Iranian dissidents, and other sources inside Iraq. U.S. News also reviewed British intelligence assessments of the postwar phase in Iraq.

Many of the reports are uncorroborated and are considered "raw" intelligence of the type seldom seen by those outside the national security community. But the picture that emerges from the sheer volume of the reports, and as a result of the multiplicity of sources from which they were generated, leaves little doubt about the depth of Iran's involvement in supporting elements of the insurgency and in positioning itself to move quickly in Iraq if it believes a change in circumstances there dictates such action. [my emphasis]

Ah, yes, an exile group with insider information.  Raw intelligence reports.  I wonder if there is anything about yellowcake from Niger in any of this stuff?

And this program that may exist might someday be used to produce weapons that Iran might someday give to somebody that might eventually try to use them against the US.  And Iran has connections with Al Qaeda and The Terrorists.  And there about the evilest, most nastiest dictatorship on the planet, worse than Hitler, worse than Stalin, worse even than Saddam Hussein.  So we have to git 'em.

As Laura Rozen asks, "This is all so familiar, isn't it?"

Indeed it is.  As Dear Leader Bush once said, "fool me once, shame on ... shame on you. It fool me. We can't get fooled again."

Then there's this: U.N. Sees No New Nuclear Signs in Iran by Douglas Frantz Los Angeles Times 11/16/04.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog said Monday that inspectors had uncovered no new evidence of concealed nuclear activities or an atomic weapons program in Iran, though it cautioned that the agency could not rule out covert activities.

The findings by the International Atomic Energy Agency were contained in a confidential report revealed the day after Iran's new pledge to suspend its uranium enrichment program.

The report's findings and Iran's promise to suspend enrichment could block U.S. attempts to refer Tehran to the U.N. Security Council for possible economic sanctions when the nuclear agency board meets later this month, diplomats said.

No, look, pay no attention to those UN guys!  You know, appeasement, Munich, France, driving around in the desert in country the size of California, or Alaska, or however big Iran is.  WMDs all over the place, terrorists, 9/11, Al Qaeda, a day of horror like none we have ever known!!!