Andrew C. McCarthy
National Review, June 19, 2025
“We now know the U.S. intelligence community was unaware of Iran’s Fordow enrichment facility when it generated the 2007 NIE [which absurdly claimed that Iran had abandoned its nuclear weapons program in 2003], and Israeli intelligence’s 2018 acquisition of Iran’s nuclear records proved the regime’s years of lies and feverish production activity.”
Jim’s Jolt today fills in some vital gaps regarding what our government and Israel’s have known since last summer, if not earlier, regarding a surge in Iran’s nuclear weapons development activity, probably since 2024 skirmishes with Israel exposed Iran’s military weaknesses and resulted in diminished Iranian air defenses (which obviously weren’t very effective even when at full strength).
I raised this issue in mid-August 2024, contending that it should be a major issue in the presidential campaign:
Last month, in a post about national-security concerns. . . . I related that the Biden–Harris ODNI had failed to produce a statutorily required report on Iran’s nuclear activities, and that Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines had provided no explanation for this dereliction. This was especially alarming in light of (a) the International Atomic Energy Agency’s recent censure of Iran for escalating enrichment activities and dodging IAEA inspectors; (b) Iran’s enrichment of uranium up to 60 percent purity, from which it is not difficult to get to weapons grade; (c) Iran’s stockpile of 313.3 pounds of this fuel, which might be enough for two nuclear bombs; and (d) the Biden–Harris administration’s pressure on the IAEA and European allies not to censure Iran, which it only eased after the allies stood firm.
I thus opined that the administration was stonewalling Congress, four months prior to the election, because it did not want questions about
President Biden’s vow — for example, in the Oval Office on June 28, 2021 — that Iran would “never get a nuclear weapon on my watch.” If we were given an accurate assessment of Iran’s progress, the Biden-Harris administration would have to do something serious about it. The administration doesn’t intend to do anything meaningful.
Under pressure from Senator Lindsay Graham (R., S.C.), DNI Haines finally produced a report, the unclassified public version of which is very brief. It ought to be among the main topics of discussion in the 2024 presidential campaign[.] . . .
As recounted by the Wall Street Journal editorial board and a valuable analysis it cites by former IAEA Iran inspector David Albright and researcher Sarah Burkard (both now at the Institute for Science and International Security), it has for years been customary for the ODNI to insist that Iran was not “currently undertaking the key nuclear weapons-development activities that would be necessary to produce a testable nuclear device.” The July 2024 report, however, marks a shift. The ODNI concedes that Iran has “undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so.” [Emphasis added.]….SOURCE