re: #162 FrogMarch

Most political blog readers will remember the storm of controversy that erupted in early December 2007, when a new American “National Intelligence Assessment” claimed that Iran had stopped development of a nuclear weapon in 2003.

The NIE stated only that the they had a high degree of confidence that the warhead design & development phase was “suspended” from 2003 to 2006. The other parts of the program continued: uranium enrichment & missile development. The degree of confidence in those assessments was “absolute certainty”. The NIE said they had only moderate confidence that the partial suspension continued after 2006.