Iranian Bomb Update

IRANIAN BOMB UPDATE....The IAEA, not generally a font of Iran-bashing, has apparently gotten hold of internal documents demonstrating that Iran was actively pursuing nuclear bomb research until about four years ago. Their conclusion isn't quite identical to that of the American NIE released a few months ago, but very close:

The documents suggest that Iran's research on nuclear weapons continued for several months after U.S. intelligence officials say the effort was suspended, the International Atomic Energy Agency's top nuclear security expert told diplomats in Vienna, according to notes taken by a participant.

....In the technical briefing Monday with diplomats from IAEA member states, [Olli] Heinonen offered new details about the Iranian documents, according to notes obtained by The Washington Post. He revealed that the IAEA had collected corroborating evidence, from the intelligence agencies of several countries, that pointed to sophisticated research into some key technologies needed to build and deliver a nuclear bomb.

...."The information is much harder to refute," said David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector and president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security. "It seems to point to work on nuclear weapons — even if the program wasn't coherent and even if a decision was never made to actually build a weapon."