Kucinich Slams Bush Over Iran Report

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - In response to an NIE Intelligence report issued Monday revealing that contrary to U.S. governmental insistence Iran's nuclear program was stopped in 2003, Presidential hopeful Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) criticized the Bush administration for leading Americans to falsely consider Iran a nuclear threat, and criticized President Bush for attempting to find grounds to wage war against Iran.

The Democratic candidate released a statement Monday, saying "this report shows that the Administration's case for war is in direct opposition to the facts as stated in the NIE report."

The report continued to state that should Iran re-open its nuclear program, it would take at least two years for enough uranium to be enriched as needed. Technical complications would also hamper Iran from creating a nuclear weapon until 2013 - a direct opposition from National Intelligence Director John Negroponte's statement that Iran was only 4-5 years away from an atomic bomb.

It said, "We judge with moderate confidence Iran probably would be technically capable of producing enough HEU [Highly Enriched Uranium] for a weapon sometime during the 2010-2015 timeframe (INR judges Iran is unlikely to achieve this capability before 2013 because of technical and programmatic problems). All agencies recognize the possibility that this capability may not be attained until after 2015."

"As this report shows, there is no threat to the international community from Iran right now, or in the near future. The report doubles the amount of estimated time until Iran would be able to build a nuclear bomb," the Common Dreams News Center quoted Kucinich.

"The Bush Administration has falsely led the American people into believing that Iran was developing nuclear weapons, and as recently as last month," Kucinich declared. "Belligerence and obfuscation is the same foreign policy that brought us to war."

Kucinich insisted on the importance of diplomacy, as proved by the findings of the NIE on a country the Bush administration accused of being "an axis of evil."