Iran remains years away from obtaining the materials and technology necessary
for a nuclear weapon despite its announcement this week that it has begun
enriching uranium, several top U.S. intelligence officials said Thursday.
Senior intelligence officials alternatively say Tehran will have a nuclear
weapon within a decade, or within several years.
"What the Iranians have announced, is what they've announced," said
Brill, speaking alongside nine senior intelligence officials at a discussion of
the Office of the National Intelligence Director's first year. "They need
to let the ( International Atomic Energy Agency ) inspectors in there to see it,
because they have obligations."
"We really have to see what's happened in Iran," Brill said.
"There is still a very significant amount of time that needs to be worked
through by the Iranians to get to where they want to go."
U.S. intelligence officials are scrubbing their information and analysis on Iran
as tensions increase over its nuclear program. Tehran insists its work is solely
for peaceful, civilian purposes, but the U.S. and a number of its allies believe
it is after a nuclear arsenal.
The nation's No. 2 intelligence official, Gen. Michael Hayden, said the Iran
intelligence has benefited from the lessons-learned exercises on estimates about
Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
The top U.S. intelligence analyst, Thomas Fingar, said changes have been made in
how analysis is done. "All of us have greater confidence in the judgments
that we are making and bringing forward on Iran," Fingar said.
