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U.S. Weighs Response to a Nuclear Iran
(Los Angeles Times) Douglas Frantz - Iran appears to be in the late stages of developing the capacity to build a nuclear bomb. A three-month investigation by the Los Angeles Times - drawing on previously secret reports, international officials, independent experts, Iranian exiles, and intelligence sources in Europe and the Middle East - uncovered strong evidence that Iran's commercial nuclear program masks a plan to become the world's next nuclear power. The country has been engaged in a pattern of clandestine activity that has concealed weapons work from international inspectors. Iran would be the first avowed enemy of Israel to possess a nuclear bomb and the first nuclear-armed country labeled by the U.S. as a state sponsor of international terrorism. Foreign intelligence officers said the CIA, which has long contended that Iran is building a bomb, has briefed them on a contingency plan for U.S. air and missile attacks against Iranian nuclear installations.