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Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/05/ED85TOBGK.DTL
Contending with Iran's Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities
[San Francisco Chronicle] Matthew Levitt - - The National Intelligence Estimate's more significant conclusion is that the most likely tool to successfully alter Iran's nuclear calculus is targeted political and economic pressure, not military action. On the pressing issue of how to deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions the intelligence assessment is clear: financial and political sanctions can be effective. Sanctions do not undermine diplomacy, they create leverage for diplomacy. Iran poses a proliferation threat whether it maintains an active nuclear weapons program or merely produces fissile material in a civilian program that could be quickly weaponized at a later date. The writer, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for intelligence and analysis, directs the Stein program on terrorism, intelligence and policy at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.