Blog Entry #9

Title: U.S. wants new UN sanctions against Iran’s “continuing” nuclear ambitions

Summary: President Barrack Obama made a speech on January 3rd about Iran’s nuclear program. He stated that the United States government had come to the conclusion that Iran was seeking nuclear weapons technology. Obama said that if Iran wanted to be allowed to pursue nuclear technology, they would need to prove that they were not making weapons. The U.S. government decided to ignore their spy reports that said the pursuit was over. Iran is currently in possession of almost enough uranium to make a bomb if it were further purified.

Reflection: This press conference held by President Obama was relieving and unsettling. It was relieving in the sense that the U.S. is going to further, try to stop Iran’s weapon’s production. But it is unsettling because the government came to this decision by disregarding their official intelligence report. The intelligence report said, in short, that Iran was no longer pursuing weapons. I suppose the report is also relieving.

Evidence:
• U.S. intelligence reports suggest that Iran’s nuclear pursuit has stopped
• The U.S. government concluded that the report was wrong
• Most of the info may have come from Iranian scientists who defected to the West

Questions: Why did the government decide to ignore their official intelligence report? Is the report even accurate? Did Iranian even scientists defect to the West? If not, where did they go?

Citation: all info found at