A Top Secret Canadian intelligence assessment has concluded that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons capability, adding weight to the growing international isolation of Tehran as UN inspectors push to investigate what Iran claims is a peaceful nuclear program.
In an Intelligence Assessment obtained Thursday by the National Post, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service calls the Iranian nuclear weapons programs one of "the most significant, urgent threats of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) proliferation today."
"The fact that Iran has engaged in activities related to nuclear weaponization suggests that it is, at a minimum, seeking to acquire the capacity to produce such a weapon," reads the heavily edited report, released under the Access to Information Act.
The report shows that the Canadian intelligence community is not buying Iran's repeated assertions that its nuclear facilities are for peaceful uses such as energy. It may also explain Prime Minister Stephen Harper's recent comment that Tehran was "lying" about its nuclear intentions.
Iran has long blocked attempts by the International Atomic Energy Agency to fully inspect its nuclear sites. But pressure has been building since November, when the IAEA reported that Iran had "carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device."
With tensions high in the Persian Gulf over the tightening sanctions regime, the assassination of a senior Iranian nuclear scientist and talk of military confrontation, IAEA inspectors wrapped up three days of talks in Tehran on Tuesday and intend to return Feb. 21.
Speaking at the conclusion of a visit to Israel, John Baird, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, said he believed sanctions on Iran were working. Canada expanded them Tuesday, freezing the assets of five shipping and import companies.
"Both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs have publicly stated that Iran is the greatest threat to global peace and security in the world today," Rick Roth, Mr. Baird's senior communications assistant, said when asked about the intelligence report's findings.
"They regularly ignore their international human rights obligations, and have obfuscated their nuclear activities by blocking international attempts to verify claims. We will continue to work with our allies to bring pressure to bear on Iran, in hopes that they reverse its current course."
Titled The Global Overview: Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and Proliferation Threats, the CSIS report also cites the North Korean nuclear weapons program as an "urgent" threat, as well as the danger that terrorists could make use of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) materials.
"Al-Qaeda and a few other groups are believed to retain the aspiration for 'strategic' CBRN attacks against Western targets, and have previously demonstrated (along with Aum) that it is possible to conceal the existence of substantial programs of this type," the report says.
Aum is a reference to Aum Shinrikyo, an apocalyptic Japanese cult that attacked the Tokyo subway system with Sarin gas in 1995.
CSIS declined to elaborate on the report's conclusions. The agency said in its last annual report that Iran was "widely believed" to be seeking nuclear weapons but the Top Secret report, dated April 2011, is more definitive.
Original Article
Source: National Post
Author: Stewart Bell
In an Intelligence Assessment obtained Thursday by the National Post, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service calls the Iranian nuclear weapons programs one of "the most significant, urgent threats of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) proliferation today."
"The fact that Iran has engaged in activities related to nuclear weaponization suggests that it is, at a minimum, seeking to acquire the capacity to produce such a weapon," reads the heavily edited report, released under the Access to Information Act.
The report shows that the Canadian intelligence community is not buying Iran's repeated assertions that its nuclear facilities are for peaceful uses such as energy. It may also explain Prime Minister Stephen Harper's recent comment that Tehran was "lying" about its nuclear intentions.
Iran has long blocked attempts by the International Atomic Energy Agency to fully inspect its nuclear sites. But pressure has been building since November, when the IAEA reported that Iran had "carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device."
With tensions high in the Persian Gulf over the tightening sanctions regime, the assassination of a senior Iranian nuclear scientist and talk of military confrontation, IAEA inspectors wrapped up three days of talks in Tehran on Tuesday and intend to return Feb. 21.
Speaking at the conclusion of a visit to Israel, John Baird, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, said he believed sanctions on Iran were working. Canada expanded them Tuesday, freezing the assets of five shipping and import companies.
"Both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs have publicly stated that Iran is the greatest threat to global peace and security in the world today," Rick Roth, Mr. Baird's senior communications assistant, said when asked about the intelligence report's findings.
"They regularly ignore their international human rights obligations, and have obfuscated their nuclear activities by blocking international attempts to verify claims. We will continue to work with our allies to bring pressure to bear on Iran, in hopes that they reverse its current course."
Titled The Global Overview: Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and Proliferation Threats, the CSIS report also cites the North Korean nuclear weapons program as an "urgent" threat, as well as the danger that terrorists could make use of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) materials.
"Al-Qaeda and a few other groups are believed to retain the aspiration for 'strategic' CBRN attacks against Western targets, and have previously demonstrated (along with Aum) that it is possible to conceal the existence of substantial programs of this type," the report says.
Aum is a reference to Aum Shinrikyo, an apocalyptic Japanese cult that attacked the Tokyo subway system with Sarin gas in 1995.
CSIS declined to elaborate on the report's conclusions. The agency said in its last annual report that Iran was "widely believed" to be seeking nuclear weapons but the Top Secret report, dated April 2011, is more definitive.
Original Article
Source: National Post
Author: Stewart Bell
No comments:
Post a Comment