Retaining his tough stance against Iran, Vice President Dick Cheney said Wednesday that Tehran may have restarted the nuclear weaponization program that a U.S. intelligence report said was halted in 2003.
Speaking in Oman, a U.S.-allied Arab monarchy and neighbor of Iran's, Cheney told ABC News, "The important thing to keep in mind is the objective that we share with many of our friends in the region, and that is that a nuclear-armed Iran would be very destabilizing for the entire area."
In December an intelligence report known as the National Intelligence Estimate concluded that Iran's nuclear weapons development program was stopped in the fall of 2003 because of international pressure. The report, however, cautioned that Tehran continues to enrich uranium and still could develop a bomb between 2010 and 2015 if it decided to do so.
Critics of the Bush administration said the report should dampen any campaign for a U.S. confrontation with Iran.
But Cheney that that while the NIE said Iran had a program to develop a nuclear warhead, it remains unclear if it has resumed that activity.
"What it (the NIE) says is that they have definitely had in the past a program to develop a nuclear warhead; that it would appear that they stopped that weaponization process in 2003. We don't know whether or not they've restarted," he said.
I'll be the first one to point out the obvious problems with Iran's nuclear program, such as continued enrichment even though they are getting all the fuel they need for "peaceful purposes" from Russia, however, the American people feel burned by the lack of WMD's found in Iraq.
Cheney needs to understand that to build a case against Iran, he's going to 
have to have real, concrete evidence of them continuing this program.
Many people are saying "no" to anything against the Iranians, as they seem to think that just because nothing was found in Iraq, that automatically means that Iran isn't doing anything. Quite the contrary. However, people are seeing striking similarities between the
ramp up to Iraq and the ramp up to Iran, and they are rightfully skeptical.
And the fact that Cheney is basically seen as evil incarnate, he'll have to come up with a pretty big amount of evidence to sway people.
His only real saving grace is the fact that the Iranians are still enriching uranium. That in of itself will be the basis for the next round of sanctions against Iran.
Travis
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