"This is a much better machine," a European diplomat said of the advanced centrifuge, which was a centerpiece of Pakistan's efforts to build its nuclear weapons and was found in 2004 in Libya, when that country gave up its nuclear program. The diplomat added that the Iranians, among other questions, will now have to explain whether Mr. Ahmadinejad was right, and if so, whether they recently restarted the abandoned program or have been pursuing it in secret for years.
If Iran moved beyond research and actually began running the machines, it could force American intelligence agencies to revise their estimates of how long it would take for Iran to build an atom bomb — an event they now put somewhere between 2010 and 2015.
If Iran truly has a secret program to more effectively enrich uranium as Ahmadinejad hints, comforting time frames of 5 to 10 years for Iran to go nuclear will have to be thrown out.
And if Iran gives up their current visible enrichment program, I think we can pretty much guarantee that their secret project is up and running. Iran will not give up an asset that is critical to their nuclear program and will count on the timid of the West to believe any Iranian concession on enrichment is a true suspension of Iranian nuclear progress.
We're just guessing about when Iran will go nuclear. But this is the wrong debate. We know Iran is whackjob seriously insane and can't be allowed to go nuclear whether it is tomorrow, next year, or next decade.
