{"id":21325,"date":"2012-09-10T12:00:44","date_gmt":"2012-09-10T11:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=21325"},"modified":"2012-09-07T17:41:44","modified_gmt":"2012-09-07T16:41:44","slug":"former-cia-head-iran-attack-only-delays-nuke-program-will-push-iranians-toward-a-bomb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2012\/09\/former-cia-head-iran-attack-only-delays-nuke-program-will-push-iranians-toward-a-bomb\/","title":{"rendered":"Former CIA Head: Iran Attack Will Push Iranians Toward A Bomb"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Bush administration National Security Agency head and CIA director Michael Hayden told<\/a> the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz that Israel may not have the military capacity to take out Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities and reiterated<\/a> his belief that any attack would only delay the Iranian program and perhaps push it toward obtaining nuclear weapons:<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not underestimate the Israeli talent, but geometry and physics tell us that Iran\u2019s nuclear program would pose a difficult challenge to any military, as it is not a raid, and Israel\u2019s resources are more limited than those of the U.S.,\u201d Hayden told Haaretz.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no absolute certainty that all targets are known,\u201d he added. \u201cThey will have to be revisited \u2013 which only the U.S. Air Force would be able to do \u2013 and the operation will only set the Iranians back some time and actually push them to do that which it is supposed to prevent, getting nuclear weapons<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hayden also said there is \u201cstill some time<\/a>\u201d before a decision needs to be made about whether to attack Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities, adding that \u201creal decisions are to be made in 2013 or 2014.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hayden\u2019s view is widely shared among current and former U.S.<\/a> and Israel<\/a> officials. \u201cAt best this would buy you a few years,\u201d an anonymous Obama administration official told the New York Times recently.<\/p>\n

But at the same time, the Israelis, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, are openly debating an attack on Iran. Netanyahu recently criticized<\/a> the international community for not being tougher on the Islamic Republic. \u201cThe international community is not drawing a clear red line for Iran,\u201d he said. \u201cIran doesn\u2019t see determination from the international community to stop its nuclear program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haaretz also reported last week<\/a> that according to a top Israeli official, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Netanyahu recently to give a \u201cclear message as to her opposition\u201d to an military attack on Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities.<\/p>\n

The Obama administration is aware, not only of the threat<\/a> an Iranian nuclear weapon poses, but also the potential negative<\/a> consequences<\/a> of a military attack on Iran. And that, coupled with U.N., U.S. and Israeli assessments<\/a> that Iran has not yet decided on whether to build a nuclear weapon, leads the administration to pursue a diplomatic solution with Iran, a track the it deems the \u201cbest and most permanent way<\/a>\u201d to solve the nuclear crisis.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 thinkprogress.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Bush administration National Security Agency head and CIA director Michael Hayden told the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz that Israel may not have the military capacity to take out Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities and reiterated his belief that any attack would only delay the Iranian program and perhaps push it toward obtaining nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle-east-north-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}