Peaceful Purposes? I've Got a Bridge To Sell

Iran may have been testing components related to nuclear weapons production as recently as 2003. No one has any idea of just how far along the Iranians are in their progress towards obtaining nuclear weapons production capability.

Experiments with high explosives, possibly linked to future nuclear weapons tests, were carried out as recently as 2003 in Iran, sources tell CBS News.

International Atomic Energy Agency analysts said they suspect the experiments took place at a huge military complex south of Tehran. Inspectors were permitted only one visit, and saw only part of the site, reports CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar.

Despite the lack of access, Sean McCormack, a U.S. State Department spokesman, said, "we are seeing more and more indications" that Iran's enrichment activities have the intended purpose of building a nuclear weapon.

Yet, the Iranians want folks to believe that this is all in the peaceful pursuit of nuclear energy? I've got a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn. It's a bargain, even though it's a 100+ years old. Only one owner. I've got the papers here somewhere. The mad mullahs are busy whipping their people into a frenzy:

"Nuclear energy is our right, and we will resist until this right is fully realized," Ahmadinejad told a crowd of thousands in the southern Iran city of Bushehr, where Russia is finishing the construction of Iran's first nuclear power plant.

"Our nation can't give in to the coercion of some bully countries who imagine they are the whole world," he added.

The crowd responded with chants of "Nuclear energy is our right," CBS radio correspondent Angus McDowell reports.

Unfortunately for them, the Iranian people may see the effects of nuclear energy as the right of an avenging nation should Iran ever field such weapons.

UPDATE:
Iran says that its cooperation with the IAEA will suffer. You mean it could get worse than its current level of cooperation?

UPDATE:
John Negroponte thinks that Iran doesn't have nukes, nor has it obtained the material central to producing them. No word on how much time is needed for Iran to achieve both. And there's the possibility that Iran could simply get one from North Korea:

Negroponte raised the possibility that Iran "will acquire a North Korea weapon and the ability to integrate it with the ballistic missile Iran already possesses."

Negroponte spoke as U.S. and European diplomats worked behind the scenes to build support for their decision to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council over concerns that it seeking nuclear weapons.

The International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board of governors began a two-day meeting on a European draft resolution calling for Tehran to be referred to the Security Council, which can impose sanctions.