Iran's announcement that it launched a research rocket has called new attention to a space program that Tehran says is peaceful but which some fear aims to produce long-range ballistic missiles that could reach Europe or the United States. Exactly what Iran launched, or even what it aimed to do, remains the subject of debate, speculation and possible misinterpretation.
The Bush administration for the first time says it has intelligence proving detailed and ongoing collaboration between Iran and North Korea in the development of new ballistic missiles. The Pentagon has also just released previously secret intelligence data on new Iranian and North Korean ballistic missiles under development.
Iran has launched a rocket capable of reaching the edge of space but one UK missile expert, however, says the test has "very little military significance".
Is Iran about to put a spy in the sky? The Israeli Debka.com Web site, which maintains a wide circle of sources within Israeli intelligence, has claimed that Tehran may soon launch its own surveillance satellite.
Iran has converted one of its most powerful ballistic missiles into a satellite launch vehicle. The 30-ton rocket could also be a wolf in sheep's clothing for testing longer-range missile strike technologies.
While Iran and North Korea remain of the highest concern, the U.S. intelligence community is monitoring a number of additional states for signs of nuclear weapons programs, according to National Intelligence Director John Negroponte.
Israel has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons. Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several Israeli military sources.
The CIA reported in a classified assessment this fall that it has found no evidence that Iran is pursuing a clandestine nuclear weapons program parallel to its declared energy research according to a new article from Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker.
Iran could produce a nuclear bomb within as little as a year, and its nuclear ambitions are likely to prompt a number of nearby nations to pursue weapons programs of their own, according to James Woolsey, former director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
The Middle East may now be entering the most precarious era of its history, with the sudden rush by Arabs, Iranians and Turks to master nuclear technology and one day unlock the secrets to the atomic bomb.