Category Archives: Trends

This is it, here we go: Iran is at threshold of nuclear capability

IAEA says foreign expertise has brought Iran to threshold of nuclear capability

By , Published: November 6

Intelligence provided to U.N. nuclear officials shows that Iran’s government has mastered the critical steps needed to build a nuclear weapon, receiving assistance from foreign scientists to overcome key technical hurdles, according to Western diplomats and nuclear experts briefed on the findings.

Documents and other records provide new details on the role played by a former Soviet weapons scientist who allegedly tutored Iranians over several years on building high-precision detonators of the kind used to trigger a nuclear chain reaction, the officials and experts said. Crucial technology linked to experts in Pakistan and North Korea also helped propel Iran to the threshold of nuclear capability, they added.

The officials, citing secret intelligence provided over several years to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the records reinforce concerns that Iran continued to conduct weapons-related research after 2003 — when, U.S. intelligence agencies believe, Iranian leaders halted such experiments in response to international and domestic pressures.

Read full story at The Washington Post 

CIA Follows Twitter, Facebook

The CIA looks at 5 million tweets a day in an attempt to get a feeling for public sentiment in Pakistan, China, and elsewhere. At the Open Source Center in Virginia, a team of several hundred analysts nicknamed the “vengeful librarians” scours Facebook, newspapers, local radio stations, and chat rooms in order to monitor public reactions to major events, like the killing of Osama bin Laden or the revolution in Egypt. When President Obama gave his Mideast speech a few weeks after the bin Laden raid, the center found that Twitter users in Turkey, Egypt, Yemen, and Algeria found the speech too pro-Israel, while Israelis thought it was too pro-Arab. The analysts also monitor developing news, such as the riots in Bangkok, following social media users they believe are publishing accurate information.