How real is an Iranian nuclear threat? As rhetoric and momentum begin to build, the interpretOr will be probing more into this issue. After the ‘dodgy dossier’ that formed the rationale on the invasion of Iraq, should we not continue to question assumptions and pre-conceptions and scrutinise available evidence?

This is the question investigated by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker, (see link below). Hersh was pivotal in breaking the stories of Vietnam War era My Lai massacre of 1968 (story broke ’69), and more recently the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib during Gulf War II.

“There is no conclusive evidence that Iran has tried to build a bomb since 2003. The two most recent National Intelligence Estimates (N.I.E.s) on Iranian nuclear progress, representing the best judgment of the senior officers from all the major American intelligence agencies, have stated that there is no conclusive evidence that Iran has made any effort to build the bomb since 2003″

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/06/06/110606fa_fact_hersh#ixzz1czlIQdqi

Wikipedia also cites the following:

In a 2004 article, he (Hersh) alleged that Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld circumvented the normal intelligence analysis function of the CIA in their quest to make the case for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.