Epstein Secrets

lopment work would be done and that he expected the bomb to be ready to take on the deepest bunkers soon. "We're still trying to develop them," Mr. Panetta said. President Barack Obama has made clear that he believes U.S. and international sanctions can curb Iran's nuclear program if they are given mo

erground in Iran. But U.S. defense officials say they believe the MOP could already do damage sufficient to set back the program. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal Thursday, acknowledged the bomb's shortcomings against some of Iran's deepest bunkers. He said more

s not at all clear how they can achieve this. With so much goodwill towards Iran and immense financial benefits embedded in illegal activities, the Maliki government is unlikely to help. In the overall scheme of the west's standoff with Iran, this probably means that neither war nor sanctions can sto

e Iranian nuclear program does not make one a warmongering neoconservative, and actually extends even to Christians. Yesterday Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said, "The United States does not want Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. That's a red line for us and that's a red line, obviously, for the Israeli

e minister and declaring that he "leads Iraq's most inclusive government yet." It didn't take long for those words to boomerang. No sooner had Mr. Maliki returned to Baghdad than he launched what looks like an attempted coup against the country's top Sunni leaders. Though the outcome is still in doub

al foreign policy advisers from his fir=t term advocated giving weapons to the rebels — Secretary of State Hilla=y Rodham Clinton, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, CIA Director David Petraeusand the chairman of the Joint Chi=fs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey. But the president overrode them, his cau=ion of no h

ity, has been a boon t= the Sunnis of Iraq. The Sunnis have bottomless grievances against the gov=rnment of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. To them, Maliki, who spent a qua=ter-century exiled in Syria and Iran, is an agent of the Iranian theocracy. So even though the regime in S=ria did its best to sub

as publicly stated that if Iran decided to do it, it could have the bomb within a year and the means to deliver it a year or two later. And perhaps Panetta is wrong — perhaps there is less time than he thinks. Or, as Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak put it earlier this month, those who advise Israel

e been supporting opposing camps. Since Iraq's first democratic elections in 2005, Iran has supported the Shiite-backed Dawa party of Nun Kamal al- Maliki, while Turkey has backed the secular pan-Iraqi movement of Ayad Allawi. Following months of contention after the 2010 elections, Maliki formed a go

that time, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, CIA Director David Petraeus, Joint Chi=fs Chairman Martin Dempsey, and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. His las=-minute decision in August 2013 not to strike Syria after its use of chemi=al weapons was popular in the Pentagon and with the public, but

ld h=ve tried harder to extend the American presence. Moreover, they said=the president has not done enough to pressure Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al=Maliki to reconcile with the Sunni minority, and they said Mr. Obama's f=ilure to do more to help moderate rebels in next-door Syria has emboldened more r