.....hate posts to Obama as this is going to disappoint many of the warmongers here. As if Obama had a hand in the 16 intelligence agencies.

There is nothing new here. If they had started to build a Nuclear bomb then it's too late. So what's the issue? The issue is that they have all the needed pieces to build a device and are only waiting for the OK from their wonderful Ayatollah to put it together. So the article is made to spin what the White House wants it to spin. It's what they've been doing for the last several weeks.

Obama can't be that stupid. And Robert, OF COURSE he does. Stay ignorant in Australia.

-zement of "16 US Intelligence Agencies" -and affluent Iran won't be able to do it in a jiffy? US Intelligence Agencies have not improved since before the 9/11,it's obvious

protecting itself!

North Korea!

What if the intelligence fails in the future to find out that Iran did finally make a bomb?

This president would have bowed and kissed Sadaam Hussein too. His tentacles are corrupting America.

So you have not problem in facilitating a full inspection ???

No, sounds like what they said about Iraq.

What if these hypotheticals mean that we have to put you in prison and torture you to make sure you don't end up committing any crimes?

This must be true! After all, our intelligence was so good on 9/11! I think we should put all our eggs in one basket. After all, if the intelligence is wrong, it will only cause the deaths of the Israelis. This whole intelligence speculation is ridiculous. I'd put my trust in the Israeli intelligence. As the saying goes, The Arabs are fighting for land, the Israelis are fighting for their lives.

"Senior US officials say Israel does not dispute the basic intelligence or analysis." I want to hear it directly from Netanyahu.

..powerful than Iran. If you add US as its extended battalion, that power goes into 10,000 times. What Israel doesn't want is a progress, especially scientific in the Arab world that it can not control, thus why Iran with its infancy tech is a threat.

There are 16 because that was how things got reformed after 9-11. They had Israel's input. And it is unlikely that Israel's opinion has changed. This leak was designed to influence a few in California and will get more press coverage in Israel that beyond LA. Contraception is more important to the press in the US right now. And in Virginia, involuntary penetration of pregnant women by state fiat.

US intelligence agencies did not foresee the fall of the USSR, nor the uprising of the 'Arab Spring', nor did nuclear achievements in North Korea, nor 9/11; they are allowing Islamic terrorism to infiltrate Latin America. They may be educated, but definitely not trustworthy ...

...that I don't need 16 agencies to tell me how stupid Obama and his cronies are! That's pretty much public knowledge, unless you're Robert from Australia (#1) who doesn't have a clue; I guess the education system isn't that good in the "Land-Down-Under!" What do you expect from a country that was formed from a penal colony of degenerates. Kangeroos' anyone?! God bless, Israel; praying for the peace of Jerusalem! Christian Zionist

especially since US intelligence has been wrong on so many acounts in the past. Obama should be confronted with the following questions: If Iran is only pursuing nuclear development for "peaceful" purposes 1) why is Iran denying UN inspections? 2) why is Iran threatening to destroy Israel? 3) Why is Iran going underground with its nuclear activities if everying is "kosher"?

if they are well then I see exactly how valuable their assessment is?!

An oxymoron.

the la times is recycling "news" that's a year old (that national security assessment is from "early LAST year"), and it didn't smell too good when it was fresh, either. (the conclusion doesn't account for iran's uranium enrichment work, which isn't necessary for civilian purposes.) since when are they in the business of publishing yesteryear's (discredited) news? and who's behind this, some misguided anti-israeli leftists, or the obama re-election team?

would be if Iran was threatening the USA with talk of taking them off of the face of the world

Well writtern. That is the difference between Israel, and the rest of the world

When they want to go ahead and do something they will make up any bullsh*t story to do so - yet when they don't want anyone else to take necessary action they will make up any bullsh*t story to do so - if it wasn't so sad it would be laughable - a nuclear Iran is not in the interests of the U.S. - and if the military elite in the U.S. who are the guardians of American security allow a President, with a dubious attitude to Islam, Israel and the Middle-East, to dictate military policy that puts the U.S. and its citizens at risk from a highly volatile regime then I can only say that their names will be added to the current White House when History judges this administration that allowed Iran to go Nuclear with the potential not only for the destruction of Israel but also for the potential destruction of one or two American cities.

If they are so good why did 9/11 happen right under their noses? Are these the same intelligence geniuses that gave President George W. Bush the "intel" over Iraq and Saddam's Weapons of Mass Deception? If Iran is not trying to make weapons' grade nuclear goodies, then why don't they just come clean and open their doors to the IAEA? They can't because they ARE trying to make the stuff or they ALREADY have it or have bought if from North Korea! The US Government is under the illusion that Iran, in General Dempsey's words, at "rational actor". The will only wake up that it is a totally irrational lunatic regime when the first missiles fall on their own naval base in Bahrain and on their allies in the Gulf! Then we will see how intelligent the 16 US Intelligence Agencies really are!