Secretary of State Colin Powell on a mission to Chile told reporters that there is information that Iran is beefing up its missiles to carry nuclear warheads. The Shahab-3 missiles have a range of 800 miles reaching both Israel and Iraq.

However, Powell's information came from a walk-in, single source who delivered 1,000 pages of documents. The documents are unverified as of early this morning though verification work is going on.

The disclosure caused some nervousness among Britain, France and Germany which signed an agreement over last weekend wherein Iran agreed to limit its nuclear program. Some think that Iran plans to continue to develop nukes using the agreement as a cover for doing so.

The Bush administration told our European allies that Powell had misspoken. However, a Powell spokesman at the State Department, J. Adam Ereli, said Powell had not misspoken. Regardless, Powell is in the headlines again, a feat for a lame duck secretary of state.

When Condoleeza Rice takes over, she'll be inheriting the treacherous Persian nuke puzzle. Moreover, because of the mistakes made in saying there were WMD in Iraq, yet none being found, the bar for evidence of nukes in Iran has been raised. She also will face those seasoned bureaucratic infighters, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.

Here are links to stories on the matter: New York Times; Washington Post; CNN.

11.19.04