This is likely why we've heard a lot of pro-war politicians and media types repeatedly suggesting that we know Iran is already building nuclear weapons. And, because of that drumbeat, polls show most Americans believe it is a fact that Iran is building such weapons. Yet, that's far from certain. While last week's New York Times report on Iran's Fordo facility certainly raises the specter of a nuclear-armed Iran in the future, the truth is that both the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United States' intelligence apparatus both say they have no proof that Iran is building such weapons right now. Indeed, under the headline "U.S. Agencies See No Move by Iran to Build a Bomb," as the Times reported a few months ago, "assessments by American spy agencies are broadly consistent with a 2007 intelligence finding that concluded that Iran had abandoned its nuclear weapons program years earlier." The paper added that this "assessment was largely reaffirmed in a 2010 National Intelligence Estimate, and that it remains the consensus view of America’s 16 intelligence agencies."

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