Thompson doubted Iran mothballed nuke program

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By Ed Tibbetts | Saturday, December 08, 2007 |

Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson gives a speech Friday at Thunder Bay Grille during a campaign stop in Davenport. Buy this Photo

Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson said Friday he doubts Iran halted its nuclear weapons program four years ago, as a new U.S. intelligence estimate declared this week.

In fact, he suggested Iran may have planted the idea.

The nation’s intelligence agencies earlier this week issued a surprising report that said Iran stopped its nuclear weapons program in 2003. The assessment reversed some of its findings from only two years ago.

That’s prompted some of Iran’s allies overseas to push the U.S. to back off pressuring the country.

Meanwhile, some on the right have been skeptical of the report, suggesting elements in the CIA are seeking to undermine President Bush.

Thompson, who was in Davenport on Friday, didn’t make that claim. But he told reporters he doubted Iran had mothballed the program.

“I doubt if they’ve ever abandoned it, but if they have, they’re still enriching uranium, and they could pick it right back up at any time, so we need to keep the pressure on,” he said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t information that they put out themselves because they’re now saying along the same lines that some of their trading partners in Europe are saying. ‘No need to mess with us anymore. No need to keep the pressure on us. No need to have sanctions on us .’ ”

Thompson was greeted by 150 people at Thunder Bay Grille in Davenport. He told the audience that countries such as Iran “have been killing us for a long, long time” through such groups as Hamas and Hezbollah. And he said, “We need a leader that’ll tell the American people about the truth, the nature of the enemy that is trying to bring down Western civilization.”

Thompson was making his second trip to Davenport since announcing his campaign. He’s campaigned little in Iowa and trails in most statewide polls. But he shrugged off the idea he was out of the presidential race. He said he was dismissed when he ran for the Senate in

Tennessee, too, but came back to win.

“I think I know a little something about winning an election,” he said. “I ain’t ever lost one, and I don’t intend to start now.”

Thompson called himself the only candidate to sufficiently address the long-term financial challenges of Social Security and touted a two-tiered tax system he’s proposed that would have rates of 10 percent and 25 percent. If put into place, he said, the government would find the people so enamored of the system, it would make it even flatter.

He also stressed his consistency as a conservative and said the Republican Party had gotten away from its roots with corruption scandals and overspending.

“When we stray, we pay,” he said. “Now it’s time to get back.”

The ex-senator, who’s also a movie and television actor, told reporters that he would spend “most” of his time in the state between now and the Jan. 3 caucuses. He also was making a stop Friday in Des Moines.