News about Iran’s nuclear program took on a bipolar quality late last week. On the good side, Iran granted U.N. nuclear weapons inspectors access to its previously secret second nuclear site during six-party talks that included a US representative. Iran also agreed to cease its nuclear enrichment and send most of its uranium to Russia to be converted into fuel and medical isotopes, then sent back. On the not-so-good side, “Iran has sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable implosion nuclear device,” according to a leaked report by experts at the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The program started in 2002 and while US intelligence believed Iran stopped plans for nuclear weapons in 2003, British and French intelligence claimed Iran was in the final phase of designing a nuclear warhead in the works since 2004.

Congress wants to hold an “Iran Week” to discuss the strengthening of economic sanctions. After years of evading sanctions, The New York Times notes that the Iranians have adapted to the system by relying on an extensive web of international black markets.

So Iran knows how to make a nuclear bomb. Imminent doom, obviously, but is anyone actually scared? Steve Benen draws a comparison between the Bush administration’s ‘War On Terror’ and the tale of ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf.’ After years of Cheney’s relentless fear-mongering, the public now tunes out news of foiled plots and captured terrorists. It is becoming a disturbing pattern in American politics that a new president — with morals — suffers under the moral of a story his predecessor started.