News you may have missed #0103

• Iran deliberately delaying nuclear bomb plans. US intelligence agencies believe that Iran “has deliberately stopped short of the critical last steps to make a bomb”, claim The New York Times. Could the recent political violence in the country have something to do with this delay?
• CIA sets up new External Advisory Board. Panetta says the new Board the Board will serve as “informal advisors to me and other senior leaders of our Agency”. Interestingly the group includes lots of business representation (Lazard Frères, Scowcroft Group, Bell Labs, Computer Sciences Corporation, Arnold & Porter).
• Is the CIA’s Excessive Secrecy Near an End? Although stopping short of pre-election promises, Barack Obama’s plans for administrative transparency will mark an “unprecedented level of openness” in US government agencies, especially the CIA, argue former US House Government Operations Committee spokesman Robert Weiner, and policy analyst Jordan Osserman.