Great quotes

"We know, and it is not even classified for me to tell you today, that Iran will have the capability of delivering a weapon of mass destruction to western Europe and the eastern United States by 2015, I see that as the most imminent threat to this country right now. So that is a problem we are going to have deal with."

- Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK), see Inhofe urges rebuilding of military.

The basis? From 'Iranian ICBM by 2015?':

"Section 1245 of the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act required the Department of Defense to submit a report to Congress on Iran’s military power, similar to the annual Report on the Military Power of the People’s Republic of China.

The report is rather plain — here is the full text. The report looks rather more like the initial editions of Chinese Military Power in 1998 and 1999, before CMP evolved into the giant full-color extravaganza that evokes the old Soviet Military Power in its heyday.

Phil Stewart and Adam Entous of Reuters noticed this sentence stating that Iran could develop an ICBM by 2015 and made it their lede:

With sufficient foreign assistance, Iran could probably develop and test an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the United States by 2015.

As you know, once a wire service spots a lede, the pack follows.

Unfortunately, this is just intelligence community boilerplate — the same sentence has appeared in every edition of Ballistic and Cruise Missile Threat: 2009, 2006, 2003 and 2000. Seriously, you can look it up."