Intelligence Officials: Iraq security and politics heading in the wrong direction, violence has become 'self-sustaining'

Iraqi children survey the scene of one of yesterday's car bombings in Baghdad

Top U.S. intelligence officials told a Senate committee today that Iran is likely to develop a nuclear weapon by the early to middle part of the next decade and that security and political trends in Iraq are moving in the wrong direction, with Iraqi leaders facing nearly impossible challenges in curbing sectarian violence that has become "self-sustaining."

Delivering the intelligence community's annual threat assessment at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the officials also painted a grim picture of developments in Afghanistan and in the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan near the Afghan border, where they said a resurgent Taliban is gearing up for a spring offensive and the al-Qaeda terrorist network continues plotting to kill large numbers of Americans.

Read the rest at the Washington Post