( Truthdig ) – Over his decades as Iran’s religious and government leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had consistently rejected nuclear weapons. And yet, this suggestion — this idea that Khamenei had issued a fatwa, a formal religious ruling, prohibiting nuclear weapons — has often been derided. And suddenly, the American pundit class is conceding that the old man’s opposition to nuclear weapons was sincere all along! While American officials long asserted that Iran wanted to be capable of building a nuclear weapon, many [American officials] believed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s hesitancy was genuine. ” We are only being told now that many American intelligence and security officials recognized Khamenei as genuinely committed to a nuclear-free Iran?