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QUESTION: I have an intelligence question about Iran. The premise underlying the European missile defense site is that Iran may have -- may develop ICBMs with a nuclear capability by 2015. Putting your intelligence cap on, how credible are those estimates? Are you comfortable with them? And why should the American public have any faith in those estimates, given that the prewar intelligence was so flawed?

SEC. GATES: The underlying premise for the third sites (sic) is the indivisibility of security of all of the members of the alliance.

The U.S. third sites (sic) need to be complementary to a NATO layered defense so that all of the members of the alliance are protected. The premise is not necessarily an ICBM with a nuclear warhead on it; it is a missile that could hit any of our allies with any kind of a warhead.

The basis of my discussions in Moscow with President Putin and the discussions that I had in Eastern Europe were focused on how soon can the Iranians have a ballistic missile that can reach Central or Western Europe, that can reach the allies, with any kind of a warhead. We already have flight testing. We already know that they have a missile deployed that has a 1,300-kilometer range. We know that they have acquired from North Korea missiles that potentially have a range of 2,500 kilometers. So the question is, how soon can the Iranians have missiles that can hit our allies if you accept, as the alliance does, the indivisibility of the security of the alliance?

The idea of the third site is that that's the site that provides protection for Canada and for the United States. The layered defense in Europe provides protection -- and in the Mediterranean -- would provide protection for our European allies.

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