This RT Youtube is dated from August 10, 2010, Ray McGovern and VIPS had just released a Memorandum, in which they had raised the alarm about this Repugnant bill, HR 1553 (6 pg. PDF!), that was sent around to House members…

Expressing support for the State of Israel’s right to defend Israeli sovereignty, to protect the lives and safety of the Israeli people, and to use all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, including the use of military force if no other peaceful solution can be found within reasonable time to protect against such an immediate and existential threat to the State of Israel.

Earlier this month, another member of VIPS, Philip Giraldi, wrote; “The Iran Report”

…The last NIE on Iran, released in late 2007(PDF!), was controversial in that it concluded that Iran had abandoned its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and had not resumed it. The document was immediately attacked by neoconservatives and the media, who responded that the Iranians might have a secret program and were intending to revive their efforts. Israel and its supporters have since been insisting that there is, in fact, a hidden program and have been constantly sending out alarms suggesting that a nuclear weapon is only six months or a year away. They keep revising forward the date whenever six months or a year passes without a weapon actually making an appearance.

The new Iran NIE has been delayed a number of times because of conflicting demands from the CIA analysts involved and from the White House. The analysts, badly burned by the heavily politicized 2002 NIE on Iraq, which led to a war, and also nervous about the barrage of criticism of the 2007 NIE on Iran, want the estimate to be completely credible and very tightly analyzed and reviewed. The Obama Administration wants, instead, a document that will give it whatever option it seeks to pursue vis-à-vis the Mullahs…

Yeppers… Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old…! Can you say ‘Stovepipe’ and ‘Cherry Pick’…! *gah*

Anyways, I chose to write about this all-important topic because there’s currently a long lull in the Peace Farce talks, and, even in the unity talks between Fatah and Hamas. Also, while partaking in my usual perusal of Haaretz and the other Israeli dailies, I came across this interview with ex-IAEA henchman, Olli Heinonen…

Behind the scenes of UN nuclear inspection of Iran

It’s only been two months since Olli Heinonen left the IAEA, where he worked for 27 years. In a first interview with an Israeli media outlet, he cautiously explains what is known about Iran’s nuclear program

…”The challenge faced by the international community in coping with Iran’s nuclear effort is huge,” he states in the interview. “We have about a year, until the end of 2011, or perhaps the start of 2012, to solve the problem.” [...]

“The centrifuges are not operating well, and some of them are failing,” Heinonen said. “They are losing materials because of this; and so, with this defective equipment, they will have a hard time enriching the material to a level high enough to enable the production of nuclear weapons. They have a lot of problems, and they are not there yet.”

So, which is it Olli…? *gah*

Now, fortunately there’s a few individuals that are wise to Olli’s wily ways. For instance, Iran Affairs’ Cyrus Safdari has been chronicling his mischief for some time. Here’s Cyrus shortly after Olli announced his resignation…

Spinning Olli Heinonen’s resignation from IAEA

IAEA Deputy Director Olli Heinonen has apparently announced his plans to resign from the IAEA. It is interesting to read how the media are trying to spin this news.

For example, the BBC claims:

Mr Heinonen’s department’s five-year investigation drew on Western intelligence to help to build the IAEA’s case that Iran was working to develop a nuclear-armed missile.

Actually the IAEA has never made any such claim about “nuclear armed missiles.” These are part of the so-called “Alleged Studies” claims that the US has made against Iran based on the “Laptop of Death” computer it claims was obtained from a secret source in Iran. Quite the contrary to what the BBC claims, there is reportedly a lot of controversy within the IAEA about the authenticity of these “alleged studies” claims, and the IAEA has consistently stated that it has no actual evidence to back up the claims. This is what former IAEA head Elbaradei had to say about the documents:

And I have been making it very clear that with regard to these alleged studies, we have not seen any use of nuclear material, we have not received any information that Iran has manufactured any part of a nuclear weapon or component. That’s why I say, to present the Iran threat as imminent is hype.

But spinning Heinonen’s resignation continues. The Jerusalem Post says:

Heinonen, a 63-year-old Finnish radiochemist, caused great international worry in February 2008 with a power-point presentation to diplomats showing links between Teheran’s efforts to process uranium and Iranian tests of high explosives and modifications to missiles to deliver a nuclear payload.

Well, again, during that presentation Heinonen was simply presenting the content of the “alleged studies”, and not vouching for them nor presenting independently-obtained evidence by the IAEA. The US gave (some) of alleged studies claims to the IAEA, Heinonen presented the information in a powerpoint to the diplomats, one of whom then (conveniently-enough) leaked it to the press — thereby allowing the press to misrepresent the matter as if the alleged studies claimed originated with the IAEA rather than with the US. They basically recylcled the allegations to hide their true source.

Antiwar’s Muhammad Sahimi details some of the hijinks and more on the ‘Nuke Laptop’…

A New Judith Miller for
Iran Hawks?

[David] Albright’s contact at the IAEA, with whom he is “extremely tight” (in the words of several sources), is Olli Heinonen, the IAEA’s deputy director for safeguards, who is in charge of the current inspections in Iran. Heinonen, whose Finnish nationality may lead people to believe that he is impartial, is leading a crusade against Iran. He constantly acts outside the IAEA’s protocol by leaking sensitive information to the press and spreading unproven allegations about Iran’s nuclear program. A February 2008 report by ElBaradei to the Board of Governors of the IAEA declared that Iran’s six minor breaches of its Safeguards Agreement had been addressed to the IAEA’s satisfaction and that the IAEA had a better understanding of the history of Iran’s nuclear program. Heinonen immediately made a presentation to the Board of Governors that was entirely based on the laptop, four years after the IAEA had obtained it, calling its contents “alarming.” He expects the Iranian government to explain a document it has never seen. The solution is straightforward: present copies of the documents to Iran and analyze the laptop’s digital chain of custody.

Now, wouldn’t you be a little skeptical about an Iranian Scientist’s laptop that is all in English with no Farsi…

…Tehran rejected the material as forged, and there are still reservations within the IAEA about its authenticity, according to officials with knowledge of the internal debate in the agency.

“First of all, if you have a clandestine programme, you don’t put it on laptops which can walk away,” one official said. “The data is all in English which may be reasonable for some of the technical matters, but at some point you’d have thought there would be at least some notes in Farsi. So there is some doubt over the provenance of the computer.”

IAEA officials do not comment on intelligence passed to the watchdog agency by foreign governments, saying all such assistance is confidential.

It is insane how determined they are to ‘Bomb, Bomb, Iran’…!

*gah*

One other noteworthy I/P article I saw today…

Israel army chief says forces fired 308 bullets on flotilla

Israeli commandos fired 308 live bullets aboard a Gaza-bound aid ship in May, Israel’s army chief said on Sunday as he testified again before the Tirkel panel investigating the incident.

Gabi Ashkenazi said the navy’s killing of nine Turkish nationals on the Mavi Marmara had been unavoidable, British news wire Reuters reported.

God help us all…!