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As Scott Horton so eloquently pointed out in that video, Iran has proven the ‘negative’ that Iran has not diverted any nuclear material towards a bomb, yet that noise still persists…
There’s a whole new spate of fear-mongering headlines that is proliferating across the web today, fueled by this Reuters report…
IAEA says gets info on possible Iran military work
The U.N. atomic watchdog has received new information regarding allegations that Iran may be seeking to develop a nuclear-armed missile, the agency said in a report voicing deepening concern about the issue.
The confidential document signalled the U.N. body’s growing frustration at what it sees as Iran’s lack of cooperation with a long-running investigation into its disputed nuclear programme.
It also made clear Iran’s determination to press ahead with sensitive atomic activity despite four rounds of U.N. sanctions since 2006, saying the country had informed the IAEA it would soon start operating a second uranium enrichment plant.
The report looked likely to add to Western suspicions that Iran is secretly bent on building a nuclear weapons capability from its enrichment programme, which Tehran denies. [...]
The IAEA report, obtained by Reuters on Friday, said it remained concerned about possible current activity in Iran to design a nuclear payload.
“Iran is not engaging with the agency in substance on issues concerning the allegation that Iran is developing a nuclear payload for its missile programme,” it said. [...]
An official with knowledge of the IAEA’s investigation said the new information, if it turned out to be correct, concerned both Iran’s past and more recent activities.
The report said that based on an analysis of “additional information which has come to its attention since August 2008, including new information recently received, there are further concerns which the agency … needs to clarify with Iran.”
In parsing the verbiage, once again it would appear that ‘unnamed Western countries’ are rehashing the same old debunked ‘Nuke Laptop’ conspiracy theories…
Iran Nuke Laptop Data Came from Terror Group
WASHINGTON, Feb 29, 2008 (IPS) – The George W. Bush administration has long pushed the “laptop documents” – 1,000 pages of technical documents supposedly from a stolen Iranian laptop – as hard evidence of Iranian intentions to build a nuclear weapon. Now charges based on those documents pose the only remaining obstacles to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) declaring that Iran has resolved all unanswered questions about its nuclear programme.
But those documents have long been regarded with great suspicion by U.S. and foreign analysts. German officials have identified the source of the laptop documents in November 2004 as the Mujahideen e Khalq (MEK), which along with its political arm, the National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI), is listed by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organisation.
There are some indications, moreover, that the MEK obtained the documents not from an Iranian source but from Israel’s Mossad.
In its latest report on Iran, circulated Feb. 22, the IAEA, under strong pressure from the Bush administration, included descriptions of plans for a facility to produce “green salt”, technical specifications for high explosives testing and the schematic layout of a missile reentry vehicle that appears capable of holding a nuclear weapon. Iran has been asked to provide full explanations for these alleged activities.
Tehran has denounced the documents on which the charges are based as fabrications provided by the MEK, and has demanded copies of the documents to analyse, but the United States had refused to do so.
In a recent Truthout article, Gareth Porter further debunked the hype…
Exclusive Report: Evidence of Iran Nuclear Weapons Program May Be Fraudulent
Here’s another extensive article on Iran and Israel’s attempts to frame Iran…
The Phantom Menace: Fantasies, falsehoods, and fear-mongering about Iran’s nuclear program
I’ve also highlighted Bibi’s desire to bomb Iran with US complicity…
AFP: ‘Create Credible Military Threat Against Iran,’ Says Israel to U.S.
This is getting really old, really fast…!
*gah*
Update: Here is the IAEA Board of Governors report (12 pg PDF) In it they state that they can confirm the ‘nondiversion of nuclear material’, but, bitch about not being given ‘full access’ to the Iranian military’s plans…! Can you think of any nation allowing that to occur…? *gah*
11 Comments
Recommended. Thank you for the report, CTuttle!
Nuclear ambition (peaceful or warlike) requires lots of money. Most of the money coming into Iran is for Oil. The US Military is the world’s largest purchaser of petroleum. Ergo, if the US Military stops buying Oil, Iran & Libya will be broke. That’s because: If the US Military switches to clean fuel, the bottom drops out of the Oil market’s pricing.
What’s this all about, from the NYT report:
“In a report on Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran told inspectors on Wednesday that it was planning to unload nuclear fuel from its Bushehr reactor — the sign of a major upset.”
The best explanation I saw of the Bushehr reactor move…
Btw, those nuclear fuel rods will continue to be monitored by the IAEA…
Apparently, the Russians told them to do it…
They’re starting up the Syrian nuke stories again too.
It’s apparent that Israel’s reputation is so bad that any ‘evidence’ from the Mossad automatically implies that it’s fabricated. It’s amazing they have time for this, with half the continent in revolution. Perhaps it’s just a diversionary strategy.
Thanks CTuttle.
Yes, I read that. But why? What’s wrong? The story brought in Stuxnet as an hypothesis but it seemed like grasping for straws.
So I suppose the answer to my original Q is that no one knows what is going wrong yet and keep tuned.
BTW, CT, I listen to every interview Scott Horton does on antiwar.com except for his libertarian economics ones, of course. He knows this stuff inside & out & can put it in understandable language.
Yea, I saw that too, complete with satellite imagery…! *gah*
CT, thanks for the diary and links, rcc’d.
1) Why is Israel resuming the ‘Iran Front’? Or, why were they so quiet about it for so long . . . maybe cuz of blowback from Gaza Flotilla issues?
2) The core fuel removal . . . the plant WAS attacked by computer virus. I expect someone (Mossad) would have LOVED to see that plant go CHernobyl, and that WAS the intent of the virus . . . removing the fuel (at behest of Russia) reduces the threat of the plant going ‘Chernobyl’. That’s my take on that . . . you?
Always rcc’d hoss, thanks for your work.
eCahn, thanks for reminding me I need to listen to Horton’s podcasts at Raimondo’s Place . . . he does know his foreign affairs stuff to the core.
…why were they so quiet about it for so long . . .
At what juncture would you say that Israel has been quiet about it ‘for so long’…? They’ve been actively hyping the Iranian threat all along… Read that extensive ‘Phantom Menace’ linky again if need be…!