“We will never enter any war against the U.S. or against any other country. This is our policy…We have never attacked anybody. Why should we do that? Why should we start a war?” – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Oct. 18, 2011)

Why indeed…?

Now, The IAEA, once again, defies one of the first principles of logic: Negative evidence – the absence of something – cannot be used to prove the existence of something…! Ironically, during the Iraqi fiasco, the IAEA was on the right side of the logical ledger, stating bluntly that they could not prove that Saddam had possessed any WMD’s, much less, a nuke program…!

Well, seemingly, they’re on the wrong side of the very same equation… To wit…

“While the Agency continues to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material at the nuclear facilities and LOFs declared by Iran under its Safeguards Agreement, as Iran is not providing the necessary cooperation, including by not implementing its Additional Protocol, the Agency is unable to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities.”

Hmmm… I wonder what had changed at the IAEA…?

Today, the intrepid Pepe Escobar completely eviscerated all the latest Iranian hype…

Dodgy Intel

The IAEA insists is relying on “credible” intelligence – over 1,000 pages of documentation – from more than 10 countries, and has drawn on eight years of “evidence”.

Yet the IAEA has no independent means to confirm the enormous mass of information – and disinformation – it receives from mostly Western powers. Mohammad ElBaradei – who was the predecessor of the Japanese Yukya Amano as the head of the IAEA – said so, explicitly, many times. And he always disputed what passes for “Iran intelligence” – knowing it was politicized to the extreme, and trespassed by waves of rumor and speculation.

No wonder ultra-conservative Iranian newspaper Kayhan had reason to ask whether that was a IAEA report or an American diktat to the meek, easily pressured Amano.

There’s nothing even remotely earth-shaking about the report – satellite images and speculation by “diplomats” being sold as irrefutable “intelligence”. If this looks like the build-up towards the war on Iraq, that’s because it does. Essentially, it’s regurgitation of a four-year-old farce, known as the “laptop of death”…

Antiwar’s Justin Raimondo did a masterful job too…

…What jumps out at the careful reader of the IAEA report is that there is nothing concrete involved in this nefarious plot: only hearsay descriptions of blueprints and computer models, including various publicly available scientific studies authored by Iranian scientists. According to Khan, what was transferred to the Iranians was know-how: theoretical knowledge and contacts with suppliers. Yet throughout the IAEA report, although there are plenty of instances where Iran is alleged to have sought this or that dual use component, we are never told if they actually succeeded in procuring the item. While the report attributes its information to “Member States,” why will I not be surprised if this “intelligence” comes from the same folks who brought us the Niger uranium forgeries?

Although there is no smoking gun, the injection of the A.Q. Khan network into the propaganda mix at this level is a relatively new development, one that links the latest Enemy of the Moment (Pakistan) with longtime-favorite Iran. Why not kill two birds with one stone?

Wiki has a great synopsis on the Laptop and the Green Salt Project…

It should be noted that not only has Russia called bullsh*t, immediately, but, also the Chinese…

…”It is clear that contention between the various sides over the Iranian nuclear issue has reached white hot levels and could even be on the precipice of a showdown,” the overseas edition of the People’s Daily said in a front-page commentary…

China’s official Xinhua news agency also suggested that Beijing would respond warily to the report. The UN watchdog still “lacks a smoking gun”, Xinhua said in a commentary.

“There are no witnesses or physical evidence to prove that Iran is making nuclear weapons,” it said.

“In dealing with the Iran nuclear issue, it is extremely dangerous to rely on suspicions, and the destructive consequences of any armed action would endure for a long time.”…

“If these sanctions harm China’s substantive interests, then China will have to respond in some way,“said Li Hong, the secretary general of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, a government-controlled body.

Do we really want to awaken the slumbering Dragon…?

*gah*