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posted by martyb on Monday October 23 2017, @02:06AM   Printer-friendly
from the We-have-always-been-at-war-with-Eurasia dept.

Iran Doesn't Have a Nuclear Weapons Program. Why Do Media Keep Saying It Does?

When it comes to Iran, do basic facts matter? Evidently not, since dozens and dozens of journalists keep casually reporting that Iran has a "nuclear weapons program" when it does not—a problem FAIR has reported on over the years (e.g., 9/9/15). Let's take a look at some of the outlets spreading this falsehood in just the past five days:

Business Insider (10/13/17): "The deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), aims to incentivize Iran to curb its nuclear weapons program by lifting crippling international economic sanctions."

New Yorker (10/16/17): "One afternoon in late September, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called a meeting of the six countries that came together in 2015 to limit Iran's nuclear weapons program."

Washington Post (10/16/17): "The administration is also considering changing or scrapping an international agreement regarding Iran's nuclear weapons program."

CNN (10/17/17): "In reopening the nuclear agreement, [Trump] risks having Iran advance its nuclear weapons program at a time when he confronts a far worse nuclear challenge from North Korea that he can't resolve."

The problem with all of these excerpts: There is no documentation that Iran has a nuclear weapons program.


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 23 2017, @02:36AM (10 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 23 2017, @02:36AM (#586140)

    Iran would be a country of morons if it didn't have one. Put yourself in Iran's shoes, sitting next to Saudi and other Gulf Sunny Arabs, Israel, and nuke-armed Pakistan next door.

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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by TheRaven on Monday October 23 2017, @08:17AM (9 children)

    by TheRaven (270) on Monday October 23 2017, @08:17AM (#586226) Journal
    For anyone not understanding this: Iran is a Persian Shi'ite country, surrounded by Arabic Sunni countries. Their neighbours mostly hate them on both ethnic and religious grounds. In recent history, they've mostly managed to deflect this by reminding everyone that they hate Israel more than they hate Iran. Think of Iran as the weedy kid in a group of bullies that keeps pointing at other targets so that they don't pick on him and you won't be far wrong. They have to shout 'death to America and Israel'[1] more loudly than their neighbours, but the danger is that Israel and America will take these threats seriously, at which point having a nuclear deterrent is probably a really good idea.

    [1] Not quite true: Iranian children have to shout 'Death to England' at school each morning, though from the Iranian immigrants I've met here most of them take it as seriously as English children take being forced to sing the national anthem.

    --
    sudo mod me up
    • (Score: 1, Troll) by aristarchus on Monday October 23 2017, @08:29AM (3 children)

      by aristarchus (2645) on Monday October 23 2017, @08:29AM (#586230) Journal

      Think of Iran as the weedy kid in a group of bullies that keeps pointing at other targets so that they don't pick on him and you won't be far wrong.

      I kinda think of Iran as the North Dakota of the middle/south/east/Asia. State tree is a telephone pole. Sold themselves out to oil in a double-wide trailer-home in Minot. Just like that. And just think, surrounded by the socialist hellholes of South Dakota, Canada, Montana and Minnesota! Just like Iran. Seriously. And, they already have some nukes [soylentnews.org]? Minot AFB, [wikipedia.org] sometimes they just lose them? If only the Donald would make a deal with North Dakota, before it is too late!!!!

      • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by VLM on Monday October 23 2017, @02:05PM (2 children)

        by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday October 23 2017, @02:05PM (#586325)

        If only the Donald would make a deal with North Dakota, before it is too late!

        I think they're on pretty good terms already, that makes the analogy difficult.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_North_Dakota,_2016 [wikipedia.org]

        "Republican nominee Donald Trump won North Dakota in a 36-percentage-point routing over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton,"...

        Humorously, cucky Romney only got a 19% margin and hyper-cucky McCain only got a pitiful 8% margin. The R party was so cucky in those pre-Trump days that Obama nearly won North Dakota, LOL.

        • (Score: 5, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday October 23 2017, @04:32PM (1 child)

          by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Monday October 23 2017, @04:32PM (#586398) Journal

          "Cuck" is not an argument, VLM. And if anyone has been cuckolded, it's rural Republican voters, as their party has made their lives worse and worse since the Civil Rights movement while promising them the moon and the stars in return for their fidelity and loyalty. If that's not cuckolding I don't know what is.

          ...which, ironically, makes YOU the "cuck." Hurts, doesn't it?

          --
          I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 23 2017, @04:54PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 23 2017, @04:54PM (#586408)

            Nothing can penetrate that shield of ignorance.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 23 2017, @09:43AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 23 2017, @09:43AM (#586248)

      AND don't forget Iran has been a victim of the UK and USA's meddling (they destroyed Iran's democracy).

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat [wikipedia.org]

      the overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in favour of strengthening the monarchical rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi on 19 August 1953, orchestrated by the United Kingdom (under the name "Operation Boot") and the United States (under the name TPAJAX Project[5] or "Operation Ajax").[6][7][8][9]

      I'm pretty sure many Iranians still remember that.

      They may not like their government, but the majority are unlikely to approve of you overthrowing it. After all, would the US people approve of Iran overthrowing the USA just because:
      1) The US Gov is obviously and provably corrupt and evil.
      2) The top leader is bad for the people and a great danger to the rest of the world.
      3) The majority of the people didn't vote for the current top leader.
      4) There are numerous human rights violations happening.
      5) There are many dangerous nuclear weapons programs.
      6) The USA possesses nuclear weapons that could destroy much of the human world and there aren't any real safeguards - the top leader could launch them unilaterally, all anyone involved is supposed to do is to confirm that the launch order came from the top leader (this is by design!).

      The USA has used lamer excuses and weaker justifications to overthrow other governments; AND many lies too.

      • (Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday October 24 2017, @08:07AM

        by driverless (4770) on Tuesday October 24 2017, @08:07AM (#586765)

        You forgot to mention that the Shah's secret police, SAVAK, who specialised in the torture and murder of anyone the Shah didn't like, were set up and trained by Mossad. Iranian's dislike of Israel isn't just generic antisemitism, they have a pretty good historical reason to be upset at Israel.

    • (Score: 2) by Whoever on Monday October 23 2017, @04:00PM (2 children)

      by Whoever (4524) on Monday October 23 2017, @04:00PM (#586381) Journal

      though from the Iranian immigrants I've met here most of them take it as seriously as English children take being forced to sing the national anthem.

      Uh, what? England != the USA. English children don't sing the national anthem every day, or even any normal school day.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 23 2017, @04:37PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 23 2017, @04:37PM (#586400)

        English children don't sing the national anthem every day, or even any normal school day.

        And they spell funny.

        And when they grow up, they drink warm beer.

        And they beat each other up over silly soccer games.

        There's no hope for that little island.

      • (Score: 2) by TheRaven on Monday October 23 2017, @04:56PM

        by TheRaven (270) on Monday October 23 2017, @04:56PM (#586411) Journal
        I know we didn't, but when we did sing the national anthem we mostly sang 'mur mur mur mur mur mur' repeatedly. Iranian children shouting 'death to England' take it about as seriously.
        --
        sudo mod me up