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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: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 23 2017, @03:15AM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 23 2017, @03:15AM (#586150)

    Note: Iraq, not Iran this time.

    In the early aughts, "intelligence" reports said that Iraq was trying to buy yellowcake (processed uranium ore) from Niger.

    The State Dept. spooks (a bunch with high veracity, despite having a much lower budget than the usual TLAs) said it was bullshit.
    Colin Powell, their boss, rejected their findings.

    A retired diplomat was sent to Africa to investigate. [wikipedia.org]
    Upon his return, he also said that the story was crap.

    USA.gov (Dubya's warmongers) wanted the story to be true, so actual facts didn't matter.
    To retaliate against the truthteller, USA.gov ruined the career of Joe Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, a CIA officer.

    Apparently, it doesn't take much to qualify for "intelligence".
    You just have to craft your "truth" to support the agenda of the Reactionaries.

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

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  • (Score: 0, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Monday October 23 2017, @07:16AM (7 children)

    by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Monday October 23 2017, @07:16AM (#586218) Homepage Journal

    Iraq had yellowcake. Everybody knew about it. President Saddam Hussein made NO SECRET of his yellowcake. Very honest and open about it. Say what you want, but Saddam Hussein was not the kind of guy to beat around the bush. And he held his country together. It was deeply divided between the Sunnis, the Shia and the Kurds. But he held it together. Say what you want, but that is not easy. Trust me, it's far from easy. I'm not giving him credit or not giving him credit; I'm just saying that's a very hard thing to do Everybody knew his yellowcake was there. And he had had it for a long, long time. He wasn't trying to buy more from Niger. George Bush made a mistake. And Crooked Hillary went along with him hook, line and sinker. Obviously, the war in Iraq was a big, fat mistake. We can make mistakes. But that one was a beauty. We should have never been in Iraq. We have destabilized the Middle East.

    And it's no secret that Iran is trying to buy 950 tons of yellowcake from Kazakhstan. They didn't try to hide it. What do they need 950 tons for? Believe me, it's a lot more than they need. More than they could ever need, unless it's for the WMDs. That's unacceptable. President Obama said they could do it. He said they could go ahead. They had no reason to hide it from President Obama. I'm telling them "no." Saying "no" to Iran, they call it a veto. If that doesn't work, I have other options. I'm keeping all options on the table, to put a stop to this very bad deal. But if Crooked Hillary becomes president, she'll say it's OK. If she gets her cut she'll give the OK. Like she did with Russia. When she and Obama let Russia buy 20 percent of our uranium. When 2020 comes around, ask yourself: "did we lose a nuclear war with Iran?" And then ask yourself, when that happened was it President Trump's fault? Should I blame President Trump? If you're honest you'll have to answer "no." That second question will be a "no." I inherited a mess but I'm doing my best. So that America keeps on winning, winning, WINNING. Because I always put America First. #TRUMP2020 🇺🇸

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday October 23 2017, @12:37PM (5 children)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday October 23 2017, @12:37PM (#586301) Journal

      Uhhhh - did the UK, or did the UK not, forge those documents? The question is not so much whether Iraq had some yellow cake - the question is whether "our side" forged documents, and over hyped the situation. As for the facts - every country in the world has plenty of fissionables to worry about. At least three times, Mexico has mishandled and lost dangerous radioactive materials. In at least two of those cases, there were fatalities as a result. And, Mexico isn't even a real player in the nuclear field.

      Yes, of course, Iraq had potential fissionable material. But, where were all of Iraq's physicists? I did some research during the runup to the invasion. A who's who of Iraqi physicists. Well over half of them were out of country. Almost all of the remainder had full time jobs, most of those in academia. There was no one left to run a nuclear weapons program. The senior people available to the Iraqi government were third and fourth stringers, at best. No real physicists.

      US and UK intelligence were very much aware that Iraq had no viable nuclear weapons program, despite all the political bullshit being hyped on the media.

      BTW - how many tons of yellow cake does it take to refine a ton of useful fissionable material? I'm not real sure, but probably more than 100 tons. Anyone?

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by requerdanos on Monday October 23 2017, @02:21PM (2 children)

        by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Monday October 23 2017, @02:21PM (#586334) Journal

        Uhhhh - did the UK, or did the UK not, forge those documents?

        It's "realdonaldwhatever". He's trolling, not participating in community rhetoric.

        • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday October 24 2017, @01:35AM (1 child)

          by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Tuesday October 24 2017, @01:35AM (#586678) Homepage Journal

          Crooked Dems colluded to sell our uranium to Russia. Crooked Dems said Iran could buy uranium, much more uranium than they have. And all you have to say is "oh, Donald Trump is trolling." Disgraceful!

      • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday October 23 2017, @03:44PM (1 child)

        by fustakrakich (6150) on Monday October 23 2017, @03:44PM (#586373) Journal

        over hyped the situation

        Wag the dog [independent.co.uk]

        --
        La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
        • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 23 2017, @06:26PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 23 2017, @06:26PM (#586476)

          The breadth of your wisdom is truly only exceeded by its depth.

    • (Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday October 24 2017, @08:02AM

      by driverless (4770) on Tuesday October 24 2017, @08:02AM (#586764)

      What do they need 950 tons for?

      Because they want to have their Yellow Cake and eat it too?