So with the start of a new week, your daily dose of anti-Iran nuclear booga-booga comes courtesy of an article in the Daily Telegraph by (neo-)Con Coughlin, which exclaims that "Iran has resumed A-Bomb Project Says West".
Yeah, too bad this is so false as to be laughable. The Daily Telegraph is essentially repeating allegations from about 3 years ago by the MEK terrorist cult, word-for-word.
Anyone who has actually bothered to follow the news knows that Iran's work on the P-2 centrifuge is hardly a secret and has been widely discussed with the IAEA as far back as 2006 and also reported publicly in the media more recently. In fact the Iranians are quite proud of their upgrades to the Pakistani P-2 (which they call the IR-2.) This is so not a secret that Ahmadinejad goes around posing for photos next to the centrifuges for the New York Times.
Secondly, while the headline attributes "Making Bombs" to the "West" (all of them, mind you) in fact the body of the article only cites anonymous "officials" who are "familiar" with unidentified "intelligence reports" -- which should come as no surprise to those familiar with (neo)Con Coughlin's style of "journalism."
And while it certainly is true that the IR-2 is reportedly about 2.5 times more efficient than Iran's original centrifuges, the repeated suggestion that it is being "used to make a bomb" leaves out the fact that the Iranian enrichment plant is subject to IAEA monitoring and are used to only produce low-enriched uranium - and so can't be used to "make bombs." In fact the last IAEA report specifically said that Iran's centrifuges are operating as declared to the IAEA, and were the subject of 14 surprise inspections.
The Daily Telegraph article throws in a few more bullshit allegations too - that Iran's nuclear program is run by "Revolutionary Guards" and that "traces of highly enriched uranium" have been found -- nevermind that the IAEA has investigated those traces and their conclusions have vindicated Iran's assertion that they were due to contamination. After all, if Iran was capable of making Highly-Enriched Uranium then it wouldn't have so much trouble making Low-Enriched Uranium!
You really have to ask yourself: How does this sort of total bullshit make it out of the editors' office unless there's an agenda at work?
Cyrus, I read the article before reading your analysis. Really a bunch of garbage from top to bottom revealed by "unidentified sources". I would not doubt if MEK has helped this moron in his allegations. I kind of knew you may write your commentary on this garbage. I am very glad you exposed this idiot's bullshit.
Posted by: mb | July 07, 2008 at 06:55 PM
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[Cyrus says: Danke!]
Posted by: Sadegh Kabeer | July 07, 2008 at 01:50 PM
Coughlin is known to work with (or for) the MI6 and to take false stories from them.
The British Journalism Review had a story about that in 2000
http://www.bjr.org.uk/data/2000/no2_leigh.htm
Posted by: b | July 07, 2008 at 01:07 PM