"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

WASH POST: "SECRET GROUP OF INTERNATIONAL SCIENTISTS CLEAR IRAN"

WASH POST (hat tip DRUDGE):
Traces of bomb-grade uranium found two years ago in Iran came from contaminated Pakistani equipment and are not evidence of a clandestine nuclear weapons program, a group of U.S. government experts and other international scientists has determined. ... Scientists from the United States, France, Japan, Britain and Russia met in secret during the past nine months to pore over data collected by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, according to U.S. and foreign officials. Recently, the group, whose existence had not been previously reported, definitively matched samples of the highly enriched uranium -- a key ingredient for a nuclear weapon -- with centrifuge equipment turned over by the government of Pakistan.
Er ... um.... let me get this straight: according to these scientists, Iran is CLEARED because the stuff found on the ILLEGALLY OBTAINED AND SURREPTITIOUS CENTRIFUGES WHICH IRAN LIED ABOUT - ALONG WITH THE HIDDEN NUCLEAR ASSETS THEY HID AND LIED ABOUT FOR 18 YEARS (according to this WASH POST article from 11/11/2003) - WAS RESIDUE WHICH CAME WITH THE ILLEGALLY OBTAINED PAKISTANI EQUIPMENT THEY HAD LIED ABOUT.

OH: how trustworthy! As the WASH POST reports deeper in this article:
Iran built its nuclear program in secret over 18 years with the help of Abdul Qadeer Khan, a top Pakistani official and nuclear scientist who sold spare parts from his country's own weapons program to Iran, Libya and North Korea. Khan's black-market dealings were uncovered in 2003. He confessed on national television, was swiftly pardoned by Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and is now under house arrest. ... The IAEA, in its third year of an investigation in Iran, has not found proof of a weapons program. But a few serious questions, some connected to Iran's involvement with Khan, remain unanswered.
Er... um, wouldn't it be a good idea TO GET TRUTHFUL answers to all the outstanding questions, and to get full access for complete inspections BEFORE we "clear" the Iranians!? Sheesh. I think that Iran's two decades of deceit PROVES more about their intentions and their trustworthiness than all the assays by international scientists.

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