It’s been really hard for Iran hawks these days. With a reformist Iranian president initiating unprecedented diplomacy with the U.S. and offering major concessions on its nuclear program, the best they’ve been able to come up with is that it’s all a sham. Rouhani is “a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists. He may seem nice on the outside, but he is really evil. This diplomatic push to resolve longstanding disputes with the West is all a ploy so they can build a nuclear bomb and destroy Israel.
At the Daily Beast, Eli Lake introduces another iteration of this knee-jerk opposition to diplomacy with Iran. His argument is that the Iranians have gotten better at doing things in secret, so if they try to build a bomb, we’ll have a harder time detecting it.
…the Iranians have gotten better at hiding their tracks, according to some current and retired United States intelligence officers who say it could prove very difficult for the world to catch Iran again if it tries to build a nuclear weapon in secret.
Since 2009, when the second uranium enrichment facility was revealed in Qom, Iran has taken several steps to better conceal a weapons program, these people say. It has beefed up security of its cyber networks, for example, after the Stuxnet computer worm infected computers in Iran’s largest uranium enrichment site. Its Revolutionary Guard has also established a cyber warfare command. The division’s commander died mysteriously earlier this month.
Iran has also improved security procedures for protecting personnel in its nuclear program, following a string of attacks on its scientists, allegedly by Israel.
That’s his lede. Not exactly a block-buster gotcha on Iran’s nuclear program.
There is a different way to describe Lake’s opening paragraphs. It would go something like this: “In response to repeated U.S. efforts at espionage, Iran has tried to impede American spying efforts.” Or, “In response to a cyberwarfare attack by the U.S. widely considered to be illegal, Iran has tried to beef up the security of its cyber networks.” Or, “In response to repeated terrorist attacks against Iranian scientists, Iran has tried to improve protection of these personnel.”
Here’s the next of Lake’s ominous warnings:
Finally, as Iran’s declared uranium enrichment facilities in Natanz and Qom have expanded, so has the country’s infrastructure for building centrifuges, the machines that enrich that uranium. The current and former U.S. intelligence officials say this means it’s easier for Iran to siphon off material for secret facilities with more nefarious purposes, if it chose to do so.
What Lake chose not to include in his report is that Iran has been irreversibly diverting much of its enriched uranium to peaceful scientific research and medical isotopes, according to the IAEA, a UN report, and even Israeli intelligence officials.
And despite what Lake reports about the difficulty of detecting a secret Iranian program, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told Congress back in March that “Iran could not divert safeguarded material and produce a weapon-worth of WGU [weapons grade uranium] before this activity is discovered.”
Lake also ignores the deal Iranians have offered in nuclear negotiations. According to reporter Barbara Slavin, Iran “has put forward a new proposal to resolve the nuclear crisis that includes a freeze on production of 20% enriched uranium” and “a pledge to convert its stockpile to fuel rods.”
In addition, the Iranians have proposed “full monitoring of the underground enrichment plant at Fordow,” the enrichment site that worries people like Lake so much, and “ratification of the Additional Protocol of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, which allows unannounced inspections of nuclear sites.”
With current U.S. spying capabilities, plus Iranian concessions which include greater transparency, Lake’s contention that the Islamic Republic might build a bomb without detection if they decided to do so is…well…ridiculous.
some things to note:
the bad man said it would be “very difficult for the world to catch Iran again…” implying they were caught building a nukular bomb. but they were never caught the first time!
he also seems to be repeating the unfact of “when the second uranium enrichment facility was revealed in Qom,” as though they were caught red-handed doing something sinful.
again not true. iran notified the iaea a minumum of 6 months prior to introduction of nukular materials, as required by the nnpa.
All for the sake of the zionizt entity placed on occupied Palestinian land and because of demographics it will eventually be no more.
Iran should make this deal…..when Isrealhell opens up their secret Nuclear weapon(s) site(s) and have the IAEA scour every inch like they do here in Iran then then we can have a deal. The hypocrisy is there for all the world to see, but the US IS UNDER Zionist CONTROL AND congress ARE Israeli bootlickers.
So your saying that Iran has endured the worst sanctions ever placed on a country just for the sake of pride when all they has to do was allow inspectors in to prove that it had no military purp9ose and they would have been lifted, but they punished themselves for no reason because the one biggest producers of oil needs energy. Nope.
Peace needs honesty. Your view brings death and shield murderers and tyrants. If you really wanted peace you would tell the world to say no to Iran and there wouldn't be one. Your tactics will start world war 3. The elections in Iran were fixed. They keep their own people prisoners and you protect them. You'll be judged for all who suffer under tyranny and never be remembered as a peace maker rather a racist and a war monger that does it by being passive aggressive. Ein Devar.
"Peace needs honesty."
And you honestly need to rethink your position. Iran wants nuclear so they can sell the oil for capital.
On more than one occasion the IAEA inspectors have said that they are not seeking a bomb and all fissionable material is accounted for.
Iran has not attacked anyone in over 300 year, where the USA hasn't attacked anyone in the last 30 minutes!
The only way the sanctions will ever be lifted is if there is another USA lapdog put in power in Iran.
A senior commander of the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) says Israeli intelligence services has been helping some Syrian military defectors to be trained in order to hold posts in the Syrian military after the government falls. – See more at: http://en.alalam.ir/news/1530467
Believe it or not, there is an aspect of this hypocritical praise of Mandela that is mentioned even less than the media coverage of his passing. That is the uncomfortable similarity that Israel’s occupation of Palestine now has with the apartheid regime in South Africa.
Believe it or not, there is an aspect of this hypocritical praise of Mandela that is mentioned even less than the media coverage of his passing. That is the uncomfortable similarity that Israela??s occupation of Palestine now has with the apartheid regime in South Africa.