Antiwar Radio with Scott Horton » IAEA

Gareth Porter

Scott Horton — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 05:43:54 +0000

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the lies and innuendo in the IAEA report on Iran; the whole story on Vyacheslav Danilenko, the Russian scientist accused of helping Iran’s (alleged) nuclear weapons program; former IAEA inspector Robert Kelly’s doubts about a “containment chamber” for testing high explosives used in nuclear weapons; why this “intelligence” is most likely passed on to the IAEA by Israel; how the “alleged studies” documents got the current Iranian missile design wrong (proving they are forgeries); why Iran’s cooperation varies with regard to IAEA inspections and additional protocol agreements; and how everyone is hyperventilating about stuff Iran was alleged to have done in 2003 or earlier.

MP3 here. (25:01)

Gareth Porter is an independent historian and journalist. He is the author of Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam. His articles appear on Counterpunch, Huffington Post, Inter Press Service News Agency and Antiwar.com.

Seymour Hersh

Scott Horton — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 05:20:42 +0000

Seymour Hersh, award winning investigative reporter for The New Yorker magazine, discusses his article “Iran and the I.A.E.A.;” how extensive CIA/JSOC espionage (and perhaps assassination and sabotage) in Iran failed to find any evidence of a clandestine nuclear weapons program; why Iran’s interest in nukes prior to 2003 was to hedge against an Iraqi weapon; the new IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano, who has no problem regurgitating old innuendo to make a case for war; and why the bluster coming out of Israel exists mostly at the top, since common sense attitudes about Iran are common in lower ranks of the military and Mossad.

MP3 here. (20:40)

Seymour M. Hersh wrote his first piece for The New Yorker in 1971 and has been a regular contributor to the magazine since 1993. His journalism and publishing awards include a Pulitzer Prize, five George Polk Awards, two National Magazine Awards, and more than a dozen other prizes for investigative reporting. As a staff writer, Hersh won a National Magazine Award for Public Interest for his 2003 articles “Lunch with the Chairman,” “Selective Intelligence,” and “The Stovepipe.” In 2004, Hersh exposed the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in a series of pieces in the magazine; in 2005, he again received a National Magazine Award for Public Interest, an Overseas Press Club award, the National Press Foundation’s Kiplinger Distinguished Contributions to Journalism award, and his fifth George Polk Award, making him that award’s most honored laureate.

Muhammad Sahimi

Scott Horton — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:37:17 +0000

Muhammad Sahimi, Professor of Chemical Engineering and political columnist on Iran issues, discusses the specific accusations against Iran in the IAEA report; the truth about the “Soviet nuclear scientist,” the “exploding bridge wire” detonators, and old recycled allegations from Olli Heinonen and Israeli intelligence; and how Iran has never been given access to the “stolen laptop” documents – or the computer itself – and can’t properly respond to allegations or conduct a digital forensic investigation.

MP3 here. (20:03)

Muhammad Sahimi, Professor of chemical engineering & materials science and the National Iranian Oil Company chair in petroleum engineering at the University of Southern California, has published extensively on Iran’s political development and its nuclear program. He is the lead political columnist for the web site PBS/Frontline/Tehran Bureau, blogs at The Huffington Post, and contributes regularly to antiwar.com and National Public Radio on issues related to Iran.

Flynt Leverett

Scott Horton — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 05:09:24 +0000

Flynt Leverett, former Senior Director for Middle East Affairs at the National Security Council, discusses how the most crucial part of the IAEA report on Iran – that declared nuclear material isn’t being diverted to weapons manufacturing – has been buried under a heap of unsubstantiated rumors and accusations; the evidence that new IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano is much more cozy with the US than his predecessor Mohamed ElBaradei; why those who defend Iran’s rights under the NPT aren’t necessarily minions of the Ayatollah; the equally-wacky end-times theology of the major Abrahamic religions; and why Israel’s real “existential threat” is from losing the support of Jews worldwide, not from an incredibly improbable Iran attack.

MP3 here. (30:05)

Flynt Leverett runs The Race For Iran blog and teaches at Pennsylvania State University’s School of International Affairs. Additionally, he directs the Iran Project at the New America Foundation, where he is a Senior Research Fellow.

Dr. Leverett is a leading authority on the Middle East and Persian Gulf, U.S. foreign policy, and global energy affairs. From 1992 to 2003, he had a distinguished career in the U.S. government, serving as Senior Director for Middle East Affairs at the National Security Council, on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff, and as a CIA Senior Analyst. He left the George W. Bush Administration and government service in 2003 because of disagreements about Middle East policy and the conduct of the war on terror.

Dr. Leverett’s 2006 monograph, Dealing With Tehran: Assessing U.S. Diplomatic Options Toward Iran, presented the seminal argument for a U.S.-Iranian “grand bargain”, an idea that he has developed in multiple articles and Op Eds in The New York Times, The National Interest, POLITICO, Salon, Washington Monthly, and the New America Foundation’s “Big Ideas for a New America” series.

Muhammad Sahimi

Scott Horton — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 05:09:19 +0000

Muhammad Sahimi, Professor of Chemical Engineering and political columnist on Iran issues, discusses his article “The IAEA Report on Iran’s Nuclear Program: Alarming or Hyped;” recycling the old “smoking laptop” documents into new allegations against Iran; debunking the story about a Russian nuclear scientist who supposedly helped Iran with nuclear weapons; leaving Iranians to form their own opposition parties without foreign interference; why David Albright won’t give up the Iran-propaganda business and get an honest job; how the 2007 and 2011 NIEs contradict IAEA claims about Iran’s nuclear weapons capabilities; the “Bolton plan” of pestering Iran until they withdraw from the NPT – so a war can begin; and Iran’s long history of pragmatic foreign policy decisions, including cooperating with the US and Israel in various circumstances.

MP3 here. (42:14)

Flynt Leverett

Scott Horton — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 06:34:20 +0000

Flynt Leverett, former Senior Director for Middle East Affairs at the National Security Council, discusses why the IAEA’s job in Iran is verifying the non-diversion of nuclear materials for making weapons, not publicizing the assertions of foreign intelligence agencies; how “journalist” David Sanger of the NY Times continues his personal crusade against Iran, truth be damned; why Iran’s alleged theoretical study of nuclear weapons, including the testing of high explosives, still does not violate the NPT; the dubious legality of UN Security Council resolutions prohibiting Iran from enjoying its rights to nuclear energy as an NPT signatory; and why an Israeli airstrike on Iran’s nuclear facilities would only work if they used nuclear weapons – or dragged the US into the war.

MP3 here. (20:44)

Flynt Leverett

Scott Horton — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 04:42:50 +0000

Flynt Leverett, former Senior Director for Middle East Affairs at the National Security Council, discusses the Iran uranium swap negotiations in 2009-10; a reminder that the Tehran Research Reactor was supplied by the US in the 1960s, and reconfigured after the 1979 revolution to use far-less enriched uranium (reducing weapons proliferation risks); how the initial swap offer by the US asked Iran to hand over its low-enriched uranium, with no collateral, and trust France to provide fuel rods a year later; the eminently reasonable Iranian counter-proposals that were ridiculed and dismissed by US officials; and how Obama reneged on his promise to Turkish and Brazilian negotiators when Iran accepted a deal he was sure would be rejected.

MP3 here. (30:00)

Gareth Porter

Scott Horton — Sat, 28 May 2011 17:13:37 +0000

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses David Sanger’s latest inflammatory and inaccurate NY Times article on Iran’s nuclear program (you’d think the second paragraph alone would have killed the article – how are multiple bullet-points on page 7, of a 9 page report, in any way “buried”); how the IAEA goes beyond its mandate when dealing with Iran, demanding information they have no right to; Israel’s document forgeries and efforts to frame up Iran; and why the IAEA is a political organization with an agenda, heavily influenced by the US, not the neutral scientific observer the media portrays it as.

MP3 here. (18:26)

Gareth Porter

Scott Horton — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 09:41:00 +0000

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the eight indicators of fraud in the Iran nuclear “alleged studies” documents; the smear campaign against IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei for daring to question their authenticity; how the (probably Mossad created) documents form the foundation of US allegations that Iran has, or had, a nuclear weapons program; Iran’s objection to IAEA demands for secret military information; and the unexpected developments in Iran’s missile program that exposed one of the documents as a forgery.

MP3 here. (39:03)

Gareth Porter

Scott Horton — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 05:49:45 +0000

Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the newly-released IAEA Iran report that “continues to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran” but can’t verify the Rumsfeldian “absence of undeclared nuclear activities” as mandated by the UN Security Council; the IAEA’s far-more stringent enforcement of NPT obligations in Iran as compared to South Korea (which was guilty of serious violations); North Korea’s significant new uranium enrichment capability and the challenge of educating Americans about the intricacies of nuclear power and IAEA inspection protocols so they aren’t so easily misled about Iran.

MP3 here. (33:42)