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Media obscures Iran's nuclear program with 'Fog Facts'

Posted by Joshua Holland at 6:06 AM on April 10, 2007.


Joshua Holland: The commercial media puts everything you need to know to make sense of the world around you on the record … somewhere.
peacenuclear
The club.

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In his book, Fog Facts: Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin, Larry Beinhart argued that the big commercial media do in fact report just about everything that an engaged citizen needs to make sense of his or her world. The problem, Beinhart wrote, is that crucially important items that defy the dominant political narratives of the day all too often become "fog facts" -- reported and placed in the public record but buried deep down to die lonely deaths in stories below the fold on page B 27 (you can read my interview with Beinhart here).

Yesterday, the AP ran a story about Iran's nuclear program that was a perfect example of the phenomenon. Consider the opening four paragraphs …

NATANZ, Iran -- Iran announced Monday that it has begun enriching uranium with 3,000 centrifuges, defiantly expanding a nuclear program that has drawn U.N. sanctions and condemnation from the West.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at a ceremony at the enrichment facility at Natanz that Iran was now capable of enriching nuclear fuel "on an industrial scale."

Asked if Iran has begun injecting uranium gas into 3,000 centrifuges for enrichment, top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani replied, "Yes." He did not elaborate, but it was the first confirmation that Iran had installed the larger set of centrifuges after months of saying it intends to do so. Until now, Iran was only known to have 328 centrifuges operating.

Uranium enrichment can produce fuel for a nuclear reactor or the material for a nuclear warhead. The United States and its allies accuse Iran of intending to produce weapons, a charge the country denies.

That's followed by comments by a U.S. State Department spokesman and a White House official condemning Iran, a "no comment" from the IAEA, an inflammatory quote or two from a speech given by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a quote from Michael Levi of the Council on Foreign Relations.

If you make it through all of that, you'll eventually reach the 22nd paragraph, where you'll unearth this pertinent little fact:

Experts say the Natanz plant needs between 50,000 to 60,000 centrifuges to consistently produce fuel for a reactor or build a warhead.

Yes, in the 22nd paragraph of the 28-graph story, we learn that the 3,000 centrifuges are one twentieth of the number experts say are needed to build a warhead! That, my friends, is a fog fact.

PS: I know it would be asking too much for these reports to mention a key aspect of the UN sanctions against Iran. The resolution authorizing them offers no cause that justifies them. There's no sentence in there like, "whereas Iran is violating blah blah blah." That's because Iran -- like all other signatories of the Non Proliferation Treaty -- is guaranteed the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, and the process is the same until you stick the enriched uranium in a weapon.

Digg!

Tagged as: iran, media, nuclear

Joshua Holland is an editor and senior writer at AlterNet.


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... the right to enrich uranium...
Posted by: channing on Apr 10, 2007 8:47 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Indeed, the right to enrich by signatories is one of the foggiest-facts in the war-drums neocons have been beating for almost two years... never mind the truth, it doesn't fit the plan. And never mind Pakistan, India, and Israel REFUSED to sign the non-proliferation treaty altogether, AND asked no one's permission for their weapons-grade centrifuges and resulting nuclear weapons now aimed all over the place!

Like the Niger-uranium claim before the Iraq invasion that was fogged-over, er, debunked by the UN TWO DAYS following public disclosure, due to the fact that they have the "original letter" on file that was forged with a new date, and obviously for a new purpose. (I remember two little paragraphs about it, and no big call for tracing it) Then the US took another 60 days longer to confirm it, (just in time for forgetful Americans) but in the persistent fog of war-mongering, never made headlines, even though it represented international FRAUD with dire consequences.

Refreshing that Waxman can FINALLY air this one, (a peripheral benefit of '06 elections) which is central to the prosecution of pre-war lies and the individuals behind them!

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Thanks again, Joshua Holland
Posted by: buffeliscious on Apr 10, 2007 9:13 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
This is the kind of critical assessment of underhanded media tactics we need right now. The citizens are under the spell of neocon propaganda, and we haven't the faintest inkling.

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» RE: Thanks again, Joshua Holland Posted by: mountainsrock
unity1
Posted by: Perfectclue on Apr 11, 2007 3:07 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If you want to see just how corrupt the Corporate media is, with regards to servility, appeasement to class nationalism, class ideology, double standards, class standards, corporate fascism and imperial policies of the class Empire of Amerika, itself part of the class hierarchies, class alliances of Western class nation states that corrupt not only within, but also corrupt international institutions, like the class hierarchy of the Security Council, which even violates its own rules, and Charter against aggression, then you should see how the lies of Iraq, was premeditated, through the commission of crimes by War Criminals in Congress, judicial nazis in Courts, and Executive thugs in the White House, with the help of the Corporate Media and their mercenary ideological class thugs.
Watch Democracy Now, and you will see that the Western intelligence agencies, on the top political levels ignored the truth that Saddam had no nuclear weapons, but all the class elites were complicit in echoing the lies of "officials", by supposed respectable Newspapers, like the Washington Post and New York times.

When one forges documents to lie and get us into an illegal war of aggression, there should be War crimes tribunals, after the impeachment not only Bush, and his executive thugs, but all the appeasing class mercenaries, cheerleading class fascist foreign policies. The whole damn system, its class elites, and war criminals should be impeached for their criminal complicity and warmongering propaganda. Now these same Neocons, Zionist thugs, liberal appeasing class mercenaries are warmongering us into war with Iran and or Syria or both. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Edwards, and others are pretenders of opposition, claiming anti war positions while cheerleading, warmongering in front of the Israeli AIPAC Lobby, to attack, and threaten Iran, itself against International laws, that violate the U.N. charter.
If we are to survive these wholesale criminal activities, generalized corruption by middle layers, themselves corrupted by class rule above, as agents for Class rule and Empire, through class hierarchies, then we must eliminate that corruption from its source. A universal middle class, without class masters above, and exploiting classes below, is inherently revolutionary because of its revolutionary center. That center is and was corrupted as soon as the middle classes were only partially developed to keep them in tow, corrupting like the middle class fascists of Germany for Corporate Capitalism, then called the extreme form Corporate Fascism, today the norm for late Capitalism.

Plato understood, or at least saw the results of his utopian attempts to graft democracy onto class society, that produced "noble lies", class ideology, and was described as corrupting forms of class civil societies, that began with Class Republics, (class democracy) degenerating towards oligarchy and plutocracy and finally Class Empire. The Enlightenment, too failied to take on this generalized corrupt link to democracy, and the revolutionary liberals were coopted, betrayed by the class liberals, commercial capitaliststs, who put property rights over human rights, hence the failure of the Enlightenement and the first Capitalist Empire under Napoleon. This kind of wholesale corruption must be negated, transformed, by reclaiming the revolutionary efforts of Plato, Hegel, Marx, and others who based their classical, universal standards on a universal mechanism for a universal middle class, and not the class rot we have today.

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A BOLD NEW PLAN!!!!
Posted by: luckypuck on Apr 11, 2007 4:16 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
While rummaging and ruminating in my mind I happened to notice an article that, after examining fully and vetting thoroughly, I thought might be worthy of pulling out and passing on.

The UN somehow manages to prohibit any country from building any nuclear reactors. BUT, it puts into international law the following carrot: If a country wants a reactor, it can pay for it to be built, but ONLY the UN can build it, according to its own blueprints. And, the plant can only be staffed by UN paid and appointed workers who do not reside in that country.

After beginning operations, the staff sends the UN logs of all activities each month and the UN routinely sends inspectors every quarter for safety and security checks.

Clearly there are lots and lots of issues involved in this scheme, ones that my ruminations haven't yet uncovered. But I'd enjoy and appreciate some of you here finding the holes therein so I can patch them if not too big a rend.

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I am trying to teach myself to know when I am being bamboozled
Posted by: mdruss42 on Apr 11, 2007 4:32 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Thank you so much. Could you do some more lessons?

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A good example is this letter i got from Lionel Beehner of CFR
Posted by: kooshy on Apr 12, 2007 2:04 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Dear Mr. Afshar,

Thank you so much for your email (trust me, without feedback, I feel like I'm writing in a vacuum). And mea culpa. You're absolutely correct in your analysis of my (mis)analysis. The wording of the Iranian official's quote is indeed taken out of context and overly alarmist. We will fix this immediately.

The aim of the Daily Analysis brief is to provide a summary of the analysis, primary sources, and opinions out there about various news items--and how they reflect U.S. foreign policy; it is not meant to take one side or stir up controversy. On misstating the number of soldiers, I, too, plead carelessness.

I hope you'll find that in the past, my coverage of Iran has been fair and accurate. I also welcome any suggestions you have for outside sources or viewpoints we may be leaving out.

Again, thanks for keeping me on my toes!

Yours truly,

Lionel Beehner
Staff Writer
Council on Foreign Relations
58 East 68th Street | New York, NY 10021
tel: 212.434.9752 | email: lbeehner@cfr.org

My letter to Lionel Beehner on 4/11 right after his out of context analyiss titled Iran Nears Nuclear Red Line

Mr. Beehner
Council on Foreign Relations

I was just reading your CFR report titled “Iran Nears Nuclear Red Line” published today. I wondered where did you read or which Iranian official told the fallowing sentence that you wrote on your so called analysis “But Iranian officials say the facts on the ground—that Tehran is “past the experimental stage” and nearly capable of nuclear-weapons-grade enrichment—are irreversible.” By immediately inserting your add on sentence of “and nearly capable of nuclear-weapons-grade enrichment” after the Iran’s official stand that she has “past the experimental stage” you are making the readers to believe that Iranian officials are admitting that they are capable of enriching Uranium for nuclear weapons.
As you and all of us know every IAEA report including their last report to UN security council in February of this year have consistently indicated that Iran has never diverted its civilian nuclear program to weaponization or military purposes, therefore is inconceivable that any Iranian official admit to this insertion in your article. Truly at best this is a dishonest reporting specially for a “Think Thanks” like the one that writes your paycheck.

One would believe the job of a so called Think-Tank is to make honest analysis for a correct national policy decision making and not to twist the facts for propaganda purposes. We all don’t need another quagmire based on your personal religious politics or vengeance.

Further more the number of British military personnel captured in Iranian or Iraqi territorial waters was fifteen and not twelve like you reported in your article. I stopped reading your article past this sentence as I like to believe hasty mistakes are due to pressure from the Council on Foreign Relations and not to your lack of knowledge on current affairs.

Kooshy Afshar

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