Ahem - another phony scare

[Sauron]

God it sucks to be an American now. Nobody believes us anymore.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...082201447.html

No Proof Found of Iran Arms Program
Uranium Traced to Pakistani Equipment

By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 23, 2005; Page A01

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.

"The biggest smoking gun that everyone was waving is now eliminated with these conclusions," said a senior official who discussed the still-confidential findings on the condition of anonymity.

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.

Iran has long contended that the uranium traces were the result of contaminated equipment bought years ago from Pakistan. But the Bush administration had pointed to the material as evidence that Iran was making bomb-grade ingredients.

[Ari]

Well, Isn't it nice we figured this out before we went to war with them over their WMDs?

[Sauron]

Originally Posted by Ari

Well, Isn't it nice we figured this out before we went to war with them over their WMDs?

Don't jump to conclusions.

Bush could *still* go to war with Iran. Contrary evidence didn't stop him last time; why should it be any different now?

[Godless Dave]

Originally Posted by Sauron

Don't jump to conclusions.

Bush could *still* go to war with Iran. Contrary evidence didn't stop him last time; why should it be any different now?

I think Ari was being sarcastic.

[Sauron]

Originally Posted by Godless Dave

I think Ari was being sarcastic.

I know.
So was I.

[Clutch Munny]

What makes you think that, just because this information is now available to anyone who seeks it, the media will discuss it widely or raise it as relevant when the Administration blusters on Iran?

Much the same could be said of the phony yellowcake and reactor tube claims; by the time Powell gave his powerful, compelling, decisive speech to the UN... much of what he claimed was known to be false or sketchy.

[ChuckF]

Hope ya don't mind if I gank this for an IIDB post...

[Godless Dave]

OK, my slogan for the last war was "Bush lied. Soldiers died." My slogan for Iran is going to be "Don't get fooled again."

[Ari]

I say your slogan for Iran should be,
"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me... fool me twice... We can't get fooled again!"