Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Administration & Intelligence officials: Hersh's piece is a "slanted book report"...

"... In “Iran and the Bomb,” from the issue dated June 6, Hersh adds up what’s known about the Iranian nuclear program and concludes that the Obama administration is overstating the threat coming from Tehran, just as the Bush administration did nearly a decade ago when sizing up Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq.
But two administration officials told 
POLITICO’s Playbook that’s not the case.
“[A]ll you need to read to be deeply concerned about Iran’s nuclear program is the substantial body of information already in the public domain, including the most recent IAEA report,” a senior administration official said... 
“There is a clear, ongoing pattern of deception, ... These examples and more make us deeply skeptical of Iran’s nuclear intentions.”
And a senior intelligence official also ripped Hersh, saying his article amounted to nothing more than “a slanted book report on a long narrative that’s already been told many times over.”
“We’ve been clear with the world about what we know about the Iranian nuclear program: Tehran is keeping its options open despite the fact that the community of nations demands otherwise,” the official added..."

1 comment:

b said...

The administration also launched an anti Hersh story piece via propagandist Broad in the NYT:

Inspectors Pierce Iran’s Cloak of Nuclear Secrecy
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/science/31nuke.html

It uses the same argument (that was also used on Iraq)

/quote/
Two diplomats familiar with the evidence, both of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity under the usual protocol, emphasized that no single one of the technologies stood out as indicating bomb work. Some, they conceded, have peaceful uses.

But the totality of the evidence, they said, suggested that Iran has worked hard on multiple fronts to advance the design of nuclear arms.

“It’s the whole variety of information,” one of the diplomats said. “You have to look at the whole thing.”
/endquote/