Big-bang report blasts Iran

Just as Iraq was pressed to “prove a negative”, that is, the absence of a clandestine weapons of mass destruction program, the IAEA is now dead set on denying Iran a clean bill of health as long as it has not satisfied concerns about a similar absence.

Consequently, irrespective of his proposed modality, ElBaradei in his report cites a long laundry list of military-related individuals, institutes and other places that need to be investigated thoroughly before the atomic agency can fully ascertain the “absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran”. That places the bar artificially high and well beyond what the report’s title, about Iran’s nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) safeguard agreement, calls for.
The IAEA is now suddenly firmly sold on the authenticity and trustworthiness of the information regarding the “alleged studies” – much of it provided by US intelligence – even though all outstanding questions were said previously to have been settled in Iran’s favor.

Citing information that Iran’s alleged experiments involving testing of the detonation of hemispheres of explosives “may have involved the assistance of foreign experts”, the IAEA report essentially disregards Iran’s May 117-page response to the IAEA. This, in the words of Iran’s representative to the agency, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, “presents multiple evidence” concerning the fake or “fabricated” nature of alleged documents pertaining to the “weaponization studies”.

Iran has not been given any of those documents, only their “electronic version”, which makes it doubly difficult to prove or disprove their authenticity. Yet ElBaradei is now a full convert to their authenticity, informing us in a footnote that this documentation come from “multiple sources over different periods of time, is detailed in content and appears to be consistent”.

None of this washes the taint of a new leap toward subjectivity on ElBaradei’s part. First, what if the multiple sources consist of the US’s junior partners in their collective crusade to checkmate Iran’s rising power, and Israel is one of those sources.

Asia Times