This is how it's done

It only took an additional sentence or two, but this AFP report is a one-thousand fold improvement over almost every other dispatch you'll read about the tensions between Washington and Tehran.

US President George W. Bush charged Monday that Iran has openly declared that it seeks nuclear weapons  an inaccurate accusation at a time of sharp tensions between Washington and Tehran.                                                

"It's up to Iran to prove to the world that they're a stabilizing force as opposed to a destabilizing force. After all, this is a government that has proclaimed its desire to build a nuclear weapon," he said during a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

But Iran has repeatedly said that its nuclear program, which is widely believed in the West to be cover for an effort to develop atomic weapons, is for civilian purposes.

Asked to provide examples of Tehran openly declaring that it seeks atomic weapons, White House officials contacted by AFP said that Bush was referring to Iran's defiance of international calls to freeze sensitive nuclear work.

They explained that he was referring to Tehran's uranium enrichment -- a process that can yield nuclear bomb material -- and resulting worries by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

"After keeping their nuclear program secret for a decade, the Iranian government has refused the offers of the international community to provide nuclear energy and continues to flout the inspectors of the IAEA," said national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

"Unfortunately, their intentions seem clear," Johndroe said.

Facts are fun! And if journalists abdicate once again their responsibility to correct powerful people when they lie to us, then the rhetoric shifts, and the perception of reality changes, and suddenly we're at war.

Comments

[JimPortlandOR]

Lying to start a war or to generate the anger that leads to a war has got to be the most despicable thing a government can do.

Iran has never declared an intent to build a nuclear weapon, and have repeatedly denied that goal.

Equating the enrichment of nuclear material to the lower level required for nuclear power (compared to the much higher level of enrichment needed for a bomb) with 'opening declaring they want to build a bomb' is just a flat-out lie.

In addition, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which Iran has signed (but Pakistan, Israel and India have not) allows all countries to enrich uranium for peaceful nuclear-powered electricity generation. They have an internationally protected right to do this enrichment when under appropriate inspection regimes by international bodies (the IAEA).

What is disagreed with Iran, is whether they have fully disclosed all that IAEA requires, and they have begun the disclosures that IAEA requires.

BushCo is playing the role of lying war-monger on this issue. They did it before, and it looks like they want a repeat performance of the Iraqi disaster - this time in Iran.

[Helen Highwater]

AFP is French. I'd expect no less. Now if an American news outlet had reported facts for a change, THAT would be news. Still, kudos to Yahoo for carrying it.