by Scott Weinstein   

Tomorrow, the International Atomic Energy Agency should release it's report on Iranian nuclear weapons capacity.
This IAEA report is supposed to be technical, but of course, its reporting will be absolutely political. It is the background to the Israeli threats to bomb Iran "soon".

Previously in 2003, the IAEA report contradicted the US and Israeli reports that Iran had an active nuclear weapons program. In the West, the IAEA report was more or less ignored, and the US/Israeli line was highlighted.

But then, over the years, it became evident that there was no Iranian nuclear weapons program as claimed by the US and Israelis.

Two major articles in the Washington Post and the New York Times published yesterday show how distrustful the reporting will be.

The WP article which was their web site's top item yesterday, "IAEA says foreign expertise has brought Iran to threshold of nuclear capability" leads one to believe that Iran is ready to manufacture and launch nuclear weapons. But wait a second, the WP's information is not from the IAEA report, but from David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector, and current president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security. Then when you read the article, it actually explains that Iran is only accumulating knowledge about how to build an effective nuke, and there is no information that Iran has any nuclear weapons manufacturing capacity.

The New York Times article "U.S. Hangs Back as Inspectors Prepare Report on Iran’s Nuclear Program" is almost a critique of the Washington Post's. The NYTimes says that the US doesn't want to get embarrassed again by false claims of Iranian nukes or Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. More telling, the article early on states: "But the case (of Iran's nuclear weapons program) is hardly conclusive."

Very significant to this propaganda war is the amazing article buried in the Washington Post 11/04/2011 that contradicts Israel's claim that it bombed a Syrian nuclear weapon's plant in 2007:
"That secret nuclear facility in Syria? It’s a textile factory, researchers say in new report"

It turns out Israel bombed a shmata factory, and claimed the looms spinning polyester were actually spinning uranium! (Maybe Israel needs to recruit some Jews to explain to them what a shmata factory looks like). The Western media lit up with Israel's lies, but is almost silent on the correction. This is critical as Israel maintains its successful pre-emptive strike on Syria's nuke production justifies another pre-emptive strike on Iran.

As I finish this message, CBC Radio is quoting an Israeli minister warning us that the IAEA will show how Iran's nukes are "a threat to the world".

There you have a good idea of how this IAEA Iran report will be a battle of propaganda, yet its science and facts will be mere annoyances to the conclusions spun by Iran's enemies.

-Scott Weinstein

(Steering Committee member of Independent Jewish Voices)