“Serious concerns” shroud Iran’s nuclear program

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000

A U.N. nuclear report released Tuesday presents a damning case that Iran has a nuclear weapons program. From an alleged secret enrichment program to make the fuel for a bomb to research on the neutron trigger to set off a weapon, the International Atomic Energy Agency paints the picture of a comprehensive Iranian effort. In addition, the agency presents data that Iran has continued to work on making a weapon, despite U.S. estimates that Iran halted weaponization research in 2003. It is the first time since the IAEA began investigating Iran in 2003 that it has put so many pieces together in an official report.

The United States has already signaled that it will use this report in its continuing campaign to get tough sanctions against Iran in order to force it to negotiate on its nuclear ambitions. The report buttresses U.S. policy of isolating Iran as much as possible. Washington wants to rally the international community to put pressure on Iran, and now it has a documented report from the U.N. nuclear watchdog that Iran has done much more to obtain nuclear weapons than was previously known. The Obama administration is trying to reach a settlement that will spare it from having to choose between bombing Iran or letting Iran get the bomb. The IAEA report increases the urgency in finding such a solution.

The Obama White House’s Iran two-step

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:30:00 +0000

It is the summer of 2010, and despite some dramatic developments, the almost decade-old Iranian nuclear crisis seems stuck in a predictable rut. The United Nations Security Council has levied yet another round of sanctions and the United States and the European Union have added even tougher measures on their own, but Iran continues to push ahead with nuclear work that raises fears it seeks the bomb. Will anything ever change?

Then, into this discomforting world of same-old, same-old comes a blockbuster article in The Atlantic that lays out the logic for an Israeli attack against Iran. It even sets a deadline. Jeffrey Goldberg writes that Israel’s "period of forbearance, in which (Israeli Prime Minister) Netanyahu waits to see if the West’s nonmilitary methods can stop Iran, will come to an end this December."

What interests me in this is not so much the debate over how to rein in Iran's atomic ambitions, but the way in which the Obama administration uses the media to keep its policy on-track. The medium is the message and in policy matters the message, how things are perceived, is substance. The Goldberg article sounded drums of war which the White House wanted both to use and to muffle at the same time.

Salon.com > Michael Adler

“Serious concerns” shroud Iran’s nuclear program

The Obama White House’s Iran two-step