Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
January 13, 2012
Iran Inviting IAEA Is Not A Surprise

Just to show a typical type of lie in U.S. reporting on Iran. Iran is always shown as irrational or as reacting to pressure when that is only very, very rarely the case – if at all.

Jay Salomon writes in today's Wall Street Journal: Iran to Let In U.N. Atomic Inspectors

WASHINGTON—Iran agreed to host a high-level team of United Nation's nuclear inspectors later this month, Western diplomats said, a surprise development that could help to curb building tensions with the West.

The diplomats on Thursday said Iran had tentatively agreed to receive a delegation from the United Nation's International Atomic Energy Agency headed by the agency's chief weapons inspector, Herman Nackaerts. The diplomats, who are based in Vienna, said the visit was tentatively set for Jan. 28.

Now compare those bold sections to the reality published three weeks ago:

Iran invites IAEA inspectors to visit its nuclear establishments

TEHRAN, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) — Iran's permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali-Asghar Soltanieh said that the Islamic Republic has invited IAEA inspectors to visit the country's nuclear establishments, the local satellite Press TV reported on Wednesday.

Oh, you do not like Xinhua quoting PressTV? How about AFP on Dec 20:

Iran invites UN nuclear inspectors: diplomats

Iran has invited the UN atomic watchdog to visit the country, but it is unclear whether inspectors would have access to sites where covert nuclear weapons activity is suspected, Western diplomats said Tuesday.

The United States welcomed the fact that the IAEA had been invited back, …

So this three weeks old news is certainly not a "surprise development" nor is it just "tentatively agreed". It was an official invitation by Iran that was, as it should be, accepted by the IAEA. Salomon is trying to spread propaganda by peddling old news as "surprise". Typically – liberal interventionists, like Paul Woodward, fall for it.

Comments

The Iranian leadership is increasingly convinced that it is the “international community” that is not behaving rationally and cannot respond positively to its own interests.
http://conflictsforum.org/2012/latest-policy-paper-tour-d%E2%80%99horizon-an-iranian-optic-on-the-middle-east-and-its-prospects/
That’s what happens when governments outsource policy making to special interests…

Posted by: JohnH | Jan 13 2012 20:22 utc | 1

“Iran to Let In U.N. Atomic Inspectors” implies that inspectors are not normally in Iran, which is not the case, and that high-level IAEA visits are unusual. Neither is true.
Under its Safeguards Agreement, Iran has declared to the Agency 15 nuclear facilities and nine locations outside facilities where nuclear material is customarily used. These facilities are all open to periodic UN inspection according to treaty.
Visits by high-level IAEA delegations are unusual. Herman Nackaerts, IAEA Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Safeguards, who will head the delegation for the upcoming visit, isn’t exactly a stranger to Iran.
In October 2009 Nackaerts visited the partly-built facility in a mountainside at Fordow near Qom.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/28/iran-lied-un-inspectors-qom-nuclear
In August 2011 Herman Nackaerts visited five nuclear sites in Iran, including Natanz and the Arak heavy water production plant, the latter which Iran has not previously allowed the IAEA to inspect and remains an outstanding issue for the Agency. Iran also allowed Nackaerts access to a facility for developing advanced centrifuges during this tour.
http://www.isisnucleariran.org/brief/detail/iran-moving-centrifuges-to-fordow/

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 13 2012 21:08 utc | 2

Make that: Visits by high-level IAEA delegations are not unusual.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 13 2012 21:10 utc | 3

Wall Street Mafia says war with Iran likely by end of the year. “Iran not cooperating” on currency matters.
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/84246876/

Posted by: easy e | Jan 13 2012 21:30 utc | 4

From §4 of the November 2011 report of the IAEA Board of Governors:
“In a letter dated 30 October 2011, Dr Abbasi referred to his previous discussions with the Director General and expressed the will of Iran ‘to remove ambiguities, if any’, suggesting that the Deputy Director General for Safeguards (DDG-SG), should visit Iran for discussions.”

Posted by: k_w | Jan 13 2012 21:51 utc | 5

Most telling about the murderous posturing criminal vermin in DC, (and their zionist co-conspirators in what is becoming a racist little shithole of a contemptable country; “Israel”, AKA “the Jewish State”), is the fact that policy is sold and advanced through media subterfuge. With a responsible and patriotic “Fourth Estate”, we would have fumigated Washington DC a long time ago, because information is power, and a citizenry armed with the truth would have NEVER allowed these sluts and criminals in DC to make governance into a highly lucrative criminal enterprise.
The only thing lower than the scum in DC is the scum in our media that has marketed this whole charade that is purposely mislabeled as “representative”.

Posted by: PissedOffAmerican | Jan 13 2012 22:13 utc | 6

Obama has his flacks involved in some historical revision (or repulsion).
from Reuters:
Obama’s olive branch to Iran turned into sanctions hammer

Obama intended to go the extra mile on engagement, his aides said, so if the gambit failed, allies and adversaries alike could not point the finger at the United States as the “bad guy.” Instead, they would rally behind the effort to pressure Iran.
Three years later, tensions over Iran’s nuclear program have escalated to their highest level in years. Tehran is threatening to block the Strait of Hormuz and the chances of a miscalculation that could lead to a military clash – and a global oil crisis – appear to be rising.
Diplomacy has given way to harsher tactics, with Obama and his European allies trying to isolate the Islamic republic with the toughest sanctions ever. . . .
Obama began with outreach – some of it unusually direct.
Early in his term, the president sent a personal letter to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khameini, who holds ultimate power, to show the seriousness of the outstretched hand. “A letter from the president was the clearest signal of our intentions that we could possibly make,” a U.S. official said. . . .

Blah blah blah — it goes on and on with how Obama tried but failed, and it’s amazing that in a long article like this on Obama & Iran there is not one mention of Israel.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 13 2012 22:52 utc | 7

Israeli intelligence agents are alleged to have posed as CIA agents to recruit members of a terrorist group.
it’s coming in thick and heavy now.. Worse to come so says Dante’…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jan 13 2012 23:26 utc | 8

Some retired generals get fat contracts for services, such as speaking fees as a “military analyst” —
Gen. McCaffrey: Iran will have ‘a dozen’ nukes within 5 years
By Geneva Sands-Sadowitz – 01/13/12

Retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, an MSNBC and NBC military analyst, said Friday that he predicts Iran will have nuclear weapons within the next five years.
“The existence of Israel is at stake,” McCaffrey said Friday on MSNBC’s “Daily Rundown. In the coming five years the Iranians are going nuclear. Within 60 months they’ll have a dozen weapons. They’ve got Shahab-3 missiles. Probably more than 150 now that can strike Israel.”
He added that the region is “on edge” because of these developments. “We’re going to face a nuclear-armed Iran in the very near future,” he said. “And this is bad news for the region and world peace.”

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 14 2012 2:49 utc | 9

uncle, that’s definitely the news of the night. spreading like wildfire.
b, msm article after article trumping the meme iran not cooperative, when they are. such hubris.

Posted by: annie | Jan 14 2012 3:59 utc | 10

“The existence of Israel is at stake,” McCaffrey said……
Thank God. Lets just hope she goes down before she takes the rest of us with her. Sad to say, but any optimism I once harbored about Israeli “goodness” has been shattered by my exposure to the truth about Israel’s policies and actions. Israel is a parasitic entity that eats away at the very essence of what our so called “representative” government purports itself to be.
Interesting seeing the comments at Mondo over the recent revelations about Mossad agents posing as CIA while recruiting terrorists tasked to commit terrorist acts in Iran. There seems to be a universal sentiment that this will recieve widespread indignation within American society.
Nope. We have been so carefully indoctrinated into a false narrative presenting Israel as valuable “ally” that it will take many years for us to deplete the seeds of ignorance that decades of propaganda has planted in our national pysche. Unfortunately, the insidious parasite, Israel, is still mistaken for a friend and ally by far too many Americans. This misguided loyalty, in regards to Iran, may well lubricate our headlong march over the abyss.

Posted by: PissedOffAmerican | Jan 14 2012 4:44 utc | 11

Thanks to Uncle $cam @8. Here’s the original link to the article in Foreign Policy. Here too is the more or less official Mossad response, and, for those, like me, wondering about Mark Perry, this Al Jazeera interview with him. Perry seems to be Petraeus’s analog of Sy Hersh. The Mossad false flag story is not recent, and is so utterly typical of basic spook tradecraft that it is difficult to take the “shocked dismay” expressed by American protagonists at face value. Those U.S. protestations of shocked surprise may be indeed be sincere (in their way) but can only be delivered when the spokesman is endowed with a notable capacity to ignore recidivist criminality in American intelligence praxis.
Question: is this a shot across the Israeli bow fired by the “dissenting operatives” within the U.S. intelligence community, or, in view of the what is almost surely an imminent campaign of minimization and affirmation of the unity of U.S. and Israeli objectives, rather a blatant show of chutzpah by pro-Israeli forces aimed at conditioning Obama’s re-election campaign by purging those advisors unwilling to eat this shit?
The latter is, admittedly, a rather contorted reading, but in tune with POA‘s comments at 11. I would be interested in hearing our moderator’s comments, as well as those of copeland, noirette, and many others.

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Jan 14 2012 11:01 utc | 13

How come Iran doesn’t invite Russia or China in to guard their facilities as well as do the needed inspections? Israel or Obomba would be stopped post haste.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jan 15 2012 20:22 utc | 14

Some inconvenient facts about Iran you won’t know about from computer games:
Teaching evolution: http://www.fasebj.org/content/20/13/2183.fulll
Fastest scientific growth in the world: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18546-iran-showing-fastest-scientific-growth-of-any-country.htmll
Progressive treatment programs of drug addicts http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/how-iran-derailed-a-health-crisis//
Literacy gains since the Islamic Revolution: http://www.indexmundi.com/g/g.aspx?c=ir&v=399
http://ihsan-net.blogspot.com/2007/12/left-liberal-islamophobia-watch-iii.html
Access to free contraceptives: http://montages.blogspot.com/2007/09/free-contraceptives-in-iran.htmll (FYI Iran has the Mideast’s only condom factory)
Model sustainable population control program http://www.mnforsustain.org/iran_model_of_reducing_fertility.htmm
Alternative “green” energy programs http://www.payvand.com/news/09/mar/1032.htmll http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Iran-Opens-42-Kilowatt-Solar-Energy-Plant-in-Mashhad.htmll
Free and mandatory pre-martial counseling and family planning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixELgBCph5UU
12th largest automobile maker in the world http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_industry_in_Irann
Iran has manufactured about 3 million cars that run on natural gas, more than the US http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/05/iranian-automaker-bets-on-natural-gas//
http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2008/08/28/boones-beef-nbc-bans-pickens-ad-saying-us-trails-iran-in-natural-gas-cars//
Expansion of public housing: http://irannegah.com/Video.aspx?id=10733
Expansion needle exchange programs (UNDER AHMEDINEJAD’S TEHRAN MAYORSHIP): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4nN9Kz-07oo
Massive rural healthcare programs, adopted in the US as a model: http://www.fic.nih.gov/NEWS/GLOBALHEALTHMATTERS/Pages/1209_health-house.aspxx
AIDS prevention programs: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0414-03.htmm
Expansion of employment for women: https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/esfahani/www/IndexFiles/Nimble%20Fingers%20No%20Longer.pdff
Iranian women making up more than majority of University graduates: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5359672.stmm
Cloning: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/16/tech/main4949586.shtmll
Stem Cell research: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/15/iran-at-forefront-of-stem-cell-research/?page=alll
Nanotechnology research: http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/bm/newsworld.php?id=4536477
Most Iranians DO support their government http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/brmiddleeastnafricara/652.phpp
US armed Saddam with chemical weapons http://www.fff.org/comment/com0406g.asp
US tried to shift blame for his gassing of the Kurds onto Iran http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/17/opinion/17iht-edjoost_ed3_.htmll
Iran has repeatedly offered peace concessions to the US, including recognizing Israel, but has been ignored: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/17/AR2006061700727.htmll
http://www.iranaffairs.com/iran_affairs/2011/11/iran-offered-to-recognize-israel-in-2003.htmll
Iran does need nuclear power, http://www.iranaffairs.com/iran_affairs/2007/11/irans-nuclear-e.htmll
Iran’s nuclear program started with the encouragement and support of the US because it makes economic sense. http://www.iranaffairs.com/iran_affairs/2006/05/blasts_from_the.html
Most countries of the world support Iran’s right to enrich its own fuel, have criticized latest IAEA reports as being politicized. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/India-with-NAM-in-slamming-IAEA-report-on-Iran/682728 http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LI17Ak02.htmll
Wasn’t sure where to put this, hope here is fine. Note: I added and extra character on the end of each link number, letter, symbol etc so as to by pass the three link limit.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jan 17 2012 16:26 utc | 15