Anti-Iran propaganda gets a free pass

JamieSW — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 20:26:30 +0000

The Daily Telegraph‘s Con Coughlin has a long and distinguished record of service as an uncritical conduit for the more dubious MI6 propaganda tales (you may recall, for example, his daring exposé of the links between Saddam and 9/11 back in 2003). Earlier this month he was at it again, citing unidentified “nuclear experts” and “intelligence officials” to the effect that, according to the IAEA, a quantity of enriched uranium sufficient to produce “up to six atom bombs” has “disappeared from… [Iran’s] main production facility at Isfahan.”

Scary shit, no doubt. Thankfully, it turns out – and here I expect jaws to remain firmly in place – that the entire story appears to be a fabrication, and an embarassingly amateurish one at that. Responding to Coughlin’s piece, co-authored by Tim Butcher and entitled ‘Iran renews nuclear weapons development‘ (a rather bold assertion, and one that isn’t even supported by the article, let alone by any credible external source), IAEA spokesperson Melissa Fleming issued the following statement:

“The article, entitled “Iran renews nuclear weapons development”, published in today’s Daily Telegraph by Con Coughlin and Tim Butcher is fictitious.

The IAEA Director General’s upcoming report on Iran will show that all nuclear material at the Uranium Conversion Facility in Isfahan (uranium in the form of UF6, which is produced as feedstock for enrichment) remains under Agency containment and surveillance. [Indeed it did – from the report, published September 15: “This brings the total amount of uranium in the form of UF6 produced at UCF since March 2004 to 342 tonnes, all of which remains under Agency containment and surveillance.”(my emph.)] IAEA inspectors have no indication that any nuclear material is missing from the plant.

Uranium is not enriched at Isfahan, as the Telegraph story states, but at the Fuel Enrichment Plant in Natanz. That facility is subject to IAEA inspection and inspectors verify that no nuclear material there has been diverted.”

Ouch. Replying to an email inquiry by David Sketchley, who has done some useful leg-work on this issue, an IAEA press officer explained that the above statement was sent to the IAEA’s “press list” (presumably all major news agencies and outlets), while Fleming sent the statement as a Letter to the Editor to the Daily Telegraph. The Telegraph has refused to publish the letter, and while Fleming’s refutation of Coughlin’s propaganda was reported by Press TV and other Iranian news sources, not to mention by numerous blogs, in the British media there has been a complete black-out.

The Westminster Committee on Iran earlier this week filed a complaint (via) about the Coughlin-Butcher piece with the Press Complaints Commission, noting that “[w]hilst we respect the need to keep sources confidential, the media must recognise that following their collective failure to adequately examine the case for war against Iraq, the onus is on them to not to ensure impartial and accurate reporting on Iran.” Again, this has gone completely unreported in the British press. Evidently, all that talk about ‘learning the lessons from Iraq’ was just meaningless rhetoric.

Con Coughlin | ukwatch.net

Anti-Iran propaganda gets a free pass