Crack open USA Today (11/28/12) and you saw this headline:
Diagram Suggests Iran Working on Bomb
The story was short–short enough for a careful reader to see that it in no way lived up to that alarmist headline.
But the piece still tried really hard to frighten people. Here’s the lead:
Iranian scientists have run computer simulations for a nuclear weapon that would produce more than triple the explosive force of the World War II bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, according to a diagram obtained by the Associated Press.
The diagram was leaked by officials from a country critical of Iran’s atomic program to bolster their arguments that Iran’s nuclear program must be halted before it produces a weapon. The officials provided the diagram only on condition that they and their country not be named.
OK, so anonymous critics of Iran, motivated by a desire to “halt” (i.e., bomb) Iran’s nuclear energy program, want us to know about their secret proof that Iran is up to something. As if that weren’t suspicious enough, the only named expert in the piece is saying there’s nothing here:
David Albright, whose Institute for Science and International Security is used by the U.S. government as a go-to source on Iran’s nuclear program, said the diagram looks genuine but seems to be designed more “to understand the process” than as part of a blueprint for an actual weapon in the making.
USA Today readers didn’t get a chance to see the diagram, but it was on the AP website:
That doesn’t look very threatening to me. But hey–I’m no scientist. Luckily, some actual scientists have taken a look at AP‘s evidence, and they’re not impressed. At the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists website, Yousaf Butt and Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress write:
The graphic has not yet been authenticated; however, even if authentic, it would not qualify as proof of a nuclear weapons program.
Besides the issue of authenticity, the diagram features quite a massive error, which is unlikely to have been made by research scientists working at a national level. The image released to the Associated Press shows two curves: one that plots the energy versus time, and another that plots the power output versus time, presumably from a fission device. But these two curves do not correspond: If the energy curve is correct, then the peak power should be much lower–around 300 million ( 3×108) kt per second, instead of the currently stated 17 trillion (1.7 x1013) kt per second. As is, the diagram features a nearly million-fold error.
This diagram does nothing more than indicate either slipshod analysis or an amateurish hoax. In any case, the level of scientific sophistication needed to produce such a graph corresponds to that typically found in graduate- or advanced undergraduate-level nuclear physics courses.
They add, “Graphs such as the one published by the Associated Press can be found in nuclear science textbooks and on the Internet.”
As Guardian blogger Glenn Greenwald concluded, the real story might be not the one that AP intended:
That this AP graph quite strongly appears to be a hoax seems a much more significant story than the discovery of the graph itself, given the ends toward which this was clearly being put, and given the way that the war in Iraq was sold to the public.
Charles
the continual march toward war with Iran is illegal and unjustified.That
country has not attacked anyone in this century.It is a country that abides
by international law,which is more than i can say for my country that i feel is being manipulated into a war by the same people that said iraq
had weapons of mass destruction.Another point ,where is israel on the
nuclear proliferation issue.Do the abide by international law.Clean your
own house up first,before you throw rocks………….
Frankly Curious
As bad as the reporting is, I think the truth is plain to see. But just as we saw in the Iraq War, the only question is what the administration wants. It is not like we live in an actual democracy. I knew the Iraq War was a scam based only on NPR and my meager intellectual skills:
War Monger Apologia
I like the new look of the site. However, what the hell is going on with your favicon.ico? A capital “G”?
RasmusXera
“Leaks” like this are an effective diversion from the debates over whether or not the claims over Iran’s nuclear program contain any real substance. Instead of asking “Is Iran really trying to produce nuclear weapons?”, and if so, “should we stop them by all means necessary, as the US and Israel claim?”, we ask “is this graph legitimate, or is it a hoax?”, and “even if it were real, does it prove anything at all?”.
Throwing something like this out there also makes it more difficult to thoroughly debunk the overall claims, as this is just one more bit of ‘evidence’ that we have to retain in our memory. Such is the reality of political debate, where rather than focus our brains on tangible and rational truths, we memorize anecdotal facts in order to provoke a ‘gotcha!’ moment.
I can only wonder how many pages of well-researched, eminently sourced inquiry will be required to “prove” to people that *this* march toward war was all a lie as well. And even then, how many will ignore it?
IranAffairs
This was a re-do of the Oliver Kamm scam, where documents that the Israelis fed to the IAEA about alleged Iranian work on “nuclear triggers” was rejected by the IAEA, but then leaked to Oliver Kamm who wrote a scaremongering piece about it at the Times of London, only for readers to point out that the document was quite suspicious. Only then did Kamm admit that he had further fiddled with it, and retyped it
Padremellyrn
The article from the AP is nothing more than a slightly more sophisticated “Joe McCarthy” threat. Since in fact the AP and others would have to “show the papers” they claim are proof, they needed to make it so the layman and Joe Six Pack wouldn’t be able to see through it as the hoax it is.
Works along the lines of a plastic toy gun, which is painted realistically, so that unless you get in close, you can’t see that it is a fake. Thereby, the person who is holding the ‘fake’ can force people to do things that they might not, because of the fear that it “Just might be Real”.
hamid baki
Associated Press create this hoax with the help of that undisclosed country which is obvious what country that is.
Abbass (Steve)
I’d say that AP and the hoax itself is the real story here too.
jdavidsen
If the diagram belongs to Iran, would it be labeled in English?
Terry Huggles
So I am wondering how many other BS articles has AP published and peddled through the newswires?
Is AP’s source DEPKAfile? They both seem to be operating at the same yellow press level.
michael e
I could care less about this graph.Israel believes they are moving toward a bomb.Our president believes they are moving toward a bomb….as did the last president.Our top security people believe it(CIA).England ,France and a host of other countries believe it.World bodies have brought sanctions already.FAIR sits here snapping over the scraps that fall about the top secret(or not) table onto the floor.As if that will change anyones mind.I will side with those who get top secret actionable intel every morning who assure us….Iran seeks the bomb..
anon
amazing! million fold error….
Martin
Long ago I learned that the AP has an agenda which is used to filter all the information that they feed to the American people. Don’t trust the media.
FreeSpirit
What the acquisition of nuclear weapons by North Korea taught the world (especially little countries like Iran) is that unless you actually acquire nuclear weapons the bullies of the world (US and Israel) will not leave you alone. Bullies only prey on the weak and he helpless. The last time the US fought in a symmetrical war was in WW2. These wars against little countries are intended for geopolitical dominance and for the war-profiteers to make money off the tax-payers by replacing their merchandise of death.
As long as dimwitted and obedient-to-authority Americans believe the propaganda from Israel, our president, our last president, our top security people (CIA), England ,France and a host of other countries, innocent people will die in Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Palestine, Lebanon, etc.
Edwina White
Who would possibly want to put out such a story? It couldn’t be Israel, could it? Or maybe a “friend” of Israel? Given the amateurish nature of the leaked information, I would bet on Israel. The likeness to PM Netanyahu’s U.N. presentation, with its cartoon bomb, is glaring.
michael e
Freespirit N korea should of learned that having a nuke causes them to be ostracized and shunned and embargoed from the top of their pointy heads to their little feet.Their people are in deep deep distress.I suppose they can eat their nukes.I will donate salt and pepper to the “save the north Korean commies fund”.Yeah it stopped a massive invasion we were planning.Ha ha ha.Let em choke on it
FreeSpirit
michael e: It’s better to be alive and starve than to be dead like the million people your benevolent, rational, democracy and peace loving country killed in Iraq! I will eat nukes before being dominated by people like you!
marc
@edwina white
not isreal , eh? to unsophisticated?
remember this?
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/israel-and-palestine/120928/israelis-reactions-netanyahu-bomb-cartoon-un-speech
michael e
Freespirit you would of done well as an aid to Yasser Arafat, who through years of armed aggression gained little for his people.Look the death tolls in Iraq are horrible.WERE horrible before we got there.Saddam killed 15 hundred a week on average.Forget his gassing of his own people.Torture factories.His sons roving rape squads,and so on.With the war came the endless bomb IUDs killing tons of people other than American soldiers.The insurgency as a whole was a meat grinder.And as we fought an enemy that hid behind woman’s skirts and children’s prams we cause many casualties ourselves.Yet you dump it as if we invaded peaceful Aruba and ALL deaths are attributed to us.How many deaths today sir?My friend(Dr) just left Iraq.Weddings everywhere he tells me.American troops playing soccer with Iraqi children.Hospitals funded by us humming along healing the sick and broken.No more torture factories.No more rape squads.No more 1500 dead every week through the year.No more gassing of entire villages.Free elections coming up.He loved to go to the market on Sat mornings.Music ,food….Do you remember the riots over the cartoons and the movie in the middle east.Not in Iraq.People did not care.Without a sick twisted leader to whip everyone into a lather…. no one cared.You need to leave the land of liberal hate America first to see the cost of freedom.
Random Paul
September 2012 was the most violent month in Iraq in the previous two years. The infrastructure is still in ruins. According to a report from the United Nations’ UNDP, Iraq has a poverty rate of 23 per cent and an estimated 1.3 million Iraqis are still displaced from their homes, living in limbo, a problem which the country’s bureaucracy has no solutions to offer.
The government just announced plans to build six new hospitals in densely-populated areas because very few health services are available, a chronic problem in many parts of the country.
Just two days ago, talks between the Kurds and the government collapsed after military skirmishes and amidst charges of corruption, while on Thursday Iraq was hit by a string of bombings and suicide bombings, most of them in the Shiite south, killing more than 35 people.
TimN
Thoughtful comments as usual, FreeSpirit. I don’t much read the troll’s comments anymore, but you can safely ignore him. Rationality and truth-telling are utterly unknown to him, and that’s just the way it is, and always will be.
TimN
Testing, one, two, three.
TimN
Think of the stupidity of the imbeciles who put out this thing; think of the contempt they have for the intelligence of the folks they expected to view it.
Robert Ashmore
I was also stonewalled when I both emailed and called AP. I plan to read nothing provided by AP until they deal with this issue forthrightly. I will inform my local paper of this decision and also a friend who edits a paper in a neighboring county. I’m going to suggest they also reevaluate their relationship with AP.
michael e
Free spirit did not know you were Iranian.Two friends of mine are as well as my partner.A great and noble people that at this time(in the home country)are run by a bunch of insane nuts.To even imagine them obtaining a bomb for any reason is in itself insanity.We must all make the price to hard for them and……never give them a reason to have one.(As far as I know we are planning no invasions of Iran.)Look the idea that because we have nukes creates the legality for every country to have them is a spurious stupid argument.We don’t allow nuts who live on your block and threaten their neighbors daily -to stock pile lethal weapons.And stop the moral equivalency argument that their is no difference between America and president Obama and the theocratic evil that subjugates the hopes and aspirations of freedom loving people in Iran,and threatens world peace and stability.
And Tim you socialist troll you…have a good socialist day.Go redistribute your wealth.Lots of needy people out there.Go to your bank and sign that withdraw slip.Im proud of you
michael e
Freespirit…..That is a really weird correlation.If i would of said to you in 1937 that the world should boycott Germany to inhibit their development, and weaponization of war materials would -you of said ,Ah a typical racist?What one reality has to do with the other is obviously to be understood only in the modern liberal mind set.As far as a price to be paid……what price Iran develops the bomb and hands it off to their supply columns of terrorists?Millions dead.They are I would propose- clinically insane(their leadership).Your arguments and semantics aside try to reason out that truth.When I look into Ah ma needs a jobs eyes I see a very disturbed man.I would use the term insane.Of course he would have to under go testing by professionals in that field.But yes I believe pathology would be found.
michael e
Freespirit I am aware of the hypocrisy of all wars.Especially the conflagration of WW2.I do believe if you take a gun into your hand….you take a gun into your heart.But your innate liberal ability to look deep into the American heart and see all things rotten is a RESULT of your ability to do so in a free open country.Try that in Iran.It is a spurious argument,and I don’t drink of that blame America first Koolade.And comparing all deaths by war as morally equivalent one to the other is nonsense.Hitlers killing of the Jews is very different from drone strikes that kill innocents in the area of the strike.One works hard to lessen civilian deaths.One works hard to maximize them(911).Have you not heard the term cropping up more and more these days “world jewery”.Not zionism anymore.Today many enemy factions to Israel say they want to destroy world jewery.We for our part are called the great infidel,or Satan.We seem also slated for destruction.I have never heard an American slating anyone for destruction.You seem to be a part of the fact gathering club that supplies our enemies with motivation. Pass…………