Hoekstra? Hoekstra? What am I, in the Twilight Zone? It hasn’t even been three months since Hoekstra was totally discredited on the subject of Iraq and WMD. Now we’re having to waste precious time debunking his idiocy on Iran?

WTF?!

When the hell is someone going to write a story that examines the track record of the morons who tell these tales?

I know Cheney, et al., have their 1% doctrine and all, but we’re in Iraq because of their retarded stovepiping. And they engaged in their retarded stovepiping because they were all embarrassed and angry at having been caught flatfooted in the first Gulf War because the CIA had gotten it wrong on WMD then.

So now here we are, with the Cheney cabal having gotten it wrong on WMD now, and still we’re supposed to just forge ahead? The exact conditions which gave rise to a movement that allowed Cheney and his cronies to totally write the established intelligence community out of the loop are now present again, only with respect to… Cheney and his cronies!

And we’re still playing the â€deference to the official government position†game, out of what? Respect for the office? The 1% chance they might be right?

Fredrick Fleitz has had his finger in every neocon pie from the start. His name turned up in the Larry Franklin affair too.

Ugly

You mean the story that says this:

The report did not specify the level of the particles or whether they were weapons-grade quality. The official who was discussing the report refused to be drawn into that discussion, suggesting that such a definition was meaningless. â€You cannot say weapons-grade, but very high,†he said.

The report also concluded that Iran had continued to produce enriched uranium but on a modest scale, despite claims of various Iranian officials of plans to build and operate thousands of gas centrifuges on an industrial scale.

Indeed, Iran has built and operated only one 164-machine cascade or set of centrifuges, and other isolated machines.

Over the summer, the centrifuges did not produce enriched uranium continuously, but only for a few days and then often operated empty, the report said.

In addition, only a few kilograms of nuclear material was fed into the machines; only a small amount of uranium — tens of grams — was enriched, the official said.

And then, when you go to the actual report, it sure doesn’t seem to merit the big old headlines that former Miller collaborator, William Broad, and his colleagues gave it.

24. Analysis of the environmental samples taken from equipment at a technical university inJanuary 2006, referred to in paragraph 25 of GOV/2006/27, showed a small number of particles ofnatural and high enriched uranium. This equipment had been shown to the Agency in connection withits investigation into efforts made by the Physics Research Centre (PHRC) to acquire dual use materialand equipment (GOV/2006/27, paras 24–25).

And that paragraph, in turn, refers to http://www.iaea.org/Publicatio…..006-27.pdf†rel=â€nofollowâ€>this one:

25. As previously reported, the Agency met in February 2006 with one of the former Heads of the PHRC, who had been a university professor at a technical university while he was Head of the PHRC.11 The Agency took environmental samples from some of the equipment said to have been procured for use by the university, the results of which are currently being assessed and discussed with Iran. Although Iran agreed to provide further clarifications in relation to efforts to procure balancing machines, mass spectrometers, magnets and fluorine handling equipment, the Agency has yet to receive such clarifications. Further access to the procured equipment is necessary for environmental sampling. Iran has continued to decline requests by the Agency to interview the other former Head of the PHRC.

From the sounds of the reports, there are particles on recently-acquired dual-use equipment–the recently acquired ought to open your eyes to begin with.

If I had to guess, I’d say the NYT article was based on an interview with Robert Joseph (who, it should be said, was Fleitz’ boss until Fleitz went to the House this spring, and who is cited in the article). And Joseph took a small matter and turned it into a big deal.

My only point was I can not see as a layman how anyone would qualify 3.5% as â€highly enrichedâ€. Your excerpt contains these words:

â€You cannot say weapons-grade, but very high,†he said.

How they got there is definitely an important question that you, and I and our government should be very concerned with.

I would hope that you believe as I do that Iran intends to develop a nuclear weapon.

We may agree or disagree on the correct policy for dealing with Iran, but again that was not my point 8).

Thanks for responding and providing some substantive info.

Looks like Pincus did it again. Well, part of it, anyway. My diary at DKos today explains: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/9/15/104441/649

WP: WH Claims CIA Withheld Iraq Intel – Or did Cheney do that?
by leveymg [Subscribe] [Edit Diary]
Fri Sep 15, 2006 at 07:44:41 AM PDT
A report in today’s Washington Post appears to provide additional context to the motive behind the Plame outing.

Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus revealed today that a highly secret CIA briefing in late 2002 by a ranking official in Saddam Hussein’s government was withheld from distribution. That information contradicted the allegations being made at the time by the Bush Administration that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons and held large stocks of chemical and biological arms.

As Pincus’ sources at CIA makes clear, a section of that report should have been distributed within CIA to Valerie Plame’s unit that was probing Iraq WMDs, and the other to the CIA Iraq counter-terrorism unit. From information previously released, the counterterrorism unit seems likely to have included the former Chief of Station in Islamabad, Robert Grenier. As we learned six months ago, Scooter Libby talked to Grenier about Plame’s work at CIA before he outed her.

MORE -snip-

I know this is OT but I have been trying to send an email with some research I’ve done about Victoria Toensing and her lying ways and the email came back. How can I get in touch? TIA