Gordon Prather: Hijacked by the Neocrazies

antiwar: As you listen to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice deliver her ultimatum to the Iranian mullahs, imagine you are a passenger on a hijacked airliner, headed towards Iran. You already know what the neo-crazy hijackers did to Iraq, shortly after Bush-Cheney-Rice delivered a similar ultimatum to Saddam Hussein.

"The pursuit by the Iranian regime of nuclear weapons represents a direct threat to the entire international community, including to the United States and to the Persian Gulf region.

"In defiance of repeated calls from the IAEA Board of Governors and from the Security Council, the Iranian government has accelerated its nuclear program, while continuing to conceal its activities from international inspectors."

What "pursuit" is Condi talking about?

Well, you're supposed to perversely conclude - as she does - that Iran's Safeguarded nuclear program somehow constitutes a pursuit of nuclear weapons.

And what activities are the Iranians concealing?

None. You see, Iran is in total compliance - as required by the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons - with an International Atomic Energy Agency Safeguards agreement entered into "for the exclusive purpose" of "preventing diversion of nuclear energy from peaceful uses to nuclear weapons."

And, despite years of intrusive go-anywhere see-anything inspections - whose frequency and scope have gone far beyond that required under Iran's Safeguards Agreement, even beyond that required had an Additional Protocol to the Agreement been in force - Director-General ElBaradei repeatedly reports that he can find "no indication" of diversion of "source or special nuclear materials" to a military purpose. Read more