IRAN: Bush's bomb allegations give pause

The White House tried to explain away as "shorthand" comments made by President George W. Bush Thursday alleging that Iran has admitted it was seeking nuclear weapons in order to destroy Israel.

President Bush made the allegation toward the end of an interview with Radio Farda, the U.S. funded Persian-language radio station. It was on the occasion of Nowruz, the Persian New Year:

...[The Iranians have] declared they want to have a nuclear weapon to destroy people -- some -- in the Middle East. And that's unacceptable in the United States and it's unacceptable to the world.

The comment flies in the face of last year's U.S. National Intelligence Estimate, which concluded that Iran had probably stopped its clandestine nuclear weapons program in favor of pushing forward with its controversial enrichment of uranium, which could potentially become a building block for such a program. It also contradicts the findings of international nuclear inspectors who've scoured the country's complex of nuclear facilities with moderate success.

And it also ignores a simple fact: Iran has never "declared" it's trying to get weapons. Iranian leaders consistently deny they are seeking nuclear technology for anything other than power generation. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in 2005 issued a fatwa forbidding weapons of mass destruction as un-Islamic.

So what was Bush referring to?

According to the Washington Post, which broke the story on Thursday, National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Bush was referring to previous Iranian statements about wiping Israel off the map:

The president shorthanded his answer with regard to Iran's previously secret nuclear weapons program and their current enrichment and ballistic missile testing.

Bush made a similar comment last year, describing Iran as "a government that has proclaimed its desire to build a nuclear weapon."

Many commentators blasted the speech as either perilously uninformed or dangerously mendacious. Iranian blogger Hooman Majd, at the Huffington Post, was incredulous that Bush would make such a speech as a way to curry favor with Iranians on the occasion of the country's most important non-Muslim holiday:

What exactly are the Iranian people supposed to think? That Mr. Bush is an idiot? That he's a liar? Maybe they're thinking, "oh my gosh, it's worse than we thought. Could he actually bomb the crap out of us because he actually believes his own nonsense?"... If the idea was to get the Iranian people on your (or our) side, if the idea was to convince them that their government is acting foolishly and dangerously, then you just scored a big fat zero.

But many Iran analysts point to a graver danger than just alienating ordinary Iranians. The smartest Iran experts inside and outside the country I know often tell me of four or more different positions within the government on nuclear technology. They range from stopping the program altogether, to pursuing just nuclear energy, to keeping the nuclear weapons option open, to puttin' the pedal to the metal toward nuclear weapons.

The danger: comments like Bush's could embolden the hardest of the hardliners in the Iranian government. Those who may be pushing for a nuclear weapons program in Tehran could point to Bush's remarks and argue that America wants confrontation with Iran anyway, that Washington's problem isn't just Iran's nuclear program but the very existence of the Islamic Republic.

"So why not go for the bomb?" they would say.

— Borzou Daragahi in Beirut

Photo: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks at a ceremony celebrating the second annual National Day for Nuclear Technology last year at the nuclear plant in Natanz, central Iran. Credit: ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH/EPA

Comments

[Supply Chain]

Bush must be really stupid to think any Iranian would trust him or like him, even the American people don’t!

[Looking for Suppliers]

What I don't understand is why the UNSC goes on supporting sanctions against Iran, when all it does is to allow Mr. Bush and his followers to evade telling the truth not only to the American public but also to the so called international community.

[mike]

Mat,
if Jews weren't persecuted by muslims why do they have a very old expression which says "Better under Edom ( Rome) than Ishmael ( arabs)"?
Also, in the early days of the religion , muslims wiped out complete Jewish tribes.

[Jaff Sassani]

First we are wishing “Happy Norooz!” to all of the people on earth and especially to all Iranian people.

Let hope this year will bring our Iranian people peace and prosperity. The current regimes in Iran are built on the wrong foundation. We are transformed to be second citizen in our own country based on the Shitte doctrines. The Shitte Sayied families (the people with Arab origin) are holly people and superior than the people with Iranian origin based on the Islamic Shitte believe.

We believe that the ruler of current Iran Government will bring our people the unwanted war because of their demand to rule Islamic world. They are not going to stop with Iran, Iraq and Lebanon alone. The policy of Iranian Government is very clear to the people in the region. They want to take over the region, that was the policy of the Saddam Hussein’s Government was in Iraq too.

[Mat]

Hazel,
Nobody is against jews here. What everyone saying is that if jews have been skrewed for thosands of years it wasnot Palestinian who did that, it was Romans, Christians, Germans, ..., but not Muslims. They lived together peasfully and even fought together against christians during crusade wars. Now why Palestinians are being skrewed by Zaionist is a big questio mark. One must think who really benefits from this fight between jews and Muslims !

[hazel]

Easy on the israel bashing. Not sure if anyone remembers history, but the jews have been getting screwed with for thousands of years. THOUSANDS! Longer than the muslims and catholics combined. So they get a chunk of land.. 6 million jews. Hmmm, lets see 6 million had just been slaughtered...That is a 1/3 of what existed. There are a billion muslims and 12 million jews...Give it a rest people

[sherven]

thank you ahmadinejad

[Jam]

Bush is not an idiot. He is doing an excellent job of what he came to power for. His job was to fill the bank accounts of oil companies and arms merchants. Those folks are now flush with money and as for the rest of the country, we are dealing with one of the worst economic crisis of our time.
The ongoing punches and jabs at Iran are all part of the act (policy) specially these last days of the administration to keep the oil prices from coming down and to passify Israel. Israel has enough nukes to destroy the whole middle east so why Iran is such a threat? Israel is the biggest threat for the peace and they know it. Iranians are smarter than to start any kind of war or attack any country. They fought a bloody 8 year war with Iraq which US supported Iraq and gave Saddam logistical inteligence as well as all kinds of arms including chemical and biological warfare and regretfully, Saddam used those devistating warfare on Iranians as well as his own people. Having double standards will not get us anywhere and it would only allianate the world. We just need some level headed leaders to bring peace and harmony to the world.

[Dara]

To don kandlbinder:
Very intelligent post...no wonder you're a Bush supporter! If you're so patriotic, why don't you go and fight in Iraq instead of posting stupid redneck messages??

At least learn how to spell before posting...Can you spell i..d..i..o..t??

[NK+]

"What I don't understand is why the UNSC goes on supporting sanctions against Iran"

Powers like Russia and China have largely benefited from these so-called "economic sanctions". You see, as a limited number of Western investors diminish their holdings in Iran's economy, the door has been opened to willing suitors from China and Russia. Each time a Western company goes out, an Asian company comes in.

This is also why there is a lot of talk about the sanctions meaning nothing essentially.

[HonestAbe]

President Bush can't help but speak his mind WHEN HE IS NOT SCRIPTED, he is not a DIPLOMAT, he does not choose his words carefully, he just says whatever comes to his mind when he is not SCRIPTED, it's not going to make Iran go full-speed ahead with a weapons program, that depends on US actions, not words, iran and US have been exchanging insults and accusations for 3 decades, FOR EXAMPLE IF AMERICA BOMBED IRAN, IRAN WOULD MOST DEFINITELY GO FOR NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND DECLARE THAT ITS DOING SO.

[Mario D. Wise]

What a sad picture.
The leaders(?) are not even sure, who said what.
This was either intentional or not intentional.
In either case, it is either wrong or a mistake.

Marion

[don kandlbinder]

I think if we invaded Iraq on the suspision of WMD then we should defiaiately invade Iran and actually kick so Iranian ass!

[Eftekhar Ali]

What I don't understand is why the UNSC goes on supporting sanctions against Iran, when all it does is to allow Mr. Bush and his followers to evade telling the truth not only to the American public but also to the so called international community.

[Kiumars]

Bush must be really stupid to think any Iranian would trust him or like him, even the American people don’t!

[Esfandiar]

Reza, Iranian government is as democratic as it gets in the region. and if having nuclear weapons, or creating the illusion of pursuing them, or even not pursuing them, is what it takes to avoid another Iraq scenario, this time with France and Germany on-board, so be it.
The fact is Iran is not the only country with fanatics in Power, nor is it the least democratic government, and yet is the centre of attention, I wonder why. is it possibly because it has oil or may have influence on oil-rich countries like Iraq?

[Amin]

Iran is a million times more democratic than Saudi Arabia, and is not sitting on another people's land like Israel.

[gownsburg]

So--is Bush an idiot or is he a liar? Answer: he is a liar.

[life]

never mind if US israel will be defeated.
in jewish law eye for an eye...two country for two...never mind dear

[Reza]

Actually, Larijani, Iran's former chief nuclear negotiator kept making the same mistake as Bush. "Our nuclear weapons--er--I mean nuclear technology program..." Slip of the tongue? I think not. I don't think the Iranian people are fooled as easily as the liberal US media on this. Sure, they believe in their right to nuclear tehnology, but they don't trust their government not to build a nuclear bomb since, despite current declarations that nuclear weapon use would be "un-Islamic" it was clearly a project Khomeini was interested in (along with chemical weapons). Whether it's sanctions or inspections or anything, the current Iranian regime delcares "Oh yeah, well if you don't leave us alone then maybe we WILL try to make a bomb" (which is also what they will do if they are left alone). Their "democratic government" disqualifies anyone who disagrees with the current regime from running for office, shuts down newspapers and imprisons journalists all the time and loves to have "death to Israel" and "death to America" rallies. don't know, that may be the type of people the Huffington Post agrees with but surely everyone else doesn't see Iran as an upstanding global citizen.