Media liars exposed

Notwithstanding the fact that Article IV of the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons says:

Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination and in conformity with articles I and II of this Treaty.

On Feb. 4, 2006, the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency adopted a resolution in which, inter alia, the panel noted “that outstanding questions” in the minds of some of the governors concerning the implementation of the Iranian Safeguards Agreement could “best be resolved” in the minds of some of the governors and “confidence built” in the minds of some of the governors “in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program” if – and only if – Iran were to:

• re-establish full and sustained suspension of all enrichment related and reprocessing activities, including research and development, to be verified by the Agency;

• reconsider the construction of a research reactor moderated by heavy water;

• ratify promptly and implement in full the Additional Protocol;
• pending ratification, continue to act in accordance with the provisions of the Additional Protocol which Iran signed on Dec. 18, 2003;

• implement transparency measures, as requested by the director general, including in GOV/2005/67, which extend beyond the formal requirements of the Safeguards Agreement and Additional Protocol, and include such access to individuals, documentation relating to procurement, dual-use equipment, certain military-owned workshops and research and development as the Agency may request in support of its ongoing investigations.

The Board also requested that the director-general inform the United Nations Security Council that those steps “were required of Iran by the Board.”

Now, what the UNSC should have done is to tell the Board in no uncertain terms that the Board had vastly exceeded – even abused –- its authority under the IAEA Statute, under which the IAEA, a U.N. agency, is required to operate.

The most outrageous abuse of the IAEA Statute, indeed the U.N. Charter, itself, was the attempt to “require” Iran – a sovereign state – to “ratify promptly and implement in full the Additional Protocol” to the Iranian Safeguards Agreement. Not even the UNSC has the authority to do that.

Iran did undertake – as did all signatories to the NPT not already having nuclear weapons – to conclude and abide by a Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA for the exclusive purpose of providing “verification” to other NPT signatories that no “source or special fissionable material” is diverted from peaceful purposes to a nuclear weapons program.

And in report after report – including the “confidential” one he just made to the IAEA Board and shared with the UNSC – Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei has provided “verification” that, as best he can determine, no source or special fissionable material has been diverted. Ever.

Well, the UNSC didn’t actually discipline the IAEA Board. Nor did it, contrary to many reports by dolts and/or liars, make any demands on Iran.

Rather, the UNSC issued a non-binding Presidential Statement, essentially “calling” upon the parties to settle their differences amongst themselves.

Now, while that last report was “confidential,” the media elite were telling us that ElBaradei had reported that “Iran defied the council’s call to freeze uranium enrichment” and that Iran was “conducting an enrichment program in defiance of UNSC demands to halt it.”

Well, unfortunately for those members of the media elite who were making those inflammatory accusations, the actual “confidential” report has now been posted several places on the Internet. Those members are now revealed to either have a reading comprehension problem or to have deliberately misrepresented what ElBaradei actually reported.

There is scarcely any difference between this report and a dozen other reports ElBaradei has made over the past three years, either in tone or substance.

His latest report begins to end – and should have finally ended – this way:

All the nuclear material declared by Iran to the Agency is accounted for. Apart from the small quantities previously reported to the Board, the Agency has found no other undeclared nuclear material in Iran.

That’s it. Mission Accomplished. ElBaradei has done his job. As best ElBaradei can tell, Iran is now, and has been for several years, in complete, total compliance with the requirements of its basic Safeguards Agreement.

How about those IAEA Board members who claim to have “outstanding questions” about the “exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program.”

Well, that’s their own personal problem.