Okay, we may not be able to stop or counter the cresting wave of Iran nuclear bamboozlement. But we can at least give you the play-by-play along with color commentary that we can refer back to when we’re discussing possible Iran disengagement strategies in 2010.
Here’s a gem just out from Bloomberg, courtesy of TPM Reader TB.
Headline: “Iran Could Produce Nuclear Bomb in 16 Days, U.S. Says”
And the first couple grafs …
Iran, which is defying United Nations Security Council demands to cease its nuclear program, may be capable of making a nuclear bomb within 16 days if it goes ahead with plans to install thousands of centrifuges at its Natanz plant, a U.S. State Department official said.
“Natanz was constructed to house 50,000 centrifuges,” Stephen Rademaker, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation, told reporters today in Moscow. “Using those 50,000 centrifuges they could produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon in 16 days.”
Now, I’m pretty new to this issue. But even I can spot that Stephen Rademaker works for Robert Joseph. And that’s the same Bob Joseph who was charged with muscling the CIA into letting President Bush use the Niger bamboozle in the 2003 State of the Union address. And he actually managed to get it done, even after the Alan Foley and others at the CIA told him repeatedly they didn’t think it was true. So he certainly speaks with a lot of credibility on this issue.
Like I said, we may not be able to stop our march toward destruction. But we can at least have some fun with it as we swirl down history’s drain.
