Denying The Narrative

By Cernig

The head of the IAEA, Mohammed el-Baradei, has repeated his assessment that Iran is between 3 and 8 years away from being able to develop a nuclear weapon, even should it wish to. He has repeated that he cannot prove either way as yet whether Iran's nuclear program is peaceful or not and he told his agency's board that any attack on Iran would be "an act of madness ... (that) would not resolve the issue."

Meanwhile, also today and far less well reported, the Afghan Defense Minister has said that it is said that it is "difficult to link" the Taleban's weapons to Iran. He said al-Qaida or members of organized crime groups might be arming the Taleban. He therefore is directly contradicting US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns but supported his own President Karzai and US general Dan McNeill, who is head of NATO forces in Afghanistan. Many independent experts agree with the nay-sayers.

It seems all too familiar - the people closest to where the action is say one thing but are ignored or spun by those with greater political power in favor of their political agendas. Thus it is that the intelligence becomes fixed around the policy, at least in the public eye.

We're being fooled again.