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Thursday, May 24, 2007

Some things are better left unsaid: CBS News steps over a line

Last night, CBS News, the network that attempted to throw the 2004 US Presidential election, stepped over a line by disclosing that the US and its allies have been attempting to sabotage Iran's nuclear plans by selling defective parts to the Iranians.
In January 2007, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Agency, Vice-President Gholamreza Aghazadeh, said after an explosion at the Natanz nuclear facility (the first Iranian plant to attempt enrichment) that some of the equipment had been "manipulated."

The explosion destroyed 50 of the plant's centrifuges.

...

Other evidence has indicated that sabotage was the reason for some of the technical problems Iran has encountered in its enrichment enterprise. Sources told CBS intelligence agencies have altered technical data, making it "useless."

"Industrial sabotage is a way to stop the program, without military action, without fingerprints on the operation, and really, it is ideal, if it works," says Mark Fitzpatrick, the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Non-Proliferation and now Senior Fellow in Non-Proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

According to CBS, the fact that Iran purchases the requisite information and equipment on the black market, rather than legally, places it at risk for industrial sabotage. Some prohibited components, the report said, had been shipped to Iran in diplomatic bags by Iranian agents in Frankfurt.

Analysts say that while Iran has established front companies in various Gulf nations to handle the purchase of nuclear enrichment components, the country still needs some European-made parts - either because of their quality, or because it need parts that are compatible with European-manufactured equipment.

Fitzpatrick said that it was impossible to know if, and to what extent, Iran - described as "highly suspicious" - has discovered any industrial sabotage.

"Any technical problems that Iran experiences in its program, some of which were the result of its own speed-up effort, Iran may attribute to foreign espionage," he said.
There are two possibilities here: either the report is correct or it is incorrect. In either case, CBS should not have disclosed the information.

This is not the first time that 'liberal' mainstream media in the US have published a story that should not have been published. Here are some other examples:

NY Times outta control

Radioactive: More on the NYT Iraqi nuke article

Washington Post's war on America's terror war

The fact that the media is free in the US does not mean that everything that can be disclosed should be disclosed. Shame on CBS!

Here's the tape from last night's "Eye to Eye" with Katie Couric:

2 Comments:

At 5:48 PM, Blogger Dave in Pa. said...

It's called "giving aid and comfort to the enemy".

 
At 3:17 AM, Blogger noonespecial said...

What CBS did was borderline treason not freedon of the press. To report on the covert action being taken that would protect countless lives and prevent military action in of itself irresponsible. CBS has continously been trying to undermine the cuurent administration on every issue. It has disgraced itself time and time again. It is no wonder that CBS has the lowest rateings for an evening news cast. They can't even find a competent telepromper jockey that is believable. The reporting is so biased. They have never shown any of the positive things thjat have come out of the conflict in Iraq. or how mant innocent Israellis have been murdered by Palastinian militants. There is no objectivity. And then to report on a clandestine operatoin that would stop a rogue regime from gaining a weapon of mass destruction is as Dave put it "give aid and comfort to the enemy" and the should be prosecuted for it!!!!

 

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