Josh Marshall points out a discrepancy in a recent speech by John Bolton that adds to the list of “repeated, public mistatements, exaggerations and distortions of intelligence about Iran” offered by the Bush Administration:
… Bolton said that the Iranians told their German, French and British counterparts that they could produce enough uranium for a bomb within a year, and that they’d do so if the Europeans didn’t back down in their demands that the Iranians dismantle their nuclear program.
Marshall notes that the Washington Post and USA Today both suggest Bolton is repeating the story incorrectly:
The Post says, delicately, that “there were discrepancies between Bolton’s account and those of European and U.S. diplomats, who said that Iran’s deputy negotiator, Hoseyn Moussavian, said Iran could start enriching uranium within a year, but it would take longer to enrich enough for a weapon.”
In a small note on page A4 in USA Today Barbara Slavin puts the point a little more squarely, saying that “two diplomats from two of the European countries at the Paris talks said they were unaware of such a threat. The diplomats … were not present at the talks but were briefed on them…”
I was on this, but e-mails and a telephone call to the Arms Control Association’s Paul Kerr, my one stop shop for all states rogue, was met with deafening silence. This after I hunted down a little FBIS translation for the man.
You been called out, sucker.
(I am just kidding, he’s working on deadline this week…)