Jack Kelly distorts AGAIN

Take a look at this. It's from today's Post-Gazette. Here's how the hardworking Jack Kelly starts the column:

On Aug. 2, Dafna Linzer of the Washington Post reported that "a major U.S. intelligence review has projected that Iran is about a decade away from manufacturing the key ingredient for a nuclear weapon, roughly doubling the previous estimate of five years."

On Dec. 5, the Jerusalem Post reported that Mohammed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, "confirmed Israel's assessment that Iran is only a few months away from creating an atomic bomb."

My, how time flies. It hasn't seemed as if 10 years have elapsed since last summer.

Sounds like a slam dunk argument, huh? Unfortunately for JackKelly's credibility, things got complicated once I started looking. Here's what the Jerusalem Post wrote:

IAEA chairman Muhammad ElBaradei on Monday confirmed Israel's assessment that Iran is only a few months away from creating an atomic bomb.

If Teheran indeed resumed its uranium enrichment in other plants, as threatened, it will take it only "a few months" to produce a nuclear bomb, El-Baradei told The Independent.

What can we learn from these two paragraphs? First that Commando Kelly is capable of distorting from two paragraphs. He said that ElBaradei confirms that Iran is only a few months away from creating an atomic bomb but cleverly declines to tell us the very next sentence from the Jerusalem Press' article. I'll retype it out again in case you missed it.

If Teheran indeed resumed its uranium enrichment in other plants, as threatened, it will take it only "a few months" to produce a nuclear bomb, El-Baradei told The Independent. [emphasis added.]

Hmm, that's a little different, isn't it? If Teheran has resumed its uranium enrichment, then it would only take a few months to produce a bomb.

Well that does leave an important question: Has Teheran indeed resumed it's enrichment program? The Jerusalem Post doesn't say but since it is quoting The Independent, it would seem to be a good idea to see what that article says. Reporting 101.

Unfortunately, The Independent's article is locked behind a subscription wall (looks like it costs a pound to see it - anyone float me a pound?). Fortunately, Mediamatters.org has some of the text. Here's what they say:

ElBaradei's "few months" quote first appeared in a December 5 article (subscription required) in Britain's The Independent. The article stated that "[a]lthough IAEA officials have said it would take at least two years for [the Iranians' underground uranium enrichment facility at] Natanz to become fully operational, Mr. ElBaradei believes that once the facility is up and running, the Iranians could be 'a few months' away from a nuclear weapon." The article noted that Iran so far has not begun the process of re-opening the plant at Natanz. [emphasis added]

Looks as though The Jerusalem Post was spinning just a tad, huh? And it's obvious that Jack Kelly was too.

Anyway, what did Jack Kelly say again? Iran is now only a few months away from an atomic bomb. Too bad he distorted a distortion to reach that "conclusion."

To sum up, The Independent article says that:

• Iran hasn't begun the process of reopening the plant and
• Once that process has begun it will take at least two years to become fully operational and
• Only when it is fully operational would Iran then be a few months away from nuclear weapons.
  

Not now, as Jack Kelly dishonestly asserts.

Let me be clear that I don't think that Iran having nuclear weapons is a good idea - it's a very very bad idea. But with a little research, I discovered the truth in about 10 minutes. Why didn't Kelly?

Or maybe he did and decided to spin it all anyway. Only Jack Kelly knows for sure.

Jack Kelly, Media Matters