Cheney And Rumsfeld Pushed Iran Nuke Plants In Ford Years

Take the Sunday Washington Post report, "Past Arguments Don't Square With Current Iran Policy," in which Dafna Linzer describes a nuclear negotiating strategy President Ford "reluctantly" endorsed for Iran that would reap U.S. nuclear vendors over $7 billion. Under this deal, which Secretary of State Henry Kissinger laid out in a memorandum in 1975, the United States, according to Ms. Linzer, would supply Iran with reactors and try "to accommodate Iranian demands" for plants to separate plutonium chemically from spent reactor fuel, even though the plutonium produced could be used directly to make nuclear weapons.

The reporter reminds us that Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz served in the Ford administration and are now opposed to Iran's acquiring such dangerous nuclear capabilities. The reader is then steered to the following conclusion:

The Ford administration--in which Cheney succeeded Rumsfeld as chief of staff and Wolfowitz was responsible for nonproliferation issues at the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency--continued intense efforts to supply Iran with U.S. nuclear technology until President Jimmy Carter succeeded Ford in 1977.

There are many things upsetting about this history. But the worst of it is not the hypocritical flip-flop that Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz are accused of by the Washington Post. Instead, it's what the article fails to tell the reader.

The Washington Post Bombs Nuclear History

I know its a bit much to believe a grand conspiracy where Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Cheney would conspire to help a Muslim nation aquire WMD in order to invade, but there is precedant.

BBC

How could they do it all with a straight face?

[edit on 9-2-2006 by ArchAngel]

Whenever I read about the past complicity of the current administration, I have to wonder, how long have they been planning this?

Or, are they so mired in corruption that, in any region where they find 'terrorism,' they've already done so much dirt that all they have to do is set the machine in motion and keep out of it?

The article notes that Ford and Cheney soon after considering this idea completely wiped out all re-processing of nuke fuel in the US and any moves that would proliferate nuke materials via re-processing.

However, more importantly, part of the whole idea behind the NPT was that Iran would get nuke tech, materials, and expertise, from places like the United States so long as they were monitored by international organizations and didn't try to build weapons.

So I don't see where the hypocrisy is here.

I don't see what the big deal is, this happened in 1975. The world political situation was diffrent then. We were happy to support the Shaw in any way we could so we could have access to the big bad U.S.S.R.

Lockheed even wanted to sell Iran retired A-12 spyplans in '73

Today we would be happy to help fix and nuclear powerplants in Russia, but don't want them in Iran. Times change.

it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth, if only for 'flip-flopping.' Of course, times, and educated opinions, change, but if that's the case, John Kerry shouldn't have been 'swift-boated.'

And, yes, from my time on ATS, I now know that I wasted my vote on him, since a vote for either candidate was a vote for the Skull & Bones/New World Order/Reptilian conspiracy. Only half- joking...