On last night’s NBC Nightly News (9/18/13), correspondent Ann Curry had a big exclusive: a sit-down interview with new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. The newscast kicked off with anchor Brian Williams announcing:
Our NBC News exclusive: Ann Curry in Iran with that nation’s new president. His first interview tonight, big revelations about nuclear weapons.
How big? Curry came on to explain that Rouhani was “clearly trying to send a message” that “there is a different Iran.”
This was how the interview went:
CURRY: The world believes that Iran could build a bomb very quickly. You’ve said this period time for resolving the nuclear issue will not be unlimited. Just how short is this window—weeks, months or years?
ROUHANI : We have never pursued or sought a nuclear bomb and we are not going to do so. We are solely seeking peaceful nuclear technology.
CURRY: Can you say that Iran will not build a nuclear weapon under any circumstances whatsoever?
ROUHANI: The answer to this question is quite obvious. We have time and again said that under no circumstances would we seek any weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, nor will we ever.
If the big news here is that the president of Iran is saying the country is not developing nuclear weapons, and does not ever intend to do so, that’s not really news. In fact, the last Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said essentially the same thing almost exactly one year ago. And to an American journalist, no less! From an interview with CBS correspondents Charlie Rose and Norah O’Donnell (9/24/12):
O’DONNELL: You did not deny you are building a nuclear weapon?
AHMADINEJAD: How many times should I repeat this?
O’DONNELL: Please repeat it. Please tell me what Iran is doing.
AHMADINEJAD: What would we do? What would we do? Let’s even imagine that we have an atomic weapon, a nuclear weapon, what would we do with it? What intelligent person would fight 5,000 American bombs with one bomb?
CHARLIE ROSE: With respect, Mr. President….
AHMADINEJAD: The United States government says that they are in possession of 5,600 modern bombs. History has shown that the Iranians are very smart. Also, because of our beliefs, we do not believe in a nuclear weapon, we are against it.
And a few weeks later (Reuters, 11/8/12):
“The Iranian nation is not seeking an atomic bomb, nor do they need to build an atomic bomb…. For defending ourselves, we do not need a nuclear weapon,” said Ahmadinejad.
Now, one could argue that the diplomatic situation between the U.S. and Iran right now has changed considerably—and fast.
But an Iranian president saying Iran isn’t developing nuclear weapons isn’t new—though it might seem that way to a U.S. corporate media that constantly refers to Iran’s “nuclear weapons program” as if there were proof that such a thing exists.
UPDATE: The must-read blogger Nima Shirazi points out (9/18/13) that the very same Ann Curry interviewed Ahmadinejad in 2009 and in 2011, and was told the same thing—that Iran was not developing nuclear weapons.
If only the FCC was concerned with media malfeasance, and one could complain to it …
Zionist MSM is having a field day by distorting Rouhani’s statements made in Persian language. It say Rouhani claimed that he has the “authority” to abandon country’s nuclear program, “Iran will never make nuclear bomb” – and “Israel is behind all the wars in the region”. Anyone, who knows Iranian history after 1979 Islamic Revolution from an objective source – would never believe such Zionist propaganda lies. The only “Authority” under Constitution is the Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei who is on record for saying: “Why should Tehran trust Washington when Washington doesn’t trust Tehran“.
Rouhani, as a cleric himself, is very close to Khamenie, but no Iranian leader including Khamenie would dare to roll-back Iran’s nuclear program which has the backing of over 90% of the Iranian nation. Personally, I believe the only reason Rouhani won the June 2013 election – was because he was the only religious scholar among the six presidential contestants.
Iranian leaders since Imam Khomeini’s fatwa against WMDs in 1980, has been saying that the Islamic leadership is committed not to use its nuclear program for military usage. Netanyahu’s “modern Hitler”, former president Ahmadinejad told Sweden’s ambassador Peter Tejler last year.
“Since the Islamic Republic of Iran has no atomic bombs, and will never seek it, and considers such weapons ineffective, it has no concern,” he said.
http://rehmat1.com/2013/09/20/rouhani-addresses-the-paranoid-zionist-mafia/
This whole interview with Rohani is a clever exercise in propaganda. NBC knows full well the average American watching this program will not be persuaded one way or another by what a Muslim cleric in his costume is saying while forcing a liberated western woman to cover herself while interviewing him. They are only going to hate him/Iran more on a visceral reptilian level. Kudos to them for being so incredibly crafty!
Having said that, the real elephant in the room with regards to Iran’s nuclear weapons “problem” is the hypocrisy and double-standard of the West. If US, Russia, UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, N. Korea, and Israel (even though they neither confirm or deny it) can have nuclear weapons, then so should Iran; period. This is the double-standard. The hypocrisy of the West is that they are pointing some 2000 nuclear missiles at all of us inhabitants of the planet on hair-trigger alert that could go off and start a nuclear war at any minute (we have come very close to this already).
If anything Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima nuclear accidents hav demonstrated is that nuclear energy is the most dangerous man-made invention whose consequences of mistakes are of biblical proportions. We need to strive to abolish it, certainly nuclear weapons. BTW, the first five countries above along with Iran are signatories to the NPT. Israel, Pakistan, and India are not. Why aren’t we posturing to bomb them? They already HAVE the bomb and are obviously not willing to even pay lip-service to getting rid of them…
Finally, when it comes to history and journalism (often called the first draft of history) context is everything. How often do we hear in the news about the US overthrowing Iran’s democratic government in 1953? I think if Americans knew about this, they would perceive Iran and Iranians in a slightly different light.
Sorry to add a technical note to this discussion. Please feel free to delete it as irrelevant. However, your web designer needs to know that a formatting error results in the hot-spot link to the next item (and, on the last text item, to the TV video) being superimposed on the frame of the photos of followers immediately beneath it. On iPad Safari this prevents the hot-spot from responding properly to clicks. This week, for instance, this fault has prevented my access to Peter Hart’s TV summary. Please correct this formatting error!
For a number of years now there’s been a steady drumbeat about Iran’s nonexistent nuclear weapons, fueled as everyone knows, by the Israeli lobby. It is frighteningly similar to what led up to our illegal attack and subsequent annihilation of Iraq. The result is that Iraq (which before our invasion and despite Saddam Hussein, had a flourishing economy with the best health care in the Middle East, for ex.) is now a totally destroyed and failed state; the people are suffering from ongoing civil strife engendered by America’s actions during our war on Iraq. And just as they did with Iraq, many TV hosts take on a disparaging and sarcastic tone whenever they talk about Iran. And I’m not talking about “right-wingers”, but about the “liberal” media. I am very afraid that unless the American public starts pushing hard against another illegal and unwarranted attack on Iran, we may be pushed into another disastrous adventure for the sake of an aggressive client state which itself already possesses nuclear weapons.
Iran News – Latest Updates and Breaking News from Iran
Remember Syria had no weapons of the Chemical sort….until they suddenly admitted they did.In the middle east lies are like sand.Lots of it.Iran has lied so often(and badly may I add) about almost everything that I would say that their word is really not worth anything.Just words.I would love to believe in fairy tales,but in this case,when out intel and Israels intel tells us one thing,while the Iranian leaders say the opposite….I will take our side.The leader of Iran may tell me to my face that Iran does not have any gay people.Hell he may even believe it.So our choice is they are nuts….or lying.
@michael e
You absolutely have the right to speak of the people of the Middle East (a colonial term BTW) in such a blatantly racist tone. After all, you live in a country whose government and press are such exemplars of truth, honesty, and compassion!!! “Let those who have not sinned cast the first stone.”
BTW, when Ahmadi Nejad was saying that they had no gays, he was telling the truth. They probably killed them all!
Im sorry I sound racist .It is just a fact that when dealing in this part of the world ,you can work in every logical way you can.But s
ooner or later you realize everything has a huge dash of crazy thrown in.