I thought reporters had to get confirmation of a claim by presenting a second confirming source.

Why has the standard changed, if in fact it has? If not, why isn't a second source on critical information given and should it be?

That the complete absence of any evidence would ever prevent the corporate media whores from catapulting the propaganda, do you?

I have also looked for any evidence that what Iran did was anything other than the simple satisfaction of its obligations to report the facility in question a certain length of time before it becomes operational.

I have found nothing that refutes this, only suppositions/assertions as to Iranian motives.

A quote from Huxley's Devils of Loudun springs to mind - "The devil is not to be believed, even when he speaks the truth."

The Iranian submission has also been repeatedly described as 'an admission' ie: of guilt, along with, as you state, the notion of being caught red-handed, etc. No doubt some wise pundit has already discussed how Iran has been caught with its hand in the Uranium Cookie Jar or some such.

What's interesting is that the overwhelming public response demonstrates, once again, that the conditioning/brainwashing programs of the 24 hour news networks and newspapers and internet remain absolutely in place.

This links to your references lately to perpetual war. What the US is doing re: Middle East is really not a lot more sophisticated than the Guatemalan counter-revolution of 60 years ago. If anybody wants to, read Bitter Fruit, then read Blackwater, and you'll see where this road began and where it leads, and how the control of information is central to the entire business.

Maybe the Iranians Googled themselves? Imagine their surprise.

What is it exactly that US intelligence officials think we think Iranian intelligence officials think US intelligence officials do all day, except pore over satellite maps of Iran looking for nuclear sites?

Watch Fox News maybe?

Iran will be sure to put its nuclear facilities inside an extinct volcano. No one would ever think to look there!

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/10/07-4

Sorry...

Didn't sleep too much last night:

"A social worker from New York City was arrested last week while in Pittsburgh for the G-20 protests, then subjected to an FBI raid this week at home -- all for using Twitter. Elliot Madison faces charges of hindering apprehension or prosecution, criminal use of a communication facility and possession of instruments of crime. He was posting to a Twitter feed (or tweeting, as it is called) publicly available information about police activities around the G-20 protests, including information about where police had issued orders to disperse.

While alerting people to public information may not seem to be an arrestable offense, be forewarned: Many people have been arrested for the same "crime" -- in Iran, that is.

Last June 20, as Iranians protested against the conduct and results of their national election, President Barack Obama said in a statement, "The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights."

His statement was released in English, Farsi and Arabic and posted on the White House's very own Twitter feed. His tweet read, "We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people."

U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, urging her to pressure European nations to restrict sales of eavesdropping technology to Iran. They wrote: "Following recent elections, the Iranian government has used a new communications monitoring center to interfere with and suppress Internet and cell phone communications as part of efforts to crackdown on Iranian citizens peacefully demonstrating ... including voice calls, email, text messaging, instant messages, and Web traffic, as well as posts to social networking sites such as Twitter, MySpace and Facebook."

for a report in the meadea of how (and why and from whom) iran got the nuclear technology in the first place (self-referential answer @ sig)

Glenn -

While I agree that the evidence that Iran thought their cover was blown is weak, the fact is that their cover WAS blown, and there was really no other reason for them to admit the existence of the Qum (Qom) lab.

Sorry - this time, I think you've gone completely over the edge. This isn't part of the 'vast right-wing conspiracy', this is simply the situation on the ground - Iran was exposed, and needed to do something to retain any right they had to a seat at the table.

the matter of anonymous sourcing and Iran's intentions (whatever they may be), I'm always struck by what are, to me, internal contradictions within the same article:

while American officials say the secretive nature of the program lends support to the view that it is truly an expanding weapons program, even United States intelligence officials acknowledge that there is no evidence that Iran has taken the final steps toward creating a bomb

followed by

The site was one of Iran’s most closely guarded secrets, the officials said, known only by senior members of Iran’s nuclear establishment.

So here we have a secret so closely guarded that only a handful of senior Iranians know about it, yet the NSA/CIA--the entire alphabet soup, I suppose--while seemingly acquiring this information almost casually (so profound are our intelligence gathering abilities), can't actually determine the site's purpose.

This despite Panetta's saying

we spent the next months trying to get better intel about what was going on there ... and conducting covert operations into that area.

And this in addition to the

what was being learned through the infiltration of Iranian computers.

It's rather like a Biblical prophet who, with a flick of the wrist, tells congregants, "Hey, as you guys are aware, I know the mind of God, and the Lord is mighty upset with you and has planned all sorts of nasty, eternal tortures for you unless you shape up. And if you do shape up, well there will be blessings aplenty."

And the assemblage naturally responds, "Oh, what sort of torture and/or good stuff can we anticipate?"

And the prophet frowns and says, "What, do you think I know the mind of God or something? I only say I know all. I never said I know all."