FACT CHECK: Bachmann Lied About Iran

Bachmann made two statements in last night's GOP debate regarding Iran and nuclear weapons.  Both statements have been found to be at best, gross exaggerations and fear mongering, and at worse, bold face lies.

1)  Iran is "within months" of obtaining a nuclear weapon

CNN's Truth Squad writes, "The IAEA report does not say that Iran is within months of being able to obtain a nuclear weapon. So Bachmann is wrong."

According to the American Foreign Policy Project, "There is no evidence in the public domain that Iran is currently testing a weapon, making a weapon or even enriching uranium to a level that could be used in a nuclear weapon."

Nuclear physicist David Albright, a former weapons inspector, said at the current rate, it "would likely take Iran till the end of 2013 to enrich enough 20 percent uranium to be further processed for use in one bomb. If Iran could get three sets of new generation centrifuges working at two sites, it "could produce enough material by the end of next year that could be further enriched to weapons-grade."

CONCLUSION: There is absolutely no evidence that Iran is months away from having a bomb.  There is no way that the facts can be twisted in a manner to even give this statement some credibility.  There are numerous milestones that would have to be accomplished by Iran before anyone could conclude that they were on the verge of a nuclear bomb.


2)  Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that if he obtains a nuclear weapon, he will "wipe Israel off the face of the earch" and "he will use it against the United States".

PolitiFact has concluded that these statements are false.  In their findings, Juan Cole, a Middle East specialist at the University of Michigan told the New York Times, "Ahmadinejad did not say he was going to wipe Israel off the map because no such idiom exists in Persian.  He did say he hoped its regime, i.e., a Jewish-Zionist state occupying Jerusalem, would collapse."

Regarding the use of a nuclear bomb against the United States, Iran and Ahmadinejad have maintained that they are not pursuing nuclear weapons, and that they are only pursuing nuclear energy.  Ahmadinejad said in an interview with CNN in October, "We have already expressed our views about nuclear bombs. We said those who are seeking to build nuclear bombs or those who stockpile, they are politically and mentally retarded. We think they are stupid because the era of nuclear bombs is over.  Iran, for example, should continue its efforts and tolerate all international treasures only to build a nuclear bomb or a few nuclear bombs that are useless? They can never be used? And is not capable of confronting with the U.S. nuclear arsenals? The overall budget of our national atomic energy agency is $250 million, and the whole budget is aimed at peaceful activities."

CONCLUSION:  In every statement to date regarding Israel,  he is clearly talking about regime change, not a population of people.  He has never said anything about using a bomb against the United States.

Bachmann is using lies and propaganda to incite FEAR in the minds of Americans. This is EXTREMELY dangerous and immoral.  This type of fear can impact public sentiment and result in more Americans being killed based on lies.  In fact, think about where we are with Iran in comparison to Iraq ten years ago.  Back then, the entire world believed that Iraq had "weapons of mass destruction".  There seemed to be very strong evidence coming from numerous sources that the weapons existed.  The Iran situation is moving 10x faster than Iraq.  Bachmann is suggesting that we take action soon based on no significant evidence at all!

We appear to be on a runaway train headed straight toward a war with Iran, unless we elect the only man who will show some common sense and wisdom.... RON PAUL 2012!!

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