Speaking at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies on 10 April 2006, President George W. Bush referred to Iran’s “nuclear weapons program” as if the existence of such a program were a known fact. In the official White House transcript, Bush says:
…I want Russia to be a part of the — part of the team, trying to convince the Iranians to give up its nuclear weapons program.
As I heard it (at 9 minutes and 15 seconds into the video of his Q&A session), he fumbled just a bit more than the official transcript indicates:
…I want Russia to be a part of — part of the team — tryin’ to convince the Iranians to give up its [sic], uh, its nuclear weapons program.
Bush paused briefly, apparently choosing his words quite deliberately when speaking of a putative Iranian “nuclear weapons program.”
However, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Mohamad AlBaradei has stated that his agency has no evidence of the existence of such a program.
Earlier this year, at a White House press conference, President Bush erroneously stated that “the Iranians have said, we want a [nuclear] weapon.”
If the Bush administration has evidence of the existence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, it should provide it to the IAEA. If, however, Bush is asserting without evidence the existence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, then the American people need to know this when considering any case for war that the Bush administration may make.
