Remember…Iran is trying to develop a civilian nuclear power program. The suspicion is that they will use that civilian program to seed a covert nuclear weapons program, but there is currently no evidence that they are doing so. That makes the following all the more curious:
The White House on Monday said it had little information about Egypt’s plans to relaunch its nuclear power program but declared itself “generally supportive” of civilian atomic power.
“I don’t know a lot about it. In general, we are supportive of countries pursuing civil nuclear energy. It’s clean burning. It provides electricity in a clean-burning and affordable way for citizens,” said spokeswoman Dana Perino.
“We are working with some countries in order to help them get there. But in regards to the Egyptian program, that report just came across. I don’t know any more specifics about it,” Perino told reporters.
She was speaking shortly after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said that Egypt planned to build several nuclear power stations, relaunching a nuclear program frozen more than 20 years ago.
None of the 19 hijackers were Iranian, but the lead hijacker, Mohammed Atta, was Egyptian. Al-Qaeda is co-led by Egyptian dissident Ayman al-Zawahiri. You might also remember Omar Abdel-Rahman, the blind sheikh, who planned to ‘to set off five bombs in 10 minutes, blowing up the United Nations, the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, the George Washington Bridge and a federal building housing the FBI.’ Abdel-Rahman was an Egyptian. And, just to give you a little anecdotal evidence of the potential problem of nuclear power in the hands of the Egyptian government, my friend noz just returned from a trip to the land of the pyramids and had the following observation:
it took me almost two weeks, but yesterday i actually found someone who doesn’t hate mubarak in egypt.
i have yet to find anyone who doesn’t hate bush.
So, please tell me…why is it fine and dandy for Egypt to have nuclear power, but not Iran?
