This is one of those truly bizarre stories that leaves you scratching your head. We all know nuclear power in the wrong hands is a danger we cannot ignore. Most on the far left wish for a nuclear free world at any cost. Most of the rest of us wish mankind’s occasional thirst for power and dominance could be tempered and contained in a manner that would allow for a nuclear weapon free world. So when you see a story that almost says Iran’s nuclear power program is not tied to nuclear bombs – you have to wonder where these reporters are coming from?

Traces of bomb-grade uranium found two years ago in Iran came from contaminated Pakistani equipment and are not evidence of a clandestine nuclear weapons program, a group of U.S. government experts and other international scientists has determined.

“The biggest smoking gun that everyone was waving is now eliminated with these conclusions,” said a senior official who discussed the still-confidential findings on the condition of anonymity.

Scientists from the United States, France, Japan, Britain and Russia met in secret during the past nine months to pore over data collected by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, according to U.S. and foreign officials. Recently, the group, whose existence had not been previously reported, definitively matched samples of the highly enriched uranium — a key ingredient for a nuclear weapon — with centrifuge equipment turned over by the government of Pakistan.

Emphasis mine. The story goes on to say this revelation will make it harder to convince nations Iran is a danger with nuclear power. I guess they are channeling some of Cindy Sheehan’s views where it is OK for Syria and Iran to have nuclear weapons.

But you have to wonder why they are focused on the traces of weapons grade uranium, and not the centrifuge that made the weapons grade uranium – which is in the posession of the Iranians! What, the capability to make the weapons grade uranium is not a concern – just the traces of the material?

And then there is this sentence:

The briefings will focus on the White House’s belief that a country with as much oil as Iran would not need an energy program on the scale it is planning, according to two officials.

Notice this is couched as contents of a briefing and not as a darn good question as to the intent of the Iranians. And why would we even think there is a clandestine nuclear weapons program? Well they tell us in another paragraph:

Iran built its nuclear program in secret over 18 years with the help of Abdul Qadeer Khan, a top Pakistani official and nuclear scientist who sold spare parts from his country’s own weapons program to Iran, Libya and North Korea. Khan’s black-market dealings were uncovered in 2003.

Gee, you think that was evidence of a nuclear program? AQ Kahn’s network was focused on one thing – nuclear weapons. Not nuclear power, nuclear weapons.

But here is the clincher:

The IAEA, in its third year of an investigation in Iran, has not found proof of a weapons program.

A little history lesson is in order. The IAEA never once found Saddam’s nuclear weapons program after five years of inspections. The only way we learned of that program was when Hussein Kamal, Saddam’s brother-in-law, defected as head of Saddam’s weapons programs. The IAEA also missed North Korea’s violation of the Carter/Clinton agreement for years while it built its nuclear weapons. And I suspect the IAEA would have missed the AQ Kahn network if it had not had help from the US.

So let’s be clear. If the IAEA says there is no evidence of a program, odds are that the program does exist.