Let’s face it, journalism majors are not prepared to grasp or understand complex technologies – especially those on the cutting edge of humanity’s current technology base. This is blatantly apparent in this story about the Iran NIE. Begin with the basic conclusion of the article, apparent in its title:

How one man eased nerves on Iran

So, does the article dispel the risk of a nuclear Iran or increase it? The answer is obvious of course, it affirms the threat:

ON a winter afternoon in February, Ali Reza Ashgari, a moustachioed Iranian general, checked into a hotel in Istanbul, booked for him by two Europeans. Several days earlier, his wife and children had slipped quietly out of Tehran, unlikely to return.

Ashgari has been in the hands of the CIA ever since, apparently a willing partner to its desperate and often futile attempt to learn just what Iran had in mind with its nuclear program and to glean the regional ambitions of its President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

…

Exactly what Ashgari has told the Americans since is not entirely clear. However, two things are apparent in the minds of intelligence allies in the Middle East: he was instrumental in confirming worst fears that Iran intended to build nuclear weapons; and that the regime’s enthusiasm had waned after the US invasion of Iraq, which was sparked by a misguided hunt for atomic components and other so-called weapons of mass destruction.

…

He confirmed the regime had been building two nuclear plants in southern Iran, one in Arak and the other in Bushehr, and that both had been using centrifuges to enrich uranium. He also confirmed that both had at one stage been central to a broader goal of becoming the region’s second nuclear state, after Israel.

I and many others have pointed out the key to Iran having nuclear weapons are the centrifuge cascades required for them to independently create weapons grade uranium. And here is an article CONFIRMING the central role of centrifuges in the weapons program. And what does the NIE say about centrifuges – they exist and are enriching uranium! Simply saying these centrifuges are supposedly producing uranium for civilian use not sufficient evidence a weapons program is not hiding underneath the covers.

It is clear from the tone of this story the writers don’t understand that the fact they site actually contradict their preconceptions on what is going on. They can’t understand, they don’t have the minimal technical education to grasp it. It is like trying to explain to a color blind person what “blue” is. The liberal media needs to confront its dangerous limitations in grasping a world that is now so complex, dynamic and fast moving that they are probably some of the last people on the planet who should be drawing conclusions on what we face in terms of threats from technology in the wrong hands.