One of the biggest stories of the week may have been based on a forgery. The Associated Press published a chart that they said suggested Iran was working on a nuclear weapon. They claimed that the graph depicted “computer simulations for a nuclear weapon that would produce more than triple the explosive force of the World War II bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.”
An article in the Bulletin for Atomic Scientists claimed that the chart was “unlikely to have been made by research scientists working at a national level.” They said the graph“does nothing more than indicate either slipshod analysis or an amateurish hoax.”
The title of the article was, “Graph suggests Iran working on bomb.” And what was their source for the graph? It was an unnamed country “critical of Iran’s atomic program.” If that wasn’t fishy enough, the supposedly secret Iranian plan includes English subtext.
The moral of the story? Anytime we pick up a newspaper, we should always remember that it is probably owned by the same people who profit from wars upon which they claim to be objectively reporting.
http://www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/op-eds/diy-graphic-design