Don't buy the hype: Communist China, not the Bush Administration, is why Iran is nearly a nuclear power

I am posting this in the later hours of Thursday night; odds are most of you are reading this sometime on Friday. Unless I seriously miss my guess, this New York Times story on an American government web site that may have had a little too much information about nuclear weapons construction will already be the talk of the nation (if not the continent). Truth be told, the NYT story doesn't seem too bad per se, but when even Drudge writes in caps "NYT: U.S. POSTING OF NUKE DOCS ON WEB COULD HAVE HELPED IRAN," it's not hard to imagine the firestorm to come in the blogosphere. By the time you read this, several bloggers and pundits will likely be charging President Bush and Congressional Republicans with inadvertently helping the Iranian mullahcracy become a nuclear power. Don't believe it. The story cited above misses one very critical fact: Iran was already well on their way to developing nuclear weapons, thanks to Communist China.

Sadly, this fact risks being lost in all the hoopla about documents that were on the internet for about seven weeks. That is why I am writing this post: to set the record straight on how Iran developed its nuclear weapons program.

In mid-2004, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission issued a detailed report (mentioned here) on Communist China's support for the Khomeinist mullahcracy's nuclear program. This included CCP consultants at both an Iranian mine and a uranium enrichment facility, plus - more ominously - materials to help the building of nuclear weapons facilities. In fact, the mullahs' nuclear weapons program was kickstarted by uranium sold to them by Communist China in 1991 (second item); some experts believe that the uranium mullahs enriched this past March was part of the Communist-delivered uranium stash (third item).

Now, the Communists were not alone in advancing Tehran's nuclear ambitions, according to the Washington Post (link archived), "crucial technology that put Iran on a fast track toward becoming a nuclear weapons power" came from Pakistan - Communist China's fifty-plus-year ally.

For the record, all of this information was reported between 2003 and mid-2006, months before the controversial documents hit the web.

Why am I so determined to respond to this story? Some would note my endorsement of (most) House Republicans earlier this afternoon as a motive. They would be wrong.

What drives me to post this is a concern that, with all of the arguments about what the Administration posted and when, Communist China's role in all of this could well be forgotten - especially among liberals and Democrats. The anti-Communist coalition cannot survive without its left wing, and if said left wing is more focused on internet history going back two months than nefarious Communist deeds going back almost two decades, American anti-Communism has a serious political problem on its hands.

Moreover, when any news report, however unintentionally, gives cover to a regime that has threatened to kill some of my close friends, given aid and comfort to terrorists who want to kill me and as many of my fellow Americans as they can, and openly talked of a nuclear war with America over Taiwan, I take it very personally.

So, if anyone wants to criticize the Bush Administration about these documents, that's fine. If you think the New York Times story is overblown, that's OK, too. I can see merit in either argument. But please, especially if you think the former is true - don't lay all of the blame for Iran's nuclear weapons program at the White House doorstep. You will only make it easier for Communist China to continue making its top Middle Eastern Proxy a nuclear power, and thus more able to kill millions of Americans in the names of Khomeinism and - silently - the CCP.