by Jerry Gordon

Sy Hersh, alleged investigative journalist and New Yorker stalwart writer was interviewed by Der Spiegel on-line. In his weird exchange headlined ‘The President Has Accepted Ethnic Cleansing’ with journalists Charles Hawley and David Gordon Smith he pooh, poohed Iran’s nuclear development program and rush to develop weapons.

He said that during the interview:

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was just in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. Once again, he said that he is only interested in civilian nuclear ability instead of atomic weapons. How much does the West really know about the nuclear program in Iran?

Seymour Hersh: A lot. And it’s been underestimated how much the universal Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) knows. whether you follow what (IAEA head Mohamed) ElBaradei and the various reports have been saying, the Iranians have claimed to be enriching uranium to higher than a 4 percent purity, which is the amount you need to run a peaceful nuclear reactor. But the IAEA’s best guess is that they are at 3.67 percent or something. The Iranians are not even doing what they claim to be doing. The IAEA has been saying all along that they’ve been making progress but basically, Iran is nowhere. Of course the US and

Israel are going to say you have to look at the worst case scenario, but there isn’t abundant evidence to justify a bombing raid.

What Hersh knows about nuclear physics is close to zip.

So, I asked a friend, Dr. Fred Leder, an alternative energy researcher who knows something about nuclear physics as a researcher in alternative energy development.

Here’s what Leder wrote in response:

Seymour Hersh needs to brush up on his nuclear physics. It takes something by 90% U235 to invent a bomb but it only takes 2.8 to run a light water reactor. So the obviously strategy is reach 2.8 or 3.8 with your centrifuges and next build a light water reactor. Every so often you remove the partially reacted fuel and extract plutonium. The plutonium needs no further enrichment to be used in a bomb. When you get to 20kg you have your first bomb, 40 kg two bombs….

.

So, I ask you does Hersh, a Pultizer Prize winner for his My Lai reports during Viet Nam, have any credibility. Not in my book and certainly not in Dr. Leder’s, either.

Der Spiegel on line, Dr. Fred Leder, Opinion, Sy Hersh

Original post by Jerry Gordon