A lot of papers picked up on a Sunday Times report detailing Israeli plans to attack Iran’s atomic facilities with tactical nuclear weapons. But after looking at the journalists responsible for the story, Allison Kaplan Sommer wonders if something else is afoot:
There are several reasons to doubt that such an attack is truly imminent or even imaginable.
First and foremost – one must consider the source of this story. The Sunday Times journalist in question Uzi Mahnaimi, is a controversial figure, who co-authored a book with Bassam Abu Sharif, former senior adviser to Yasser Arafat and PLO press officer.
While some may believe he has actual military sources in Israel who use him to leak stories that won’t make it past censors, others think he is used by foreign agents to push stories that embarrass Israel. Still others go farther, calling him unprintable names and charging that that despite the fact he works for a mainstream British newspaper, his sources makes Jamil Hussein look like the White House press secretary.
Iran’s “point of no return” — at least according to Mahnaimi’s sources — was supposed to be last March.
