Pres Obama gets 3 Pinocchios for claiming Iran’s nuclear program has been ‘halted’ & its nuclear stockpile ‘reduced'.

Pres Obama gets 3 Pinocchios for claiming Iran’s nuclear program has been ‘halted’ and its nuclear stockpile ‘reduced'. (Wapo).

“Our diplomacy is at work with respect to Iran, where, for the first time in a decade, we’ve halted the progress of its nuclear program and reduced its stockpile of nuclear material.”

–President Obama, State of the Union address, Jan. 20, 2015

This was a bold statement by the president regarding the interim “Joint Plan of Action” governing negotiations with Iran over its nuclear ambitions. In defending the talks against efforts in Congress to pass a sanctions package if the talks fail, the president made two key points: one, progress on Iran’s nuclear program has been “halted” and two, Iran’s stockpile of nuclear material has been “reduced.”

We realize that White House speechwriters probably don’t want to be bothered with technical issues in such a high-profile speech but here’s a case where some further wordsmithing was needed. This isn’t the first time. A year ago, in the 2014 State of the Union, The Fact Checker handed out Pinocchios when the president claimed that the inspections allowed under the agreement were “unprecedented.” That’s way too sweeping a statement.

So has progress been halted and the amount of nuclear material reduced?

The Facts

The Iran portfolio is highly contentious and progress in the talks — which have been repeatedly extended — is certainly open to interpretation. We should also note that Iran has steadfastly denied it has nuclear-weapons ambitions.

For the purposes of this fact check, we will rely on the definition of “nuclear material” by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which includes low enriched uranium (less than 20 percent, generally 3.5 percent enriched), highly enriched uranium and so forth. (This graphic helps explain why 20-percent enriched is so much closer to nuclear-weapons material than 3.5 percent.)

The administration, in its official statements, portrays the agreement as a success.

Words have consequences, especially in a State of the Union address. The president could have claimed that “we’ve slowed the progress of its nuclear program and reduced its stockpile of the most dangerous nuclear material.” But instead he choose to make sweeping claims for which there is little basis. Thus he earns Three Pinocchios. Read the full story here.

Dick Cheney: “Rarely has a US president [Obama] been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many.” Ain’t it so!#tcot #NetanyahuSpeech

— Janie Johnson (@jjauthor) March 3, 2015