It was with disappointment, but not surprise, that I recently found out that the Monterey Institute’s Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) is on board with the Neocons in hyping up the Syria/Iran nuclear claims of the Bush Administration. In the L.A. Times, Leonard Spector of the CNS, in conjunction with Avner Cohen, wrote on May 4: “In the Syrian case (as with the release last year of part of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s nuclear program) the intelligence community was unnecessarily cautious, and thereby underestimated the threats posed by Syria and Iran.”

What?! A leading researcher from the Monterey Institute (from which I graduated) is repeating Neocon talking points? How could this be?

I went on a Google search to try and find other articles by Spector. I did not have to go very far to discover Mr. Spector’s own words betray him as a purveyor of black propaganda for at least five years. Read this article from 2003, entitled “Iran’s Secret Quest for the Bomb.”

With so a bold title, one would assume that Mr. Spector presented actual evidence that Iran was seeking a nuclear weapon in 2003. But the ‘proof’ given by Spector in his piece is the usual jumble of conjecture about hypothetical facilities into which uranium was hypothetically introduced (but somehow, no one in the intelligence services can find), combined with mindreading Iranian intent to withdraw from the NPT once it has full uranium enrichment capabilities. Oh, yes, and there is a hat tip to the usual speculation that “Iran has natural gas, why do they need nuclear power?”

It’s a shame that such a fine institution as the CNS at Monterey Institute, through Mr. Spector and others has become just another mouthpiece for the Cheney cabal.

David Beito and Philippe Sands will be the featured guests on the Scott Horton Show at Antiwar Radio, Thursday, May 15.

David Beito will be discussing his recent article in the Kansas City Star, “Battle Over Eminent Domain Is Another Civil Rights Issue” at 12:15PM Eastern.

Philippe Sands will be discussing his new book, Torture Team: Rumsfeld’s Memo and the Betrayal of American Values at 1:15PM Eastern.

David T. Beito is Associate Professor of History at the University of Alabama. He received his Ph.D in history at the University of Wisconsin in 1986. Professor Beito is the author of Taxpayers in Revolt: Tax Resistance during the Great Depression and From Mutual Aid to the Welfare state: Fraternal Societies and Social Services, 1890-1967. An urban and social historian, he has published in the Journal of Southern History, and the Journal of Urban History, among other scholarly journals. He is currently writing a biography of Dr. T. R. M. Howard, a black civil rights pioneer, entrepreneur, and mutual-aid leader.

Philippe Sands is an international lawyer, professor of law, and Director of the Center on International Courts and Tribunals in the Faculty at University College London. He is the author of Lawless World: America and the Making and Breaking of Global Rules and is a frequent commentator on news and current affairs programs including CNN, MSNBC, and BBC World Service. He has been involved in many leading international cases, including the World Court trial of Slobodan Milosevic and the treatment of British detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

The Scott Horton Show airs Monday through Friday from 12PM-2PM on KAOS 92.7FM. Additional feeds and archives available at Antiwar Radio.