Groundhog Day

It's likely that the reason those stories get circulated so much is due to their improbability. Hearing something so odd gets the attention of readers/listeners/viewers for a brief time, and they don't hold the news source responsible a few months later when it turns out to have been wrong. In the reporters' defense however, please remember that Mr. Castro is a human; sooner or later that story will be fact.

Your picture isn't a groundhog--they don't come in blonde.

Good column, Mr. Keating. Good points all. I'm reminded of the old SNL News declarations about Generalissimo Francisco Franco's persistent demise.

Keating states:
In December 2005, then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered his military to prepare for the possibility of a strike on Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities
...
Since then it's been regularly reported that Israel was preparing an "imminent" military strike against Iranian facilities
-----------------

Lets be clear and point out that this has been going on since 1992

June 15, 1992, Press-Telegram (Long Beach, CA)
ISRAEL HINTS AT ATTACK ON IRAN NUCLEAR PROGRAM

JERUSALEM - Military and political action may be needed to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, Israel's air force chief said Sunday. Maj. Gen. Herzl Budinger told Israel television that if Iran's intensive effort to develop atomic weapons isn't ``disrupted'' the fundamentalist Islamic nation would become a nuclear power by the end of the decade.

Mar 13, 1993 Washington Post
Israel Seeking to Convince U.S. That West Is Threatened by Iran; Jewish Leaders Say Only Washington Capable of Restraining Tehran

August 26, 1994 Forward
Israel Pushing Curbs on Iran: Says Mullahs' Nuclear Threat Has Grown

This goes on every year to the present. Joshua Keating would have a better article if this point was made more clearly incorporating who exactly has been demanding action on Iran's "nukes."