Why do certain big news stories just....vanish?

On February 26, various news agencies reported that, according to the released Stratfor leaks, Israeli and Kurdish commandos destroyed Iran's nuclear capabilities. One of those publications was the JTA, a Jewish news service.

But the JTA story, to which I linked in the first Cannonfire post on this topic, was soon taken down. No explanation. It just vanished into thin cyber-air.

From that day to this, we have seen zero discussion of the alleged destruction of Iran's nuclear program.

Yet over that same time period, we have witnessed some serious saber-rattling directed toward Iran. Everyone (including the president) is talking as though war is likely, even though war with Iran would be so disastrous as to make the Iraq debacle look comparatively pleasant.

At the center of all this war talk is Iran's nuclear program -- which, according to Stratfor, is no longer a pressing concern. Under the circumstances, you'd think that our politicians and pundits would consider the Stratfor leak germane, of interest, worthy of investigation.

Apparently not.

I've finally discovered one (1) story which discusses the issue of whether or not the Israelis crippled the Iranian nuclear infrastructure. To be frank, the piece is not particularly well-written. And here it is.

Many have implied that Stratfor’s acquisition of this knowledge [of the raid] must certainly mean that White House officials and Congress members had it, too, so they are searching for the real reason behind Obama’s recent comments towards Iran’s nuclear weapon program.

"Many"? That word might be justified if our news editors had not deemed the story a verboten topic of debate.

Oddly, that verboten status adds to the story's credibility. Why censor a false report?