the islam-fearmongering has been noted Philip Giraldi is a fucking warmonger
On May 20, 6:48 am, "M. Johnson" <[email protected]> wrote: > Shaping the Story on IranbyPhilip Giraldi, May 20, 2010 > There have been recent reports that Iran has enabled the travel of al-Qaeda > leaders to Afghanistan and Pakistan where they will be able to confront and > kill American soldiers. If you think you have heard the story before, you > have, in another context. In the earlier rendition it was Saddam Hussein who > was hand-in-glove with al-Qaeda, helping the group in its nefarious planning > to attack the United States and kill Americans. Saddam, who was in reality > only a threat to his own people, was on the receiving end of a barrage of > fabricated information claiming that he was secretly developing weapons of > mass destruction and clandestinely dealing with the terrorists who were > responsible for 9/11. Or so the story goes. And now it is Iran’s turn and > the story and the storytellers are exactly the same. > Even when everything changes, nothing changes for the American mainstream > media (MSM), which continues to be wedded to a policy of all war all the > time. There is a long history of media lies. William Randolph Hearst’sNew > York Morning Journalused deliberately sensationalized news reports to stir up > hysteria in 1897 that led to war with Spain, a war that he later boasted had > been enabled by his newspaper. But other leading American newspapers of that > era were a lot more cautious in their reporting and some even lampooned > Hearst’s hysterics in the lead-up to the conflict. Today it is different as > newspapers rarely compete for market share and have no interest in exposing > the half-truths of their peers. The unanimity of view is particularly > evident on the editorial pages where the neocons and the groupthink that they > have fostered have become deeply embedded. Everyone in the MSM agrees that > Iran either already has nukes or is about to go nuclear and that the country > shelters terrorists on every block, all colluding to attack a completely > innocent and guileless United States. Saturated with the propaganda, the > American public more or less accepts that narrative. > How we Americans have arrived at this sorry point is somewhat difficult to > explain. That most media outlets have become parts of much larger > corporations that are uninterested in challenging authority, making their > news coverage a large dose of pablum, is clearly part of the problem. The > closure of most overseas newspaper bureaus hasn’t helped either as it has > reduced the number of local reporters who might have applied their own > insider knowledge to developing stories. Also the use of embedded > journalists in war coverage has meant that only reporters writing stories > favorable to the Pentagon spin are given access to the "hot information." > But the biggest factor has been the de facto takeover of many editorial pages > by hardliners who perversely believe that the United States can resolve its > problems by continuing with the so-called "long war," a conflict in which > Washington is fated to engage in never ending struggles against an enemy that > is increasingly being seen around the world as all Muslims. > The media hypes the threat and keeps the story going so the public is > acquiescent as more Americans die and countless billions of dollars are > thrown down a money pit. This is frequently accomplished by redirecting the > narrative when the truth is somehow unpalatable. If, for example, Israel’s > bestiality towards the Palestinians is creating danger for American soldiers > deployed overseas it is far better to write instead about how deeply > concerned Israelis are about the "existential" threat coming from Iran. That > ignores the actual clear and present danger to Americans and moves the > discussion to the completely theoretical threat experienced by Israelis, > reinforcing along the way the old narrative about Jews as victims, not as > persecutors. > How this process works in practice with Iran is not too dissimilar to the way > it worked with Saddam. Make up a bunch of garbage and let it fly, hoping > that some of it might stick. Readers of Antiwar.com might recall the phony > Iranian nuclear triggersallegationsthat Gareth Porter and I put to rest back > in January. TheSunday Timesof London, which is owned by Zionist stalwart > Rupert Murdoch, has an astonishing track record for floating stories that in > all likelihood come from Israel’s intelligence service Mossad. > TheTimesstory, which claimed that Iran was developing an electronic trigger > for a nuclear weapon in 2007, was important because if it had been true it > would have meant that the December 2007 CIA National Intelligence Estimate > (NIE) was flawed. The NIE had maintained (and the intelligence community > still maintains) that Iran abandoned its nuclear weapons program in 2003. > Undermining that judgment has been a key objective of the various neocon > talking heads, all claiming that Iran has a secret program that the CIA does > not know about. The nuclear trigger story would have challenged the main > conclusion of the NIE while also serving as confirmation of the allegations > about the hidden nuclear laboratory, so it would have been a two-for-one if > it had been accepted. Fortunately, the story proved so full of holes that it > went nowhere, but not for lack of trying. > Which brings us to the tale being spun by the Associated Press (AP). If > nukes are number one in the Iran narrative, terrorists are certainly number > two. And if allegations about Hezbollah and Hamas don’t excite you what > could be better than producing a link to the ultimate nasties, al-Qaeda? A > week ago aninvestigative storywas featured as an AP Exclusive: "CIA tracks > al-Qaeda moving from Iran." The account is based on the fact that a handful > of al-Qaeda officers, including at least one of Osama bin Laden’s sons, fled > to Iran after the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and were subsequently placed > under house arrest. They have been there ever since. > The AP story claims that there is intelligence suggesting that some of the > detainees have now been released. The authors of the story opine that the > change in policy is so al-Qaeda can "replenish its ranks." They cite a > number of "current and former" intelligence officers as their sources but > actually only quote two former CIA officers who apparently claim to have > current knowledge about the movement of the terrorists. The other sources > are anonymous and it is not even completely clear if they are all American. > One of the cited authorities, Bruce Riedel, has been retired from the Agency > since 2006 and now works at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the > Brookings Institute. How Riedel would have access to highly sensitive > information on the movement of al-Qaeda is by no means evident and the > article does not reveal his connection to Haim Saban, a Hollywood billionaire > whose deep attachment to Israel is well documented. > The second CIA officer is Clare Lopez, who is a senior fellow at the Center > for Security Policy, which claims to be non-partisan but is basically a > pro-Israel Muslim-bashing organization, as revealed by itswebsite. Leading > neocon Frank Gaffney is the founder and president. Lopez retired from CIA at > some point prior to 2005, so she has been out of the loop even longer than > Riedel. Is the AP story being honest about the likely reliability and > possible biases of its sources? Apparently not. > The AP story’s contention that al-Qaeda is "replenishing its ranks" is > nowhere supported by evidence that any of the detainees has shown up in any > terrorist operation. Nor is it clear how a handful of detainees could > effectively replenish anything. The account also ignores one fundamental > problem in depicting a pattern of Iranian-al-Qaeda interaction. Al-Qaeda is > a Sunni fundamentalist group that thinks that Shi’ite Muslims are heretics > and should be killed. Iranians are predominantly Shi’ites. It is hardly a > basis for bonhomie. And the account is sprinkled with questionable > commentary, like the assertion that Iran "has historically allowed al-Qaeda > members safe passage through the country," which is flat out untrue. The > speculation that the departure of some al-Qaeda from Iran "foreshadows the > release of al-Qaeda’s ‘management council,’ including some of al-Qaeda’s most > dangerous figures" is also advanced without any evidence, apparently to hype > the danger. Even if it is true that some of the al-Qaeda are being released > it is not credible to believe that a handful of men who have been under house > arrest for nine years will suddenly appear in Pakistan and make magic, > particularly as their prior to 2001 experience would count for little as both > al-Qaeda and the American response to it have shifted dramatically since that > time. Also, al-Qaeda would not be likely to trust the returnees, suspecting, > not unreasonably, that they had been turned by the Iranians and were actually > little more than spies for Tehran. > The AP story received considerable replay in the usual places, including on > NPR, increasingly a shameless promoter of neocon foreign policy. Thoroughly > indoctrinated by propaganda, most readers or listeners would not question the > fantasy tale of a handful of aging al-Qaeda men appearing from nowhere and > using their ancient wisdom to turn the tables on the US Army. And most would > also unthinkingly buy into the explicit linkage of Iran to active support of > the most reprehensible type of terrorists. Ironically, Adolph Hitler’s > Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, responsible > for orchestrating the Third Reich’s media, best explained what is happening > in today’s America vis-à-vis Iran. Hewrote, "If you tell a lie big enough > and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can > be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the > political, economic, and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes > vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, > for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension,the truth > is the greatest enemy of the > State." http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2010/05/19/shaping-the-story-on-iran/ > > > > -- > Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. > For options & help seehttp://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum > > * Visit our other community athttp://www.PoliticalForum.com/ > * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. > * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
