Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: July 7, 2008 8:31:45 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: The Black Art of Disinformation: PRE-WARTIME (War-
Justifying) Propaganda
Con Coughlin [on IRAN]: more MI6 disinformation?
24 January 2007
http://dailysketcher.blogspot.com/2007/01/con-coughlin-more-mi6-disinformation.html
According to Con Coughlin in today's Daily Telegraph, "North Korea
is helping Iran to prepare an underground nuclear test similar to
the one Pyongyang carried out last year."
He continues: "A senior European defence official told The Daily
Telegraph that North Korea had invited a team of Iranian nuclear
scientists to study the results of last October's underground test
to assist Teheran's preparations to conduct its own — possibly by
the end of this year. There were unconfirmed reports at the time of
the Korean firing that an Iranian team was present. Iranian military
advisers regularly visit North Korea to participate in missile tests."
However, the "senior European defence official " is in all
likelihood a "senior MI6 officer " if Coughlin's past form is
anything to go by.
David Leigh wrote back in June 2000 in The Guardian that "Black
propaganda -- false material where the source is disguised -- has
been a tool of British intelligence agencies since the days of the
second world war...
"Readers of the Sunday Telegraph were regaled with with the dramatic
story of the son of Libya's Colonel Gadafy and his alleged
connection to a currency counterfeiting plan. That story was
written by Con Coughlin, the paper's chief foreign correspondent,
and it was falsely attributed to a "British banking official".
"In fact, it had been given to him by officers of MI6, who, it
transpired, had been supplying Coughlin with material for years."
Annie Machon, David Shayler's partner, in her book 'Spies,Lies and
Whistleblowers: MI5 and the David Shayler Affair' "alleges that
MI6's counter-Iranian section used the Sunday Telegraph (and the
journalists Con Coughlin, John Simpson and Dominic Lawson) to try to
blame Iran for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, the destruction of flight
PA103.
"MI6 was trying to deflect attention from the fact that it was
actually a Libyan retaliation for the US bombing of Tripoli (backed
by Thatcher) in 1986."
The fact that another of her allegations in the book -- that there
was collusion between the Army Forces Research Unit and loyalist
terrorists -- has been proved true just this week gives her account
added credibility:
"15 murders linked to police collusion with loyalists -· Special
Branch protected paramilitaries, ombudsman finds -- Calls for public
inquiry over role of senior RUC officers"
Owen Bowcott, Ireland correspondent Tuesday January 23, 2007 The
Guardian
So we know that on at least 2 occasions false stories were planted
in the Sunday Telegraph with the connivance of Coughlin, both to do
with Iran and at least one disguising the source.
We also know that Coughlin, back on 17 March 2003 was of the opinion
that "Iran should come before Iraq"
Back on 05 January 2007, writing in The First Post, Robert Fox
warned that the "British media appears to be softening us up for an
attack on Iran".
Indeed, the plethora of anti-Iranian rhetoric in the press recently
is a definite sign that the same model that was used against Iraq,
is now being used for Iran: "the preparation of domestic opinion."
"Domestic Opinion
20. Time will be required to prepare public opinion in the UK that
it is necessary to take military action against Saddam Hussein.
There would also need to be a substantial effort to secure the
support of Parliament. An information campaign will be needed which
has to be closely related to an overseas information campaign
designed to influence Saddam Hussein, the Islamic World and the
wider international community. This will need to give full coverage
to the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, including his WMD, and the
legal justification for action."
Cabinet Office paper: Conditions for military action
--The Sunday Times June 12, 2005
"*sensitising the public: a media campaign to warm of the dangers
that Saddam poses and to prepare public opinion both in the UK and
abroad."
March 8, 2002 memo from Overseas and Defence Secretariat Cabinet
Office outlining military options for implementing regime change.
"A Secret UK Eyes Only briefing paper warned that there was no legal
justification for war. So Mr Blair was advised that a strategy would
have to be put in place which would provide a legal basis for war.
It was vital that the Prime Minister should be able to persuade the
public that war was justified and, just as importantly, convince
those among his backbench MPs who were becoming increasingly vocal
in their opposition to another US-led war."
--Michael Smith, Daily Telegraph
Last Updated: 1:21am BST 18/09/2004
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