Coverage of Shahram Amiri’s departure from the United States and his return to Iran has focused, rather superficially, on the question of whether he was kidnapped or defected and then changed his mind. Frankly, we are more interested in what reports that the CIA tired to pay Amiri $5 million say about the current political and policy environment in Washington with regard to Iran-related issues.
We warned, in April, see here that Amiri could not possibly be the highly valuable intelligence source that some Western officials and the National Council for Resistance in Iran (an affiliate of the MEK, which the U.S. government has designated as a foreign terrorist organization) claimed him to be—a source who “had worked on sensitive nuclear programs for at least a decade” and was now revealing the inside story on Iran’s alleged clandestine nuclear weapons program. We were appalled that the Washington Post was reporting these claims without the most minimal, common-sense follow-up questioning. As we wrote in April,
“[H]ow could it be that Amiri, who would have been 31 years old at the time of his defection, would have had meaningful access to anything sensitive about Iran’s nuclear program—much less to have had such access “for at least a decade”? Unless Amiri completed his doctorate as a teenager and was given a senior position in Iran’s nuclear program with high level access at the age of 20 or 21, this claim literally does not add up.”
Now we learn, see here, that the CIA apparently tried to pay Amiri $5 million. Along with trying to figure out the details of Amiri’s trajectory over the last year, journalists ought to be focusing on what the Agency’s willingness to pay $5 million to a hyped-up source signals about the U.S. Intelligence Community’s desperation to make a prosecutor’s case against the Islamic Republic. Indeed, the CIA and the rest of the Intelligence Community seem sufficiently desperate to make their case that they will pay taxpayer dollars to gotten-up defectors who might be prepared to say—for the right price—what Washington elites want to hear. As we noted in our April piece, if the CIA and its partners in the Intelligence Community are unable to make a case against Iran, “how could Washington argue for intensified sanctions against the Islamic Republic—much less keep the military option ‘on the table’.”
Sadly, there is nothing new or unprecedented about this. The Iraq war was sold to the American people and to U.S. allies on the basis of manufactured intelligence about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. And much of that manufactured intelligence was based on stories from “defectors”—including the notorious “Curveball”—who were paid significant sums of U.S. government money to help the George W. Bush Administration manufacture a case for invading Iraq. The U.S. Intelligence Community largely failed to act as a critical filter against bogus intelligence, and major media outlets, including The New York Times as well as the Washington Post, passed on the Bush Administration’s manufactured case for war without, in most instances, exercising appropriate scrutiny on officials’ claims, see here.
Some have speculated that Amiri may have helped the United States learn more about Iran’s second enrichment site near Qom—a site which, in any event, Tehran disclosed to the International Atomic Energy Agency last September, well before the introduction of any nuclear material. But it would seem that the U.S. Intelligence Community, even in the wake of Shahram Amiri’s return to Tehran, continues to have no evidence validating claims that there is a secret, parallel, military nuclear program in Iran, aimed ultimately at the fabrication of nuclear weapons. If the United States ends up attacking Iranian nuclear targets, it will do so because the Islamic Republic is enriching uranium—something Iran is permitted to do under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Whatever information the CIA obtained from Amiri is supposedly being incorporated into a new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s nuclear program–an estimate that was supposed to be released earlier this year but which, according to Newsweek, will probably be delayed for several more months. The delay strongly suggests that the Intelligence Community cannot reach a consensus on whether and how to revise the previous NIE on Iranian nuclear matters, released in December 2007–which famously concluded that Iran had stopped working on purely weapons-related aspects of its nuclear program in 2003.
Why is no journalist from a major media outlet in the United States asking why the Obama Administration drove the P-5+1 to push a new sanctions resolution against Iran, when there is such clear disarray, disagreement, and desperation in the U.S. Intelligence Community regarding Iran’s nuclear program?
This time around, before the United States initiates a military confrontation with the Islamic Republic, we need to ask the hard questions that were not asked before the invasion of Iraq.
–Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett
Chris,
I agree with you that the Israel lobby has compromised almost entirely the ability of the US to act in the best interests of the American people in the Middle East. But the lobby is much less effective in other countries, and as the US declines in power and influence, relatively, in part due to the idiotic squandering of trillions of dollars on useless weapons and foolish military adventures promoted by the Israel lobby, other countries will take larger roles.
Since China is the largest buyer of crude oil from Saudi Arabia, why should the US taxpayer pay scores of billions of dollars each year to keep the Gulf open to shipping? Iran already has a policy of keeping the Gulf shipping lanes open to all countries.
fyi,
Obviously we disagree about the viability of the two-state solution. Many of those who question the viability of an independent Palestine, assume mistakenly that Israel is in fact creating “facts on the ground” by building colonies for Jews in the West Bank. However, Palestine can flourish even if there are hundreds of thousands of Jews in it. The key issue is borders; Obama should have endorsed the Saudi peace plan, with some changes regarding right of return.
James Canning:
There will never ever be a 2-state solution.
That is over, finished, kaput, fubar.
M.Ali,
You wrote to Tzvi Gross:
“I have never met any Arab in my life who claimed that we he wished he lived in Israel as an Israeli arab or that he was jealous of the arabs there. Where did that come from, Gross?”
It’s a sign of respect when you get no response from Tzvi Gross.
The United Sates will never think straight on Iran or any other Middle East policy issue so long as the Israel lobby is actively working to weigh in on these matters.
What is going on now is beyond belief; that policy upon policy, the United Sates is putting its interest far behind that of Israel’s
Tzvi Gross,
I said there would be a need for a significant number of UN peacekeepers, along the borders of an independent Palestine, for many years.
It surely is in Israel’s best interests to get all of its police, soldiers, and other security people out of Palestine, provided stability is achieved and sustained. Which is more likely if all Israeli security forces are out of the country. Mahmoud Abbas quite rightly says this is a necessary precondition for any direct talks with Israel.
I have never met any Arab in my life who claimed that we he wished he lived in Israel as an Israeli arab or that he was jealous of the arabs there. Where did that come from, Gross? Is that what the Israelis tell each other?
And also, of course there will be Israeli-Arab resentment to their Jewish counterpart. Do yo uthink in the apartheid South Africa, the black SA citizens loved their white oppressors? But I’m sure in an alternative universe that the apartheid still exists, there is a White SA equivelant of Gross who is defending the apartheid by claiming that since the black people dislike them, they need to have the security measures for safety…
Free the ME,
I think this is the same as “Go somewhere else”.
The last time some one pointed fingers at the Jews as megalomaniacs was Hitler, who wanted to camouflage his own world domination agenda by pointing at the Jew.
Are you using the same tactics to mask Islams march towards world domination, by pointing fingers at some kind of Zionist world domination plan?
Free the ME, more and more indigenous Europeans and Americans see through that rouge.
We know who has a world domination Ideology!!!
Have you read the Koran lately?
James Cunning,
If the already “successful and prosperous ” Israeli Arabs will walk to a Jewish neighbour and tell him “I will kill you”, what will happen when the west Bank Palestinians will have a state at Israels’ indefensible borders ( TA airport, is on the border?
You hope that that this will lessen the hate, but I doubt it very much, as they will view Israels’ new vulnerability as a weakness to be further exploited.
I hope the Israelis will be smart enough to insist on geographic security for their state, in addition to signed agreements.
fyi,
I am keenly aware of Palestinian dislike (or worse) for Jews inside Israel, and this is part of the reason for separation barriers being built within Israel itself (that is, within the June 1, 1967 borders), cutting off Palestinian districts from Jewish districts.
I would expect a successful and prosperous independent Palestine to tend to lower the levels of resentment of non-Jews within Israel, for Jews in Israel.
James Canning:
And some Israeli Arabs, sometimes, will walk to you if they think you are an Israeli Jew and state: “We will kill you.”. Sometine you have known that person fro 20 years – working for you.
Tzvi Gross,
You are quite right, that Palestinians living in Israel, have an higher average income than Jordanians or Egyptians. Most Palestinians in Israel, however, favor an independent Palestine even if they do not choose to relocate there.
Castellio,
If one takes the longer view, one can see that all of the roads being built in the West Bank by Israel, will become Palestinian roads. Mahmoud Abbas is insisting that Israel accept the Green Line as the international frontier, before he agrees to any direct talks with Israel.
Free the ME,
Why should the US taxpayer spend hundreds of billions of dollars, supposedly to keep the Gulf open to shipping, when that already is the policy of Iran and there is no danger of the Gulf being closed (unless Israel or the US launches an insane attack on Iran)?
{No I’ve always said that the Iraq war was a stupid misadventure. I just make the case that American core interests of accessing the resources of the region and making sure no one controls all of it are still intact regardless of some hiccups.}
THE GARBAGE OF CHOMSKY IS REPEATED HERE.
The Iraq war was part of zionist JEWS’ agenda according to protocol. Only the fools repeat the garbage of Chomsky, “No blood for Oil”, to divert attention from the zionist Jews onto ‘imperialism’.
Discard the closet zionists. The zionist pawn, the Kurds, divert attention by saying America wants to bring ‘democracy’. The Kurds are zionist stooges who are tarainted by Mossad to be sent to the neighboring countries.
Iraq war was pushed by the neocon jews, the enemy of humanity.
{Once again, the dangerous portion of Sanger’s account is hidden in an assumption..}
DAVID SANGER IS AN ISRAELI FIRSTER WHO used to write nothing but LIES about Iran’s
nuclear energy program. He is not a journalist but A LIER WHO HAS NO SHAME. No one
should bother with him.
People should boycott all zionist’s product including the entertainment, to bring this dangerous tribe down, the sooner the better.
All people must know:
I have looked at the hasbara list when was available and I found** NAZLI FATHI**, the New York Times reporter on Iran on the list. No one should believe her reporting because is cooked according to the interest of the Zionist JEWS, the enemy of humanity.
It is interesting, however, the NYT, a zionist propaganda outlet, first requirement to hire a ‘reporter’ is that the person must spread zionist hasbara, not the facts. Please spread this information to all Iranians and others that NAZLI FATHI is a zionist stooge. No wonder the West is so fucked up.
Not only all Western governments are influenced by the Zionist Jews and the Jews have occupied all the sensitive position in the government, military, media, finance, intelligence, Hollywood to make films for propaganda purposes targeted ignorant westerners, but also using their unique position to wage wars to expand Israel interest in the region at the expense of American people. How long do you want to stay passive? People must rise and chase this dangerous *tribe* out of the USA, Canada, Australia, Britain, Germany, France, South Africa, Argentina, and even Russia at once.
pAK:
{I see the Iranians got their revenge for the Zahedan bombing:}
you know nothing but sh*t about the middle east. You must stop comment on Iran because what you are saying only an enemy of Iran say, likse zionists and pro Americaan propaganda or knows shit.
Everyone knows that majorityity of the killing is done by Saudi Arabia/ the United State and Israel. Saudi Arabi kills shiites to install their puppet Allawi.
Why Iran shoould kill Iraqi peopl especially most of these killing is among shiite.
Iran and Turkey are only two countries that want stability in Iran, NOT US, NOT ISRAEL, AND NOT SAUDI ABRIA unless every thing in Iraq is shaped according to their plan. You are a bias and foolish person.
There is not one lie you have exposed, not one situation honestly commented upon, not one question honestly asked.
Again, for the last time, deal with this FACT Tzvi: Lest we forget, no Arabs are holding an occupied population in a siege meant as collective punishment based on their ethnic identity.
Deal with this FACT, Tzvi, you still avoid it: “The impact of Israeli civilian and military infrastructure [in the west bank] is to render 40 per cent of the territory… off-limits to Palestinians. The rest of the territory, including main centres such as Nablus and Jericho, is split into isolated spots. Movement between them is restricted by 450 roadblocks and 70 manned checkpoints.”
Deal with this FACT, Tzvi, you still avoid it: “Right now there are different ‘nationalities’ within Israeli citizenship, determined by whether or not one is Jewish. The people are not equal.
Your belief that the Arabs of Israel are the envy of the Middle East shows a profound ignorance on your part, and I imagine a stunning lack of travel and conversation.
And as for the FACTS of the impoverishment of a whole people, there are many at http://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/news/2010/03/palestinians-made-the-desert-bloom.html I imagine they are facts that you have never considered.
You are misusing this blog for your own agenda of obfuscation and misrepresentation. I will no longer misuse it with you.
Rehmat,
I don’t want my facts approved by any pro-Zionist opinionated writer, but I want them to be DISPROVED by you. After all it was addressed to uncover your dishonest claims.
May we have your proof as of the factual basis of my comments, as if I am right then your anti-Zionist claims got to be absolutely false?
Cursing and name calling don’t count as proof even in kindergarten.
Fieroangela,
I was expecting a dishonest comparison like that from you. Zo’by was not censored for her verbal expression, but for consorting and partaking in a violent confrontation alongside with a Turkish terrorist entity, trying to harm and kill Israelis. this is high treason, well beyond freedom of speech.
You mentioned Norman Finkelstein in another one of your comments- he tried to enter Israel after meeting with Hezbollah, which made him a collaborator with an avowed enemy of Israel, and Israel had all the right to refuse him entry. Matter of fact, he has been in Israel many times prior, in spite of his enmity towards the state. How would Iran-your favorite country- handle some one like him – who would be an enemy of the Iranian state? You think they would just let him go scot free?
An other name you mentioned was an Arab Israeli spy who just last week entered a plea bargain to have a reduced sentence for spying for Hezbollah, around the same time as the Lebanese sentenced an alleged Israeli spy to death.
Do you see the difference? why don’t you stop harassing Israel?
Of course Israel-just like any democracy, makes mistakes, but to have her demonised as a pariah? I could probably name 140 countries with a Priah candidacy before choosing Israel.
Tzvi Gross – YES, I know all your so-called “facts” must be approved by either Abe Foxman or Daniel Pipes, right.
Too, bad – I don’t give a hoot to Israel Hasbara Committee goons which include my old buddy Tarek Fateh from Toronto.
All the Zionist Jew writers I listed – do or did exist just like Jesus.
CaSTELLIO,
But I am not done with you. I will follow your ignorant rants and lies and will expose them, and that’s a promise.
“Impoverishing a whole people”? May I have a valid statistical proof? After all if you make a claim such as this you should be able to bring the original source?
My data tells me the opposite, The Israeli Arabs are the envy of the entire ME, for their freedom and economic standing in comparison to their Arab brethren. PERIOD.
Can you prove me wrong? Am waiting.
Rehmat,
Actions speak louder then words, and that’s why I am not interested in reading opinions but of examining FACTS. One can quote opinions to suit his fancy galore, but facts are bit harder to manufacture.
You guys-Israel hater- complain about Israel’s might. If indeed Israel wanted to, they could have used ample of opportunities given to them by naked Arab aggression to annihilate the entire non-Jewish ME. They have never done that-in spite of the fact that according to your claim they have nuclear weapons since the 60s.
They could have used a small tactical nuclear weapon on the Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut where the rat NasrallaH WAS HIDING, USING ULTRA VIOLET LAMPS IN LUE OF SONLIGHT, biding him and followers good riddance.They didn’t do that.
The Jews hate Muslims and Christians?
How many mosques have been built id Israel since 1948, the establishment of the state, and how many Churches in the entire Muslim ME? What happened to the Christians in Iraq, Egypt, Sudan, Indonesia, and what kind of extreme pressure they endure in Malaysia? What happened to the Hindus of Pakistan? What will happen to any Christian apostate in any Muslim country?
The “Talmud” as Christian hater? By the time the Christians arrived on the scene the Talmud was completed to a large extent, on the other hand, if you want to know what the koran says about the Dhimmis and infidels, log on to the website of Ex-Muslims who know that book by heart, and your hair will stand om end-WWW.faithfreedom.org.
Good luck comparing.
Okay, Tzvi: I wrote “Lest we forget, no Arabs are holding an occupied population in a siege meant as collective punishment based on their ethnic identity.”
And you ignore it, and try to slide into a conversation stating that Arabs are equal citizens in Israel. That is not true. Let’s put it simply: Do you believe there should be equality under the law for Jews and Non-Jews in Israel?
Right now there are different ‘nationalities’ within Israeli citizenship, determined by whether or not one is Jewish. But you know that.
Israel’s Declaration of Independence said it would “uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of religion, race or sex.” It hasn’t, it won’t, and the racism is ever more institutionalized. Shame on those who support a racist state proud of its prejudices.
You will try to slide and say the differences among categories within Israeli ‘citizenship’ aren’t important, or don’t really exist. Hardly.
You say you want facts and then, knowing what the facts are, you say the causes of social inequality are demographic and not racist. Hardly.
You have succeeded in impoverishing a whole people, and now ask we share your disdain for the victim. I don’t.
You are not an individual trying to share information to learn more, but to obfuscate, slide, and “counter as possible” by rhetorical and dishonest means. I am done with you.
James Canning,
“Are you saying that the idiotic US/UK invasion of Iraq, was for the purpose of ensuring access to oil and gas? Keep in mind the US was buying more oil from Iraq than any other country, before the invasion (during the UN sanctions).”
No I’ve always said that the Iraq war was a stupid misadventure. I just make the case that American core interests of accessing the resources of the region and making sure no one controls all of it are still intact regardless of some hiccups.
one intriguing interpretation of US strategy in releasing Amiri is that now paranoid Iran will be even more paranoid: are there moles among our nuclear scientists? Did Amiri tell the Americans anything that we should be concerned about? Who else has been approached? When will the next shoe drop?
Iranian leaders will be so busy checking and rechecking the loyalty of their nuclear scientists that work on nuclear research will come to a near standstill for at least a period of months, which is precisely what US desires.
This is from David Sanger’s article in today’s NYT:
“Viewed one way, Mr. Amiri’s decision to return is a huge propaganda boon for the Iranians. For months they have insisted that Mr. Amiri was kidnapped in Saudi Arabia in June 2009, by the C.I.A. and Saudi intelligence, then drugged and tortured into making up stories about Iran’s covert nuclear program. “I was under the harshest mental and physical torture,” Mr. Amiri said when he landed in Tehran, an account American officials dismissed as a “fantasy” spun to save his life.”
Once again, the dangerous portion of Sanger’s account is hidden in an assumption that the reader is expected to, and probably will, skip past to get to the good part. The “good part,” of course, is the unresolved question of whether Amiri did what he did because he was drugged, kidnapped and tortured, or instead because he defected.
The skipped-over assumption, on the other hand, is that Amiri told his US interrogators “stories about Iran’s covert nuclear program.”
Words such as “stories” and “covert” plainly suggest that Amiri told the US something new and interesting about Iran’s nuclear program that differs from what the Iranians have publicly disclosed – most likely, of course, that Iran is working on nuclear weapons. Why else would Iran’s activities need to be “covert,” after all? And now, according to Sanger, the interesting question is whether Amiri told these “stories” willingly or not.
If we conclude that Amiri told his “stories” willingly, are we not also likely to conclude that the stories are probably true – i.e. that Iran is working on nuclear weapons, or at least that Amiri suspects Iran is? Even if we conclude that Amiri was kidnapped and tortured, might we conclude even so that his “stories” were true – especially when we remind ourselves that the CIA apparently felt the stories it had “tortured” out of him were worth $5 million?
In either case – whether Amiri told the “stories” willingly or told them under duress – how many of us will remember that it’s not been established that Amiri told any “stories” in the first place? To my knowledge, he’s denied telling the US anything of value, or even knowing anything of value. The CIA claims otherwise, of course, insisting that it obtained “useful” information from him – and maybe it did. But the CIA has never stated that Amiri claimed to believe or suspect that Iran is working on nuclear weapons.
The preceding sentence is unequivocal, don’t you agree? But have you read anything that suggests it is incorrect? If not (I haven’t), would you nevertheless agree that most people following this fascinating tale already accept as fact that Amiri told the CIA he believes or suspects that Iran is working on nuclear weapons?
tzvi, I’m guessing your first language is not English. You have the advantage over me, since English is my only language.
Nevertheless, I’m not sure if you put my words through some translating devise that turns “bring a court case” into “put in jail.”
I think that people who incite hate should be held to account.
by the way, Dershowitz, who I’ll make a wag is a hero of yours, has already launched a crusade to have Ahmadinejad hauled before the International Court in the Hague on charges of inciting genocide for saying that zionism will disappear from the pages of history.
The difference between Ahmadinejad and the activities of anti-Iran hate speech purveyors in the US is that the American hate-speakers ARE taking action to make their speech turn into action; real, harmful actions in pursuit of their agenda is being taken against the Iranian people, right now, today; and it is reasonable to expect, as the Jewish journalist wrote, that the propaganda campaign will drive its creators into a cul de sac where the only remaining action to take is to wage war on Iran; and finally, it appears that the propaganda campaign is having its intended effect — inciting hatred of Iran among Americans to the extent that a majority of Americans and of American Jews believe that a war on Iran is a good idea.
I think it’s a bad idea.
tzvi wrote: “Israeli Arabs are allowed to vote antd to be elected. the rest in an absolute lie. Try to google the fiery anti Israeli speeches of Israels’ Arab Knesset members. Of course the Jews don’t like it, and feel that those Arabs are ungrateful for all they receive in Israel’s democracy, but they are protected under the law, and express themselves freely.”
whereas,
The Israeli Knesset house committee decided to revoke three key parliamentarian privileges of MK Zo’by for being part of the Freedom Flotilla that was carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Zo’by has received death threats; security had to be called to protect her from threats of Knesset members on the floor of the Knesset; one Knesset member presented MK Zo’by with an Iranian passport doctored to include Zo’by’s photo and told Zo’by to leave Israel and seek refuge in Iran.
ooops.
Ashkenazi Israelis are almost as prejudiced against Mizrahi Jews (Arab Jews from Morocco, Yemen, Palestinian Jews, Ethiopian Jews, etc.) as they are against Palestinian Arabs. No PM has been anything other than Ashkenazi (European). see The Nakba of Israeli Jews www dot youtube dot com/watch?v=dxKcFo_h5Eg&feature=player_embedded
A powerful case has been made, and published, by an Iraqi Jew that Israeli zionists ran false flag operations against Jews in Iraq in order to frighten Iraqi Jews into fleeing from Iraq to Israel, where they were treated as second-class citizens, expected to do the labor that Ashkenazi Jews were unaccustomed to and unwilling to perform.
see http ia341206 dot us dot archive.org/0/items/Ben-gurionScandals–HowTheHagannahAndTheMossadEliminatedJews/giladi.pdf
How the Hagannah and the Mossad Eliminated Jews
German Jews were among the first to arrive in the US; they were well-settled by the time Russian and East European Jews began to migrate to US, and the Russian Jews were greatly resented by established German Jews; their intra-Jewish fights were as hateful as any of the many claims of non-Jewish – Jewish tension.
In Italy, for hundreds of years Jews were accustomed to seek the assistance of the pope and Vatican in settling intra-Jew conflicts, as well as Jewish disputes with the various princes and secular rulers for whom Jews worked.
Your tracing of Jews in Palestine is loaded with so many contradictions it’s like following Brer Rabbit through the brier patch: you say, Jews were in Palestine but they were driven out; Jews have lived there for thousands of years but they haven’t been there; Which is it?
(Shlomo Sand set the record straight on one duck — Jews were NOT exiled from Palestine; as punishment for bar Kochbar’s losing rebellion against the Roman state (which had granted special privileges to Jews, according to Josephus), Jews were forbidden to enter Jerusalem. That’s it; not “exiled from the Levant,” just Jerusalem. And the entire Jewish population did NOT flee; very few did, just like very few Jews accepted Cyrus’s invitation to return to Jerusalem, on his dime: the vast majority of Jews preferred to stay in Babylon, where the living was easier.
Even before bar Kochbar’s rebellion, Jews were already present throughout the Roman Empire — on the Rhine, in Cisalpine Gaul, in England — Jews were merchants, accustomed to trading where the possibilities presented themselves. No big deal. Only a relative few Jews fled Egypt; Jews lived and prospered in Egyptian towns, notably, Elephantine, for hundreds of years.
Despite all claims, this is not one big happy family, Jews have not been “persecuted for 4000, 3000, 2000 — pick you thousand — years. Most other peoples in this harsh world have been treated equally poorly. The difference is, as Amy Klein has written on Huffington Post, Jews specialize in PR and in calling attention to themselves. You know it, we know it, the world knows it; SO WHAT? Why not face facts and not a transparently unrealistic narrative?
“The United states is ‘easy’ to manipulate,” says Benjamin Netanyahu.
It seems, only the Iranian lawmakers know whom Ben Obama’s loyalty belongs to – not to the US interests but to the interests of a foreign country. Iranian Majlis (parliament) has approved a bill to sagegaurd its nuclear achievements by a vote of 171:3 from a total of 200 lawmakers present.
On July 9, the White House Office of the Press Secretary released the transcript of President Barack Obama’s interview (watch video below) he gave to Yonit Levit of Israeli TV on July 7, 2010 in the ‘diplomatic reception room’. In the interview, Obama, spelled out who put him in the White House and whose interests he has in his heart.
“My closeness to the American Jewish community was probably what propelled me to the US Senate. I’ve got a Chief of Staff named Rahm Israel Emmanuel. My top political adviser is somebody who is a descendent of a Holocaust survivors…….. And the truth of the matter is that my outreach to the Muslim community is designed precisely to reduce the antagonism and dangers posed by a hostile Muslim world to Israel and to the West….. and even critics I think will have to confirm that the United State under my administration has provided more security assistance to Israel than any administration in history. And the single most important threat to Israel – Iran, and its potential possession of a nuclear weapon – has been my number one foreign policy priority over the course of the last 18 months…..”
http://rehmat2.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/obama-rejuvenates-his-loyalty-to-israel/
tzvi gross – When was the last time you study Herl, Weizmann, Lenni Brenner, Kaufman or other Zionist Jew writers? Just try one of them and you will find out from where Israeli hatred toward Arab Muslims and christians comes from. As far Christians are concerned – Professor Israel Shahak is recod for saying: “Jewish Talmud is the most hateful religious literature in world”.
But then, as Gilad Atzmon said many times: “It’s hard to find a Israeli Hasbara idiot who feel ashamed to be a liar”.
Fiorangela,
Do I understand properly that you advocate sentencing a journalist calling for military strike against Iran in jail for hate speech?
How about some one who calls for the destruction of Zionist Israel, by all means, including military? About those who employ the most extreme hate speech exists against that country?
Could you not consider this, then “Hate Speech”?
Where will this nonsense end? What form of “Which Hunt” are you advocating for now? By the way, Iran will be very happy to implement all your suggestions-if they didn’t already. You will be much happier applying for citizenship there, than in your disappointing USA?
Castellio,
Please read this short description of Apartheid, and you will see how false the comparison is.
http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~cale/cs201/apartheid.hist.html
You said;
“One of the most silly lines of Zionist defense is that it is impossible for whatever prejudice that happens in Israel to be racist, because if one is a Jew of any colour, then the prejudice doesn’t apply. Well, what word do you want to use, Tzvi, for extreme prejudice along ethnic lines? Usually, the word racist fits.”
But I never used that claim. You claimed that the Israeli racism is directed against the Arabs, so it would have been silly from me to bring a proof of it’s non -existence through inter-Jewish non racism.
I claimed that if the Israelis would have been practicing anti Arab Apartheid- see above article for what Apartheid is- they would have applied it to the more then a million Arab inhabitants of Israel proper, and there is absolutely not a shred of evidence of that-could you please prove me wrong-but not by quoting other peoples’ opinion, I want facts, and if it’s true, it should be easy to find, right?.
Arabs are side by side with Israelis in Cities, Universities, Army(the Druze and Arab volunteers), Knesset and government service, Social security benefits, Hospitals, transplants and any medical procedure-evaluated not on ethnicity but on a medical priority basis. just to name here some important sectors of government and society.
We also have to remember, that such a largess towards a minority-, whose ethnic affiliation and empathy with Israel’s enemies is strong- is unheard off in the annals of modern history ,( please examine the treatments of Japanese Americans and Canadians during second WW, and many more examples like the expulsion of all Pals from Kuwait and Iraq following Saddam’s defeat, due to their perceived support of Saddam, or expulsion of the thousands years of ME Jews from Arab countries following the Arab- Israeli wars, expulsion of 200,000 Cypriot Greeks by Turkey following it’s tension with Greece).
Following is one of your quotes and I will try to comment on it as it’s claims are so sweeping and comprehensive.
” To be sure Verwoerd was correct. Both apartheid South Africa and Zionist Israel were colonial, settler states created on the basis of the harsh dispossession of the land and birthright of the indigenous people.”
Jews lived in that land from time immemorial. Unless you claim the the bible is a hoax and on “temple Mount” there was never a Jewish temple and Rome never exiled the Jews then you will have to agree that they are more indigenous then the Muslim conquerors from Arabia. the Jews always lived inthat land- albeit as a minority for the last 1800 years, and never gave up their claim for it. Can you say the same thing about SA colonizers, or even about present North and South Americas’ states?
“Harsh dispossession”-it was mutual, the Jews dispossessed Arabs, and Arabs- from where ever they were able to,dispossessed the Jews, and it was not less a population exchange then what occurred between India and Pakistan, the main different being- the Arabs were the aggressors, initiating anti Jewish hostilities, Indeed for the first 5 months they were winning under the leadership of the Nephew of the genocidal Nazi Mufti Haj Amin El -Hussaini, but then lost, and it resulted in a large Arab exodus. The Jews, unlike the Arabs,-with the exception of Jordan- took care of their coreligionists.
“This is unblushingly documented in Israel’s case from the time of Herzl through Jabotinsky, Ben Gurion, Menachem Begin, Moshe Dayan to Sharon et al. Both states preached and implemented a policy based on racial ethnicity; the sole claim of Jews in Israel and whites in South Africa to exclusive citizenship; monopolised rights in law regarding the ownership of land, property, business; superior access to education, health, social, sporting and cultural amenities, pensions and municipal services at the expense of the original indigenous population;”
It’s another opinion unsupported by facts. The Arabs are equal citizens. If discrimination would be state policy, would be very easy to find the source for those claims.There are statistical disparities, but these can be explained best based on demographic and not racial factors. Matter of fact, there is a close correlation between the status of Arabs and Haredi Jews in Israel due to their demographic similarities.
“monopolised rights .. to land ownership”- The Jews purchased the land from the Arabs prior to 1948 under a land trust. the money was donated by world Jewry, and it’s by right belong to the Jews.
In today’s’ West bank- any Arab being caught selling lands to Jews-is summarily executed.Is that racism or nationalism,…?
“the virtual monopoly membership of military and security forces, and privileged development along their own racial supremacist lines – even both countries marriage laws are designed to safeguard racial “purity”.
“Marriages”-There are thousands of mixed marriages in Israel- compare the draconian consequences under Apartheid V legal discrimination in Israel,NIL, it doesn’t exist.
“Military service”-any non Jewish volunteer is accepted to the IDF, and complete Muslim communities, such as the Druze, the Chercasis, and many Beduin are serving in the IDF- I see no racism here, however, I see the international howls have Israel forced conscription on Israeli Arabs.
“The fact that the Palestinian minority within Israel is allowed to vote hardly redresses the injustice in all other matters of basic human rights. In any case those Palestinians allowed to stand for election to the Knesset do so on condition that they dare not question Israel’s existence as a Jewish state… (continues)
He agrees that Israeli Arabs are allowed to vote antd to be elected. the rest in an absolute lie. Try to google the fiery anti Israeli speeches of Israels’ Arab Knesset members. Of course the Jews don’t like it, and feel that those Arabs are ungrateful for all they receive in Israel’s democracy, but they are protected under the law, and express themselves freely.
This whole Apartheid canard, as well as the comparisons of the belligerent and Murderous Hamas to The Jews of the holocaust is a proof of a complete moral and logical bankruptcy or their proponent.
When one says A is like B, better provide a proof- besides quoting others’ opinionated opinion.
Nasser,
Are you saying that the idiotic US/UK invasion of Iraq, was for the purpose of ensuring access to oil and gas? Keep in mind the US was buying more oil from Iraq than any other country, before the invasion (during the UN sanctions).
Does some of the language used by groups whose agenda IRAN, whether the toppling of Iran’s government or the economic marginalization of Iran in order to grant competitive advantage to other states in the region, whatever the goal — does rhetoric used by those groups amount to hate speech?
One group, the Iran Task Force, sponsored by a coalition of groups including AIPAC, UJF, ZOA and others, has produced posters and fliers and mailings labeling Iran, “the world’s greatest threat to humanity;” associated “Iran” and the tag, “Threat to Humanity” with a flame-colored mushroom cloud. Iran Task Force states that its goal is to “educate” persons about Iran’s “threat to humanity.”
Does this amount to hate speech?
In a recent column by Glenn Greenwald, one person posted this comment:
“They hung a journalist at Nuremburg
The journalist’s name was Julius Streicher.
Streicher was convicted of, in the words of the judgment:
British prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel M.C. Griffith-Jones, who brought the case against Streicher, made the statement below. His words could easily apply to many of our most popular news personalities today.
Examples of Streicher’s hate speech, from his newspaper, Der Sturmer, are posted on the Jewish Virtual Library website. The rhetoric of the Iran Task Force does not rise to the level of Streicher’s hate speech.
I don’t think that’s the end of the story.
In an earlier comment, I quoted Prof. Tsesis on the impact of the Virginia v. Black decision regarding hate speech. Tsesis wrote that Black REQUIRES that the court “assess vitriolic communication on a case-bycase basis to evaluate the potential for destructive consequences.”
Thus, there are at least two elements that must be considered: the nature of the “vitriolic communication” and its “potential for destructive consequences.”
The rhetoric of Iran Task Force and groups like it may be more subtle than that of Julius Streicher, but if the potential consequences are the same, is the speech Hate Speech?
If the goal or the reasonably to be expected result of rhetoric of groups such as Iran Task force is “the military option” against Iran, as has been stated by at least one journalist,James D. Besser, in The Jewish Week (www dot thejewishweek dot com/news/national/jews_brace_next_phase_iran_battle?nocache=1#comment-1464):
“Groups like The Israel Project have tested the waters with polls that show a surprising level of support for a U.S. strike among voters in general and within the Jewish community.”
and
“In that environment, American Jewish leaders will remain loath to openly call for military action that may end up being the only remaining option other than deterrence — even though many are coming to believe that when all is said and done, military action will remain the only option left on the table.”
If the reasonably expected outcome of a military attack on Iran would be the deaths of thousands of innocent Iranian men, women, and children, should the US legal system wait until those men and women die to consider whether hate speech set in motion the wheels of their destruction? Did the holocaust happen when the six millionth Jewish person died, or when Julius Streicher incited the German people to hate Jews?
Would military action against Iran, with the consequent deaths of untold numbers of Iranians, be seriously to be contemplated were it not for, in the words of British prosecutor Griffith-Jones, “the propaganda and the education of the [American] people in … ways” that incited hatred of Iran?
What is the downside of bringing a case charging groups like Iran Task Force with acts of hate speech?
Madeleine Albright is said to have stated that the “deaths of 500,000 Iraqis was “worth it” in pursuit of US policy goals in Iraq.
Whatever might be the downside of a legal case against groups like Iran Task Force on charges of hate speech, would it be worth it if it SAVED 500,000 Iranian lives?
Hillary Mann Leverett has written,
“Netanyahu’s declaration this weekend that only the threat of U.S. military action can have a positive impact on Iran’s nuclear decision-making comments during his visit here last week should be taken very seriously, especially among those of us in the American Jewish community, because he is on an extremely dangerous course. Netanyahu’s push for eventual U.S. military action against Iran could do real damage to Israel and the American Jewish community.”
and
“Netanyahu is pushing the United States to take eventual military action against Iran—a confrontation that would have predictably disastrous consequences for U.S. interests and regional stability, and for which Israel and the pro-Likud community in the United States will be blamed, because they will have led the charge to war. Such a scenario would be far more damaging to Israel and the American Jewish community than anything Iran might conceivably do.”
In other words, if the endgame incited by groups such as Iran Task Force, namely, war on Iran, were to come to pass, Israel and American Jews would suffer blowback. (Iran Task Force is joined at the hip to the Netanyahu agenda.)
Legal action against groups like Iran Task Force, charging them with hate speech, in concert with actions such as the nascent call of J Street that US groups operating as charities but whose resources end up funding settlements in Israel, in violation of law, be investigated, may act as a wake up call to Israel advocacy groups to sternly remind them that they are not above the law, and it may have sufficient force to change the trajectory of behavior that is trending toward war on Iran and its attendant blowback against US and Israeli Jews. Legal action against hate speech could prevent grievous harm to both innocent Iranians and to innocent Jewish people.
“I see a lot more failures than successes.
And the successes, it seems to me, cause even more problems later, no?
Am I being selectively prejudiced in my views?
Or am I right in questioning the soundness of these policies?”
At the end of the day, the US has still managed to ensure free flow of oil and making sure no one controls all the resources of the region. So yeah I call it a success despite the toll on the “native inhabitants” and some blowbacks on the US.
kooshy,
CNN’s firing of Octavia Nasr, a Lebanese-American woman, was an act of cowardice. Would Klein be sacked if he had made favorable comments about the same Shia cleric?
In any event, Klein is selling the “narrative” that Iran was offered a deal last year (exchange of LEU for fuel for TRR) but the government rejected the offer and stronger measures therefor are appropriate (including military action).
To me, Klein’s article is itself deceptive (“An Attack on Iran: Back on the Table”). Perhaps Klein wants military action to be a US option, and is trying to grease the skids for the warmongers.
James Canning
“Is Joe Klein, writing in Time magazine, serving as a propagandist for the warmongers”
Take the case of Octavia Nasr she was in CNN for 20 years, she was trusted by her bosses to be an Arab journalist that is supporting the American middle east policy in an American major media for American public and she played that rule very well for twenty years without reviling what her inside’s deep feelings are and obviously when that deep filings became available to her handlers
She was asked to resign.
Contrary to Nasr Mr. Kline because of his last name has a complete freedom to be himself and write articles that will completely fit his agenda as well as his superiors. But again do consider that I wrote majority and not entirely.
fyi,
Among recent acts of great stupidity, by the US, in the Middle East, was the Bush administration’s spurning of Iran’s offer to help the US to assess whatever threat was posed by Saddam Hussein, and to deal with that threat. Iran wanted to avoid an invasion and likely resultant civil war. The arrogant ignoramus in the White House failed to accept the offer. This failure, in turn, was the fault of the incompetent national security advisor, Condoleezza Rice.
When I look at the history of US policies around Iran but alos in the Middle East I see the following:
1953 overthrow of Mossadegh followed by 25 years of cheap oil & a bulkwark against USSR followed by a virulently anti-American regime for next 31 years (and counting)
Encouragment of Wahabism as the alternative to both Islamic Republican ideas of Khomeini and of Islamic Governance ideas of the Muslim Brotherhood thus encouraging the most rigid, obscrantist, intolerant form of Islamic teaching to become the de facto guide among generation of young people in non-Shia Muslims, followed by wide-spread anti-Americanism and anti-Smitism.
Un-critical support of Israel after 1967, followed by Egyption-Syrian-Iraqi 1973 War against Israel, followed by the Egypt-Israel Peace treaty
The policy of supporting Israeli invasion of Lebeanon, followed by the creation of Hizbullah (as a reaction), followed by taking sides in the Lebanese Civil War which led to the attack on the Marines in Beirut
The policy of oppositng Dr. Najibullah government in Afganistan, followed by its overthrow, follwed by civil war among the former Mudjahedin, followed by Taliban, followed by 9/11 attacks on US.
The policy of trying to bankrupt Iranian state back in 1990s (even when Iranians were awarding oil contracts to Americans), which caused the Iranians to do their best to sabotage the Arab-Israeli Peace efforts, followed by the failure of Oslo Accords and the Second Intifada.
The invasion of Iraq followed by repeated threats against Iran even when Iranians were cooperating (for their own reasons) with US, leading to wide-spread hardening of the Iranian attitudes against US both at the state and the society levels
I see a lot more failures than successes.
And the successes, it seems to me, cause even more problems later, no?
Am I being selectively prejudiced in my views?
Or am I right in questioning the soundness of these policies?
James Canning:
This type of event (firing by the CNN of ….) has not been uncommon in US.
They (teh Americans) drove Bertran Russell away back in 1920s.
I suppose many countries are like that.
You’re free to express yourself and then be unable to feed your family.
In Iran, on the other hand, there is freedom of expression but no freedom after expression.
Is Joe Klein, writing in Time magazine, serving as a propagandist for the warmongers? Klein tries to create the false impression Obama tried to engage with Iran. http://www.readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/138-136/2449-attack-on-iran-back-on-the-table
Tom Friedman’s column in the New York Times today, was sharply critical of CNN for firing its 20-year veteran Middle East reporter/editor, for making comments favorable to the recently deceased Shia cleric. Who needs the truth, from CNN? Better to be a propaganda organ for the Israeli militarists.
And in London, the Israeli ambassador there, Ron Prosor, attacked the British ambassador to Lebanon for making intelligent comments about the same recently deceased Shia cleric in Lebanon. Prosor ranted about the Holocaust and the bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983.
Pirouz, The 2002 WUJS Hasbara manual has been updated, and not just with the work Frank Luntz did for The Israel Project which Newsweek Magazine exposed — and published The Israel Project’s Hasbara Handbook Exposed
But there is yet another manual that Israel advocates in US universities take instruction from. About a year and a half ago, Imad Moustapha, Syria’s ambassador to the US, spoke in a packed auditorium at a local university. Among the crowd was a group of students who all carried a manual marked something like, “Israel Advocacy.” Most of the members of that group asked questions of the Ambassador, and after the session, the group gathered to give statements to a reporter from a local Jewish newspaper.
Israel advocates are highly organized, very energetic, and well funded, all perfectly legal and laudable qualities. One only questions the underlying agenda of such groups, NOT the aspect of their agenda that calls for placing Israel in the most favorable light possible — that’s perfectly understandable, and any other approach would be ludicrous. No, what IS objectionable is the underlying goal of inciting hatred of some Other. What is troublesome about the hasbara brand of Israel advocacy is that it is a zero-sum philosophy. This is reflected in such advocates’ reliance on polling, which is really a means of “scoring” in order to be able to point to a “winner” in order to use the bandwagon effect to gain supporters from an uncritical, emotionally swayed crowd.
What Americans like to think about themselves is that they have room enough for everybody;
Tzvi Gross,
re: July 18th, 12:34am – - Are you seriously arguing that the 57 Muslim countries offering peace to Israel, provided it gets out of the West Bank and the Golan Heights, actually expect Israel to allow the return of millions of Palestinians to Israel as contained within its June 1, 1967 borders? To “flood” Israel, as you put it? Or is this just more propaganda trying to convince your readers Israel has not been offered peace, for many years now?
Richard Steven Hack,
Great post. You are virtually certainly correct, that no new NIE is needed for Iran, but of course this would not please the neocons and other warmongers trying to set up a war with Iran. To “protect” Israel. And defraud the American taxpayers, of course.
Let’s remember that George Shultz allowed his name to be used as chairman of the Commmittee for a Free Iraq – - one of the PR games played to set up the illegal invasion of that country. Now, Shultz tries to pretend the stunt was of no consequence.
Readers of this website will undoubtedly (or perhaps not at all) be interested to know that the Enduring America website seems to be doing just fine since Scott Lucas promptly put an end to the “Save Money on Israeli Girls!” ads I spotted there four days ago. Unfortunately for EA – and undoubtedly surprising to many of us – so far this has been accompanied by a 70% plunge in Google advertising on EA’s website.
I write “been accompanied by” rather than “resulted in” because I do not want to suggest any cause-and-effect relationship here. Nonetheless, in several website checks over the past several days, I’ve not found more than 4 Google ads on an Enduring American website page – down from a whopping 15 when I checked on July 14 – notably including the “Save Money on Israeli Girls!” ad.
Here are the 4 Google ads that appear right now on EA’s home page:
Buy Moroccan Oil
Don’t wait any longer! Buy today.
Free Ship on Moroccan Oil Treatment
MoroccanOil.BeautyCollection.com
Pro-Israel Americans:
Help keep Israel secure by ensuring U.S. support remains strong
http://www.AIPAC.org
Sanctioning Iran
Latest news, research & analysis about energy sanctions against Iran
IranEnergyProject.org
Want Persian Rugs?
Choose from our Wide Selection of Rugs and Save 75% off Retail! www.eSaleRugs.com
I think most of us agree that a website such as EA should be able to survive without allowing Google to post ads offering “cheap girls” from Israel or anywhere else. And many readers on this website hope it will.
Lieberman is planning to make a new ‘generous offer’ to EU – which both the EU and Obama cannot refuse.
http://rehmat2.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/liebermans-generous-offer/
Source Watch: Hasbara
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Hasbara
http://www.irna.ir/View/FullStory/?NewsId=1233622
it’s really surprising that no journalist asks Ms.Clinton, where are the entry documents for Mr.Amiri (as kooshy alluded)? what was the port of entry? what time? what was the transit root? where did he apply for the U.S visa? anybody with the experience of traveling to the U.S knows that these are pretty obvious info., especially for Iranians that should go through a rigorous security check.
“We are gathered here not only to honour the Turkish martyrs, who were brutally slaughtered by Israeli commandos on the MV Mavi Marmara, but also to counter the lies and propaganda by Israel and the Zionist-controlled international mass media claiming the passengers, specifically the martyrs, were terrorists and the killings justified. More importantly, we must send a message of hope and solidarity to the Palestinians that the peace-loving people of the world will never abandon them, come what may, and we will stand shoulder-to-shoulder in their struggle for liberation. The Muslim world continues to be taken in by (the United States) President Obama’s rhetoric he is committed to change and he is for peace. His actions contradict his spoken words. Upon receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, Obama then escalated the war in Afghanistan, a war started by President George W. Bush. It is not surprising the UN chose not to allow a debate on Malaysia’s resolution condemning Israel for its dastardly acts,” former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad.
http://rehmat2.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/breaking-the-siege-conference-malaysia/
For Tzivi:
http://www.jpost.com/Home/Article.aspx?id=166340
/quote/
Immigrant Absorption Minister Sofa Landver gets angry only once during an hour-long interview in her office in Jerusalem, but when she does, she gets very, very angry.
…
“We are racist. Israel is a very racist society. I know what olim have gone through over the past 20 years. Our nation does not know how to receive new immigrants,” Landver says in a wide-ranging interview ahead of next week’s Ashdod Conference on Immigration and Absorption.
/endquote/
… Or it was just another barbaric event that happens to coincide with other events in the region, creating ammunition for conspiracy nuts.
I see the Iranians got their revenge for the Zahedan bombing:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-10675723
Tzvi: You ask that I question my assumptions. I do, both by design and desire.
The quotes I chose (and you are right, there certainly are many more) were selected because the writers had experience with Aparthied, and with Palestine, and make the connection.
I ask that you, too, question your assumptions.
One of the most silly lines of Zionist defense is that it is impossible for whatever prejudice that happens in Israel to be racist, because if one is a Jew of any colour, then the prejudice doesn’t apply. Well, what word do you want to use, Tzvi, for extreme prejudice along ethnic lines? Usually, the word racist fits.
There are many Jews who work hard at not being racist (or if you prefer, prejudiced against other groups strictly for their lineage of birth or beliefs), but there are many Jews who actually work very hard at being racist (or if you prefer, living with extreme prejudice against other groups strictly due to birth or belief). As there are many of both types among Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, etc..
However, in the history of Israel, this racism, (or extreme prejudice etc.,) is very much institutionalized and institutionalizing, that is, continues to legalize its extreme prejudices and determine its future with prejudiced policies. I’m pretty sure you are very aware of that; but want to argue, as your last post indicates, that it’s worse among the Arabs.
From my experience, that’s simply not true. (You might want to look into the case of Dr. Izzeldine Abuelaish as a primer to the real issues). However, in terms of the argument and the ugly nature of the historical ramifications of Israel’s prejudiced policies, its both childish and irrelevant.
Lest we forget, no Arabs are holding an occupied population in a siege meant as collective punishment based on their ethnic identity.
Tzvi, are you for a one-state solution with freedom of beliefs and genuine equality for all under the law?
DWZ
Based on the UN Convention on Apartheid you have just quoted, would you say it applies to Iran-it’s treatment of it’s Sunni minority, and the Baha’i religious group? Egypt-it’s treatment of the Christian Copts, Turkey-it’s treatment of it’s Kurdish citizens in turkey and Greeks in Cyprus?
I am still to be convinced that Israel tries to dominate any other group,besides trying to protect it’s people from annihilation-suicide bombing, rockets on cities, drive by shooting on roads,knifing and bombing.
I am still to see any peace offer by Arabs which doesn’t include Israels’ total destruction by others means like flooding it with Palestinian refugees, which will result in 3 Palestinian states,Jordan, The West Bank and Israel proper, where the Jews will become minority in their own country.
Some countries in Europe starting to worry about such a scenario, which may come about through immigration and high birth rates.
By the way-have you seen any sign on washrooms ‘for Jews only” like SA’s
Black and White only.
DWZ
Based on the UN Convention on Apartheid you have just quoted, would you say it applies to Iran-it’s treatment of it’s Sunni minority, and the Baha’i religious group? Egypt-it’s treatment of the Christian Copts, Turkey-it’s treatment of it’s Kurdish citizens in turkey and Greeks in Cyprus?
I am still to be convinced that Israel tries to dominate any other group,besides trying to protect it’s people from annihilation-suicide bombing, rockets on cities, drive by shooting on roads,knifing and bombing.
I am still to see any peace offer by Arabs which doesn’t include Israels’ total destruction by others means like flooding it with Palestinian refugees, which will result in 3 Palestinian states,Jordan, The West Bank and Israel proper, where the Jews will become minority in their own country.
Some countries in Europe starting to worry about such a scenaeio, which may come about through immigration and high birth rates.
Castellio,
Thanks for all your above quotes, and am sure you could provide many more of the same.
Would you please google “apartheid history”, and tell me if you still think Israel has a racist apartheid ideology and practice, and if yes, why do you say so?
I see an ethnic/nationalistic conflict in Judea and Samaria, but not a racial one, as if this would be racial, how about the over million Arabs in Israel proper?
Apartheid-I think people using that term have an agenda, unsupported by facts.
Could claim a reverse apartheid-can you imagine a Jew living in Nablus, or in any Arab town in the West Bank? Would you call this apartheid?
Ray McGovern warns that Obama may be ginning up the next Iran NIE.
Iranian Scientist Would Not Play ‘Curveball’
original dot antiwar dot com/mcgovern/2010/07/17/iranian-scientist-would-not-play-curveball/
Quote:
“Rather, an Estimate now under way is adopting the intelligence analysis art form of a “Memorandum to Holders” of the previous NIE, updating it, as necessary. Drafting began many months ago, but the deadline has been slipping – as is always the case with NIEs on Iran. According to press reports three months ago, the latest target date for completion is August.
The press is also saying that this time the Obama administration will not make public the key judgments.
Why the delay – and the secrecy? I believe the answer is straightforward. Reading the signs, I think it a safe assumption that an honest Memorandum to Holders could fit on one page, the thrust of which would be: We have received no evidence that requires revision of the key judgments of the November 2007 NIE on Iran.
Indeed, in congressional testimony earlier this year, then-Director of National Intelligence Adm. Dennis Blair, to his credit, said essentially that, amid mainstream press reporting alleging a need to make the Estimate more ominous.
It seems a safe bet that one reason Blair was given his walking papers two months ago is that, in the opinion of White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and his neocon friends, the retired admiral was not sufficiently malleable. The nominee to replace Blair, retired Gen. James Clapper, and his current boss, Defense Secretary Robert Gates each hold well earned PhDs in malleability.
If integrity holds in the ranks of intelligence analysts, a Memorandum to Holders update could turn out to be just as controversial – and just as disappointing to those wishing to attack Iran – as the NIE of 2007, which contradicted what Bush and Cheney had been saying in exaggerating the threat from Iran.
From the perspective of the hawks, therefore, it’s better to delay. Better to take more time to seek out managers and analysts with more flexible consciences than those of the now-retired Tom Fingar, the now-cashiered Adm. Blair, and the just-one-day-on-the-job-as-Director-of-the-National-Intelligence-Council-before-the-neocons-got-him Chas Freeman (a man for all seasons, and perfect man for these times).
Better to take more time to seek additional “evidence” that may be uncorroborated, contradicted, or even non-existent, but nonetheless good enough for use with the Fawning Corporate Media and other fans of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”
ISRAEL IS AN APARTHEID STATE:
Different rights for different races In the case of Israel, it is different rights for Jews and for non-Jews. For example the law of return of 1950 says Jews can return to Israel and be given citizenship even if they have no links to the country other than mythical biblical ones; whereas Palestinians cannot return even if their parents or grandparents lived there.
PEOPLE MUST KNOW THAT NOAM CHOMSKY, A ZIONIST, IS AGAINST THE RIGHT OF RETURN FOR PALESTINIANS.
Separation of so-called racial groups into different geographical areas. Even within the borders of Israel, 93 percent of land is reserved as a national land trust or Jewish National Fund land is for the exclusive use of Jews. The 20 percent of the population that is Palestinians living in Israel have to share access to the 7 percent of private land that is left. The Israeli Supreme Court has made a number of decisions that Palestinians cannot live on Jewish lands. There are not only residential areas that are banned to Palestinians but there are separate roads for Jews and Palestinians. That was never true in South Africa even in times of crisis. Moreover Palestinians have less access to water than Jews living nearby
Finally the movement of Palestinians is severely restricted much more so than were blacks in South Africa. The famous pass laws in South Africa meant that Blacks had to show government issued passes to move around but Palestinians are even more restricted by walls and checkpoints and if they live in the Gaza Strip can’t leave at all.
The UN Convention on Apartheid condemns the crime of apartheid that refers to a series of inhuman acts—including murder, torture, arbitrary arrest, illegal imprisonment, exploitation, marginalization, and persecution—committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining the domination of one racial group by another.
All these crimes and genocide have been applied to Palestinians by apartheid state of Israel
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17940
British Jews Support Israeli War Crimes
At least 77% of British Jews believe that millions of dispossessed Palestinians should continue to dwell in refugee camps and never be allowed to their homes, cities, and villages. I am actually far from impressed with British Jewry’s inclination towards peace.
Professor Dan McGowan pointed out recently that Israel and Palestine are in fact “one country with one water system, one electrical grid, one monetary system, one telephone system and one postal system. It is already one state, although half the population has lesser rights or none at all.” Bearing McGowan’s insight, I wonder what drives 77% of British Jews? Why don’t they really welcome Palestinian people to return to their land and enjoy exactly the same civil rights British Jews celebrate in the UK?
http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/gilad-atzmon-british-jews-support-israeli-war-crimes.html#entry8269890
Rachel Corrie 2010 Fundraiser
Community Ramadan football tournament to take place in Gaza
What: A community football tournament at the Unity Youth Field in the Yebna neighborhood of Rafah, Gaza.
Why: Cut off from the world by a brutal siege the people of the Gaza strip live with hunger, massive unemployment and frequent attacks by the Israeli army. Extreme vulnerability and insecurity, coupled with bleak prospects for the future, feed hopelessness and rage with the youth being particularly vulnerable. This innovative, community-developed football tournament gives neighbors a chance to strengthen bonds and relieve the stress caused by the dire situation.
When: The month of Ramadan, the 11th of August through the 9th of September.
Fundraiser Target: $10,000 U.S.
Fundraiser Ends: August 15th
http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/community-ramadan-football-tournament-to-take-place-in-gaza.html#entry8280388
This is from the Financial Times of June 4, 2007.
“A new map of the West Bank, 40 years after its conquest by Israel in the Six Day War, gives the most definitive picture so far of a territory in which 2.5m Palestinians are confined to dozens of enclaves separated by Israeli roads, settlements, fences and military zones.
Produced by the United Nations’s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, it is based on extensive monitoring in the field combined with analysis of satellite imagery. It provides an overall picture officials say is even more comprehensive than charts drawn up by the Israeli military.
The impact of Israeli civilian and military infrastructure is to render 40 per cent of the territory, which is roughly the size of the US state of Delaware or the English county of Norfolk, off-limits to Palestinians.
The rest of the territory, including main centres such as Nablus and Jericho, is split into isolated spots. Movement between them is restricted by 450 roadblocks and 70 manned checkpoints.
The UN mapmakers focused on land set aside for Jewish settlements, roads reserved for settler access, the West Bank separation barrier, closed military areas and nature reserves.
What remains is an area of habitation remarkably close to territory set aside for the Palestinian population in Israeli security proposals dating back to postwar 1967…”
I think some fools should be heard, actually.
Israel And Apartheid: By People Who Knew Apartheid
1. André Brink, one of South Africa’s leading authors, whose opposition to the apartheid regime resulted in his novels becoming the first books in Afrikaans to be banned by the government. This extract is from his memoir, A Fork In The Road (in French, from which the excerpt is taken, Mes bifurcations, pub. Actes Sud, Arles, 2010). Translation mine.
[T]he decisive experience of this trip (in 2002) was the visit to the Palestinian University of Birzeit. I’d read a lot about the Middle East conflict; in Salzburg and elsewhere, I had long impassioned conversations with Palestinian writers. I still remember my discussion with Hanan Mikhail Ashrawi, when she visited the Cape years ago. On several occasions before his untimely death, I also benefited from the wisdom and the gentle humanity of Edward Said.
But this immersion in the terrible reality of this tragic place, of this land and its people, felt to me like very few other things in my life. I felt as if I’d rediscovered the hideous heart of apartheid: the way in which Palestinians, including some of the most wonderful people I’d ever met, are subjected to one of the cruelest forms of oppression on earth; the web of hypocrisy and lies through which the Israeli side tries to obscure and twist the truth. During this visit there was one particularly shocking event: an old Palestinian man had his shack bulldozed by the Israeli army because he had presumed to install a water tank on its roof to catch the few drops of rain that fell there.
I saw the network of modern highways built for the Israelis, and the pathetic little roads to which the Palestinians are confined; I saw olive groves, often the only means of subsistence for Palestinian farmers, uprooted by the Israelis; I saw the proliferation of new Israeli settlements in the heart of Palestinian land, built there in contravention of all the agreements signed, just to reinforce the presence and the power of Israelis in territory that does not belong to them. I had already seen this, in the era of the oppression of blacks by whites in South Africa. I had already heard the same pious excuses and explanations.
When I look back on it now, I can’t help but remember the terrible images of Dachau and Auschwitz. Even if Israel has not embarked upon a genocide of the same magnitude as the Holocaust, the ethnic cleansing it is inflicting on the Palestinians is morally equivalent to a slower and smaller-scale version of the death camps. I struggle to understand how a people that has found it so difficult to recover from the horrors of the Holocaust can go on to do to others what was once done to it.
h/t Nouvelles d’Orient.
2. John Dugard, South African Professor of International Law; formerly Special Rapporteur on Palestine to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
Apartheid was a system of institutionalized racial discrimination that the white minority in South Africa employed to maintain power over the black majority. It was characterized by the denial of political rights to blacks, the fragmentation of the country into white areas and black areas (called Bantustans) and by the imposition on blacks of restrictive measures designed to achieve white superiority, racial separation and white security.
The “pass system,” which sought to prevent the free movement of blacks and to restrict their entry to the cities, was rigorously enforced. Blacks were forcibly “relocated,” and they were denied access to most public amenities and to many forms of employment. The system was enforced by a brutal security apparatus in which torture played a significant role.
…
Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories has many features of colonization. At the same time it has many of the worst characteristics of apartheid. The West Bank has been fragmented into three areas – north (Jenin and Nablus), center (Ramallah) and south (Hebron) – which increasingly resemble the Bantustans of South Africa.
Restrictions on freedom of movement imposed by a rigid permit system enforced by some 520 checkpoints and roadblocks resemble, but in severity go well beyond, apartheid’s “pass system.” And the security apparatus is reminiscent of that of apartheid, with more than 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons and frequent allegations of torture and cruel treatment.
Many aspects of Israel’s occupation surpass those of the apartheid regime. Israel’s large-scale destruction of Palestinian homes, leveling of agricultural lands, military incursions and targeted assassinations of Palestinians far exceed any similar practices in apartheid South Africa. No wall was ever built to separate blacks and whites.
– Israelis adopt what South Africa dropped; Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 29 Nov 2006.
3. Breyten Breytenbach, South Africa’s preeminent Afrikaner poet, who was convicted of treason in South Africa in 1975, and served seven years in jail for his opposition to apartheid.
I’m a writer born in South Africa now living and working abroad. For some time back there I also grew up among a “chosen people” who behaved as Herrenvolk — as all those who believe themselves singularized by suffering or entrusted with a special mission from God.
I apologize if my comparative allusion to Israel as Herrenvolk hurts because of the echoes from a recent past when, in Europe, so many Jews were the victims of a “final solution.” But how else is one to attempt describing the comportment of your armies when one is flooded by the horror of what you’re doing?
These rough equivalences don’t come lightly. As a writer I’m deeply apprised of the need to keep the words uncluttered of any urge to rouse easy emotions. This is what facile comparisons do–they nullify understanding the complexity of the observed phenomena by a rush of outrage heating the throat and staining the adversary with the vomit of borrowed or vicarious condemnation. Apartheid was not Nazism, though to say so was a striking slogan. And the policies now perpetrated by Israeli forces on the Palestinian people should not be equated with Apartheid. Each one of these processes and systems is evil enough to merit a thorough description of its own historical singularity.
And yet… (continues)
– An Open Letter to General Ariel Sharon; The Nation, 10 Apr 2002.
4. Desmond Tutu, former Archbishop of Cape Town; headed post-apartheid South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
In our struggle against apartheid, the great supporters were the Jews. Jews almost instinctively had to be on the side of the disenfranchised, of the voiceless ones, fighting injustice, oppression and evil. I have continued to feel strongly with the Jews. I am patron of a Holocaust center in South Africa. I believe Israel has a right to secure borders.
What is not so understandable, not justified, is what it did to another people to guarantee its existence. I’ve been very deeply distressed in my visits to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us blacks in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about. They seemed to derive so much joy from our humiliation.
…
People are scared in this country [the U.S.] to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful – very powerful. Well, so what? This is God’s world. For goodness sake, this is God’s world! We live in a moral universe. The apartheid government was very powerful, but today it no longer exists. Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pinochet, Milosovic, and Idi Amin were all powerful, but in the end they bit the dust…
– Occupation is Oppression, 13 Apr 2002.
5. Ronnie Kasrils, South African Member of Parliament. Member of the ANC Executive Committee 1987-2007; South Africa’s Minster for Intelligence Services 2004-2008, Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry (1999-2004), and Deputy Minister of Defense (1994-1999).
May I start by quoting a South African who emphatically stated as far back as 1961 that “The Jews took Israel from the Arabs after the Arabs had lived there for a thousand years. Israel like South Africa, is an apartheid state” (Rand Daily Mail, 23 Novemeber 1961). Those were not the words of Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Tutu or Ruth First, but were uttered by none other than the architect of apartheid itself, racist Prime Minister, Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd.
He was irked by the criticism of apartheid policy and Harold Macmillan’s “Winds of Change” speech and the growing international outcry following the Sharpeville massacre, in contrast to the West’s unconditional support for Zionist Israel.
To be sure Verwoerd was correct. Both apartheid South Africa and Zionist Israel were colonial, settler states created on the basis of the harsh dispossession of the land and birthright of the indigenous people. This is unblushingly documented in Israel’s case from the time of Herzl through Jabotinsky, Ben Gurion, Menachem Begin, Moshe Dayan to Sharon et al. Both states preached and implemented a policy based on racial ethnicity; the sole claim of Jews in Israel and whites in South Africa to exclusive citizenship; monopolised rights in law regarding the ownership of land, property, business; superior access to education, health, social, sporting and cultural amenities, pensions and municipal services at the expense of the original indigenous population; the virtual monopoly membership of military and security forces, and privileged development along their own racial supremacist lines – even both countries marriage laws are designed to safeguard racial “purity”. The fact that the Palestinian minority within Israel is allowed to vote hardly redresses the injustice in all other matters of basic human rights. In any case those Palestinians allowed to stand for election to the Knesset do so on condition that they dare not question Israel’s existence as a Jewish state… (continues)
– Address to the Re-envisioning Israel/Palestine international conference; held in Cape Town on 12 June, 2009.
Right, well, perhaps you consider this man a fool, I don’t know.
“We enthusiastically chose to become a colonial society, ignoring international treaties, expropriating lands, transferring settlers from Israel to the occupied territories, engaging in theft and finding justification for all these activities. Passionately desiring to keep the occupied territories, we developed two judicial systems: one — progressive, liberal — in Israel; and the other – cruel, injurious – in the occupied territories. In effect, we established an apartheid regime in the occupied territories immediately following their capture. That oppressive regime exists to this day”.
– The war’s seventh day by Michael Ben-Yair (Israel’s Attorney General, 1993 – 1996).
DWZ
“Israel apartheid state”-Proof please?
Not quotes from other fools, but facts. Does Israel separate Arabs in Universities, institutions, hospitals, or any other public or private facilities and enterprises-except the army, where an Arab can volunteer but not conscripted, so as he will not have to fight an other Arab?
Even Carter who made this travesty popular, -after collecting the Saudi money for the successful propaganda-asked for forgiveness for that characterisation of Israel.
Anyway,FACTS please, and enough with wild, unsubstantiated accusations.
James Canning: I wish I were a lawyer.
It seems to me a case could be made that certain public speech and writing of certain neocon groups could be — should be– prosecuted as hate speech.
In a review of the book, “Understanding Words That Wound,” Alexander Tsesis, visiting professor of law at University of Pittsburgh Law School, assessed the impact of Virginia v. Black, a case involving cross-burning. Tsesis wrote that Virginia v. Black “shifted the jurisprudence” established in R.A.V. v St. Paul” such that courts are REQUIRED TO
“assess vitriolic communication on a case-by- case
basis to evaluate the potential for destructive consequences. After
Black, judges are required to evaluate the circumstances and historical
content of symbols rather than automatically dismiss plaintiffs’ claims about
the dangers of intentionally intimidating messages.”
A group that I am aware of has, since at least 2007, been associating the name, “Iran,” with the image of a flame-colored mushroom cloud and the legend, “A Nuclear Iran: A Threat to Humanity,” and “Iran, the gravest threat to international security.”
It seems pretty clear that the goal of the group is to engender hatred of Iran.
What is the “potential for destructive consequences” of that “intentionally intimidating message?”
According to an article in the June 2010 Jewish Weekly, “Groups like The Israel Project have tested the waters with polls that show a surprising level of support for a U.S. [military] strike [on Iran] among voters in general and within the Jewish community.” (http www dot thejewishweek dot com/news/national/jews_brace_next_phase_iran_battle?nocache=1#comment-1464)*
The “destructive consequences” of the “intentionally intimidating message” of this group and other like it appears to be to induce voters to so hate or fear Iran that they advocate for war on Iran.
I think that’s hate speech, and the persons and groups that disseminate it should be held to account for it.
* The same article makes note of the “success” of the groups such as the one in question that have, since at least 1996, targeted Iran:
“American Jewish groups that have benefited hugely from their decades-old focus on Iran — and which have largely succeeded in making Iran’s threat to both U.S. and Israeli interests a top policy”
and
“what will Jewish organizations do if they can no longer use the Iran threat to galvanize their activist base, unify a community increasingly at odds over a range of Israel-related issues and spur their own growth.”
and
“groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) have been hugely successful in [focusing on]. . .an issue [that has] been hugely important to their own institutional interests.”
the article traces the motivation for the campaign of “intentionally intimidating messages” about Iran:
~TO GALVANIZE COMPLACENT AMERICAN JEWS
~TO KEEP THE AMERICAN ISRAEL LOBBY BUSY. to keep American pro-Israel groups from getting in his way in attempting to achieve peace between Israel and Palestine, Yitzchak Rabin urged those groups to “focus on Iran,” a “unifying opportunity for groups that were facing a Jewish community more divided than ever by fundamental issues of war and peace.”
~TO RAMP UP FEAR IN ORDER TO ELICIT CONTRIBUTIONS. American Jewish lobby had won many battles and “many Jews no longer saw Israel’s existence threatened.” No existential threat meant no fear, and no fear meant closed checkbooks. “the Iranian threat proved an effective tool to pry open Jewish checkbooks in a fiercely competitive fundraising environment in which fear is always the best inducement to giving.”
“AIPAC’s spectacular growth spurt in recent years came alongside its relentless, effective Iran focus. The issue has also been good for groups ranging from the American Jewish Committee to The Israel Project.
In both institutional and national policy terms, the overarching Iran focus of pro-Israel groups has been mostly a success.”
Inciting hatred of Iran is good for business.
Is there a “potential for destructive consequences” of the campaign of “intimidating messages” about Iran?
Once again, from The Jewish Weekly:
“In that environment, American Jewish leaders will remain loath to openly call for military action that may end up being the only remaining option other than deterrence — even though many are coming to believe that when all is said and done, military action will remain the only option left on the table.”
Rhetoric used by certain groups to induce fear in order to elicit contributions has had the effect of boxing those groups into a policy situation where the target group could be subject to an act of war.
Does the pattern of “intentionally intimidating messages” used to incite hatred of Iran rise to the level of hate speech, and should those groups who have used such speech be held to account for it?
Israelis are raised on hatred. Gaza-born Dr. Izzeldine is a living example of their hatred. After curing thousands of Israeli patients at Tel Aviv medical center – Israelis paid him back by killing his three daughters and one niece. However, he being a devout Muslims – refuses to hate Jews.
Izzeldine: ‘I Shall Not Hate’
http://rehmat2.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/izzeldine-i-shall-not-hate/
DWZ,
The neocons are certainly enemies of Iran as long is Iran is hostile toward Israel. The neocons are threats to the national security of the US itself.
Some interesting news on the activities of some of the most vicious warmongers (neocon, of course) who conspired to set up the illegal invasion of Iraq, and are doing the same sort of dirty tricks to set up an insane war with Iran, in Justin Elliot’s “Bill Kristol’s new Israel group using offices of old Committee for the Liberation of Iraq”.
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room_/2010/07/16/liberation_of_iraq_and_committee_for_israel/index.html?source=newsletter
Fiorangela,
If Adelson can correctly be seen as supporting Netanyahu, right or wrong, and undermining Obama’s effort to get the Israelis out of the West Bank, it seems fair to describe him as a threat to US national security because he is helping, in a major way, to prevent resolution of the most dangerous problem in the Middle East.
“Every single Iranian is paranoid (ex-pat or not), to an extent far greater than I have seen in any other nationality (subject to my personal knowledge). Iranian politics is extremely polarised, which I believe is the primary reason for such paranoia. It also does not help that Iran has not had a stable, inclusive democratic governance system for… well, it never really has.”
Thus an ideal setting for foreign interference in domestic politics.
Pak: Okay, I understand your point, and its worth making. Whether or not the CIA signs off on all his articles prior to publishing is something we should consider. Thank you.
Personally, on the “paranoia” side, I believe that all relevant political websites are ‘data mined’ and that US government agents somewhere are quite aware of who is submitting comments to which blogs, with cross references. Hence, given the penetration of Israeli informants in American government, such info is known to Israel as well. Are certain blogs ’set up’ to capture such traffic? Without a doubt.
Dear Persian Gulf,
Every single Iranian is paranoid (ex-pat or not), to an extent far greater than I have seen in any other nationality (subject to my personal knowledge). Iranian politics is extremely polarised, which I believe is the primary reason for such paranoia. It also does not help that Iran has not had a stable, inclusive democratic governance system for… well, it never really has.
Dear Castellio,
Flynt Leverett was, according to Wikipedia, “a CIA senior analyst for eight years”.
Wikipedia also claims that he is “required to seek prior approval of articles from the CIA’s Publication Review Board. Such reviews are conducted as a precaution to prevent leaks of classified information.”
I am not quite sure whether this blog is subject to the same approval, but it is an interesting fact to note regardless.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynt_Leverett
James Canning, I don’t think Adelson or Saban think about Palestinians at all; Palestinians are invisible (see Eight Stages of Genocide: it’s impossible to carry out mass killing of humans like oneself; the Other must be de-humanized). The billionaire elite are addicted to ziocaine, as one poster on Mondoweiss describes it: all that stuff Tzvi writes as gospel, er, Talmudic truth — “Jews have been persecuted for ever, maybe longer;” and “we do only good things for Palestinians,” etc. –that’s the Israeli brain on ziocaine; it is believed without question — to a “metaphysical certainty.” A person addicted to ziocaine is incapable of comprehending any version of reality other than the one that asserts that Israel is moral, was given to Jews by god, and that what they are doing is their entitlement and is right.
Pak wrote:
“On top of this, the US might simply want to punish Amiri by accusing him of spying et al.”
That’s one perspective. Surely the US knows that whatever story Iran believes, Iran will want to punish Amiri. That US so openly threw Amiri to the wolves — not even as carefully arranged as the return of the Russian spies — could indicate that US was signing Amiri’s death warrant.
OR, (switching identities, now I’m Pollyanna again), maybe by being so open about releasing Amiri the US saved his life. US is double-daring Iran to kill Amiri. The World Knows where he is; we watched Amiri walk through the airport in Tehran. What will you do with him, Iran?
btw, Hillary Clinton and Hannah Rosenthal held a luv fest at State Dept a few days ago. It gave even more evidence that Clinton is a women who is deeply scarred emotionally and will do anything for affirmation and a sense of belonging. Rosenthal and Saban and the rest of Clinton’s buddies supply that need. Think about it: Clinton is from Illinois, but she’s not part of any circle in Illinois. Clintons emerged from Arkansas, where Bill still has some roots, but not Hillary; she transplanted herself to New York where her fan club set her up. She’s as much a ‘defector’ dependent on the good offices of her handlers as was Amiri. Clinton is NOT in control of her intellectual or professional portfolio, certainly not with the interests of the US foremost in her thinking; she’s running on the need to have her emotional wounds salved.
If Iran is obliterated, it will be because she thinks that will please the people who supply her with emotional mojo. She’s like Susan Sarandon’s son in “Stepmother:” Sarandon and her children are horseback riding and discussing the many ways Julia Roberts just does not measure up. In a gesture to secure his mother’s love, the little boy says, “I’ll hate her if you want me to.”
kooshy:
great observations, especially this one: 3-He was a double agent ( Iranian xpat media)
I am wondering, is there any nation other than Iran on the planet to have an expatriate with such an unusual degree of paranoia that we see among Iranians abroad (I mean, the ones actively involved in politics)? I guess Cuba is close in that sense. I am totally unaware of Cuban community though, just guessing.
Fiorangela,
Is it fair to say that Sheldon Adelson is trying to achieve the permanent suppression of Palestinian nationalism, by enabling Israel to keep the illegal colonies in the West Bank? Is Adelson a threat to US national security?
Pak,
I agree with you it is plausible to blame the US for the recent terrorist attack in SE Iran. If the US is continuing to support international terrorism, provided such terror tactics are approved by the Israel lobby in the US, this fact needs more publicity.
Kooshy,
Re: “The fall of Obama” – - Did you see Philip Stephens’ comments in the Financial Times July 16th? He sounds an important warning, that the Republican candidates for president seem to be opposing nuclear arms reduction! A warmonger in the White House could be a catastrophe for the entirel planet.
Pak: why don’t you simply state what you mean in terms of your presumed relationship between the Leveretts and the CIA?
By the way, I am eagerly waiting in anticipation for Amiri’s “documents” to prove he was tortured, as he claims he has.
Dear kooshy,
It is true that the US has released a number of different stories regarding Amiri. My inclination is that they want to feed the Iranian regime with as much crap as possible, in order to confuse them and make them question what is the actual truth. As Mottaki said, they must fully study his case to determine what actually happened. On top of this, the US might simply want to punish Amiri by accusing him of spying et al. The propaganda spewing out of Iran at the moment is standard. Even if Amiri was an undercover CIA agent, the propaganda would be exactly the same. I thought this was common sense.
The reason I suspect he does not have any entry documents is that, if he was a defector, then he would have been involved in some sort of witness protection scheme; thus under the radar. If he was a defector then there would also be no confirmation by officials as to whether or not he was located in the US (hence why it was only confirmed that he was in the US once Amiri was in the Pakistani embassy).
The Leveretts clearly have first-hand knowledge on these kinds of situations, considering their affiliation with the CIA. I think it is best you ask them what is most plausible.
Eric and PG
Like you I really can’t confirm what the truth to the Amiri case is, I have been closely fallowing how events unfolded on his case and what I have confirmedly noticed are as follows, and again I am only concentrating on the events after his show up in the DC last week, since only after his refuge to Iran Interest section in DC, US government officially acknowledged that he is in US.
Since his show up at the Iranian interest section in DC Amiri has stock to only one story about his ordeal that is: he was basically captured and transferred to US against his own will.
Contrary to Amiri’s explanation of the events the US intelligence community has put out at least five different stories about him but basically with one main core that he came to US on his own will but in five different versions these versions are
1-He was a long time US spy , newest version put out on (NYT /WP)
2-He was identified and introduced to US intelligence to have important information and defected in SA (original story)
3-He was a double agent ( Iranian xpat media)
4-He came here on his own will but got worried and homesick and wanted to go back ( mostly by broadcast media)
5-He was planted by Iranian intelligence to find out what US’s perception on Iran is (put out by NPR)
What is amazing is none of the major media are willing to asks one simple question, where are his entry documentations, unless he was an illegal immigrant he must have
Some sort of entry documentation, that will answers a lot of our questions but I guess the reason for many versions of the story is to muddy the waters and not allow focusing. I think there must have been a bad mess-up in handling him that now has required bringing out the heavy spinners to muddy and shift the focus till story drifts away.
I will try write and expand the discussion later,
I was really amused to read Howard Galganov’s editorial on his website, titled I Am Israel, which was full of Israeli Hasbara (propaganda) lies – from A-Z. Below I debunk some of his lies with historic facts…….
Hasbara: ‘I Am Israel’
http://rehmat2.wordpress.com/2010/07/17/hasbara-i-am-israel/
to Tzvi, from another, now quiet, thread: You remarked about how vigorous democracy and freedom of speech is in Israel.
MuzzleWatch is a group of young American Jews who value their Jewish heritage more than they are willing to support corrupt zionist leaders.
Here’s their latest posting: PR Firm formerly associated with J Street Project Founder Jeremy ben Ami is Pressured by The Israel Project to DROP Gaza Advocacy Group
Do you think American zionists, like The Israel Project, who pressured the Fenton Group, were acting in the best interest of young American Jews? Do you think their action makes your life better? Are you aware that The Israel Project is directly linked to Benjamin Netanyahu and his chief financial supporter, Sheldon Adelson? Do you think extremely wealthy zionists like Adelson — and Netanyahu — are concerned about your life, or are they just using you?
When Amiri arrived to Tehran days ago, he always his son was always next to him carrying him wherever he was going although the chid was not a baby but was as tall as his chest ( see youtube dot com/watch?v=tgMl-wUb09g ) If you watch this video with someone who knows Farsi (and is familiar with Iranian culture) you would appreciate the extent of his love for his family. From what was said on this video one might deduct “the notion of Amiri living the family behind and defecting to USA abruptly and not calling them once in 14 months (or being free to come to US and free to go) is an obvious lie”.
After posting the interpretations of what Amiri was saying ( for example see raceforiran dot com/supporting-occupation-and-motivating-new-terrorists-obama%E2%80%99s-failure-to-deliver-on-his-cairo-speech or see my comments for this Gareth interview here: antiwar dot com /radio/2010/06/08/gareth-porter-81/ ) I was gradually realizing how damaging these videos are for the present US establishment. I knew there will be interesting reactions. In situations like these most probably emergency meetings are held to find smart ways to manufacture lies for extinguishing the fire and feeding the lies to the media. I also thought because of the gravity of situation, some respected American media “giants” might get persuaded, blackmailed or bribed to trumpet those lies.
For instance I thought of Keith Olbermann getting duped again to believe Amiri is a CIA agent or he had defected to USA (Keith got convinced Iranian June 2009 election was appallingly fraudulent) but never thought of Gareth Porter joining the game. Yesterday he wrote an article in antiwar.com entitled “Clues Suggest Amiri Defection Was an Iranian Plant ” If you are interested read it and pay attention to his sources. The whole thing is mind-boggling I was bewildered and disappointed. I sincerely hope I am drawing wrong conclusions.
Maybe Gareth Porter doesn’t know Iran is sort of swarmed with foreign spies. The regime is well aware of it and because of it is very careful not play dirty tricks especially on Americans.
Lots of puzzling questions surrounds Amiri’s affair but one thing is almost certain, he didn’t come to US with his own free will.
like kooshy, I also think Zahedan’s episode was orchestrated to partly divert attention from Amiri’s scandal.
Pak,
“By the way Eric, I often see Google ads such as “meet local Iranian girls” or “find a Muslim wife” on Muslim “marriage services” (definitely not dating agencies, only “marriage services”). I suppose they track my movements on the internet (reading Iranian websites and so on) and tailor my ads accordingly. Eric, have you been reading one too many Zionist websites!?”
I recognize that Google picks ads it considers appropriate not only for a website’s audience generally, but more specifically for each particular visitor to that website. I’ve read more than most about the subject, and I can probably think of a dozen friends, relatives, clients and acquaintances who’ve made their livings, one way or another, by defining and refining the criteria and methods used to fine-tune Internet ad selection (Google itself is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I live). So I understand very well that the nature of the website being visited, though very important, is far from the only criterion involved in Google’s ad selections. Even if I might otherwise have overlooked this fact, I learned it first-hand a long time ago – in the same way as nearly any parent who lets his teenaged children use his computer occasionally and then is surprised by the sudden change in the nature of ads that pop up on his screen.
But it’s been a long time since anyone but I has used any of my computers (unless someone’s doing it without my knowledge, which I strongly doubt), and I wouldn’t have complained about this obnoxious ad if I had believed my web-surfing habits gave Google even the slightest basis for concluding that this disgusting “Save Money on Israeli Girls!” ad would be appropriate for me. My confidence on this point is precisely why I was shocked to learn that Google, based on whatever criteria it relies on that are NOT based on my computer use, considers it acceptable to pick from an array of ads whose boundaries go so far beyond the bounds of good taste that any decent person would have explained and cleared the breadth of that array with the website owner in advance. I have no doubt that Scott Lucas would disapprove such an ad if he’d been warned clearly in advance that something like it could appear on his website, and my judgment about Scott was borne out by the fact that he got rid of it promptly after I mentioned having seen it (which I did the first time I spotted the ad). Nor do I believe there’s anything at all about the Enduring America website that would warrant Google in concluding that its users, in general, might find such an ad interesting.
I may sound prudish, but I think few, if any, who know me would say that about me. I think most people who came upon this ad would feel the same. I’m quite disappointed to learn that Google behaves this way.
Pak — google is either sexist, kinky, or badly programmed. I get ads for hot Russian girls.
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100717/WEEKENDER/707169848/1133
Shahram will lose his life over this fiasco, then? The spy who got cold feet thinking about his seven year old son.
Press TV:
“Although Jundallah has claimed responsibility for the blasts, analysts say the group is unlikely to have carried out the attack since it was effectively disbanded after Rigi was executed in Iran last month. ”
(http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=135119§ionid=351020101)
I see Press TV answered one of my questions!
By the way Eric, I often see Google ads such as “meet local Iranian girls” or “find a Muslim wife” on Muslim “marriage services” (definitely not dating agencies, only “marriage services”). I suppose they track my movements on the internet (reading Iranian websites and so on) and tailor my ads accordingly. Eric, have you been reading one too many Zionist websites!?
Kooshy,
Great reply, though I’m actually serious in posing this question: Where was Amiri working on his doctorate degree? I don’t really care, except that the answer may shed light on his credibility. If it was some university in the US, have we heard yet whether that university has confirmed it? If it was a university in Iran (doesn’t sound like it, but it’s possible), does that shed some light on Amiri’s long-term plans? If it was no school at all, does that shed light on Amiri’s credibility? How many of us, after all, are “working on their doctorate” without actually being signed up with some university? No matter what the answer is, it strikes me that it will move the ball forward a bit.
Here you go!
State Dept Official: More Military Aid to Israel Needed to ‘Encourage Peace Talks’
news dot antiwar dot com/2010/07/16/state-dept-official-more-military-aid-to-israel-needed-to-encourage-peace-talks/
Yeah, that’ll work…
Scott Horton Interviews Flynt Leverett
http://antiwar dot com/radio/2010/07/15/flynt-leverett-2/
Transcript and MP3 available.
Quote: “And I think the Israelis are playing a game, looking at a year down the road, 18 months, maybe two years down the road, when after more and more people come on board and say sanctions aren’t working, the Iranians are continuing to develop their fuel cycle capabilities, etc. – at that point, probably around the time that President Obama is gearing up for his own reelection campaign in a serious way, the Israelis can come back and say, “Okay, now we need to do something more coercive around the Iranian problem.” I think they’re sort of softening us up for, you know, say, 18 months from now.”
Which support the points I’ve been making – that this isn’t going to go on forever. Israel won’t allow it – and Obama can’t stop them.
Quote: “I don’t think Obama would have said it if he didn’t feel like he had some kind of understanding with Prime Minister Netanyahu that Israel is not going to take unilateral action in the near term and that Israel is not going to surprise the United States on something this important and that he’s at least going to get to have another conversation with Prime Minister Netanyahu before Israel would go down that road.”
Except, of course, that Netanyahu is on record saying that the US is an easy thing to move:
Netanyahu In 2001: ‘America Is A Thing You Can Move Very Easily’
www dot huffingtonpost dot com/2010/07/16/netanyahu-in-2001-america_n_649427.html?igoogle=1
And we just saw how Obama caved in totally to Netanyahu in the latest visit. So what happens if Netanyahu in 18 months comes back and tells Obama, “You’re worthless, you’re not going to do anything, so we will.”
Quote: “But Netanyahu has also put down markers in public that he doesn’t think the sanctions are going to work, and he’s also put down markers that, as the way he put it, “The only thing that has ever caused the Iranians to stop their nuclear program has been the perceived threat of U.S. military action,” not Israeli military action, but U.S. military action. And he’s shifting the onus, you know, if and when sanctions fail, and he thinks they probably will fail, the only thing that can really stop the Iranians is the threat of U.S. military action. And I think he’s putting all these pieces in place.”
Exactly. And what does anybody expect Obama is going to do when the Republicans are bitching at him in 18 months about having done NOTHING about Iran, and the Israelis are screaming at him again?
Obama brought the Israelis in on the planning of the attack, according to Joe Klein. As I pointed out here earlier, THIS MAKES NO SENSE. Especially since Dr Lani Kass, a former Israeli military officer, has been working with the Air Force since at least 2007 on planning the war with Iran.
Secret US air force team to perfect plan for Iran strike
www dot timesonline dot co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2512097.ece
But it also makes no sense to say, “We don’t want the Israelis to attack Iran, so we’ll do it”. Nor does it make sense to say, “We don’t want the Israelis to attack Iran, so we’ll con Israel into thinking we’ll do it”. How long is that going to last?
Nobody asks the “next question” in any of these discussions. Pathetic.
LOST: one pair rose colored glasses, myopic correction. lost at the intersection of http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/wq/summary/v023/23.1abdo.html and Middle East Quarterly www dot meforum dot org/39/irans-dialogue-of-civilizations-a-first-hand
Reward: blurred and double vision but more realty-prone.
Dan Cooper:
You ought to be made aware that in Israel, Zionism is like Democracy and Freedom in US.
No sane and loyal citizen can be against it.
Eric
“One question, which may have been answered but I haven’t seen the answer. Amiri claimed in his second video that he was working on his doctorate degree. Where?”
Apparently he was working for his second doctorate degree in CIU Arizona campus on the subject of hydraulics with emphasis on water boarding but unfortunately he could not “Endure”.
Tzvi gross
I suggest you read my previous post properly once more.
The problem is Zionism and not Judaism.
Zionism is the greatest enemy of Jews by using them and abusing them in this colonialist, apartheid and barbaric project.
It is an offense to intellect that the West can see thousands upon thousands of evidence of Zionist atrocities and continue supporting this fascist state with its sick pretence to ‘democracy’.
61 years ago, Palestinians were happy because there was no Israel.
All of a sudden people from all over the world came to Palestine and terrorised the indigenous Palestinian people, stole their land, forced them out of their homes and established this raciest and apartheid state of Israel that we see today.
The entire world is aware that occupation is a crime, the Israelis are the aggressors, and the Palestinians are the victim.
So many decent Jewish people in Israel are totally against their governments murderous atrocities in Palestine.
More than 80 Israeli students announced their refusal to serve in the Israeli military because of what they call their nation’s track-record of oppression in the occupied territories.
The conscientious objectors issued a letter declaring their determination not to join up during a news conference in Tel Aviv in protest against the government’s policies towards Gaza and the West Bank.
They publicly declared that:
“We cannot ignore the truth –
The occupation is a violent, racist, inhumane, illegal, undemocratic, and immoral.
“We, who were educated on the values of liberty, justice, honesty and peace, cannot accept it.”
It was signed by 84 high school students.
The biggest problem facing the world and the Middle East peace process are the powerful Israel lobby organisations in USA.
The US media is a complete mouthpiece for the Israel Lobby. Never a critical word is heard against Israel.
James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York, He wrote: http://petras.lahaine.org/todos.php
“The great majority of the world’s people are sickened and incensed by Israel’s mass murder of the citizens of Gaza.
Israel’s embargo, the daily ‘targeted’ assassinations of Palestinians, the ‘targeted’ missile attacks against civilians, the land, sea and air blockades and the blatant ‘targeted’ destruction of the infrastructure of Gaza.
No government, indeed a democratically elected Hamas government, can stand by while its people are starved and murdered into submission.
According to the respected Congressmen Bermans, only the lives of Jews matter, not the growing thousands of murdered, dismembered and mutilated citizens of Gaza – they do not count as people!
Until we neutralize the pervasive power of the Zionist Power Configuration in all of its manifestations – In American public and civic life – and its deep penetration of American legislative and executive offices,
We will fall short of preventing Israel from receiving the arms, funding and political backing to sustain its wars of ethnic extermination.
Israel will continue its barbaric ethnic cleansing.
Israel objective is to obliterate Palestinian civilization and to wipe Palestine off the map.”
Avi Shlaim is a professor of international relations at the University of Oxford wrote;
How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe.
,http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/07/gaza-israel-palestine,
“A wide gap separates the reality of Israel’s actions from the rhetoric of its spokesmen.
It was not Hamas but the IDF that broke the ceasefire. It did so by a raid into Gaza on 4 November 2008 that killed six Hamas men.
Israel’s objective is not just the defence of its population but the eventual overthrow of the Hamas government in Gaza by turning the people against their rulers.
And far from taking care to spare civilians, Israel is guilty of indiscriminate bombing and of a three-year-old blockade that has brought the inhabitants of Gaza, now 1.5 million, to the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe. ”
Israel has imprisoned 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza strip.
They have caged them in like animals, and control their food, water, electricity and more importantly their freedom, and when Hamas tries to defend its people and resist this illegal occupation, Israel call them terrorist.
Hamas is a democratically elected government.
Israel wants us to believe Hamas is a terrorist organization, but the truth is that Hamas is a democratically elected government.
In January 2006, President Carter together with UN and British observers monitored Hamas’s election and categorically confirmed that the election was free and fair.
I have lost counts of how many times Israel has deliberately massacred the innocent Palestinian civilians during the past 61 years.
This makes Israel is a terrorist state and the biggest threat to world peace.
There is no doubt in my mind that the Israel’s leaders are guilty of crimes against humanity and must be brought to the international court of justice and tried as war criminals.
The most destructive power in the world is the Israel lobby in America, they control the media and they are the reason why Israel kills with impunity.
Israel disregard for justice & human rights will have far-reaching consequences for mankind
We already know that Israel genocide in Palestine has created terrorist and fundamentalism around the world, which will indirectly, effects all of us one way or another.
The whole world is suffering because of Israel desire to exist by force and occupation.
Why do we all have to suffer because Israel wants to exist by force and occupation?
When is it going to sink in, that Israel has never wanted peace, it wants the West Bank and Jerusalem without Arabs, and of course, it requires continued hostility to justify the charity and sympathy it receives!
Israel is a serial killer and will continue to kill until and unless the international community collectively make the leaders of Israel accountable for their actions.
I cannot understand how the world can stand by and make excuses for an Israeli government hell bent on instigating aggression. It’s unfathomable that the people, who were victims of unspeakable crimes in World War 2, are now the perpetrators of equally heinous acts.
tzvi gross ,You are a clear example of how Israel encourages their supporters to hijack public opinion in forums.
The supporters of Zionist terrorists believe in Brainwashing the international public opinion by playing “the self-defence” card, “rockets”, “Human shield”, “cover ups” and blaming the victim.
In the age of satellites and television, This does not work anymore, and the international community have called your bluffs.
tzvi gross ,Just remember, we are defending the justice and fairness for the innocent and defenceless Palestinian women and children but you are defending Israel’s illegal occupation and 61 years of atrocities.
In the carnage in Gaza, we all witnessed with horror how Israel brutally massacred more than 700 innocent and defenceless Palestinian women and children.
The Zionist leaders of Israel did not even let the international press inside Gaza because they knew that their atrocities & genocide would be revealed and their propaganda machine would collapse.
In a sick attempt to brainwash the public opinion in this forum and others, the supporters of this apartheid state are still trying to portray that the aggressor (Israel) is the victim, how low and sick can you get.
It is time the international community get together and put sever pressure on this apartheid and racist state, as they did to South Africa.
Those of us who condemn Israel’s atrocities believe in Love, justice, fairness and the rule of law in this world and we cannot tolerate to see the criminal and terrorist leaders of Israel to get away with murder.
A new study by Professor Paul Rogers at the British think tank, Oxford Research Group, released on July 15, 2010 – has warned Israel and its Western allies that an Israeli military strike on Islamic Republic will not stop its nuclear program but “its consequences would be devastating and would lead to a long war”.
http://rehmat2.wordpress.com/2010/07/17/study-attack-on-iran-wont-work/
I admire the courage of those who feel this Amiri incident is clear enough to speculate on its explanation. I’m still far short of that.
One question, which may have been answered but I haven’t seen the answer. Amiri claimed in his second video that he was working on his doctorate degree. Where?
Pak,
“It rained today; is that America’s fault too?”
Eric
“I’m pretty sure the rain was Iran’s fault.”
At least in iran they celebrate when it rains, they have rain prayer and Rain Celebration Day “Jashneh Baran” in late spring.
Pak is been Enduring too long and may have got a bit rusty with his Iranian culture
The zionist stooges are going down the tube. Many have expressed their dissatisfaction with Israel lobby and their puppets who are brought to the white house to serve Israel’s interest at the expense of others including American people.
JEREMY SALT in “Obama’s Collapse” writes:
{The spectacle of an American president sucking up to an Israeli prime minister is familiar but no less sickening every time it happens. Not since Eisenhower has an American president had the guts to stand up to Israel. With this single exception, all have fallen over themselves in their haste to give Israel whatever it wants and to hold it responsible for nothing, not even the murder of US citizens. The recent meeting between Barack Obama — effectively apologising because his middle name is Hussein — and Binyamin Netanyahu surely marks the lowest point in this sick relationship. Obama has now thrown in the towel. That is what the White House meeting represented. He talked of a peace process that does not exist and Israeli “concessions” that have never been made. Obama wants the nonexistent peace process to be resumed with a Palestinian government that is not the Palestinian government and a Palestinian president who is not the Palestinian president.
Everyone can see that the emperor is not wearing new clothes but no clothes. Can Obama see it himself? Almost certainly. He is a highly intelligent man, but with midterm elections coming up in November this is what he feels he has to say to appease the Israeli lobby. He has thereby gone the way of all American presidents with that single exception of Eisenhower. He has turned himself into a straw man before our eyes. The Obama who last year demanded a halt to all Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and occupied Jerusalem is now a figure of history. He had his moment and did not have the backbone to stand up for his declared convictions. Netanyahu went back to Israel and thumbed his nose at him. Obama challenged Netanyahu, then backed off, and has now surrendered obsequiously. It is a sad moment for the United States, and another disastrous moment for the Palestinians and the Middle East and perhaps even for the world.
The Obama who spoke when in Cairo last year of a “new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world” has been revealed as an eloquent windbag. The war on Afghanistan has been accelerated and with it the deaths of more civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The president who declared that, “we will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity and a state of their own” has done just that.
Obama’s refusal to heed UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- Moon’s repeated calls for an international inquiry into the Israeli attack on the Gaza aid flotilla is part and parcel of his collapse before the perceived might of the Israeli lobby. Of the nine passengers killed, one was a Turkish-American. The message received yet again is that Israel literally has a licence to kill — issued by the US government — whenever and whomever it wants.
None of this was enough to make Obama heed calls for an international inquiry, but then the US government did nothing when 34 of its sailors were killed in the attack on the USS Liberty in 1967, did nothing when Rachel Corrie was murdered by bulldozer, and did nothing more recently when an Israeli border policeman fired a tear gas canister at a young American woman in the occupied West Bank and blinded her in one eye. As John Mearsheimer told an audience of Americans recently, any of them could go to Israel and be killed there and the US would do nothing.}
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2010/1007/op23.htm
fyi wrote: “Please be advised that finally US and EU have realized that it was a mistake to take Iran to UNSC. They are loath to admit it publicly but that understanding finally has downed on them.”
what makes you say that?
Pak,
“It rained today; is that America’s fault too?”
I’m pretty sure the rain was Iran’s fault.
Michael,
I was surprised to read your comment: “Israel has the worst child poverty in the OECD.” The website cited below does confirm that Israel’s child poverty rate is roughly 20%, nearly double the OECD average (and even higher than Mexico’s). But, though I’m not a statistician or economist, the long “note” to the OECD graph (in particular, the second half of the note) makes me think we should take these OECD numbers with a very large grain of salt.
Here is the full text of that note:
Israel is still a candidate to join the OECD, but it’s already the focus of a number of reports from the organisation. For instance, this week sees the release of the first OECD Economic Survey of Israel as well as a Review of Israel’s Labour Market and Social Policies.”
“Israel has a number of interesting characteristics, not the least of which is the extent of poverty, which is more widespread than in any OECD country. Almost one in five people in Israel lives in poverty – i.e. in a household with income less than half of the national median. A number of factors are behind this, but one of the most important is that many people in Israel don’t work: about 40% of people of working age have no jobs, compared to about 33% in OECD countries. To some extent, this reflects culture attitudes in two large minority populations, Arabs and the Haredim (or ultra-Orthodox Jews). Among Arabs, only about a fifth of women have jobs; among the Haredim, only about a quarter of men (and half of women) have jobs, with most other men mostly devoting their lives to religious studies.”
“Complicating matters, both these communities have high birth rates compared to other groups. All told, nearly half of children entering primary school belong to one of other of these communities. According to the OECD Review, Israel will have to take action on a number of fronts – including in education, training, childcare, support for jobseekers and working conditions – if it is to ensure that these children do not inherit their parents’ economic disadvantage.”
END OF NOTE TO OECD GRAPH.
https://community.oecd.org/community/factblog/blog/tags/poverty
Pak
“Come on – do you really want to link the suicide bombings to the Amiri case? It rained today; is that America’s fault too? These terrorist groups are most likely supported to an extent by foreign agents”
Pak aziz
Thanks, for clearing that “these terrorist groups are most likely supported to an extend by foreign agents” that is exactly the question every Iranian asks, which countries foreign agents are supporting these terrorist groups, which foreign country would currently benefits the most, from an Iranian internal security imbalance and what alliances these foreign countries that are involved in these terrorist acts have, this is the common question that every Iranian asks and unfortunately in this current condition all the points are suggesting this country. And pointedly this will not “Endure” for the “America” with the Iranians.
Pak,
You wrote to Kooshy (regarding Scott Lucas):
“I cannot answer whether Scott is a good “organisational coordinator”, whatever that means.”
I and others on this website have had our disagreements with Scott Lucas, and still harbor faint hopes that he will recognize the errors of his ways someday. Nevertheless, Scott deserves praise for having acted quickly and effectively to get rid of an extremely obnoxious ad that Google had placed on his Enduring America website without his knowledge (until I pointed it out to him two days ago – Scott has promised to express his gratitude by changing his views on the fairness of the 2009 election).
As Scott explained to me, Google apparently just chooses which ads to place on websites which have authorized ad placements by Google – a word to the wise to any readers who may operate a website running Google ads. In some cases, the ad is gone (replaced by another) before the website owner even notices it, and so he may be entirely unaware that it ever appeared.
Though it appears that Scott got this straightened out promptly, I find it amazing that Google would require a website owner to take the initiative to get rid of an ad as disgusting as the one it had posted on his website:
Israel Girls
Bargain Prices. Smart Deals.
Save on Israel Girls!
wwwDOTDealTimeDOTcom
Click-through ad at DealTimeDOTcom:
Naughty Jerusalem Wifes
Husband Out For Work: You In For Naughty Pleasure!
Join For Free.
AffairsclubDOTcom/Jerusalem
I do not believe that the US or Israel will attack Iran. What we are witnessing is psycological warfare because their Oil is denominated in Euro’s and they will not surrender to the Central Banking System. Hezbollah has only 1000 full time and up to 10,000 part time fighters but were able to drive the Israeli army out of Lebanon in 2000 and defeat them in 2006. The Iran Revolutionary Guard has 125,000 active personnel and controls the paramilitary Basij Militia of 90,000. The Iranians have prepared for and will fight an asymmetrical war and with the Russian Sizzler SS-N-27 anti carrier missile in their arsenal the carrier groups will be sailing far offshore. Neither the USA or Israel can afford another war. The US is bankrupt and Israel has the worst child poverty in the OECD.
Dear kooshy,
I am very well thank you, enjoying the benefits of freedom and opportunity in the West as usual, as I am sure you are too.
I cannot answer whether Scott is a good “organisational coordinator”, whatever that means. I do not have specific disputes with him, even though I will not stay quiet if I feel something is not right. And finally, although I do not know what you are suggesting, I would hazard a guess that those who help Scott out are doing so out of their own free will and not for economic, nor training (whatever that means), purposes. They are not gedas like many Basiji’s are. But, as I said, I am only hazarding a guess!
By the way, I am flattered that you are implicitly implying that I work for Scott, because I would love a job right now. The graduate jobs market is very tough at the moment where I live.
Come on – do you really want to link the suicide bombings to the Amiri case? It rained today; is that America’s fault too? These terrorist groups are most likely supported to an extent by foreign agents, but I look beyond the superficial. Why are Iranian nationals willing to take money from foreign agents in order to blow up members of their military; people who are tasked with defending them? Why is the situation so dire for Baluchi Sunnis, as well as many other minorities, to push them to commit such vile acts? And why was the Jundallah not disbanded, despite the execution of Abdolmalek Rigi? Is it really America’s fault, or are we as Iranians handing them opportunities on a plate?
Life must be so easy for you, or lazy; it depends on how you look at it. But please, carry on blaming America if it helps you sleep at night. I want you to wake up fresh tomorrow morning so you can be well prepared to exploit your freedom of speech and abundant resources to continue condemning the West on a CIA website.
Are the three “American Border Wonderers’ end up paying the price for their colleague’s clumsy rendition and handling of Shahram Amiri case, one would want to think after the blunter they would keep quiet until the wonderers case in Iran is settled, but not this bunch they get mad and end blowing up a mosque or two, just to make a point. Wow, it sounds that American inelegance community like its foreign policy planers could not part from the soviets era, hello this is a different world maybe, just maybe same propaganda and tactics wouldn’t work.
The Fall of Obama
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
http://www.counterpunch.org/
“It’s Obama’s fault, too, that, as a communicator, he cannot rally and inspire the nation from its fears. From his earliest years he has schooled himself not to be excitable, not to be an angry black man who would be alarming to his white friends at Harvard and his later corporate patrons. Self-control was his passport to the guardians of the system, who were desperate to find a symbolic leader to restore America’s credibility in the world after the disasters of the Bush era. He is too cool.”
Please be advised that finally US and EU have realized that it was a mistake to take Iran to UNSC. They are loath to admit it publicly but that understanding finally has downed on them.
[It was an espcially bad move for US since it gave control of the Iran dossiere to other strategic competitors such as Russia and China.]
Furthermore, there is a (limited to the policy analysts but not the principles yet) consensus emerging that the sanctions policy is a dead-end and that they (US & EU) must proffer more substantive inducments to Iran.
DWZ,
You are quite right to say Iranian enrichment of LEU is not contrary to the national interests of the US, and that the apparent effort of the Obama administration to force Iran to stop enriching U is the result of pressure from the Israel lobby and Israel.
Richard Steven Hack,
Most Americans are not aware of the difference between Iraq and Iran, and many do not comprehend that they are different countries.
Bravo! It does seem clear the CIA has ZERO intelligence that Iran has decided to build nukes, and none that the government would like to have them. But a falsified NIE a la Iraq 2002 is a huge danger to the national security of the US itself.
Pak
“Dear kooshy and Persian Gulf,
Even you CIA buddies – the Leveretts – make no assertion that he was kidnapped. So far, the facts indicate that he most probably defected (or he was some sort of double agent).
Regardless, Scott Lucas makes an interesting point on his blog:”
Pak-e-aziz-Dell
How are you, I hope all is well,
Look, we all know that Scott regularly checks this site in light of that would you think that Scott is a good organizational coordinator? do you have any disputes with his implementations? And do you justify use of intern commentators as consequence of an economic reason or more a necessary training process.
Thanks
Chomsky: The Iranian Threat
http://rehmat2.wordpress.com/2010/07/16/chomsky-the-iranian-threat/
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LG17Ak02.html
unfortunately, Sabzollahis (greenollahis) and Iran haters are getting the ground in Asia Times Online!
Dear Irshad,
I am doing exactly that; looking at it critically and thinking for myself. I cannot say for sure that he defected, but I find it amusing you say that he was kidnapped for sure. Buying into the Iranian propaganda I see. And why not, they are always right!
1. Amiri was a young and not highly qualified.
2. Amiri managed to “escape” from the CIA, twice.
3. Amiri managed to leave the USA of his own free will.
4. Extreme mental and physical torture looks like this:
www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/legacyimg/2009/08/abtahi2.jpg
or this:
enduringamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/BAGHI1.jpg
Poor old Amiri, gaining a good few pounds during his torture.
5. Even your CIA buddies – the Leveretts – make no claim that he was kidnapped. I would expect this from such regime sympathisers.
6. The regime’s response has been relatively muted, in spite of the onslaught of their propaganda campaign. Mottaki stated that they would need to investigate further before knowing the full truth.
7. The regime is well known for its “persuasion” techniques, so it is plausible that Amiri felt threatened to return.
I do not know the truth, unlike you apparently. All I know is that this case is highly suspicious, was obviously a failure (as the Leveretts claim) and Amiri’s life will never be the same.
The Establishment Spin Doctors seem to have been taken by surprise in this situation: it has taken them a while to get their spin worked out. But now they seem to have a plan, judging by this NYT ‘report’ (the NYT making itself available as a conduit for propaganda, as usual):
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gP71w28_7HBU8CMzVZZiZcQW3QvA
‘They’ seem to be trying to turn the negative implications of Amiri as a source onto the 2007 NIE, thus (they would appear to hope) invalidating what appears to have been for several years now the only thing standing in the way of war! Clever devils, aren’t they? Taking lemons and making (poisonous) lemonade they are…
Pak,
You are very naive to say the least! Wake up and smell the coffee beans…you seem to believe anything that the US Govt says without looking at it critically and thinking for yourself.
Also, I am very interested the role of Saudi Arabia in this affir and what will be the Iranian reaction – if any – to them partaking in the kidnapping of a foreigh national whilst on pilgrimage – a holy act in itself and a gross breach of trust and protection by the “Custodian of the 2 Holy Sanactuaries”.
Shame on the Saudis for being part of such a scheme and a bigger shame on them for doing it to a pilgrim!
It’s far from superficial to ask if Amiri was kidnapped or defected. I know that most folks now believe that it’s quaint to think that the US government SHOULDN’T be in the kidnapping business, but, you know, um, it’s WRONG to kidnap people! Yes, yes, I know, Might Makes Right and so on. Jack Bauer. But it’s wrong, very very wrong, to kidnap people.
Still, if the point being made here is that the most significant aspect of this situation is the light it shines on US Iran ‘intel’, and the way it highlights not only the LACK of intel that condemns Iran, but also, more importantly, the sheer determination of the US government to somehow finagle at least the APPEARANCE of such intel, that somehow ‘condemns’ Iran, then that is a point well made. Clearly, the ‘facts’ are once again being ‘fixed around the policy’, and the policy, once again, is war.
The strategic situation doesn’t favor war, nor does the economic situation, but as far as I can tell, the folks driving our wars aren’t put off by any of that. It seems evident that the pop-Neitzchean triumph-of-the-will philosophy expressed openly one time during the Bush administration (‘we make history; you watch us make it’) still holds sway.
The Obama Regime has done a brilliant job, one must say, of getting the ‘powers that matter’ globally, by and large, on board with its (and Bush’s) completely absurd, and shockingly cruel Iran policy. What that says about the nature and character of global governance at this point is a topic worth discussing. Another time.
Many who question the Iran policy seem intent to blame it on ‘the war party’, and/or ‘the Israel lobby’, etc.. These blamings seem intent on glossing over Obama’s own very active role in ratcheting up the conflict and in molding public opinion to favor war. Basically, Obama may be leaning backwards while he is running towards war, but he is very much leading the charge.
A study of Obama’s career shows that far from being the peace-loving progressive that the Left seems to fantasize about, Obama has been a highly pragmatic opportunist, with a keen sensitivity to wind direction. He always seems to know what Big Money wants. THAT is the principle one must understand to understand Obama. Would the Israel Lobby, or the War Party, have any influence if financial power wasn’t backing them up? Of course not. As the Amiri case demonstrates, there are few or no cogent arguments in play here. There is mainly lots of ’sound and fury signifying nothing’, except for one thing: the wind has been steadily picking up. This whole drama may signify nothing, but it does seem to have a direction, and that direction seems to be towards war.
Strong piece, Leveretts. You seem to be the first commentators to ask the key questions here, except that the issue of kidnapping is far from trivial.
Dear kooshy and Persian Gulf,
Even you CIA buddies – the Leveretts – make no assertion that he was kidnapped. So far, the facts indicate that he most probably defected (or he was some sort of double agent).
Regardless, Scott Lucas makes an interesting point on his blog:
“The battle for propaganda advantage over Shahram Amiri, the scientist who was in the US for 14 months before returning to Iran this week, continues. It appears that US officials are trying to counter any impression that the time and effort expended on Amiri was largely wasted on information of limited use.
The latest line, handed out to The New York Times, is that Amiri had been a CIA informant inside Iran for several years. He was “one of the sources” for the central 2007 National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s nuclear programme. (The officials don’t seem to care that, if true, this would indicate Amiri provided information against the immediate military development of nuclear weapons: the NIE said that Tehran would not have that capability, even if it had the intention, for several years.)
Doesn’t take much to guess who the primary casualty of this campaign may be. Despite the smiles in the photographs as Amiri returned to Tehran, the US statements — regardless of truth — put the black mark on him in Iran. A US official was forthright, “His safety depends on him sticking to that fairy tale about pressure and torture. His challenge is to try to convince the Iranian security forces that he never cooperated with the United States.””
“the twin deadly explosions in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan in which more than 20 people were killed.”
Pakistanization of Iran by the US/Israel/Saudi Arabia. We never forget or forgive.
Down with enemy of Iran, bastards
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=134969§ionid=351020101
Richard
“Combined with the Pollyannas who still think Obama is some kind of “Peace President” or some kind of “engager”, the war is unstoppable.”
“We might as well all go home and forget about it.”
In the current US economic political condition another US initiated war is a impossibility, What makes a war possible is not just to have armament and or personnel capability a favorable strategic condition is even more important which is currently unavailable to US to successfully conduct a war with a nation of Iran, actually as once the great American philosopher Donald Rumsfeld did “you can go to war with the army you have not the army you wish you have” but dependently you will not want to go to war without favorable strategic condition which currently is not available and don’t look like it can become available for foreseeable future , the reason for this continued bombardment of propaganda at the American public and the world opinion is to create the necessary strategic condition which fortunately have so far continuously failed .
Richard
In my opinion yes, you can go home and turnoff the CNN and ignore the propaganda which US” intelligence community” in the absence of other tools wish to believe will finally make the Iranians to fold, there is Persian proverb that summons the current US condition perfectly which the meaning of it is “one with a torn ass will not jump over the fire” the irony that often is ignored here is, the Iranians already know how badly US’s rectum is torn therefore they are really not that worried that US may become an eligible candidate for the next “chahar shanbeh sory” fire jump competition.
Interesting article on the Iranian attempt to send an aid ship to Gaza.
The most interesting parts are the number of senior IRGC officers who looked forward to a military confrontation with Israel in the process… As I’ve said, there are hardliners – even veterans of the Iran-Iraq war – who aren’t afraid of Israel or the US.
Iran averts aid ship collision with Israel
www dot atimes dot com/atimes/Middle_East/LG16Ak01.html
Provocations, anyone?
Lebanon accuses Israeli patrol of crossing border
news dot yahoo dot com/s/afp/20100715/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictlebanonisraelborder
Here you go!
Poll: Most Americans would back Israel attack on Iran
www dot haaretz dot com/news/diplomacy-defense/poll-most-americans-would-back-israel-attack-on-iran-1.302222
Well, 56% anyway – the rest couldn’t care less one way or the other. Besides they’re so stupid they think Iran is 60 miles off the coast of Miami…just like they did Iraq. Look it up.
Here you go!
US Envoy Vows to Shield Israel, Militarily and Diplomatically
news dot antiwar dot com/2010/07/15/us-envoy-vows-to-shield-israel-militarily-and-diplomatically/
Quote:
Speaking today at a reception for her Israeli counterpart, US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice vowed that the United States would remain eternally committed to ensuring Israel’s regional military superiority and promised that they would continue to shield Israel from diplomatic fallout for its behavior at the United Nations.
“As U.S. President Barack Obama pledged, we will continue U.S. efforts to combat all international attempts to challenge the legitimacy of Israel—including and especially at the United Nations,” Rice declared.
“Why is no journalist from a major media outlet in the United States asking why the Obama Administration drove the P-5+1 to push a new sanctions resolution against Iran, when there is such clear disarray, disagreement, and desperation in the U.S. Intelligence Community regarding Iran’s nuclear program?”
If you don’t know, I can’t tell you.
But you DO know – the Israel Lobby.
Combined with the Pollyannas who still think Obama is some kind of “Peace President” or some kind of “engager”, the war is unstoppable.
We might as well all go home and forget about it.
I think, the issue here is: Mr.Amiri was apparently kidnapped. there is no question about it. his family was in Iran and nobody would have cooperated (or acted in a way) in this situation as Ms. Clinton wanted people to believe so. the U.S gov. has to explain who brought him to the U.S at the first place, and for what purpose. what was Mr.Obama’s reaction about the case so far? he is expected to talk about human dignity, justice… as we were hearing from him regarding the election aftermath; i.e Neda!
what Mr.Amiri disclosed, whether really secret or not, is not surprising. he was an individual in the hand of a mighty gov. no rational Iranian would expect him to do otherwise. it’s really regrettable, as always, to see the reaction of Iranian media abroad. they have, all but, ignored the very fact that he was kidnapped. and yet these people are Iran’s Human Rights defenders; Bu****** (I mean, what we hear from these so called Iranian human rights advocates)
here is also another view:
http://zamaaneh.com/special/2010/07/post_1290.html
Obliterator in chief is now really sorry for the payback on the Amiri’s repatriation to Iran
“US condemns deadly SE Iran blasts”
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has condemned the twin deadly explosions in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan in which more than 20 people were killed.
Did the extended hand of Mr.O signed the funding to rendition Mr. Amiri or just some rouge actors in the inelegance community acted by themselves.
“If the United States ends up attacking Iranian nuclear targets, it will do so because the Islamic Republic is enriching uranium—something Iran is permitted to do under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.”
Yes, indeed. And that’s exactly the US goal: to completely terminate uranium enrichment in Iran. It this matter, Obama has defaulted to Bush’s policy. It’s an unrealizable objective, but much of the US policy establishment seems oblivious to this reality.
The Shahram Affair
Kidnapped Iranian scientist exposes US government as a criminal enterprise
By Justin Raimondo
July 15, 2010 “Anti War” – - Confronted with the accusation that Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri had been kidnapped by US and Saudi intelligence agencies while on a trip to Mecca, and brought to the US for interrogation, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley averred: “We are not in the habit of going around kidnapping people.”
To which the only proper response is: Oh, really?
Given the numerous instances of “extraordinary rendition” in which our government has been engaged, and no doubt continues to be engaged, one wonders how Senor Crowley can say that with a straight face. But then again, being an official spokesman for the US Department of State no doubt requires some sort of facial surgery – or, perhaps, an industrial-strength shot of Botox – to achieve the desired results.
Now that Shahram has shown up at the Iranian interests section of the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, D.C., claiming to have been abducted by the US and Saudi intelligence services, and tortured, Crowley may want to review his knowledge of US habits.
In March, ABC News released an “exclusive” report hailing Shahram’s “defection” as a great US “intelligence coup,” the missing link in the puzzle piecing together a picture of Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program. Shahram is said to have worked for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and news of his “defection” appeared alongside reports of an Iranian “secret” nuclear facility on the outskirts of the city of Qom.
As it was, the Iranians themselves revealed the existence of the Qom facility and opened it up to inspection by the IAEA, but the matter of Shahram’s disappearance appeared to throw a shadow over their efforts at openness — which was, of course, the whole point.
Our spooks had a narrative ready made. We were to be told that the defector had brought with him a laptop which contained all the secrets of Iran’s nukes, and this was to be touted as yet more evidence – as if this administration needed any – Iran was harboring nuclear ambitions in defiance of the “international community.” “According to the people briefed on the intelligence operation,” ABC “reported,” “Amiri’s disappearance was part of a long-planned CIA operation to get him to defect. The CIA reportedly approached the scientist in Iran through an intermediary who made an offer of resettlement on behalf of the United States.”
That, at least, was the official story, dutifully relayed to the world by ABC “News”: Shahram, however, upended their neat little narrative, months later, with a YouTube video – that indispensable weapon of counter-propaganda – in which he told us:
“I was kidnapped last year (2009) in the holy city of Medina on 3 June in a joint operation by the terror and abduction units of the American CIA and Saudi Arabia’s Istikhbarat [intelligence agency].They took me to a house located somewhere that I didn’t know. They gave me an anesthetic injection. When I became conscious I was in a big [voice interrupted] towards America.
“During the eight months that I was kept in America, I was subject to the most severe tortures and psychological pressures by the American intelligence investigation groups.
“And the main aim behind these investigation teams and the pressure imposed on me was to make me take part in an interview conducted by an American media source and claim that I was an important figure in Iran’s nuclear program and I had sought asylum in America at my own will. And (to say) while seeking asylum I took some very important documents and a laptop with classified information on Iran’s military nuclear program in it to America from my country.”
This was followed, hours later, by yet another video, in which someone claiming to be Shahram – and looking, admittedly, just like him – said he wanted to clear up “rumors,” denied having any political views or that he had betrayed his country, and stated: “I am in America and intend to continue my education here. I am free here and I assure everyone that I am safe.”
Gee, it’s a good thing the CIA has their own YouTube channel: now there’s a solid investment of the US taxpayers’ money. But Shahram wasn’t done with them quite yet.
On June 29, a third video cropped up, which was played by Iranian television, in which the real Shahram cleared up the mystery:
“I, Shahram Amiri, am a national of the Islamic Republic of Iran and a few minutes ago I succeeded in escaping US security agents in Virginia. Presently, I am producing this video in a safe place. I could be re-arrested at any time.”
After appealing to Western human rights organizations to intervene on his behalf – fat chance! – he continued:
“The second video which was published on YouTube by the US government, where I have said that I am free and want to continue my education here, is not true and is a complete fabrication. If something happens and I do not return home alive, the US government will be responsible.”
All this time Washington had refused to acknowledge Shahram’s presence in the US, but when he showed up at the Pakistani embassy an official who refused to be named told the media: “He came to this country freely, he lived here freely, and he has chosen freely to return to Iran.”
Such evidence as we have indicates only the last of those three assertions bears any resemblance to the facts. Aside from Shahram’s testimony, and his presence at the embassy, the high quality of the second video, and the relatively poor quality of the first and third, is suggestive of an effort by US intelligence to cover up a badly botched job.
What’s interesting about this story isn’t only the scandal of a kidnapping carried out by our spooks – after all, we should be inured to that by now – but the role the US media was slated to play if Shahram had gone along for the ride. I wonder which “American media source” was tasked with interviewing him. Could it be ABC “News,” the outlet given the “exclusive” story of his alleged “defection” just before the Qom story broke? Just guessing there, but amid all the controversy over media folk partying with administration movers-and-shakers, this kind of beach party ought to make us stop and think about the degree to which the media is functioning as an arm of government.
Not that this is anything all that new. Back in the day, you’ll recall, it was a Washington Post reporter, Dillard Stokes, who, in league with the FBI and the Roosevelt administration, wrote a letter under an assumed name to the defendants in the Great Sedition Trial of 1940, seeking antiwar literature which he proposed to distribute to US soldiers: this was later used as evidence by the prosecution. During the cold war era, the media was utilized by the FBI” s “red squad” to plant stories and spread disinformation, and there’s no reason to believe this symbiosis has ended with the coming of the Obama-ites to Washington: quite the opposite, I’m sure. We are also all too familiar with “cooked” intelligence, the smell of it having permeated Washington (and the front page of the New York Times – thanks, Judy!) in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.
The signal achievement of the Obama administration may have been to combine these elements of deception, and add to them the crime of kidnapping.
Let no one berate us libertarians for describing the US government as a criminal enterprise: it isn’t disloyalty to the country, or even a penchant for overstatement, that drives us to such rhetorical excesses. It’s the story of what happened to Shahram Amiri: it’s the lies, the thuggery and hubris of a ruling elite that believes it can get away with anything. Such is their contempt for the American people – and the peoples of the world – that they think we’ll swallow any tall tale, no matter how crudely fabricated, because we’re just not as smart as their cunning selves.
However, it looks like they’re not cunning enough by half, having blown the Shahram operation and exposed their embarrassingly inept tradecraft. They can try to patch up this gaping hole in US credibility by claiming Shahram left only to protect his family from retaliation, but there are certain problems with this.
Since the family wasn’t harmed in the year Shahram spent in captivity in the US, one can reasonably infer they were never in any danger. Indeed, if they were in danger, and the US let him return home because of it, then wouldn’t revealing this alleged “threat” plant suspicion in the minds of Iranian officials that perhaps he had turned over valuable intelligence to the Americans – and place Shahram and his family in mortal danger?
In any case, I did warn you far in advance that we’d soon be treated to a veritable cornucopia of “news” stories detailing the nefarious plans of Iranian ayatollahs to nuke Israel, and Brooklyn, too. The Obama-ites are under increasing pressure from the Israel lobby to abandon the CIA’s assessment that Iran ended a nascent nuclear weapons program in 2003: Shahram’s “defection” was supposed to have facilitated this development. Instead, the whole scheme backfired, and, rather than making the case for war with Iran, the Shahram affair has confirmed what some of us knew already: that the US government is a criminal enterprise with no morals, no credibility.