20 June 2009
Bobo will lead us
The movers and shakers are set to move on Iran if the media accounts are anything to go by.
Here is David Brooks on PBS Lehrer (19 June): "Well, first of all, Iran is the regime in the world that threatens -- that, A, has killed more Americans than any other regime in the world in the last 10 years and, B, threatens the stability of the entire Middle East with a religious ideology. I believe the revolution in 1979 was a gigantic world historical event which has unleashed radical Islam that we've been dealing with ever since then".
Let's take this hideous bunkum in stages: Iran "A, has killed more Americans than any other regime in the world in the last 10 years."
Where, when, how, why and WTF??? I haven't heard of Iran killing ANY Americans in that time. I expect Bobo accepts the propaganda lie that Iran has been behind the insurgency in Iraq. Complete bunkum, of course. There is no evidence of any Iranian activity in Iraq. None. Most of the suicide bombers have been Sunni fundamentalists who have come in from Saudi Arabia to assist their Iraqi Sunni brothers. If you wanted to blame any outsiders for US deaths in Iraq you would blame Saudi Arabia, our so-called ally in the GWOT.
And the regime that "B, threatens the stability of the entire Middle East with a religious ideology."
That would also be Saudi Arabia. In June 2006 Senators Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) headed a Congressional hearing that explored the sources of funding for Islamic terrorism. For the Saudis, it was a devastating exercise. Despite protests from Saudi-defenders at the State Dept. and "unnamed" administration officials that the Saudis were helping in the War on Terror, the FBI's assistant director for Counterterrorism called Saudi Arabia the "epicenter" of terror funding. When asked if that included al Qaeda, he said, "Yes." That's Saudi funding for al Qaeda after 9/11.
Saudi Arabia was the nation referred to by Sen. Bob Graham, Head of the 911 Joint Congressional Inquiry from Feb - Dec 2002, when he was interviewed on the PBS Lehrer Hour in Dec 2002:
"I was surprised at the evidence that there were foreign governments involved in facilitating the activities of at least some of the terrorists in the United States.... I think there is very compelling evidence that at least some of the terrorists were assisted not just in financing -- although that was part of it -- by a sovereign foreign government ... It will become public at some point when it's turned over to the archives, but that's 20 or 30 years from now." (link) (link)
The two lead 9/11 hijackers in San Diego were directly supported by the Saudi government. And Saudi Arabia has been the primary source of funding for jihadist madrassas throughout the world peddling the religious fundamentalism that David Brooks decries.
What's more, Brooks seems blissfully unaware that Pres.Bush last year signed a directive ordering US Intelligence agencies to mount a covert operation designed to destabilize Iran and bring down their leadership. To this end he sought and received $400 million from Congress, funds that have been provided to Iranian dissident groups by the US to be used in the recent election.
There is considerable evidence from Washington Intelligence and Defense insiders that the US has given arms support to the MEK , Jundallah and Baluchi terrorists for operations inside Iran for several years. When Pres. Ahmadinejad spoke at Columbia University on his last visit he claimed that 3,000 Iranian deaths had occurred as a result, a claim that, even allowing for some exaggeration, almost certainly has a basis in fact given various bombings inside Iran, a claim largely unreported by our Western media.
Seymour Hersh summarises:
Robert Baer, a former C.I.A. clandestine officer who worked for nearly two decades in South Asia and the Middle East, told me. “The Baluchis are Sunni fundamentalists who hate the regime in Tehran, but you can also describe them as Al Qaeda,” Baer told me. “These are guys who cut off the heads of nonbelievers—in this case, it’s Shiite Iranians. The irony is that we’re once again working with Sunni fundamentalists, just as we did in Afghanistan in the nineteen-eighties.” Ramzi Yousef, who was convicted for his role in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is considered one of the leading planners of the September 11th attacks, are Baluchi Sunni fundamentalists.
One of the most active and violent anti-regime groups in Iran today is the Jundallah, also known as the Iranian People’s Resistance Movement, which describes itself as a resistance force fighting for the rights of Sunnis in Iran. “This is a vicious Salafi organization whose followers attended the same madrassas as the Taliban and Pakistani extremists,” Nasr told me. “They are suspected of having links to Al Qaeda and they are also thought to be tied to the drug culture.” The Jundallah took responsibility for the bombing of a busload of Revolutionary Guard soldiers in February, 2007. At least eleven Guard members were killed. According to Baer and to press reports, the Jundallah is among the groups in Iran that are benefiting from U.S. support.
The C.I.A. and Special Operations communities also have long-standing ties to two other dissident groups in Iran: the Mujahideen-e-Khalq, known in the West as the M.E.K., and a Kurdish separatist group, the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan, or PJAK.
The M.E.K. has been on the State Department’s terrorist list for more than a decade, yet in recent years the group has received arms and intelligence, directly or indirectly, from the United States.
The beat up on Iran continues. Just last week our lead Aussie paper, Murdoch-owned The Australian, peddled an Iran piece by Amir Taheri which quite clearly was part of a News Ltd global push against Iran. Taheri previously edited a French-language journal called Politique Internationale, which specialized in printing fake interviews and he was the author of an utterly baseless story about Iranian Jews being forced to wear yellow stripes. He works with the notorious neocon PR firm Benador. Most Aussie readers will not have heard of Benador but when Rumsfeld and Cheney were trying to make the case for invading Iraq back in 2002 the CIA kept telling them that Iraq posed no threat to the US and was not supporting al Qaeda. That wasn't what the war mongering blowhards wanted to hear so they bypassed the usual US Intelligence channels and set up their own "Intelligence" group in the Pentagon called the Office of Special Plans (OSP) which "massaged" the raw intelligence to give them whatever political slant they wanted. They hired PR firm Benador to sell the war for them. Remember all those lies about Iraq having nuclear weapons to bomb America? That was Benador. This company was the publicist for a swag of hard line Right wing neocons, Perle, Woolsey, Michael Ledeen and Frank Gaffney all intent on remaking the entire Middle East according to their idiotic ideological bent. Attack Iraq? No problem. Bring down the Iranian government? Right on. Amir Taheri is a hack, a gun for hire with about as much political credibility as the dodgiest of used car salesmen. It's no accident he appears at this critical time. Rank propaganda without a fig leaf of credibility from a proven liar.
And Amir Taheri's 1989 book, "Nest of Spies: America's Journey to Disaster in Iran", was reviewed this way by noted Iranian scholar Shaul Bakhash: Taheri "repeatedly refers us to books where the information cited does not exist," and is "capable of generalizations of breathtaking sweep and inaccuracy." According to Bakhash, "[Taheri's] interpretations of the documents are often egregiously inaccurate," and he "has trouble transcribing even the simplest information."
Yet he gets a run in Australia's leading newspaper.
The putsch is on. Bobo will lead us. Taheri will follow.
Here is David Brooks on PBS Lehrer (19 June): "Well, first of all, Iran is the regime in the world that threatens -- that, A, has killed more Americans than any other regime in the world in the last 10 years and, B, threatens the stability of the entire Middle East with a religious ideology. I believe the revolution in 1979 was a gigantic world historical event which has unleashed radical Islam that we've been dealing with ever since then".
Let's take this hideous bunkum in stages: Iran "A, has killed more Americans than any other regime in the world in the last 10 years."
Where, when, how, why and WTF??? I haven't heard of Iran killing ANY Americans in that time. I expect Bobo accepts the propaganda lie that Iran has been behind the insurgency in Iraq. Complete bunkum, of course. There is no evidence of any Iranian activity in Iraq. None. Most of the suicide bombers have been Sunni fundamentalists who have come in from Saudi Arabia to assist their Iraqi Sunni brothers. If you wanted to blame any outsiders for US deaths in Iraq you would blame Saudi Arabia, our so-called ally in the GWOT.
And the regime that "B, threatens the stability of the entire Middle East with a religious ideology."
That would also be Saudi Arabia. In June 2006 Senators Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) headed a Congressional hearing that explored the sources of funding for Islamic terrorism. For the Saudis, it was a devastating exercise. Despite protests from Saudi-defenders at the State Dept. and "unnamed" administration officials that the Saudis were helping in the War on Terror, the FBI's assistant director for Counterterrorism called Saudi Arabia the "epicenter" of terror funding. When asked if that included al Qaeda, he said, "Yes." That's Saudi funding for al Qaeda after 9/11.
Saudi Arabia was the nation referred to by Sen. Bob Graham, Head of the 911 Joint Congressional Inquiry from Feb - Dec 2002, when he was interviewed on the PBS Lehrer Hour in Dec 2002:
"I was surprised at the evidence that there were foreign governments involved in facilitating the activities of at least some of the terrorists in the United States.... I think there is very compelling evidence that at least some of the terrorists were assisted not just in financing -- although that was part of it -- by a sovereign foreign government ... It will become public at some point when it's turned over to the archives, but that's 20 or 30 years from now." (link) (link)
The two lead 9/11 hijackers in San Diego were directly supported by the Saudi government. And Saudi Arabia has been the primary source of funding for jihadist madrassas throughout the world peddling the religious fundamentalism that David Brooks decries.
What's more, Brooks seems blissfully unaware that Pres.Bush last year signed a directive ordering US Intelligence agencies to mount a covert operation designed to destabilize Iran and bring down their leadership. To this end he sought and received $400 million from Congress, funds that have been provided to Iranian dissident groups by the US to be used in the recent election.
There is considerable evidence from Washington Intelligence and Defense insiders that the US has given arms support to the MEK , Jundallah and Baluchi terrorists for operations inside Iran for several years. When Pres. Ahmadinejad spoke at Columbia University on his last visit he claimed that 3,000 Iranian deaths had occurred as a result, a claim that, even allowing for some exaggeration, almost certainly has a basis in fact given various bombings inside Iran, a claim largely unreported by our Western media.
Seymour Hersh summarises:
Robert Baer, a former C.I.A. clandestine officer who worked for nearly two decades in South Asia and the Middle East, told me. “The Baluchis are Sunni fundamentalists who hate the regime in Tehran, but you can also describe them as Al Qaeda,” Baer told me. “These are guys who cut off the heads of nonbelievers—in this case, it’s Shiite Iranians. The irony is that we’re once again working with Sunni fundamentalists, just as we did in Afghanistan in the nineteen-eighties.” Ramzi Yousef, who was convicted for his role in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is considered one of the leading planners of the September 11th attacks, are Baluchi Sunni fundamentalists.
One of the most active and violent anti-regime groups in Iran today is the Jundallah, also known as the Iranian People’s Resistance Movement, which describes itself as a resistance force fighting for the rights of Sunnis in Iran. “This is a vicious Salafi organization whose followers attended the same madrassas as the Taliban and Pakistani extremists,” Nasr told me. “They are suspected of having links to Al Qaeda and they are also thought to be tied to the drug culture.” The Jundallah took responsibility for the bombing of a busload of Revolutionary Guard soldiers in February, 2007. At least eleven Guard members were killed. According to Baer and to press reports, the Jundallah is among the groups in Iran that are benefiting from U.S. support.
The C.I.A. and Special Operations communities also have long-standing ties to two other dissident groups in Iran: the Mujahideen-e-Khalq, known in the West as the M.E.K., and a Kurdish separatist group, the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan, or PJAK.
The M.E.K. has been on the State Department’s terrorist list for more than a decade, yet in recent years the group has received arms and intelligence, directly or indirectly, from the United States.
The beat up on Iran continues. Just last week our lead Aussie paper, Murdoch-owned The Australian, peddled an Iran piece by Amir Taheri which quite clearly was part of a News Ltd global push against Iran. Taheri previously edited a French-language journal called Politique Internationale, which specialized in printing fake interviews and he was the author of an utterly baseless story about Iranian Jews being forced to wear yellow stripes. He works with the notorious neocon PR firm Benador. Most Aussie readers will not have heard of Benador but when Rumsfeld and Cheney were trying to make the case for invading Iraq back in 2002 the CIA kept telling them that Iraq posed no threat to the US and was not supporting al Qaeda. That wasn't what the war mongering blowhards wanted to hear so they bypassed the usual US Intelligence channels and set up their own "Intelligence" group in the Pentagon called the Office of Special Plans (OSP) which "massaged" the raw intelligence to give them whatever political slant they wanted. They hired PR firm Benador to sell the war for them. Remember all those lies about Iraq having nuclear weapons to bomb America? That was Benador. This company was the publicist for a swag of hard line Right wing neocons, Perle, Woolsey, Michael Ledeen and Frank Gaffney all intent on remaking the entire Middle East according to their idiotic ideological bent. Attack Iraq? No problem. Bring down the Iranian government? Right on. Amir Taheri is a hack, a gun for hire with about as much political credibility as the dodgiest of used car salesmen. It's no accident he appears at this critical time. Rank propaganda without a fig leaf of credibility from a proven liar.
And Amir Taheri's 1989 book, "Nest of Spies: America's Journey to Disaster in Iran", was reviewed this way by noted Iranian scholar Shaul Bakhash: Taheri "repeatedly refers us to books where the information cited does not exist," and is "capable of generalizations of breathtaking sweep and inaccuracy." According to Bakhash, "[Taheri's] interpretations of the documents are often egregiously inaccurate," and he "has trouble transcribing even the simplest information."
Yet he gets a run in Australia's leading newspaper.
The putsch is on. Bobo will lead us. Taheri will follow.
# posted by kenj @ 18:20 
