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Attytood 9/13: "Disgraced ABC consultant and push for war in Iran"

By Michael, Section Propaganda and media manipulation
Posted on Fri Sep 14, 2007 at 03:24:48 PM EST

An interesting tidbit here, from Attytood.

Seems one Alexis Debat, a (now ex-) ABC consultant, has been responsible for a number of alarming stories about the global terror threat which, um, turn out not to be, well, you know, true in any way. Those stories include:

The Pentagon's blitzkrieg plan for Iran (Times, here)
Massive suicide bomber training in Pakistan (ABC, here)
And possibly the reports of Iran's sudden expansion of nuclear facilities (ABC, here)

It would be cool, had I the time, to build a meme tracking database for this kind of stuff, but I don't. If you have anything to add, add it in comments.

Oh -- final tidbit. Mr. Debat worked for the Nixon Center.

Attytood's article is here, with much more careful attention to detail. Read it.

(1 comment) Comments >>

Pushing for a Fight.

By Hidari, Section Iraq-Iran-Syria
Posted on Fri Sep 14, 2007 at 06:24:45 AM EST

Yet again, we have to pinch ourselves, and remind ourselves of some objective facts. Here are the objective facts which constitute the backdrop to this 'story'.

Iran has no nuclear weapons.
Iran, overtly, has no nuclear weapons programme.
It is not at all clear that Iran even has a covert nuclear weapons programme. We just don't know. That might mean it does but (and this is far less frequently pointed out in the Western media) equally, it might not.

So this is the context for the following story.

(773 words in story) Full Story

It Begins

By Hidari, Section Iraq-Iran-Syria
Posted on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 12:41:08 AM EST

'British forces have been sent from Basra to the volatile border with Iran amid warnings from the senior US commander in Iraq that Tehran is fomenting a "proxy war." Reports Today's Independent

'In signs of a fast-developing confrontation, the Iranians have threatened military action in response to attacks launched from Iraqi territory while the Pentagon has announced the building of a US base and fortified checkpoints at the frontier.

The UK operation, in which up to 350 troops are involved, has come at the request of the Americans, who say that elements close to the Iranian regime have stepped up supplies of weapons to Shia militias in recent weeks in preparation for attacks inside Iraq.'

(731 words in story) Full Story

US puts pressure on UN about Iran....quelle surprise.

By Hidari, Section Iraq-Iran-Syria
Posted on Mon Sep 10, 2007 at 03:41:56 AM EST

Without getting too philosophical, Ludwig Wittgenstein (in his work 'On Certainty') and the philosopher of history R. G. Collingwood (in his 'An Essay on Metaphysics') both wrote about how any 'rational' argument or debate is underpinned or framed by 'absolute presupositions'....ideas that are rarely, if ever, stated explicitly, but which underly the whole debate. For example, Wittgenstein wrote about how (in the 1950s) it was an absolute presuposition about debates on mental health that no one had been to the Moon, and that anybody who claimed they had was nuts. You didn't have to state it every time you had a discussion about mental health (or the moon). It was just taken for granted by any sane, 'civilised' person, and provided a shared social framework for any discussion to take place in.

Given that this is true (and I think it is)...what are 'our' (i.e. the Western media's) absolute presupositions about Iran?

(1254 words in story) Full Story

These are the sort of voices we should be listening to

By Hidari, Section Iraq-Iran-Syria
Posted on Sun Sep 09, 2007 at 03:14:30 AM EST

These are the sort of voices we should be listening to, but, unfortunately, stories like this are not the ones that get the headlines in the corporate media, generally speaking.

'Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Friday he sees no reason to go beyond diplomacy over Iran's nuclear program and warned against rhetoric that is "a reminder of pre-war Iraq."

"We have not seen any weaponization of their program, nor have we received any information to that effect -- no smoking gun or information from intelligence," he said.

ElBaradei said the United Nations' nuclear watchdog group had a reasonable timetable for Iran to come clean on nuclear activities but that detractors weren't giving its efforts a chance.'

(375 words in story) Full Story

Yet more bad news about Iran

By Hidari, Section Iraq-Iran-Syria
Posted on Thu Sep 06, 2007 at 04:39:53 AM EST

Here is another depressing story about manipulation of the UN, the 'nuclear issue', and yet again, how this issue is being used to provide a causus belli for war.

(676 words in story) Full Story

"We are going to hit Iran .. bigtime": 9/2/07

By Michael, Section Iraq-Iran-Syria
Posted on Mon Sep 03, 2007 at 12:26:29 PM EST

This just in, and you've probably already seen it, but this is the straw that's breaking this camel's back. A diarist at DKos, Maccabee, has a story from a friend in the Navy. The diary entry on DKos was pulled for "unseriousness", but it is still available at Rense.com. I recommend you read it; the full text is duplicated below the fold for archival purposes.

(1341 words in story) Full Story

"The Next War Draws Nearer", Scott Horton, 8/23/07

By Michael, Section Iraq-Iran-Syria
Posted on Thu Aug 23, 2007 at 06:32:48 PM EST

Another journalist tallying some indications of the Iran situation. His list of indicators include these, which I find most convincing:

Labeling the Revolutionary Guards as terrorists
Costing for ground ops in Iran (as well as "reconstruction" efforts, probably even more half-assed than Baghdad and New Orleans)
Administration talking about casus belli
Bolton talking about bombs.
Parallels between Fox News coverage of Iraq and Iran.

The article is here on the Harper's site. It's sweet and to the point. Worth reading.

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