- In 2001, the Observer in London published a series of
reports that claimed an "Iraqi connection" to al-Qaeda, even
describing the base in Iraq where the training of terrorists took place
and a facility where anthrax was being manufactured as a weapon of mass
destruction. It was all false. Supplied by US intelligence and Iraqi exiles,
planted stories in the British and US media helped George Bush and Tony
Blair to launch an illegal invasion which caused, according to the most
recent study, 1.3 million deaths.
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- Something similar is happening over Iran: the same syncopation
of government and media "revelations", the same manufacture of
a sense of crisis. "Showdown looms with Iran over secret nuclear plant",
declared the Guardian on 26 September. "Showdown" is the theme.
High noon. The clock ticking. Good versus evil. Add a smooth new US president
who has "put paid to the Bush years". An immediate echo is the
notorious Guardian front page of 22 May 2007: "Iran's secret plan
for summer offensive to force US out of Iraq". Based on unsubstantiated
claims by the Pentagon, the writer Simon Tisdall presented as fact an Iranian
"plan" to wage war on, and defeat, US forces in Iraq by September
of that year a demonstrable falsehood for which there has been no
retraction.
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- The official jargon for this kind of propaganda is "psy-ops",
the military term for psychological operations. In the Pentagon and Whitehall,
it has become a critical component of a diplomatic and military campaign
to blockade, isolate and weaken Iran by hyping its "nuclear threat":
a phrase now used incessantly by Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, and parroted
by the BBC and other broadcasters as objective news. And it is fake.
-
- On 16 September, Newsweek disclosed that the major US
intelligence agencies had reported to the White House that Iran's "nuclear
status" had not changed since the National Intelligence Estimate of
November 2007, which stated with "high confidence" that Iran
had halted in 2003 the programme it was alleged to have developed. The
International Atomic Energy Agency has backed this, time and again.
-
- The current propaganda-as-news derives from Obama's announcement
that the US is scrapping missiles stationed on Russia's border. This serves
to cover the fact that the number of US missile sites is actually expanding
in Europe and the "redundant" missiles are being redeployed on
ships. The game is to mollify Russia into joining, or not obstructing,
the US campaign against Iran. "President Bush was right," said
Obama, "that Iran's ballistic missile programme poses a significant
threat [to Europe and the US]." That Iran would contemplate a suicidal
attack on the US is preposterous. The threat, as ever, is one-way, with
the world's superpower virtually ensconced on Iran's borders.
-
- Iran's crime is its independence. Having thrown out America's
favourite tyrant, Shah Reza Pahlavi, Iran remains the only resource-rich
Muslim state beyond US control. As only Israel has a "right to exist"in
the Middle East, the US goal is to cripple the Islamic Republic. This will
allow Israel to divide and dominate the region on Washington's behalf,
undeterred by a confident neighbour. If any country in the world has been
handed urgent cause to develop a nuclear "deterrence", it is
Iran.
-
- As one of the original signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty, Iran has been a consistent advocate of a nuclear-free zone in the
Middle East. In contrast, Israel has never agreed to an IAEA inspection,
and its nuclear weapons plant at Dimona remains an open secret. Armed with
as many as 200 active nuclear warheads, Israel "deplores" UN
resolutions calling on it to sign the NPT, just as it deplored the recent
UN report charging it with crimes against humanity in Gaza, just as it
maintains a world record for violations of international law. It gets away
with this because great power grants it immunity.
-
- Obama's "showdown" with Iran has another agenda.
On both sides of the Atlantic the media have been tasked with preparing
the public for endless war. The US/Nato commander General Stanley McChrystal
says 500,000 troops will be required in Afghanistan over five years, according
to America's NBC. The goal is control of the "strategic prize"
of the gas and oilfields of the Caspian Sea, central Asia, the Gulf and
Iran in other words, Eurasia. But the war is opposed by 69 per cent
of the British public, 57 per cent of the US public and almost every other
human being. Convincing "us" that Iran is the new demon will
not be easy. McChrystal's spurious claim that Iran "is reportedly
training fighters for certain Taliban groups" is as desperate as Brown's
pathetic echo of "a line in the sand".
-
- During the Bush years, according to the great whistleblower
Daniel Ellsberg, a military coup took place in the US, and the Pentagon
is now ascendant in every area of American foreign policy. A measure of
its control is the number of wars of aggression being waged simultaneously
and the adoption of a "first-strike" doctrine that has lowered
the threshold on nuclear weapons, together with the blurring of the distinction
between nuclear and conventional weapons.
-
- All this mocks Obama's media rhetoric about "a world
without nuclear weapons". In fact, he is the Pentagon's most important
acquisition. His acquiescence with its demand that he keep on Bush's secretary
of "defence" and arch war-maker, Robert Gates, is unique in US
history. He has proved his worth with escalated wars from south Asia to
the Horn of Africa. Like Bush's America, Obama's America is run by some
very dangerous people. We have a right to be warned. When will those paid
to keep the record straight do their job?
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