John Pilger: The Lying Game (psy-ops against Iran)

[JohnyCanuck]

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.

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.

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.

SNIP

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.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23597.htm

[geek tragedy]

1. John Pilger prefers Ahmadinejad to Obama.

In his warped world, Iran is the angel of this good vs evil struggle.

[JohnyCanuck]

2. "This good vs. evil struggle"

That's an example of bullshit psychological warfare thinking right there. Paint the other side as the irredeemable, evil-does and your own side as the white hatted cowboys riding with Jesus and his angels to the rescue. Killing evil-doers while you grab their loot is so much easier than killing human beings.

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”.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23597.htm

[leveymg]

3. Don't oversimplify. Pilger is one of the last of the really great investigative reporters.

He has an amazing body of work. A brilliant, insightful writer with great instincts and an eye for detail that elevates his reporting to the level of literature. For decades, he's traveled and interpreted the world, and time almost always proves him right.

Believe me, he doesn't see any angels, anywhere.

[Democracyinkind]

4. LoL. You have no idea that you just made a case in point.

In Pilger's world, Iran is not intrinsically evil, as the United States are not intrinsically good.

Narrative vs. reality.

[ShadesOfGrey]

5. K&R