At least three new pieces of U.S. distributed anti-Iran propaganda came out today. The new push of false accusation goes into two directions or meme.
- Iran is providing weapons to Iraqi insurgents
- Iran is aligning with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban
We can be sure that more stuff feeding these meme will follow tomorrow to fill the echo-chambers of Sunday news shows and to burn them into the US public mind.
The first direction is following a proven path. The New York Times has Michael A Gordon writing: Deadliest Bomb in Iraq Is Made by Iran, U.S. Says
The
most lethal weapon directed against American troops in Iraq is an
explosive-packed cylinder that United States intelligence asserts is
being supplied by Iran.
As you will see, this is of course pure bullshit.
In general, what is the most lethal stuff? In any normal frame one
would suggest it’s the stuff that kills the most people. In this case
the described infrared triggered, chained, shaped charges have been
used very seldom.
But the report, based only on anonymous US officials is written by the same Michael Gordon who presented us with headlines like: BAGHDAD’S ARSENAL; White House Lists Iraq Steps To Build Banned Weapons and THE IRAQIS; U.S. SAYS HUSSEIN INTENSIFIES QUEST FOR A-BOMB PARTS. Both pieces were written by Gordon together with Judith Miller.
It is "aluminum tubes" all over again. When Gordon writes stuff like
this, he is just repeating but never questioning the ridiculous
assumptions whispered to him:
According to American
intelligence, Iran has excelled in developing this type of bomb, and
has provided similar technology to Hezbollah militants in southern
Lebanon. The manufacture of the key metal components required
sophisticated machinery, raw material and expertise that American
intelligence agencies do not believe can be found in Iraq. In addition,
some components of the bombs have been found with Iranian factory
markings from 2006.
There is nothing sophisticated
with shaped charges. These are known and used since world war one. To
convert, let’s say a regular 155mm artillery grenade into a shaped
charge, one needs a piece of solid copper and a lathe or a hydraulic
metal press. If those are not there hammer and anvil will do too. These
materials and the tools are well available in Iraq. Any half competent
mechanic can produce these things.
Gordon also writes:
American military officers
say that attacks using the weapon reached a high point in December,
when it accounted for a significant portion of Americans killed and
wounded in Iraq.
Indeed iCasualties.org, which is based on Pentagon reports, does count 71 soldiers killed by IEDs during last December.
But 41 of those died in or near Baghdad and north-east thereof, another 21 died in the western Sunni Anbar province. Gordon’s sources
say the shaped charge weapon is mostly used by Shia in the south and
was very deadly during December. How does this fit the facts?
It does not, but stenographer Gordon does not care to do those 10 minutes of research that it took me to debunk the claim.
The second meme is announced in a piece in the Washington Post which
has some saner reporting than the NYT and debunks the administration
take at least in part. But the implementation of meme is still
supported by this as it is by an article in the British Guardian.
The Post: Al-Qaeda Suspects Color White House Debate Over Iran
Last
week, the CIA sent an urgent report to President Bush’s National
Security Council: Iranian authorities had arrested two al-Qaeda
operatives traveling through Iran on their way from Pakistan to Iraq.
The suspects were caught along a well-worn, if little-noticed, route
for militants determined to fight U.S. troops on Iraqi soil, according
to a senior intelligence official.The arrests were presented to Bush’s senior policy advisers as
evidence that Iran appears committed to stopping al-Qaeda foot traffic
across its borders, the intelligence official said. That assessment
comes at a time when the Bush administration, in an effort to push for
further U.N. sanctions on the Islamic republic, is preparing to publicly accuse Tehran of cooperating with and harboring al-Qaeda suspects.
[…]
The new strategy, a senior administration official said, aims to
portray Iran as a "terror-producing country, instead of an
oil-producing country," with links to al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and death
squads in Iraq.
That
turns out be a bit difficult as Iran has been quite helpful and
arrested several AlQaeda members. Still the administration presses on.
There is also again a fight between the CIA and the Pentagon and there
are old UN resolutions threatening everybody who "houses terrorists"
which, in the mind-boggling interpretation of the administration, Iran
is doing when it detains purported AlQaeda members.
Since
al-Qaeda fighters began streaming into Iran from Afghanistan in the
winter of 2001, Tehran had turned over hundreds of people to U.S.
allies and provided U.S. intelligence with the names, photographs and
fingerprints of those it held in custody, according to senior U.S.
intelligence and administration officials.
[…]
One official said the CIA and the Pentagon’s Defense
Intelligence Agency have disagreed over how effectively the Iranians
are controlling al-Qaeda members and whether the Tehran government is
aware of the extent of al-Qaeda movements through the country.Nevertheless, administration officials said they are determined to press Iran on the matter.
"We are not convinced that the Iranians have been honest or open
about the level or degree of al-Qaeda presence in their midst," said
one Bush adviser who was instrumental in coming up with a more
confrontational U.S. approach to Iran. "They have not made proper
accounting with respect to U.N. resolutions, have not been clear about
who is in detention and have not been clear as to what is happening to
individuals who might be in custody."Bush administration officials pointed to U.N. Security Council
Resolutions 1267 and 1373, which state that harboring al-Qaeda members
constitutes a threat to international peace and security, and authorize
force to combat that threat.
Now on to The Guardian: Surprising partners among Tehran’s layer of alliances
In
the wake of anecdotal accounts of would-be Iranian jihadists turning up
in Afghanistan, western intelligence sources believe official contacts
have been made between the erstwhile enemies. Iranian intelligence
is thought to be providing some money and training to the Taliban and
giving safe passage for jihadists travelling from the Iraqi to the
Afghan front.Seth Jones, a terrorism expert at the Rand Corporation thinktank, who
has just returned from Afghanistan, said: "There are indications the
Iranians have opened contacts with insurgent groups, including the
Quetta Shura (the Taliban command council for southern Afghanistan)"
[…]
Meanwhile, the long-standing relationship with Hizbullah offers Iran
the potential to threaten US interests much further afield. Tehran
helped set up the Shia militia after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in
1982, and it has since developed a global presence stretching as far as
Lebanese communities in Latin America. In the event of an attack on
Iran, it could offer Tehran a potent network for reprisals.
The
logic of Iran supporting the Taliban after they helped to oust them in
2001/2002 seems a bit far fetched. As is the assertion that Iran allows
Sunni jihadists to travel into Iraq to blow up fellow Shias.
While the NYT piece is a straight copy from the campaign on Iraq, the
WaPo and the Guardian piece do a bit of balance. Will this help to stop
the efficiency of the propaganda campaign?
I do not believe so. Like with the campaign against Iraq the details
will be lost as soon as the meme are transferred to 30 second soundbites
on cable TV.
But it probably does not matter anyhow. Laura Rozen has an excerpt from a National Journal piece behind subscription walls:
"Even
if this PowerPoint presentation eventually gets made public … what
does this show us as to where Iran is really coming from?" [former
National Intelligence Council Middle East analyst Paul] Pillar asked.
"What is the larger significance? Even if Iranian assistance to an
Iraqi group is proven to everyone’s satisfaction, the
[administration’s] policy never rested on that. The policy [is being driven by a] much larger sense of Iran as the prime bete noire in the region,
and that is why the administration is trying to put together these
coalitions with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the Sunni states, that
we’ve been reading about. None of this hinges [on the Iran dossier]. We are not going to call this off if we can’t prove that Iran is furnishing munitions to Iraqi groups.…"