Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
May 20, 2009
Propaganda Headlines

London Times: Ahmadinejad claims Iran's new missile is capable of hitting Israel

Voice of America: Ahmadinejad: Iran Tests Missile that Could Reach Israel, Europe

But this what the official Iranian agency FARS reports:

"The Sejjil missiles are among multi-stage missiles which move fast and are able to go into space then come back and hit the target. It works on solid fuel," Ahmadinejad added to cheers from the crowd.

He did not specify the missile's range.

IRNA has nothing about the missile range, ISNA neither. Press TV claims the missile has 2,000 kilometer range which is of course not enough to reach Europe. Other Iranian missile types are already able to hit Israel so the new missile does not really change anything there either.

BTW none of the Iranian sources above reports that Ahmadinejad said something about Israel at all.

Comments

The meme: Saddam attacked Israel with missiles in Gulf War I. Ahmadinejad is the new Saddam. Ergo: the attack is inevitable, pre-emptive strike is not unly justified, but necessary.
ANY QUESTIONS?

Posted by: ralphieboy | May 20 2009 16:50 utc | 1

b – when i click the VOA link, the lede that comes up for me is: “Iran Claims to Have Test-Fired Mid-Range Missile”.

Posted by: Jeremiah | May 20 2009 17:41 utc | 2

jeremiah, for me to, but here’s the opening line:
“Iran’s state media says the country has successfully test launched a mid-range surface-to-surface missile that can reach Israel, southeastern Europe and U.S. bases in the Middle East. ”
is that true? does iran’s state media say that?

Posted by: annie | May 20 2009 17:47 utc | 3

Annie: I don’t know that Iranian officials need to state the range of the missile- do you think the figure is inaccurate? How far can the missile go, then? Why would the Iranians even officially disclose that in the first place?
My sense is what happened is someone drew a circle estimating 2000km from the Iranian border, saw that it encompassed one or two US bases, called it a headline. Lazy, yes. Propaganda, probably.
Can the missile reach Israel? Yes.
Can the missile reach “southeastern Europe?” Is SE Europe within 2k km of Iran? (I don’t know – failed geography in school.)
Can the missile reach US bases in the ME? I don’t know the locations of US bases at the moment.

Posted by: Jeremiah | May 20 2009 18:03 utc | 4

@Jeremiah @2 – VOA changed the headline
A screenshot from google taken a minute ago:
http://www.moonofalabama.org/images2/voascreen.jpg
http://www.moonofalabama.org/images2/voascreen.jpg
Also see this entry at the freeper site
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2254674/posts

Posted by: b | May 20 2009 18:15 utc | 5

“Can the missile reach “southeastern Europe?” Is SE Europe within 2k km of Iran? (I don’t know – failed geography in school.)
Can the missile reach US bases in the ME? I don’t know the locations of US bases at the moment.”
1. Maybe the border of south eastern Europe. Nobody would care about that at all. Saudi missiles and Israeli missiles can reach that too.
2. Sure. U.S. bases are everywhere around Iran. Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan …

Posted by: b | May 20 2009 18:18 utc | 6

Interesting – do you think the strategy is to get the meme ‘out there’, and *then* change the headline to deflect any criticism (“hey, we changed it!”)?

Posted by: Jeremiah | May 20 2009 18:38 utc | 7

“do you think the strategy is to get the meme ‘out there’, and *then* change the headline to deflect any criticism (“hey, we changed it!”)?”
Yes

Posted by: b | May 20 2009 18:45 utc | 8

Funny, the picture I saw of this purported launch would indicate that it’s a single-stage missile, not the multi-stage design the statement reported. In any event, Global Security has a webpage which shows a report made to Congress several years ago which contains a map of missile ranges from Iran. I would suggest taking a look at page CRS-17 for a map to see just where a 2000KM missile could reach. It looks like it might just make it int the southern Balkans. Turkey would be at the greatest risk but virtually none of the other NATO countries. A 2000KM-range medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) would offer ample trajectory options for targeting Israel however.

Posted by: PrahaPartizan | May 20 2009 18:46 utc | 9

Knickerbockers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n03a7cLf0M
Lies, lies, you’re tellin’ me that you’ll be true
Lies, lies
That’s all I ever hear from you
Tears, tears
I shed a million tears for you
Tears, tears
And now you’re lovin’ someone new
Someday I’m gonna be happy
But I don’t know when just now
Lies, lie-ies
A-breakin’ my heart
You think that you’re such a smart girl
And I’ll believe what you say
But who do you think you are, girl
To lead me on this way hey
Lies, lies
I can’t believe a word you say
Lies, lies
Are gonna make you sad someday
Some day you’re gonna be lonely
But you won’t find me around
Lies, lie-ies
A-breakin’ my heart
Someday I’m gonna be happy
But I don’t know when just now
Lies, lie-ies
A-breakin’ my heart
You think that you’re such a smart girl
And I’ll believe what you say
But who do you think you are, girl
To lead me on this way hey
Lies (ah!), lies (yeah baby)
I can’t believe a word you say
Lies, lies
Are gonna make you sad someday
Some day you’re gonna be lonely
But you won’t find me around
Lies, lie-ies
A-breakin’ my heart
I said, baby, now (breakin’ my heart)
Oh, yeah, you’re still breakin’ my heart (breakin’ my heart)

Posted by: Jerry | May 20 2009 19:02 utc | 10

Even if it could reach Israel or Europe it would be suicide for Iran to launch such an attack. And, Iran knows this.

Posted by: Hmm | May 20 2009 20:05 utc | 11

To #9
According to :
http://www.farsnews.net/newstext.php?nn=8708270155
2000 K Range. Solid fuel . 2 stage.Status: mass production
Photo
http://www.mehrnews.com/fa/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=882737
http://www.farsnews.com/imgrep.php?nn=8802301396

Posted by: Loyal Lane | May 20 2009 20:12 utc | 12

jerry!! that takes me back. didya’ll see me there dancin away in the background?

Posted by: annie | May 21 2009 0:02 utc | 13

The Seattle DJ talking heads were scandalizing the headlines on the talk-in shows.
“OMG! Ahmadinejad fired an ICBM up Netanyahu’s ass! Let’s hear your opinion! 1-800…”
Apparently the response was somewhere south of H1N1, and they missed the financial
report that the country is in worse shape than we’ve been told, “but boy, howdie,
did Angelina and Brad wow them at Cannes! Let’s hear your opinion~!”

Posted by: Paul Abdullah | May 21 2009 0:56 utc | 14

Sejil II

Posted by: hans blink | May 21 2009 9:06 utc | 15

Judging by readers comments posted on the TimesOnline Blog below the article, nobody is buying either the TIMES headline or the implied threat from Iran.
Shame on The Times which was once the pre-eminent global newspaper.

Posted by: Parviz | May 21 2009 10:09 utc | 16

I just read the NYT Blog and was delighted to note the overwhelming criticism of the way in which this event was reported (= distorted). Take a look at the letters that received the most Readers’ Recommendations!
NYT readers attack the propaganda

Posted by: Parviz | May 21 2009 10:27 utc | 17

Sorry, the link didn’t appear though I did everything right. Here is the full link:
http://community.nytimes.com/article/comments/2009/05/21/world/middleeast/21iran.html?s=3
One Zionist was even crying on the Blog because the comments were so overwhelmingly anti-Israeli. Booh-hoo.

Posted by: Parviz | May 21 2009 10:29 utc | 18

No Iranian attack on Isr. or other. No attack (US – Isr) on Iran. Won’t happen.
It is just a way of jockeying influence, a card in the horse trading process, an ink-blot test. Huh mixed metaphors, sorry.
Also, a way of reaffirming power, for all parties. Iran shows muscle to the voters, the others know it is fake but can sigh and gasp and pretend. Meanwhile, millions of Iraqis and Pakistanis are refugees…

Posted by: Tangerine | May 21 2009 11:37 utc | 19

Here’s terrific commentary by an Iranian who exposes Israel’s propaganda and real motives quite poignantly, in particular:
— the role in U.S. Mideast policy of convicted and pardoned criminal Elliott Abrams;
— the illogicality of alleged weapons shipments from Iran to Gaza via Egypt!
— Proof that the ‘fanatical’ Iranian regime in fact has a ‘pragmatic’ foreign policy;
— Israel’s theft of Palestinian water supplies;
— Israel’s desperate designs on the Litani River to steal Lebanon’s water;
— Israel’s disingenuous confusion of the Salafi Sunnis (their real enemies) with Shi’ite Iran;
— the true existential threat to Israel – demography – which Israel tries to conceal;
Congratulations, Mr. Sahimi. Superb.
I’m sure that, time/length permitting, Mr. Sahimi would also have mentioned Israel’s segregated housing for Arabs and Israelis, the Israeli highways whose use is forbidden to Arabs, and numerous other racist/Apartheid laws and customs which can only be concealed behind the Iranian red herring. Maybe in his next column.
In case the link doesn’t appear here it is in full:
http://original.antiwar.com/sahimi/2009/05/19/whats-netanyahu-really-afraid-of/
“What’s Netanyahu Really Afraid Of”

Posted by: Parviz | May 21 2009 13:18 utc | 20

Thanks for the link, Parviz! That rather long string of anti-Zionist comments, following the NYT’s propaganda piece about Iran showing further signs of wanting to wipe Israel off the map, reflects the fact that a large percentage of Americans, if not a majority of us, believe that by America being best buddies with Israel is doing more harm than good for us and our standing in the world. The same sort of thing can be said about our military and health-care system. Most of us want single-payer healthcare and want drastic cuts made in defense. But neither is likely to happen as long as the people calling the shots in Washington are making a killing by keeping us in a perpetual state of war and by keeping the administrative side of our health-care system wasteful and antiquated.

Posted by: Cynthia | May 21 2009 16:56 utc | 21