Blame Iran By “News” Without Any Facts

July 6, 2011

On July 1 the New York Times headlined: Iraq Cracks Down on Iran-Backed Shiite Militias. Nowhere does the article under that headline provide any facts which support the claim that those militia are backed by Iran. Those militia are allegedly Shia and that is enough to call them "Iran-backed".

Today the Washington Post headlines: Weapons prove Iranian role in Iraq, U.S. says. But the article contains no, that is zero, evidence for that claim. It says that:

Jeffrey[, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq,] provided details of the forensic testing after Gen. Lloyd Austin, commanding general of U.S. forces in Iraq, declined to do so earlier in the day.

But the article does not say or explain what "details of the forensic testing" the ambassador provided. Instead it mentions old U.S. assertions from 2009 and from 2008 and it trots out the old false meme of "explosively formed projectile” found in Iraq as coming from Iran. It also quotes an "expert" from the Israel Lobby who, of course, blames Iran for everything between sunrise and sundown.

Both articles, while using the claim of Iranian involvement in their headlines, do not provide any news at all with regard to Iranian connections to groups in Iraq. Their sole purpose seems to reenforce the meme by repeating it over and over.

Posted by b on July 6, 2011 at 11:10 UTC | Permalink

Comments

Yes, dude. Because we need to stay in Iraq. Because Iran is meddling. Because the Iraqis say they still need our “help.” Because whatthefuckever. We need excuses and excuses there will be.

Posted by: Mang | Jul 6 2011 12:26 utc | 1

Same as it ever was..

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 6 2011 14:07 utc | 2

Is that the link you wanted to post, Uncle $cam? Just wondering….

Posted by: jawbone | Jul 6 2011 14:15 utc | 3

“Because whatthefuckever“. Perfect. It’s the triumph and end of post-modernism. There are only competing narratives. All narratives are lies. But what comes after that?

Posted by: Guthman Bey | Jul 6 2011 14:44 utc | 4

Time was when all Muslims were everybody’s favorite whipping boy. Now the elites have gotten nuance–Shi’a Muslims are everybody’s favorite whipping boy.
The Saudis hate them by tradition and because the Iranian Revolution is a daily reminder of the Saudi regime’s illegitimacy. The Israelis hate them because Hezbollah effectively stands up to them and because it makes potentially good business sense to curry favor with the Saudis. The US hates them because they overthrew one of their despicable, brutal puppets 40 years ago and because you need some pipsqueak bogeyman to justify squandering $Trillions on “defense.”

Posted by: JohnH | Jul 6 2011 15:14 utc | 5

Yes there is also the state narrative being trotted out with great seriousness by Team Obama: the narrative that Iran is working to develop a nuclear weapon. The Administration jumps all over Seymour Hersh when writes to contradict the lie. One of the decent reporters at the NYT is the investigative journalist, James Risen, who broke stories about Bush’s illegal warrantless wiretapping, and wrote about the SWIFT program of data mining of financial records. Risen is presently trying to fight off a subpoena that would bring him before a Grand Jury. Team Obama wants Risen to help them convict Jeffery Sterling, a former CIA person, who they accuse of leaking intelligence about a bungled Agency operation against Iran, that happened 11 years ago during the Clinton Administration. Risen wrote a book, State of War, released in 2006, that contained description of “Operation Merlin”. In the minds of the CIA, this was a plot to deliver blueprints clandestinely into the hands of Iranian scientists; the idea was to hand them a design, which if it was pursued to construction, would result in a flawed, unusable weapon.
The Obama Justice Department wants to get Risen in front of a Grand Jury, and have him confirm that the ex-CIA agent, Sterling, was the one who leaked detail of the 11 year old operation that Risen wrote about 6 years ago.
Risen indicates that he will refuse to cooperate and would go to jail rather than give up any information about confidential sources.
Glen Greenwald has written brilliantly about this story, which also contains a link to Risen’s affadavit, the one Risen submitted to the Eastern Virginia District Court, to quash the subpoena the DOJ is trying to issue.

Posted by: Copeland | Jul 6 2011 16:56 utc | 6

I’m still waiting for evidence that proves Obama is a Democrat. He may talk like a Progressive, but he acts just like a Republican further to the right than Dubya/dick.

Posted by: Kevin Schmidt | Jul 6 2011 22:40 utc | 7

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