Back in November we discussed an implausible story about an allegedly lost drone and explosions in south Lebanon some secret Israeli "impeccable source" had fed to Richard Silverstein who published it at his blog Tikun Olam.
We concluded:
Israel's secret services are known for launching, often false, stories in foreign media. Such "foreign" stories then can be quoted by the Israeli media. These are usually stories that are somewhat military relevant and would otherwise not pass the military censors who sit in every Israeli news room. Despite being launched in foreign media such stories are made up and put out for the domestic Israeli public for self serving and/or political reasons.
It seems to me that Richard was in this case (ab-)used by someone for such a purpose.
On August 15 Richard published another rather implausible story under the headline Bibi’s Secret War Plan:
In the past few days, I received an Israeli briefing document outlining Israel’s war plans against Iran. The document was passed to me by a high-level Israeli source who received it from an IDF officer.
Richard translated parts of the "war plan" fed to him:
A barrage of tens of ballistic missiles would be launched from Israel toward Iran. 300km ballistic missiles would be launched from Israeli submarines in the vicinity of the Persian Gulf. The missiles would not be armed with unconventional warheads [WMD], but rather with high-explosive ordnance equipped with reinforced tips designed specially to penetrate hardened targets.
The missiles will strike their targets—some exploding above ground like those striking the nuclear reactor at Arak–which is intended to produce plutonium and tritium—and the nearby heavy water production facility; the nuclear fuel production facilities at Isfahan and facilities for enriching uranium-hexaflouride.
A barrage of hundreds of cruise missiles will pound [Iranian] command and control systems, research and development facilities, and the residences of senior personnel in the nuclear and missile development apparatus. Intelligence gathered over years will be utilized to completely decapitate Iran’s professional and command ranks in these fields.
To anyone with a bit of military knowledge the scenario is totally implausible. Israel simply does not have the capacity to fire "a barrage of hundreds of cruise missiles". Despite that implausibility the BBC picked up on these plans to commit war crimes that Richard Silverstein published:
Richard Silverstein, an American journalist and blogger on Israeli affairs, says he has been given a leaked document which outlines a plan for an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
He describes the document as a briefing memo that is being used by Prime Minister Netanyahu to show ministers that an attack on Iran would go "smoothly" and wipe out key infrastructure with a minimum of Israeli casualties.
But it turns out that Richard isn't the first to publish the "briefing memo that is being used by Prime Minister Netanyahu".
That "briefing memo" was published in Hebrew on August 11, four day's before Richard's post, at the Israel bulletin board Fresh as a thread in the military and security forum of that bulletin board. It was posted by "Nettle", the moderator of that forum and is headlined (google translation) Iran attack – "What if …?" The optimistic scenario": It starts with this remark:
The document presented here is written by an old friend of the forum who prefers to remain anonymous and identity. All information presented is based on the open foreign sources only.
Further down it continues with what seems to be the same content that Richard's "impeccable source" gave him (google translation):
Barrage of dozens of ballistic missiles from Israel to Iran shot. Missiles are equipped with non-conventional warhead – but charged warheads and explosives specially ruggedized bow, designed to penetrate hardened targets deep in particular.
…
Missiles hitting their target – some above ground, such as Arak nuclear reactor designed to produce plutonium and tritium, production facility next to the heavy water, the production facilities of nuclear fuel conversion facilities Baisfahn gas and uranium Hksaflurid.
…
The hundreds of cruise missiles adequate command and control systems, facilities development and research institutes, and even in residential buildings and villas surrounded by lush greenery of senior officials in the nuclear and missile development of Iran. For years, collected intelligence manifested almost complete decapitation of professional ranks and command of Iran in these areas.
So it turns out that "Bibi's secret war plan" for committing war crimes that Richard published is very similar to the "optimistic scenario" published on the Israeli bulletin board four days earlier.
It seems obvious to me that Richard has been had again by his "impeccable source". Said differently his source is (ab-)using him for the continuing Netanyahoo campaign in which Israel, because it can not do this on its own, is pressing the U.S. to bombing Iran's civilian nuclear program. This by threatening to otherwise do what it can not do on its own: bombing Iran's civilian nuclear program.
But like in November when we scrutinized the implausible story Richard was fed about explosions in south Lebanon Richard can not admit that he was fed bullshit. In a new post he tries to rationalize what happened:
About a week ago, I received the document from a known and trusted source who is, as I’ve often said here, a former Israeli government minister. It was in turn leaked to him by an IDF officer.
Unbeknowst to my source, the original IDF leaker also gave the document to a member of the Fresh forum, an Israeli gossip and politics forum. That Fresh member wrote a largely fictional account that included very limited portions of the actual document which I published in full.
Ahh – no. Indeed the post at the Fresh forum is pretty much completely the same text that Richard translated and published at his blog. Check the links above and see for yourself.
Some military propaganda buff wrote up a fictional (and very unrealistic) "optimistic scenario" of an Israeli attack on Iran and published it for amateur discussion purpose on a Hebrew mil forum. That was picked up, edited slightly and fed to Richard Silverstein as part of the Netanyahoo blackmail campaign. Richard then translated it into English and published it as a "briefing memo that is being used by Prime Minister Netanyahu". This then got picked up by the BBC and the Israeli Ynetnews (google translation). It thereby fulfills exactly the purpose I described last November:
Israel's secret services are known for launching, often false, stories in foreign media. Such "foreign" stories then can be quoted by the Israeli media. … Despite being launched in foreign media such stories are made up and put out for the domestic Israeli public for self serving and/or political reasons.
Everyone is of course free to believe Richard's version of the story, that the text is indeed something relevant and original coming from the IDF or from Netanyahoo's office and that whoever leaked the text to him didn't pick it up from the Fresh forum but from a more reputable source. Everyone is of course free to believe that this leak to Richard has some different purpose than to spread Netanyahoo's propaganda message.
Everyone is of course also free to believe that the world is flat.