Iran's Nuclear Threat Is A LIE

By John Pilger
10-6-9

  Obama's "showdown" with Iran has another agenda. The media have been  
tasked with preparing the public for endless war

http://www.rense.com/general87/lise.htm

In 2001, the Observer 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.

The threat is one-way

On 16 September, Newsweek disclosed that the major US intelligence  
agencies had reported to the White House that Iran's "nuclear status" had  
not changed since the National Intelligence Estimate of November 2007,  
which stated with "high confidence" that Iran had halted in 2003 the  
programme it was alleged to have developed. The International Atomic  
Energy Agency has backed this, time and again.

The current propaganda derives from Obama's announcement that the US is  
scrapping missiles stationed on Russia's border. This serves to cover the  
fact that the number of US missile sites is actually expanding in Europe  
and the "redundant" missiles are being redeployed on ships. The game is to  
mollify Russia into joining, or not obstructing, the US campaign against  
Iran. "President Bush was right," said Obama, "that Iran's ballistic  
missile programme poses a significant threat [to Europe and the US]." That  
Iran would contemplate a suicidal attack on the US is preposterous. The  
threat, as ever, is one-way, with the world's superpower virtually  
ensconced on Iran's borders.

Iran's crime is its independence. Having thrown out America's favourite  
tyrant, Shah Reza Pahlavi, Iran remains the only resource-rich Muslim  
state beyond US control. As only Israel has a "right to exist" in the  
Middle East, the US goal is to cripple the Islamic Republic. This will  
allow Israel to divide and dominate the Middle East on Washington's  
behalf, undeterred by a confident neighbour. If any country in the world  
has been handed urgent cause to develop a nuclear "deterrence", it is Iran.

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.

Preparing for endless war

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".

During the Bush years, according to the great whistleblower Daniel  
Ellsberg, a military coup took place in the US, and the Pentagon is now  
ascendant in every area of American foreign policy. A measure of its  
control is the number of wars of aggression being waged simultaneously and  
the adoption of a "first-strike" doctrine that has lowered the threshold  
on nuclear weapons, together with the blurring of the distinction between  
nuclear and conventional weapons.

All this mocks Obama's media rhetoric about "a world without nuclear  
weapons". In fact, he is the Pentagon's most important acquisition. His  
acquiescence with its demand that he keep on Bush's secretary of "defence"  
and arch war- maker, Robert Gates, is unique in US history. He has proved  
his worth with stepped-up wars from south Asia to the Horn of Africa. Like  
Bush's America, Obama's America is run by some very dangerous people. We  
have a right to be warned. When will those paid to keep the record  
straight do their job?


-- 
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