This Real News Network video highlights how the efforts to portray Iran as a moving force behind terrorist killings around the world have squat in the way of evidence behind them. A few months ago, Haaretz bewailed the fact that Netanyahu was deadly serious in saying there would be war with (as in against) Iran before year end, and the Western media was not taking notice. One way to monitor whether the US will indeed fall in behind Israel is by taking note of the nature and spin in the press coverage of Iran here.
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How about a short competition between tall people?
http://www.npr.org/2012/07/27/157495139/eyeing-jewish-vote-in-u-s-romney-goes-to-israel
Obama as anti-isreal…..Hillary running state dept….News to comedy…
Which way is up?
Laughable at the most. Journalism at it’s worst, no proofs… Pure speculation… And I’m definitely not a Netanyahu fan
Reminds me of a Persian saying, not sure if it’s a proverb, but the gist of it is:
One can clap their hands to obfuscate the passing of gas, until the odor gives you away.
So, good show Netanyahu. /clap
Porter makes quite a few assumptions about the motivation of all the parties involved, i.e. US, Israel, Iran, Hezbollah, etc. His assumes that the US and Israel have no information about the bombing in Bulgaria. He also makes assumptions, quite benign, about Iran and Hezbollah. (For example, Nasrallah is good, Hillary is bad.)
Why should we accept Porter’s assumptions rather than any other assumptions? He seems as biased and as ignorant as everyone else involved. In NC, we expect analysis not opinions and biases.
The point you are missing is that the point of view you are seeing in this piece is just as believable as anything you are hearing from the MSM. There is nothing the US or Israel have shown that supports believing their narrative, and they are not above lying to us. Are Iran and Hezbollah liars? Of course. Point being they are all liars so might as well believe one as the other.
If you think that anyone, even scientists, conduct analyses with no opinions or biases whatsoever, you’re too stupid to breathe.
Remember the USS liberty June 8 1967….
@ 4:57
In the January 16, 2004 edition of Stars and Stripes, the late Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, former commander of the U.S. 7th fleet wrote the following;
“On June 8, 1967, Israel attacked our proud naval ship, the USS Liberty, killing 34 American servicemen and wounding 172. Those men were then betrayed and left to die by our own government. Israeli reconnaissance aircraft closely studied the Liberty during an eight-hour period prior to the attack, one flying within 200 feet of the ship. Weather reports confirm the day was clear with unlimited visibility. The Liberty was a clearly marked American ship, in international waters, flying an American flag and carrying large U.S. Navy hull letters and numbers on its bow. U.S. military rescue aircraft were recalled – not once, but twice- through direct intervention by the Johnson administration. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara’s cancellation of the Navy’s attempt to rescue the Liberty, which I confirmed from the commanders of the aircraft carriers America and Saratoga, was the most disgraceful act I witnessed in my entire military career. To add insult to injury, Congress, to this day, has failed to hold formal hearings on Israel’s attack on this American ship.”
The Death of American Democracy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK7SRYp4sBc&feature=plcp
Rene,Guys like you always come out from under the rocks whenever Jews or Israel are mentioned.Why in heck was the Liberty,loaded with electronic spy gear,cruising around a war zone gathering info on Israels army & it’s movements in their battles across the Sinai?were they taking in the sunshine?testing new equipment?No,they were spieing on Israels troop movements,in it’s life & death struggle to survive,& passing the info to the Egyptian army via Washington.This was done under pressure from the big oil companies to help their Arab oil allies
Retired,
Sorry Jackson, it’s fifth-columnists and liars like you who crawl/slither out from from under rocks whenever Jews and Israel are mentioned. Cut the horse shit about Israel being spied on. Does Jonathan Pollard ring a bell? You busy trying to get that traitor a pardon?
Buzz Meeks
retired,
Pop quiz for you:
Who does the CIA consider to be the biggest spy threat to the USA?
Answer is here:
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/former-u-s-officials-say-cia-considers-israel-to-be-mideast-s-biggest-spy-threat-1.454189
Next time you want to bullshit us with “OMFG!! The bad ass USA wanted to SPY on the all-good and Holy Israel”…take a hike!
We don’t take hogwash kindly around here.
The USS Liberty was in international waters. Even farther than the same kind of ships are now from the Iranian shore… for example.
You must be joking: by sinking the USS Liberty AND showing the US political class (and the World in general) that Israel could get away with that without even a sanction, Israel asserted their effective control of the USA (via AIPAC, Hollywood and Goldman Sachs among others).
No other country has ever done that to the USA and got away unpunished. Israel got even a pay rise!
That’s all kinds of wrong from the viewpoint of US sovereignty.
Middle Seaman,
I agree with you. It is the chicken little syndrome, “The sky is falling.” Then right wing uses its scare ploys and is countered by the left with similar tactics. This is MSNBC theatrics. It would seem that the liberal/left press are part of the “cartel of anxiety.”
I’m tired of Israel’s warmongering.
I’d even dare say that this is an insider job with support of Saudi Arabia, the center of nearly all Sunni-Fundamentalism and its derived terrorism. A mini-9/11.
Thanks Yves for this Real News Network piece …
“In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”
George Orwell …
It’s become impossible to know what to believe anymore, or whose side a person or group is on. Maybe it always was. Just as it is impossible to know if Iran really is close to nuclear weapon capability. There is contradicting information. Instead of rubberstamping an order for fresh fuel for their research reactor that makes these medical isotopes back in 2009, as had been done in the past, constraints that Iran justifiably found unreasonable were placed on the transaction. The 20% enriched uranium, which Iran is manufacturing, is used to build nuclear warheads but is also needed for the production of medical isotopes, isotopes of which the world, and esp. Iran, is in short supply. So, we know they are producing HEU, what we don’t know is it’s purpose……perhaps now conveniently dual-purpose. AFAIK, the production of HEU is the primary evidence supporting the existence of a nuclear weapon program. In a Roll of the Dice, a book released earlier this year, it details the terms of an agreement worked out by Turkey and Brazil where Iran agreed to open their nuclear program to full transparency in return for sales of the nuclear material they needed to practice modern medicine. However, the deal was reached within 24 hours of China and Russia agreeing to economic sanctions, and the latter policy choice was made.
The funny thing is that as pointed out by a former CIA operative whose name I don’t recall, almost all of the intelligence collected is in the public domain. Given sufficient time and motivation, the “facts” can be known. Unfortunately we can’t all have the time and motivation to research the facts on all issues relevant to our lives. So instead we must place our faith in others to report and interpret stories for us, people who are inherently biased and often have agendas to promote. Some of us are obviously misplacing our faith.
Some day, Iran WILL have nuclear weapons, as will Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and many other countries. We can’t indefinitely prevent more countries obtaining them. And is Iran having nukes the scariest proposition for other folks here? Is anybody else more worried about Pakistan, who already has nuclear weapons, for example? Or North Korea, or even Israel?
I am not concerned in the least by a nation with a two millenia, or longer, cultural continuity, having the bomb. I am uneasy that ANYONE has them.
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have been problematic because we have chosen to be dependent on them, and Israel, for that matter, in a way that has no mechanism for moderating. This will prove progressively more difficult in the future as OECD nations become more and more the springboards for elite supranational ambitions that are divorced from broad based national agendas. Blofeld, Scaramanga, Goldfinger….you pick the applicable Bond villan but that is the future.
Opposition to Iranina nuclear ambitions is not based on fear of usage, but on the unacceptablilty of any nation having the ability to say not. In a sense it is an exercise in union busting, before the fact.
“Israel Betrayed U.S. Spy Within Syrian Chemical Weapons Program”
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2012/07/28/israel-betrayed-u-s-spy-within-syrian-chemical-weapons-program/
“US sees Israel, tight Mideast ally, as spy threat”
http://www.wral.com/news/political/story/11366946/
Israel sunk a US warship (USS Liberty), just to make a point, killing US servicemen – but the issue is never debated in the corresponding political levels such as the White House or Congress… Israel already sold US anti-missile technology to China (but it only caused a minor stir and was soon forgotten)… Israel is the most problematic US ally ever but the USA pays them billions in military aid every year no matter what.
And every US politician who wants to progress must pay fealty to Israel and the Israel Lobby (AIPAC notably). And it’s getting worse.
“And every US politician who wants to progress must pay fealty to Israel and the Israel Lobby (AIPAC notably).”
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/aipac-the-israeli-lobby/
Why always the political, financial and MSM support of Israel’s hawks? Why so little support of the Israeli political opposition to war with Iran? Why do Israeli politicians such as “Tzipi” Livni, whose party won the majority of votes in the last Israeli election, receive so little media coverage in the U.S.?
Who controls AIPAC?… and what are their ties to senior Israeli politicians and funding of U.S. politicians?
America is Israel, no? Well, minor satellite state of Israel, how about that? America is mostly a sandbox in which our Israeli bretheren play and make money, people like Sheldon Adelson etc.
I think of it more as a doormat, with Romney being the obsequious butler.
Gee, wasn’t too long ago that Presidential candidates would get grilled about taking money from foreign countries/nationals, huh?
Why, I sure seem to recall a huge sh*tstorm about a certain candidate – media/press code: Thomas Alba Internet – fundraising in 1996 and about how much Chinese money he allegedly took from foreign nationals, etc etc.
And that was on American soil!!
http://prospect.org/article/al-gore-and-temple-doom
Now it seems candidates can not only take millions and millions of dollars from traitorous fifth columnists and their foreign national spouses – looking at you Mr. + Mrs. “Sandy” Adelson! – but they can now go now and directly fundraise in a foreign country.
Sweet.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57481896-503544/romney-reopens-israel-fundraiser-to-reporters/
To reiterate for anyone who is too slow or brainwashed:
Israel is NOT an ally of the American people.
Israel is a protofascist, apartheid, police-state that is currently engaged in the genocide of the rightful owners of land they – i.e., Israel – currently illegally occupy.
For us to even be a “friend” to such a country much less have our politicians fundraise there and/or take money from people who support such a country is a universal disgrace and abnegation of any senses of justice, law and morality.
Since someone above mentioned Israeli spying on U.S. soil here’s a great article about how Arnon Milchan – a very successul Hollywood producer (Fight Club, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, L.A. Confidential, Natural Born Killers, many more see IMDB) was originally an Israeli spy who set up front companies to aid/abet in the stealing of nuclear weapson triggers for Israel.
Oh, don’t worry, he’s still free as a bird.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/07/23/arnon-milchan-excerpt-from-confidential-about-his-work-for-israeli-intelligence.html
But wait, it gets better.
Who worked with Milchan in these smuggling-rings?
Why, current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself!
What a friend America has in Mr. Netanyahu, huh?
Why, he not only helped steal nuclear weapon technology from us but he’s urging us to go to war against another country – Iran – whose sole crime I guess is that they unfortunately didn’t have their own team of traitous filth living in the U.S. at the time to accomplish said task.
Oh well.
http://original.antiwar.com/smith-grant/2012/07/03/netanyahu-worked-inside-nuclear-smuggling-ring/
Israel’s Big Lie might have legs here. Unfortunately for Likud, AIPAC, and Lieberman, 90% of Americans have no idea what or where Bulgaria is.
I didn’t like Porter’s flexible attitude when he said he doubted 9/11 could have been an inside job because it would have been “too complex.” I doubt it could have been anything but. Porter’s weirdness aside, our relationship with Israel has always been strategic. Israel is our beachhead in the Middle East. We allowed our nuclear technology to be stolen by their clever spies, etc. Israel has never been our enemy. We have always used Israel for our own ends and those ends now are totally focused on controlling world oil production, price and distribution. Notice the location of Bulgaria – it is on the western end of the Black Sea, very close to the sea lane into the Bosphorus whereby oil from Baku and the northern end of the Caspian accesses the Mediterranean. It could be just one more blockade of Iranian oil, or it could be a new play to control the sea lane in perpetuity, etc. We won’t go to war with Iran in the hot sense, we will just strangle them. And pretend like we are being prudent by not starting a war. And Israel will be the perennial fall guy.
The political “KABUKI” taking place today, choose sides, who to believe? How about that old saying; “are you better off today then you were in the past”? Drink the kool-aid, that’s what they want you to do. After all, it is your children/grandchildren who will be paying the bills that this present group of congress critters are indebting future generations with. The big question: “who will win out in the end? Will it be with a bang or a wimper”.
9/11 was definitely a false-flag event. It is easy to purchase silence from those who perpetrated 9/11, along with threats of death for them and their families. Because the government is all powerful, this makes a very commanding deterrent for anyone involved speaking out. And those who carried out 9/11 are certain, if they do say anything, they will soon be assassinated and be as dead as the 3,000+ plus innocent souls who they helped kill in the 9/11 tragedy.
To a Registered Professional Engineer, the government’s report of the 9/11 tragedy is pure Hollywood fiction.
It is the equivalent of someone saying:
“I am forty feet tall, and I walked to the moon, by following the yellow brick road. Wearing a baseball cap, night shirt, sandals and carrying a teddy bear.” With the resulting discussion in the multi-national corporate owned media (Viacom; Comcast; News Corp; Disney; Time Warner; CBS) focusing solely on why they felt compelled to bring along a teddy bear.
9/11 is most definitely a false flag event! The conclusion is terrifying. Psychopaths control the US.
You can conclude that psychopaths control the US even without relying on bullshit that nobody believes and that only makes you look like a crazy idiot.
Oh, look: Ad hominems.
How quaint.
You’re completely wrong.
It’s dangerous to lump people together, but it’s more accurate to say people who believe the official story are naive idiots than it is to say that about people who question the official story.
It’s usually people that don’t think that well and are unusually susceptible to group think that have the reaction you do. People who will believe anything someone in authority tells them. People that allow their tribal influences to alter their understanding of events.
Frankly, those that have your reaction are the ones that are displaying magical thinking.
But, I try to remember that people get information at different stages and we all suffer from cognitive dissonance. I too suffered from cognitive dissonance about 9/11 for a while and I remember pushing the whole ‘inside job’ allegation out of my head for years. Didn’t want to think about it because it blew my mind. It was only about a year ago that I finally opened my mind enough to allow new facts to come in (or to think about them more honestly).
But it’s funny. Lot’s of people have been conditioned to have your reaction. Which is ironic, because you’re substantively wrong! So not only have you been deceived, but you’re righteous in your ignorance! You’re mocking the people that have a better grasp on the facts than you do.
Obviously, RanDomino, you have never looked at the reality of 9/11 with any depth. I understand those who say that too many people would need to be involved and that’s problematic but otherwise the official story behind 9/11 is totally unbelievable:
1. the Twin Towers and building 7 were demolished with a military grade explosive and controlled demolition techniques, very clearly so (see Architects for 9-11 Truth). Skyscrappers do not collapse for a mere fire nor there was enough kerosene in those planes for anything but a limited fire. Would they have collapsed they would have fell to the sides and from the upper sections, not the bottom ones.
2. there was no commercial airplane crashing against the Pentagon (it could not fly so low so fast, much less at the hands of an amateur pilot who had not practiced landings). Additionally there were no wing marks in the Pentagon. It may have been a missile or an placed bomb but not a commercial plane
3. the cockpits of the four “kidnapped” airplanes were never opened (there was no kidnapping) – see Pilots for 9-11 Truth. The Pennsylvania plane from where supposedly calls by passengers were made was outside telephone range.
4. Mohamed Atta, the alleged leader, was controlled by the German BND at Hamburg and they were certain that he was an anti-Taliban activist with links to the Northern Alliance. The BND is considered one of the most reliable secret services on Earth. Atta’s father to this day claims that his son is alive and kicking. He talked to him by phone hours after 9-11.
5. investigative journalist Thierry Meissan found out that there was a very strange high ratio of Pentagon-related people in those flights. Extra-officially, Iranian officials confirmed this to him and said that at least 75% of all passengers were Pentagon-related (spies, officers, military industries’ qualified workers, etc.)
6. Donald Rumsfeld decreed the de facto deactivation of the best defended airspace on Earth: Washington D.C. and surroundings, just weeks before the attacks. Then reactivated them. Also most relevant commanders were on leave and replaced by people who were promoted (and not punished in any way, as would be logical) after 9-11, being now the core of the Pentagon.
Etc. This is (from memory) the bulk of the evidence against the official version. Then there are the suspicious coincidences like the murder of the Lion of Panshir just two or three days before these attacks (whose main goal was to get US and NATO troops in Afghanistan and elsewhere in Central Asia); the fact that Saudis (incl. the Bin Laden clan) were allowed to leave the USA in the midst of a total blockade (for everyone else), when they were the ones more clearly related to “Al Qaeda” (whatever it is); the fact that nobody has seen Osama Bin Laden since soon after 9-11 (not even when they supposedly killed him months ago, his corpse was presented even in photo – his son’s corpse was there instead).
Hollywood made politics and war, that’s what 9-11 is.
Iran, it is argued in the current CFR journal, “Foreign Affairs”, should get the bomb. Based upon the theory of international relations of the author, Kenneth Waltz.
Here is some background on who he is: excerpted from Theory Talks #40.
http://www.theory-talks.org/2011/06/theory-talk-40.html
“What is, according to you, the central challenge or principal debate in International Relations? And what is your position regarding this challenge/in this debate?
For me, the central question is how to contain and moderate the use of military force by the United States. This is certainly not the only big issue but it is one of the big issues. The United States has been—not unexpectedly—a very war-like country ever since it became a world dominant power. As Alexander Hamilton said, a country disposing of dominant power cannot be expected to behave with moderation, and the United States certainly bears that out. Historically, it is hard to think of a country disposing of dominant power that did behave moderately for any large period of time. The United States fits neatly into the category of dominant powers that have not behaved moderately.
There is only one way that a country can reliably deter a dominant power, and that is by developing its own nuclear force. When president Bush identified the countries that he said constituted an “axis of evil”—namely, Iraq, Iran, and North Korea—and then proceeded to invade one of them—namely, Iraq—that was certainly a lesson quickly learned by both Iran and North Korea. That is to say, that if a country wants to deter the United States it has to equip itself with nuclear force. I think we all have seen that demonstrated very clearly.”
Here is the brief summary of his brief article from the CFR:
“The past several months have witnessed a heated debate over the best way for the United States and Israel to respond to Iran’s nuclear activities. As the argument has raged, the United States has tightened its already robust sanctions regime against the Islamic Republic, and the European Union announced in January that it will begin an embargo on Iranian oil on July 1. Although the United States, the EU, and Iran have recently returned to the negotiating table, a palpable sense of crisis still looms.
It should not. Most U.S., European, and Israeli commentators and policymakers warn that a nuclear-armed Iran would be the worst possible outcome of the current standoff. In fact, it would probably be the best possible result: the one most likely to restore stability to the Middle East.
POWER BEGS TO BE BALANCED
The crisis over Iran’s nuclear program could end in three different ways. First, diplomacy coupled with serious sanctions could convince Iran to abandon its pursuit of a nuclear weapon. But this outcome is unlikely: the historical record indicates that a country bent on acquiring nuclear weapons can rarely be dissuaded from doing so. Punishing a state through economic sanctions does not inexorably derail its nuclear program. Take North Korea, which succeeded in building its weapons despite countless rounds of sanctions and UN Security Council resolutions. If Tehran determines that its security depends on possessing nuclear weapons, sanctions are unlikely to change its mind. In fact, adding still more sanctions now could make Iran feel even more vulnerable, giving it still more reason to seek the protection of the ultimate deterrent.
The second possible outcome is that Iran stops short of testing a nuclear weapon but develops a breakout capability, the capacity to build and test one quite quickly. Iran would not be the first country to acquire a sophisticated nuclear program without building an actual bomb. Japan, for instance, maintains a vast civilian nuclear infrastructure. Experts believe that it could produce a nuclear weapon on short notice.”
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/137731/kenneth-n-waltz/why-iran-should-get-the-bomb
I’ll always stand by the only real democracy in the Middle East rather than any of the regimes in the area
That dog flushed a lot of quail.
I’ll be one of them.
The human population has grown dramatically in the last century, in a linear relationship to the use of oil.
The link between economic output and oil usage is also a direct linear correlation.
Peak oil was in 2004-2006, and global oil “production” remains in a broad plateau, despite a tremendous rise in price. The price to pump this new oil is vastly higher. Energy return on energy invested has fallen from 100:1 in the old days to 5:1 in some current cases, maybe worse for the Canadian oil sands.
Oil is the strategic asset for any nation or empire, but it is politically incorrect to be so blunt. Populations of moral citizens are more readily turned to war with a justification of some sort.
As always, lies will suffice if “the facts are not in your favor”.
Sorting out who controls whom between the governments and security operations of Israel and the US is probably reflective of a basic misunderstanding in the formulation of the question. I sure don’t feel like I can identify who pulls the strings in our world, but I have a strong suspicion that I’ve never heard of the majority of those persons.
One just has to be able to hold the unknown as the unknown. I don’t know what this bombing was about, but every political force can be expected to jump in and blame their opponent first, because that will have the most impact, not the conclusion drawn after years of careful study.
I don’t know who did 9/11, but I don’t think the laws of physics were actually suspended that day, so the official story is impossible.
The dance between LBJ and Israel on the USS Liberty attack is something that remains puzzling. LBJ phone conversation account has him saying “I want that son of a bitch on the bottom of the ocean”. He and McNamara at least prevented the usual interventions and allowed hour after hour after hour of attacks.
Is there any voice who says that human populations have ever gone through an epoch of NOT being controlled by sociopaths? It seems like their natural function, and it is certainly what they crave.
Being ruled by sociopaths helps keep us from completely outgrowing our food supplies. It looks like that time is approaching again, in a really big way.
Well, that’s some big picture musing.
Re: “I sure don’t feel like I can identify who pulls the strings in our world,”
David Rothkopf took a stab at it in his book “Superclass”. He claims, and I think he’s probably correct, that a revolving cast of about 5,000 individuals pretty much run the planet. Mostly to satisfy their own lusts for power, wealth and control.
As good a place to start on who rules is to learn who sits on the board of all the Central Banks on the planet. Who sits on the boards of the largest multinational corporations? Who attends the Bilderberg Conferences? Who attends the Bohemian Grove gatherings? Who has been vetted to create the TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership round of super-trade negotiations.
It’s not an endless list, nor is it totally anonymous.