Iran Target of Apparent Disinformation Ploy (PRO-WAR PROPAGANDA)

[Harper_is_Bush]

Iran Target of Apparent Disinformation Ploy
Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, May 22 (IPS) - A story authored by a prominent U.S. neo-conservative regarding new legislation in Iran allegedly requiring Jews and other religious minorities to wear distinctive colour badges circulated around the world this weekend before it was exposed as false.

The article by a frequent contributor to the Wall Street Journal, Iranian-American Amir Taheri, was initially published in Friday's edition of Canada's National Post, which ran alongside the story a 1935 photograph of a Jewish businessman in Berlin with a yellow, six-pointed star sewn on his overcoat, as required by Nazi legislation at the time. The Post subsequently issued a retraction.

Taheri's story, however, was reprinted by the New York Post, which is owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch, and picked up by the Jerusalem Post, which also featured a photo of a yellow star from the Nazi era over a photo of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33322

WHO WANTS WAR? YIPEEEE!!!

[NanceGreggs]

1. I once tried to wrap a dead fish in a copy of ...

... the National Post.

It jumped off the table, holding its nose with its little fins. It was quite a sight to see.

[wtmusic]

2. And of course the WH saw fit to comment on it

well before it was confirmed. Maybe they thought they could help "confirm" it.

[Supersedeas]

16. will they make an effort to clarify the record, I wonder....nah, I don't

[Harper_is_Bush]

3. The author comments in typical neo-con black-ops fashion:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1262286&mesg_id=1262286

says it was an "opinion column" that news agencies over-reacted to. Guess he didn't know the National Post planned on making it front page news. :sarcasm:

[rodeodance]

4. more--we see the neocons amid the rubble (maybe)--by association.

Nonetheless, the Sun, without endorsing the specific contents of the National Post articles, refused to drop the story, quoting "a leading spokesman for Iranian Jews", the secretary-general of the Iranian American Jewish Federation in Los Angeles, Sam Kermanian, as thanking "the world for its outcry" over the original reports and praising Taheri as "someone with fantastic credibility".

Taheri is a member of Benador Associates, a public relations firm that lists a large number of leading neo-conservatives, including American Enterprise Institute (AEI) associates Richard Perle, David Frum, Michael Ledeen, Michael Rubin, and Joshua Muravchik, among its clients. Major boosters of the war with Iraq, Benador clients, who also include former Central Intelligence Agency chief James Woolsey and former Israeli minister Natan Sharansky, have also called for the Bush administration to take a hard line against Iran.

The newspapers that so far have run the story are similarly identified with a hard line against Tehran. The National Post, which was bought by CanWest Global Communications from Conrad Black, a close associate of Perle's, is controlled by David and Leonard Asper, who have accused the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation of being anti-Israel, according to Marsha Cohen of Florida International University, who has closely followed the badges story.

[rodeodance]

5. glad to see Lobe include Juan Cole comments.

Juan Cole, president of the U.S. Middle East Studies Association (MESA), described the Taheri article and its appearance first in Canada's Post as "typical of black psychological operations campaigns", particularly in its origin in an "out of the way newspaper that is then picked up by the mainstream press" -- in this case, the Jerusalem Post and the New York Post. A former U.S. intelligence official described the article's relatively obscure provenance as a "real sign of (a) disinformation operation".

Taheri's original article, entitled "A Colour Code for Iran's 'Infidels'", dealt primarily with new legislation that it said was designed to ensure that Iranians wear "standard Islamic garments" that removed ethnic and class distinctions and that eliminated "the influence of the infidel" -- presumably meaning the West -- "on the way Iranians, especially, the young dress".

But it also noted in passing that it would "envisage" separate dress codes for religious minorities -- Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians -- who will be required to adopt distinct colour schemes to make them identifiable in public "so that (Muslims) can avoid shaking hands with them by mistake, and thus (become) najis (unclean)".

In particular, he explained, religious minorities will "have to wear special insignia, known as zonnar, to indicate their non-Islamic faiths. Jews will be marked out with a yellow strip of cloth sewn in front of their clothes, while Christians will be assigned the colour red. Zoroastrians end up with Persian blue as the colour of their zonnar," he wrote.

[daleo]

19. That will hurt the Post's ego

Being described as "out of the way newspaper that is then picked up by the mainstream press".

[Harper_is_Bush]

23. Does a disinformation rag committed to Conservative government and war

have an ego?

[daleo]

32. They don't deserve one, based on any real accomplishments.

But, those with the biggest egos usually deserve them the least.

[HuffleClaw]

6. and it won't be their last attempt either

nice to see it was debunked nice and quickly though.

[Harper_is_Bush]

11. Although it was debunked, it continues to make the rounds and

generate self-satisfied outrage by rightwing "news" blogs.

[Harper_is_Bush]

12. Check out "The American Thinker". They're still using it to bash Iran

and drum up war.

http://ww.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5519

(I don't want to link them so add a "w" to the "ww" in that address)

The Yellow Badge of Denial
May 23rd, 2006

Controversy still swirls over allegations that Iran’s government plans to require non-Muslims to wear identifying clothing. The Canadian National Post has retracted its May 19, 2006 report about a putative Iranian Law requiring non-Muslim minorities—Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians—to wear color-coded strips of cloth attached to their garments, to distinguish them from Muslims. Mr. Amir Taheri, author of the article, is standing by his report.

Possible overzealous reporting by The National Post aside, the plausibility of such a law being implemented should not be dismissed based on the living legacy of Shi’ite religious persecution of non-Muslims in Iran since the founding of the Shi’ite theocracy in (then) Persia under Shah Ismail, at the very outset of the 16th century.

Makes me want to puke.

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. Of course, we will never see

Multiple threads with 100's of posts screaming in outrage over such bogus reporting. Whether or not Leopold and TO got it right or wrong is much more important.

[Blue_Tires]

22. well said n/t

[annabanana]

8. The fact that this "report" has been left dangling

by corpomedia is very important. It means that the blogosphere has interrupted the propaganda delivery system..

There are enough people double checking these kind of reports that the stories can't get the kind of traction that ol' Rovermeister is used to. I expect that he will turn up the pressure on the captains of the media machine to go ahead and crank it out - Baghdad Bob style - anyway.

VIGILANCE!

[ConcernedCanuk]

9. Our friggen Harper even swallowed this bilk and then railed to the media

.
.
.

Harper chides Iran for non-existent racist bill it doesn't have

Sat, May 20, 2006
By ALEXANDER PANETTA, CP


OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper was quick to condemn Iran yesterday for an anti-Semitic law that appears not to exist.

Harper seized on a newspaper report that said Iran's hardline government would require Jews and Christians to wear coloured labels in public.

The prime minister couldn't vouch for the accuracy of the National Post report, but he added that Iran was capable of such actions and compared them to Nazi practices.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/National/2006/05/20/1589318-sun.html

Harper is an idiot for repeating stuff in a national venue when he even ADMITS he can't vouch for the accuracy of the report

We have a "poodle" for a leader

(sigh)

[NashVegas]

10. I've Noticed Reuters Referring to the "Iranian Nuclear Crisis"

In their story about Olmert this morning.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-05-23T114405Z_01_N23421333_RTRUKOC_0_US-MIDEAST-USA.xml&src=052306_0750_TOPSTORY_olmert_in_washington


Anyway ... I thought that story was a little weird. Exactly what kind of Jewish population does Iran have in the first place?

[stepnw1f]

13. Good Work

kick

[Harper_is_Bush]

14. Thanks. Check out the Wiki on this here:

It's got a lot of good sources on this disinformation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Iranian_sumptuary_law

I've been scoffed at for suggesting it, but this looks like a psy-ops plant.

Read this article, probably the best overview of the whole affair I've seen:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HE24Ak03.html

In particular:
"Juan Cole, president of the US Middle East Studies Association (MESA), described the Taheri article and its appearance first in Canada's Post as "typical of black psychological operations campaigns", particularly in its origin in an "out-of-the-way newspaper that is then picked up by the mainstream press" - in this case, the Jerusalem Post and the New York Post. A former US intelligence official described the article's relatively obscure provenance as a "real sign of disinformation operation". "

[Harper_is_Bush]

15. "typical of black psychological operations campaign" & "disinformation op"

Juan Cole, president of the US Middle East Studies Association (MESA), described the Taheri article and its appearance first in Canada's Post as "typical of black psychological operations campaigns", particularly in its origin in an "out-of-the-way newspaper that is then picked up by the mainstream press" - in this case, the Jerusalem Post and the New York Post. A former US intelligence official described the article's relatively obscure provenance as a "real sign of disinformation operation".

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HE24Ak03.html

Know thy enemy.

[Recursion]

17. Freepers / mouth-breathers don't believe Iran has Jews or Christians

At least, several I've talked to don't. They think they all got killed back in the '80s. I don't know why they think that. They also don't believe me when I tell them Tariq Aziz was Christian, or that there were women in Saddam's cabinet, parliament, and military command.

[Harper_is_Bush]

29. Many of the neo-cons are using this story to highlight discrimination

in Iran.

Now discrimination is a reason to invade I guess.

[kineneb]

30. Iranian Jews have seat in their parliament

The new Iranian constitution guarantees a seat in the Majlis to represent the small remaining Jewish community in Iran. There have been Jews in Persia for centuries; check out the Old Testament to find out about them!

[daleo]

18. One small compensation to this story

Reasonable people will now realize what a biased (in this case the word racist may not be too strong) source the National Post is.

[Harper_is_Bush]

21. Yes, and no. In Canada, the media won't touch it.

It was covered on Saturday as part of op/eds slamming Iran (they don't watch the internet, since it was debunked by 5pm Friday) but after that........silence.

I'm going to encourage people to write to Canadian editors complaining that the story isn't being paid attention to.

[dkos refugee]

20. HELLO? NATIONAL ID CARD?

It's the same thing as a badge. That's what people should be worried about. The elites in this country are way farther ahead than Hitler was...

[leftchick]

24. And that is not all!!!....

http://www.juancole.com/

Taheri's standards of reasoning and evidence have recently been slipping. In a recent article on Iraq, he gave as good news the stability of the Iraqi dinar. But in fact the dinar is artificially pegged to the dollar. Its "stability" is the same "stability" that the Egyptian guinea used to have in the 1960s and 1970s when the government just arbitrarily set its exchange rate. When you do that, you get some apparent stability, but you also create a black market and a preference in the country for other currencies. If the Iraqi dinar was allowed to float, it would not be worth very much.

So we have now a non-existent Iranian law and a non-existent Iraqi currency stability. Hmmm. How many more non-existents must we believe before breakfast?

Well, here is another. Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, is reported to have warned that 'Iran was "months rather than years away" from acquiring the capability to make nuclear weapons. "Time is running out. . ." '

Months?

I am typing while rolling around on the floor laughing uncontrollably at this blatant falsehood and hypocrisy. The International Atomic Energy Agency just a little over a week ago said it can find no evidence that Iran even has a nuclear weapons program, as opposed to a civilian energy research program. Supreme Jurisprudent Khamenei gave a fatwa in which he forbade nuclear weapons, and the Iranian government denies that it is seeking a bomb. The US National Intelligence Estimate says that if Iran were trying hard to get a bomb and the international circumstances were favorable to all the needed imports, it would still take ten years. And, neither of those "ifs" is in evidence.

Moreover, it is Mr. Gillerman's government that introduced nuclear weapons into the Middle East and that has actually threatened to use them. The Likud government menaced Baghdad with the Bomb in the run-up to the March 2003 War that they helped get up by supplying unreliable intelligence to Washington. It was their way of warning Saddam against trying to hit them with chemical warheads. But, would that have been a proportionate response. Iran doesn't have a bomb, has signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, and hasn't invaded another country since the 19th century. Israel has hudnreds of bombs, had refused to sign the NPT, and has threatened first use of nukes.

[Rex]

25. So where are all the TO naysayers? They should be going apeshit

about this story! Anyone?

[Harper_is_Bush]

26. Everyone should read this Jim Lobe article to gain a full understanding

of this sordid evil mess.

"Yellow journalism and chicken hawks"
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HE24Ak03.html

[NoodleyAppendage]

27. Question: Are the majority of neocons radical jews??? Just curious...

I know Cheney isn't Jewish, but what about the other important neocons? Is the neocon philosophy driven by a radical need to suppress any regional challenge to Israeli power?

And, no, I'm not being anti-semetic. I'm really curious about why many (if not the majority) of the neocons are Jewish or pro-Israel.

J

[Harper_is_Bush]

28. There are Jewish neo-cons...Christian neo-cons....and other types..

It just so happens that most US neo-cons are biased towards Israels interests.

And like all neo-cons, the Jewish ones are good at pushing their agenda.

Watching this false news story pass through the Jewish neo-con media has been funny and sad. They want US intervention in Iran more than anything, and are unwilling to let this story go in the vein of "Well...perhaps it's not true, but religious minorities suffer discrimination in Iran!"
This false story is portrayed as no big deal by them, when in fact it's an incredibly huge deal. Sadly, they seem to be winning the battle on this one.

[Harper_is_Bush]

31. One more bump to alert neo-con agi-prop black-op media

Read up and be aware...these are neo-con associated forces masquerading as MSM and doing a hell of a job.

Read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Iranian_sumptuary_law

After you read that, backtrack to the National Post page and read about the enemy and it's neo-con war-mongering connections.

[Harper_is_Bush]

33. This story was published in my local paper today. YES!!!

I've pushed the truth here so much I'm starting to feel responsible....must......not.........allow... ......head...to..........SWELL!

The National Disgrace..er...Post printed a mea culpa too.

Life is good when the truth prevails.