“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” – George Orwell, preface to Animal Farm
Senator Lieberman, Secretary of State Clinton, and former UN Ambassador John Bolton have resumed rhetoric of a United States attack upon Iran. There are two general justifications they speak of to justify war: Iran's "nuclear program" and their threat to Israel. The following is edited from my brief on the current US Wars of Aggression.
“Wiping Israel off the Map”: Wikipedia admits to “controversy” over the interpretation of Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s meaning of an October, 2005 speech.[1] However, Wikipedia doesn’t mention the context within which it was spoken to help our understanding. In his speech, Ahmadinejad was discussing how people once thought it was impossible to remove the Shah as Iran’s dictator, but it was done. He then said that people thought the Soviet government and Saddam’s government would never fall. He then quoted Ayatollah Khomeini’s words from speeches he gave encouraging Iran’s persistence to oppose the Shah’s government that translate awkwardly into English as, “erase from the page of time.” Unless Khomeini and Ahmadinejad were advocating for the destruction of their own country, the speech’s meaning is to encourage the Iranian people to persist for change in Israel’s government.[2] Again, please don’t believe me. Look at the evidence; read the speech. If you have Persian friends as I do, talk with them to gain their perspective of the discrepancy between our government and major media reporting of the meaning of the speech and what Ahmadinejad actually said. My Persian friends are understandably outraged by US threats to attack Iran, and frightened that what has happened in Iraq will happen to their friends and families in Iran.
Political leadership from both parties have not corrected this contrivance; rather they use it as an argument to demonize Iran. The US House of Representatives passed a resolution requesting the UN Security Council to charge President Ahmadinejad with the War Crime of inciting genocide.[3] John McCain has twice made public “jokes” about killing Iranians, escalating concern.[4] Senator McCain stated his position on Iran that includes this lie of President Ahmadinejad’s speech:
“The leadership of Iran has repeatedly used violence to undermine Israel and the Middle East peace process. It has trained, financed, and equipped extremists in Iraq who have killed American soldiers fighting to bring freedom to that country. It remains the world's chief sponsor of terrorism and threatens to destabilize the entire Middle East, from Basra to Beirut…It's hard to see what… a summit with President Ahmadinejad would actually gain, except an earful of anti-Semitic rants, and a worldwide audience for a man who denies one Holocaust and talks before frenzied crowds about starting another."[5]
Senator Obama spoke in Israel in July 2008 and seems to endorse this lie, stating that Iran “sponsors terrorism, pursues nuclear weapons and threatens Israel’s existence.”[6] One of President Bush’s advisors and the author of the idea for the troop “surge” in 2007, Fred Kagan, stated on MSNBC on July 23, 2008:
“Well, there’s nothing we can do short of an attack to force Iran to give up its nuclear program. … At the end of the day, the only way that you can make for sure that [a nuclear arm’s race] doesn’t happen is with an attack.”[7]
In apparent complicity in this deliberate misinformation, and perhaps working for war against Iran, the UK’s Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, stated in his speech to the Israeli Legislature, the Knesset, on July 21, 2008, "It is totally abhorrent for the President of Iran to call for Israel to be wiped from the map of the world."[8]
Mike Wallace of the famed television show 60 Minutes won an Emmy for a contrived interview with President Ahmadinejad in 2006, where Mr. Ahmadinejad’s comments encouraging democracy for Palestinians was edited to appear that he was hostile to Israel. You can verify this by watching the brief 5-minute clip for yourself:
One scenario for initiating war with Iran came from Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter’s National Security Advisor and the National Security Advisor to Senator Obama’s presidential campaign. Brzezinski testified to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on February 1, 2007:
“A plausible scenario for a military collision with Iran involves Iraqi failure to meet the benchmarks; followed by accusations of Iranian responsibility for the failure; then by some provocation in Iraq or a terrorist act in the U.S. blamed on Iran; culminating in a ‘defensive’ U.S. military action against Iran that plunges a lonely America into a spreading and deepening quagmire eventually ranging across Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.”[9]
This strategy was echoed by retired CIA Analyst, Ray McGovern, who served under seven US Presidents. McGovern’s comprehensive understanding of intelligence work qualified him as one of the few analysts chosen to present the President’s Daily Brief in morning meetings to Presidents.[10] McGovern states that Israel and/or the CIA have numerous possibilities to attack US interests (known as a false-flag attack), blame Iran, then use the media to stoke public opinion in favor of war.[11]
But why have war with Iran? Next, we take a look at history and motivation. Can’t wait? Read my brief, “War with Iraq and Afghanistan, rhetoric for war with Iran.”
[2] Among many: Information Clearing House. Does Iran’s President Want Israel Wiped Off the Map? Does He Deny the Holocaust? : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12790.htm , Prison Planet. Watson, P.J. The “Wipe Israel Off the Map Hoax.” Jan. 26, 2007: http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/january2007/260107offthemap.htm , AntiWar. Norouzi, A. “Wiped Off the Map:” the Rumor of the Century. May 26, 2007: http://www.antiwar.com/orig/norouzi.php?articleid=11025 , and The Guardian. Steele, J. Lost in Translations: Experts Confirm that Iran’s President did not Call for Israel to be “Wiped Off the Map.” June 14, 2006: http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jonathan_steele/2006/06/post_155.html .
[3] Project Censored. Bazell, B., Phillips, P. #24 in top 25 censored stories for 2008: Media misquotes threat from Iran’s president. http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/24-media-misquotes-threat-from-irans-president/ .
[4] Prison Planet. Watson, P.J. McCain Jokes About Killing Iranians Again. July 9, 2008: http://www.prisonplanet.com/mccain-jokes-about-killing-iranians-again.html .
[5] Washington Post.com. Shear, M. McCain Calls Iran “Foremost” Middle East Enemy. June 2, 2008: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/06/02/mccain_calls_iran_foremost_mid.html .
[6] New York Times. Obama’s Speech in Sderot, Israel. July 23, 2008: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/23/us/politics/23text-obama.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin .
[7] Think Progress. “The Only Way” to “Force” Iran to Halt its Nuclear Program is an “Attack.” July 23, 2008: http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/23/kagan-the-only-way-to-force-iran-to-halt-nuclear-program-is-an-attack/ .
[8] Yahoo News. Weizman, S. British Premier Vows to Thrwart Iranian Atomic Arms. July 21, 2008: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080721/ap_on_re_mi_ea/mideast_brown , Mathaba News Agency. Brown Criticized for Misquoting Iranian President on Israel. July 23, 2008: http://mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=599460 and on video: SkyNews. Brown’s Warning to Pro-Nuclear Iran. July 21, 2008: http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/video/Gordon-Brown-leads-charge-against-nuclear-Iran-during-Israel-visit/Video/200807315048471?lpos=video_1&lid=VIDEO_15048471_Gordon%2BBrown%2Bleads%2Bcharge%2Bagainst%2Bnuclear%2BIran%2Bduring%2BIsrael%2Bvisit .
[9] Further context: proudprimate.com: http://www.proudprimate.com/Placards/zbig.DOC , and So What Really Happened in the Gulf? http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpWESSEX/Documents/WATgoingsonintheGulf.htm .
[10] McGovern, R. Israel Planning a September/October Surprise? July 17, 2008: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20300.htm .
[11] Ray McGovern’s False Flag Warning – June 24, 2008: http://www.911blogger.com/node/16542 .
Comments
"You look at the trees, but you don't see the forest." You cite George Orwell's famous work, "1984," which I've read decades before 1984. What you should have cited instead of what you have cited, is a single word, "double speak," of which, I'm sorry to say, applies best to your analysis here. You give no weight to the conference in Iran regarding Holocaust-dial, where many of the world's infamous antisemitic pseudo-scholars attended as honor guests. You also give no weight to the current events in Iran. Your doublespeak consists in part to giving new meaning to the "vilification" of Iran. But, as Bill Maeher[sic] observed late, stupidity has a far greater range then the Cambridge police. So maybe work on white-washing or vocabulary of its vilifying meaning as applied to Iran, might make Iran come out "Smelling Like a Rose." Explain please how the government of Iran is capable of blaming it's woes on "outside agitators"? Or do you that is not a good choice of words? Re-calibrate?
Excellent column! Can you forward it to the White House, AIPAC, and all the Congressmen AIPAC funds?
Excellent evidence that you're engaged in doublespeak is the crises that emerged in the government of Iran subsequently. You remember, don't the "Iran only the enemy of Israel, not of Israelis or the Jewish people." How do you account for that omission in your doublespeak analysis? Yes, I'm thinking of the Vice-Presidential appointment, and the crises between the head of state and the head of government, the feud between the Leader and the President. What's that all about? If the Israelis and Jews are enemies of Iran, why is the possibility of a genocide so inconceivable to you? Perhaps you are like Chamberlain in Britain, before World War II - your simply seeking, in the presence of that other "leader," Feuerer Hitler, "Peace in our time." You're into appeasement , are you not?
Below is a link to the text of the continually and purposely mistranslated speech of President Ahmadi Nejad (in the original Persian). No "wipe off" and no "map". Add the h t t p : w w w / /
to the beginning of the phrase.
irandefence.net/archive/index.php/t-11027.html
.
Ooops. Got it wrong the first time. Here it is correctly:
Below is a link to the text of the continually and purposely mistranslated speech of President Ahmadi Nejad (in the original Persian). No "wipe off" and no "map". Add the h t t p : / / w w w. to the beginning of the phrase.
irandefence.net/archive/index.php/t-11027.html
.
Finally an unbiased look at the speech, with proper translation. Mr. Obama must see this.
Thank you Mr. Herman
i wonder if yo uberstood ahmadinejad's speech?or you are just anothe brown nose.
I am an American Iranian with fluency in both languages. I have read and listened to the speech many times and NO where in it I can find the evidence of any threats toward Jews nor Israeli's. This entire misinformation campaign is a deliberate attempt by AIPAC and war party to get USA involved yet in another war for Israel, just like Iraq war. How many more American brave soldiers must die for yet another blatant lie and deception by AIPAC???
Thank you again sir for your honesty and integrity in reporting.
nowaronIran, I agree with you completely, just as every other Parsi speakers.
obama never spoke to israeli people
only to muslims
there is no need for the usa to act on iran
israel will do the job on their own
So, on every Al-Quds day, when Ahmadinejad leads thousands of Iranians in a chant of "Death to Israel," they're just having fun shouting words, are they?
What a load of rubbish this article is.
a load of rubbish indeed, iranians are the number one liars and storry twisters in the world. God do they polute our American society. I suggest to the ones below that claim dual citizenship to return to their birthplace immediately that is if they got a pair
Its not what you say at a particual point in time.. Its what you said before and after and how you say it! The man is full of hate towards even his own people
I myself for me alone have known this for a very long time, it is defamation of character of the Iranian Prez. Ask Hugo Chavez, he has experience and speaks truth.
Excellent article,shame about the mostly uneducated responses.The few lines of mistranslation was taken from the "world without zionism speech" FACT!.In that speech Ahmadinijad spoke of the demise of Fascism,Communism,Saddam and the Shah in a speech made 10 years earlier by Ayatollah Khomeini FACT!.So in fact he was speaking of Zionist,s not jews,you don,t even need to be Jewish to be a Zionist and he was quoting another mans words.He did not use the words MAP,WIPE or even ISRAEL and the term "WIPE OFF THE MAP" does not make any sense to a Farsi speaking person.The people who acuse you of doublespeak i accuse of willful ignorance.Judaism is 2500 years old in Iran,Iran has a fatwa to protect Iranian Jews,Iranian Jews see themselves as Persians,Iranian Jewish communities have no interest in Zionism.No doublespeak,just FACTS!.Obama and the doublespeakers before him has tried making pismire Iran look like the second coming of the USSR,now who are the bullshitters.
The internet is forever and you give as a dateline just August 8? 2000 and what?
Was the "International Holocaust Denial Conference" directly sanctioned by A-jad and participation of elemnts likes of David Duke taken out of the context or mistranslated as well???
I dont advocate killing anyone, but Israel has no right to exist. It was born with the blood of soldiers and civilians of WWI and WWII.
Its only premise to exist is that "Jews are a divine chosen race by God and that is the land that God dictated they ocupy". There are zero other reasons for it to exist. So, you decide wether you wanna be a religious nut or gain some knowledge and common sense.
jews are the number one liars and storry twisters in the world. God do they polute our American society. I suggest to the ones below that claim dual citizenship to return to their birthplace immediately that is if they got a pair
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