Iran’s nuclear threat is a lie
John Pilger
Published 01 October 2009
Obama's "showdown" with Iran has another agenda. The media have been
tasked with preparing the public for endless war.
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?