Gareth Porter is an award-winning independent journalist and historian.
This is the tenth part in a series of interviews on Porter’s new book Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare. This installment is about the “fake war crisis” brought on by Israel’s apparent preparations for an attack on Iran in recent years; the US-Israel good cop, bad cop ruse; punching holes in Israel’s propaganda with the statements of their own government officials; and deciphering the real US policy on Iran.
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Thanks for the series, Scott & Gareth. This was the best episode because it contained info I hadn’t thought of, like good-cop-bad-cop, obvious though that is.
I thought neither Israel would nor U.S. would bomb Iran, that U.S. military faction would stop it. Did not realized they were trying to psych me out.
Did suspect that animosity betw Obama & Nuttyahoo was a faux fight.
U.S is not longer important player wrt Iran, now that U.S. has been exposed as toothless tiger. Sanctions are going away regardless of whether there is a “final” agreement with U,.S.
Dr. Porter was one of the only reporting on the subject to pick up on the fact that the Israeli belligerent declarations and intelligence were mostly part of a large perception management, or propaganda operation. There were hints all along, though, including the fact that Israel didn’t have the capacity to reliably successfully attack Iranian nuclear sites on its own anyway. Faced with the facts that an open attack would have disastrous consequences, and that the U.S. simply was against it, Israel had little choice but to settle on the covert actions + political/economic warfare option along with the U.S.
The problem has always been—and this is why many people were duped—that Israel *has* engaged in unprovoked and reckless military actions in the past, and therefore its threats had to be taken somewhat seriously. That’s part of the strategy. Ari Shavit wrote in Ha’aretz in June, 2011 that Israel “must create the fear that if it is pushed into a corner it will behave insanely. To ensure that Israel is not forced to bomb Iran, it must maintain the impression that it is about to bomb Iran.” The threat of a nuclear Iran was “crucial for scaring the Iranians and for goading on the Americans and the Europeans.” Sheera Frenkel wrote in 2012 that the perception that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons “relies in no small part on a steady media campaign that the Israelis have undertaken to persuade the world … The intelligence was half the battle in convincing the world, … The other half was Israel’s persistent approach and attitude that this was not something the world could continue to ignore,” which ensured that “U.S. politicians were falling over each other to talk about Iran.” In other words, “Present a credible threat, carry a big stick.” Of course, Porter also wrote about the “Israeli interest in leveraging the threat of a unilateral military option to change the U.S. public posture toward Iran.”
An elaborate and mostly successful psychological warfare campaign, which involved numerous journalists and political leaders.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-threat-of-attack-on-iran-is-needed-to-deter-it-1.367989
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/03/07/141119/israel-push-on-iran-included-a.html
http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/08/israels-iran-war-talk-aims-at-deal-for-tougher-u-s-policy/
An “elaborate” Israeli campaign?
I sort of doubt that. Assuming that Israeli politicians never ever speak the truth, one should wonder why any country would announce a bombing campaign in advance.
Those bombings that IL did carry out (Sudan, Syria, Iraq, etc.) came unannounced, which does make more sense.
On a fawning BBC TV report on Iran-IL subject, a top IL military guy talked about the Ayatollah nukes as being “flying Auschwitz’s”. Well-worn hyperbole, but it still seems to work for some dudes over there. lol.
Reuters: “Over the past nine months, Burns, along with Jake Sullivan, Vice President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, met secretly with Iranian officials five times in Oman and Switzerland.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/01/us-iran-nuclear-burns-idUSBREA000AD20140101
Thanks for pointing out the Oman secret back-doord talks. Even bloody Kissinger is in praise of them.
The whole Iran subject (Obama era) can only be understood when these moves behind the scenes are taken into account.