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Al-Khamenei Press

The big questions are:

(1) Nasser Karimi, Iranian stooge or sap? 

And, (2) Associated Press international desk, New York, Iranian stooge or sap?  

The wire service that is (a) American and (b) supposed to be providing non-partisan material to newspapers of all stripes, now carries al-Qaeda’s water in cases such as L’Affaire d’Jamil, has acted as an apologist for Saddam Hussein, and is prosecuting an unrelenting campaign of distortion against the Bush administration.  I’m used to it. I figured I’d seen it all before.

But this AP article floored me, as I performed the meatball surgery on it necessary to make it moderately acceptable for the print edition of the Boston Herald. 

The AP isn’t just opposed to a U.S. attack on Iran. It is actively on Iran’s side.  How else to explain these first three paragraphs:

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran stepped up its warnings to the United States Thursday, with the nation’s supreme leader saying Tehran will strike U.S. interests around the world if his country is attacked.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s words were also likely meant as a show of toughness to rally Iranians, who are increasingly worried about the possibility of American military action as the two countries’ standoff has grown more tense.

Days earlier, an Iranian diplomat was detained in Iraq in an incident that Iran blamed on America. The United States denied any role. The U.S. also says it has no plans to strike Iran militarily, but has sent a second aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf to show strength in the face of rising Iranian regional influence.

No mention of Iran’s nuclear defiance, U.S. accusations of Iranian material support for Iraq’s insurgents and militias, or of Iranian agents arrested in Iraq. That “diplomat … detained” line refers to an abduction by an unknown party, and its description of that as a “detention” is nothing short of bizarre.  Based on past precedent, the kidnapping by gunmen in Iraqi Army uniforms is more likely to have been carried out by an Iranian-backed Shiite death squad or Sunni terrorist group than by the United States.  

The dangerous American outrages described in this article happen in a vacuum, unprovoked, at least for the first five paragraphs of this Iranian propaganda exercise. And even then, it’s hard to understand what the source of the “tension” is between the United States and Iran.

Iran’s defiance of the international community over its suspected nuclear weapons program only emerges obliquely in the sixth paragraph, as a “dispute over Iran’s nuclear program.”  No mention of the word “weapons.”  Anywhere. Certainly nowhere near the words “nuclear” or “insurgency in Iraq.”

The United States’ concerns about Iran’s underwriting of violent sectarian chaos in Iraq  also gets a nod in graph six, as Iran’s “role in Iraq.” Not a peep on what that role might be or why anyone would be concerned about it.

There’s a gratuitous whack at Ahmadinejad. This is OK. He’s on the outs, the approved scapegoat for Iran’s problems.

Then, no fewer than eight paragraphs devoted to expressing Iran’s heartfelt desire to negotiate peacefully and reasonably with the United States, overtures that have been coldly rejected by the Great Satan. Here’s an example. What the heck. Here’s five:

Tehran’s ambassador to the United Nation, Javad Zarif, complained in a column published Thursday in The New York Times that the United States was trying to make Iran a “scapegoat” for Washington’s failures in the Mideast, particularly Iraq. He warned that efforts to isolate Iran would backfire on the United States, increasing sectarian tensions in the region.

The United States is reaping “the expected bitter fruits of its ill-conceived adventurism” in Iraq, he said.

“But rather than face these unpleasant facts, the United States administration is trying to sell an escalated version of the same failed policy. It does this by trying to make Iran its scapegoat and fabricating evidence of Iranian activities in Iraq,” he said.

Zarif also made clear, however, that Iran wants to be part of some regional and international solution to calm Iraq, despite U.S. rejection of the idea of reaching out to Iran for help.

Solving Iraq’s problems requires “prudence, dialogue and a genuine search for solutions,” he wrote. “Only through such regional cooperation, with the necessary international support, can we contain the current crisis and prevent future ones.”

Then we get to the really good part.

Also Thursday, Iran’s intelligence minister said the government had detected a network of U.S. and Israeli spies operating on its borders and had detained a group of Iranians who planned to go abroad for espionage training, state television reported.

But the minister, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi, did not say whether any members of the U.S.-Israeli network had been arrested nor provide any details on the Iranians.

In case you missed it, we’ll review. We just went straight from “intelligence minister said … a network of U.S. and Israeli spies”  had been detected, to its acceptance as definitive fact, “the U.S.-Israeli network,” no couching required. 

We’re informed in passing that Iran is test firing cruise missiles.  Don’t worry, that’s normal, they do it all the time:

Iran also successfully test-fired a cruise missile Thursday over the Oman Sea and the northern Indian Ocean. Iran routinely tests missiles.

Keeping holding your nose for just a minute or two, we’re almost out of this AP Iran septic tank. First, SecDef Robert Gates gets to say something.  A State Department spokesman had been allowed a bland response higher up. The response from an actual Cabinet secretary gets shoved way below the fold.  We’re told this is about the missile test, though it works just as well for al-Khamenei.

“My impression is they make threats like this from time to time. We have no intention of attacking Iran.” 

And because it’s better when the evil minions of Chimpy McBushitler are cavalier and uncaring, we close with Gates’ verbal shrug:

“It’s just another day in the Persian Gulf.”

I understand that Nasser Karimi maybe needs to kiss some mullah ass to keep his tongue in his head.  Or maybe, he’s just an Iranian agent.  I don’t know. I don’t care. His copy has to go through the international desk in New York, and they are approving this naked propaganda. Or maybe they aren’t. Maybe they’re just waving it through.

But there’s always the possibility that, like Eason Jordan and CNN, they’ve decided they need to water down their copy out of Iran so they can continue to operate there. 

The hiring of locals, if that’s what Karimi is, can be problematic, which is why the AP might want to spend some of the vast amounts of lucre U.S. and foreign newspapers shovel at them to staff Teheran with somewhat less compromised reporters.  But if Karimi is not an Iranian, maybe the AP should hire one.  I understand a lot of them actually like us more than their own regime, and some of them are quite brave.  Maybe they can find one.

But Gates said it best. It’s just another day of the Al-Khamenei Press doing the bidding of the enemies of the United States, whatever it can to undercut the forces of freedom and security in this world.  It is most definitely just another day in the Persian Gulf.

 

Topics: Iran, media

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:15 am on Friday, February 9, 2007

6 Responses to “Al-Khamenei Press”

1. Bill's Bites Says:
   February 9th, 2007 at 1:11 am

   Al-Khamenei Press

   Al-Khamenei Press Jules CrittendenI’m no fan of the Associated Press. The wire service that is (a) American and (b) supposed to be providing non-partisan material to newspapers of all stripes, now carries al-Qaeda’s water in cases such as L’Affai…

2. Old War Dogs Says:
   February 9th, 2007 at 1:15 am

   Bill’s Nibbles– 2007.02.09

   Some Bill’s Bites posts, some things I excerpted and linked but I’m sending you to the original post. I may rearrange the order of the items within this post as I add new things that I think belong above the

3. PoliBlog ™: A Rough Draft of my Thoughts » This is How States Behave (Iranian Bluster Edition) Says:
   February 9th, 2007 at 7:41 am

   [...] That the leadership of a sovereign state would declare that they would fight back if attacked hardly qualifies as news.  Nevertheless, the write-up by the AP has frustrated Jules Crittenden of the Boston Herald, who notes, among other things, that: I performed the meatball surgery on it necessary to make it moderately acceptable for the print edition of the Boston Herald.  [...]

4. The Thunder Run Says:
   February 9th, 2007 at 10:57 am

   Web Reconnaissance for 02/09/2007

   A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention.

5. Is Anyone Taking National Security Seriously? at Conservative Times--Republican GOP news source. Says:
   February 9th, 2007 at 12:46 pm

   [...] The news stories abound, Anna Nicoles tragic death, John Edwards and his lack of judgment in hiring two very controversial bloggers that practice in hate speech on a regular basis, The AP showing that they are more worried about spreading enemy propaganda than they are in reporting the news and let us not forget the Libby trial. (Hat Tip to Jules Crittenden on the AP news) [...]

6. Wake up America> Says:
   February 9th, 2007 at 12:47 pm

   Is Anyone Taking National Security Seriously?

   With all the leaks coming out of Washington and ending up in papers such as the New York Times, it has become very clear that classified information is available for the right “price”. I am not talking money here, I am talking about negative news rep…

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