Glenn Greenwald and A. Huffington discuss Iran w/Ratigan

[ProfessorPlum]

Run time: 06:15 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GapN2KHarMw   Posted on YouTube: September 29, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: September 29, 2009 By DU Member: ProfessorPlum Views on DU: 704

 
Both point out the (obvious) hypocrisy of Israel on nuclear and aggression issues.

[Bozita]

1. Excellent! Ratigan really shut down a pair of RW guests this morning.

One asshole from Redstate and another from the insurance industry.

Ratigan's been worth watching in recent weeks.

[rmp yellow]

2. MSM guy to Greenwald: What do you mean Iran didn't attack anyone? They just tested a missile!

Lol that was ludicrous. Glenn's comeback was priceless. Something to the effect that if testing missiles was a crime, the US and Israel and many other countries should be brought before the UN.

Arianna, in her new role as fearmonger, mentioned Ahmedinejad anti-Israel rhetoric and Glenn reminded her that Israel has murdered many civilians in Gaza and Lebanon.

[JohnyCanuck]

3. Sauce for the goose, not sauce for the gander.

Amazing how Israel gets a free license to have a secret nuclear weapons program and to stockpile nuclear weapons while telling the UN it has no intention of signing the NPT and therefore the IAEA inspectors can stay the hell away from Dimona. However, Obama can still get up in the UN and bold as brass complain about Iran refusing to obey the rules by which everyone must abide, and media and politicians politely continue to ignore the Israeli nuclear elephant in the living room.

[JohnyCanuck]

4. Greenwald Comments on his MSNBC appearance

Just today, a columnist in Capehart's paper, Richard Cohen, suggests we may have to attack Iran. Over the weekend, another columnist in Capehart's newspaper, David Ignatius, beat his chest and roared: "It’s hard to see how this one will end short of military confrontation if the Iranians don’t start bargaining for real." Last week, Capehart's Editorial Page published an attack-Iran Op-Ed from two former Senators (one from each party) who have spent the last year advocating a detailed plan for blockading, attacking, bombing and invading that country. The same day, Capehart's boss, Editorial Page Deputy Editor Jackson Diehl, said that Israel's so-called "success" in its attack on Gaza may/should create the view that "even a partial and short-term reversal of the Iranian nuclear program {via an air attack} may look to Israelis like a reasonable benefit."

And, oh yeah -- we're currently occupying two Muslim countries on either side of Iran, having invaded them many years ago. There's nothing Iran has done that we and our clients/allies haven't done ourselves to a far greater extent. But remember: it's Iran that is run by people with crazy, belligerent, fanatical, war-loving sentiments and is therefore a grave threat to world peace (imagine if Iran had invaded, bombed and then spent the last eight years militarily occupying Canada and Mexico, only for Iranian media elites to keep insisting that it was the U.S. that was the rogue state run by aggressive fanatics who threatened world peace).

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/09/29/iran/index.html

[JohnyCanuck]

5. John Pilger: The Lying Game

snip

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.

snip

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 region 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.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23597.htm