If you like keeping track of these things, Bloomberg News managed to note that recent attacks on Israeli diplomats came chronologically after the assassination of several Iranian scientists, while the Guardian couldn’t be bothered by such details. Here’s the Guardian:
But in other parts of the administration, the assumption is that sanctions will fail, and so calculations are being made about what follows, including how serious Israel is in its threat to launch a unilateral attack on Iran’s nuclear installations, and how the US responds.
But Iran’s increasingly belligerent moves – such as the botched attempts, laid at Tehran’s door, to attack Israeli diplomats in Thailand, India and Georgia – are compounding the sense that Iran is far from ready to negotiate.
And here’s Bloomberg:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government blames Iran for this week’s car bombings of Israeli diplomatic vehicles in New Delhi and the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. The attacks come after the deaths of several Iranian nuclear scientists, the most recent in a Jan. 11 car bombing in Tehran that Iran said Israel had orchestrated.
The facts surrounding Iran and their nuclear program are complicated and contentious. But you can still discern which news outlets are reporting the news and which are serving as organs of the state. You might expect the left-leaning Guardian to be a straighter shooter than Bloomberg. You’d be wrong.
I mention this, not because I want to assign blame to Israel or absolve Iran of anything. I mention it because a paper that can’t acknowledge that Israel has been murdering Iranian civilians on the streets of Tehran can’t be trusted to give you good information about the conflict. Iran retaliated against attacks on their citizens. You can’t report that as an indication that they’re not serious about negotiations.
Isn’t this largely the pattern for Iran? I don’t see them as a particularly aggressive actor, but as an able counter puncher in defense.
That’s not how I see it at all. Iran has basically built Hizbollah and is one of the major players in financing and training people to carry out terrorist attacks against Israeli and Lebanese people. Whether you think Iran should spend so much time and political capital messing around in the Mediterranean or not, they’re extremely aggressive, and not just on their borders.
Iran projects its influence differently from a major power like China, Russia, or the US. They win hearts and minds by fighting Israel on the skirmish lines and it the streets of Jerusalem and Tehran. The fought the Lebanese occupation for 20 years while other Arab nations stood by and did almost nothing. So, they get their street-cred from fighting in the shadows, not by invading their neighbors. And they’ve been fighting us in tit-for-tat style ever since the revolution, too.
they’re extremely aggressive, and not just on their borders.
I don’t understand this. Iran hasn’t been “aggressive on their borders” since Persia attacked Basra in the 1700s. The current, nasty regime has never been aggressive on their borders. The support for Hezbollah, several countries away and not involving their own military or intelligence people in operations, is pretty much the only arguably-aggressive action I can think of.
Well, I don’t mean they are threatening to invade their neighbors. That’s not how Iran rolls. But if you look at their behavior in Iraq and Afghanistan, they’re operating on both sides of the border. If you look at how they behave in the Gulf, they’re aggressive. These are their borders, so you expect them to be vigilant. But they’re a good deal more than just vigilant.
It’s tough for me to characterize Iranian actions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Gulf as “aggressive,” as opposed to “defensive,” since we’re talking about what they’ve done in response to their neighbors being invaded and overthrown by a hostile power that, was also threatening them.
Keeping in mind, of course, that countries can certainly behave badly for reasons related to defense.
Here’s a Brookings (pdf) report on Iran’s history of terrorism since the revolution, and the reasons why they utilize the tactic, how they’ve changed over time, and what they’re likely to do in the future. As always, use your own judgment in assessing the accuracy of the claims made in the article.
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Who is calling the kettle black? Think MEK, Kurds, NGOs, Free Baluchistan, etc. etc.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
You do understand that nothing in your comment rebuts the point that Iran has engaged in terrorism, right?
“Tu quoque” is actually taught as a logical fallacy in freshman Logic.
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Pot calling the kettle black or “Tu quoque, Brute, fili mi” or a case of tu quoque. In the case of al-Qaeda, Bush cum sociis did more than protect the nation, they responded with acts of terror.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
Your quote refutes your comment’s heading.
Iran Could Be Acquitted Violating Int’l Law
vs.
tu quoque was accepted not as a defense to the crime itself, or to the prosecution proceedings, but as a defense only to punishment
Correction: Israel claims this week’s attacks were launched by Iran. It’s certainly possible, but it’s far from definite.
and I suppose the reverse is true, too. Right?
The normally-reliable Juan Cole is doing the same thing.
After weeks of confident accusations about Israel assassinating Iranian scientists, the only thing he has written about the anti-Israel bombings in Georgia, Bangkok, and India has been a claim that the Indian investigators don’t suspect Iran. Since the explosion and arrest of Iranians in Bangkok, he has been completely silent.
Let’s not kid ourselves that Iran is not the subject of aggressive and provocative intelligence operations, including actions intended to make them look bad. But, yes, it appears they were probably behind at least one of these attacks, which makes the others more likely.
But, yes, it appears they were probably behind at least one of these attacks
And not just these three attacks. They also have a history of bombing Israeli targets in third countries.
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_AMIA_bombing&sa=U&ei=VdA_T4WNH
YLV0QGatJXXBw&ved=0CBAQFjAA&usg=AFQjCNHK23h4VC1FaJBs-HjKytrZCZBF0A
After the arrest of several Iranians in Bangkok for building bombs, this forced agnosticism is just not sustainable anymore.
“Correction: Iran claims that Israel was behind the assassination of the nuclear scientists. It’s certainly possible, but it’s far from definite.”
Anybody who actually wrote that in seriousness would be laughed off the internet.
“After the arrest of several Iranians in Bangkok for building bombs, this forced agnosticism is just not sustainable anymore.”
Right, because we all know that if someone is arrested for something, they’re obviously guilty, guilty, guilty.
Um, Ten Bears? One of the Iranians who was arrested didn’t have any legs, because the bomb he had just thrown hit a tree and bounced back towards him. The other two were arrested after a bomb they were building blew up in their home.
Seriously, you’re not basing your opinion on knowledge of the facts. You’re just jerking your knee.
Oops, sorry, wrong bear.
Anyway, a little light reading on the incident:
http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/arrests-in-bangkok-blast-may-help-with-leads-in-delhis-sticky-car-
bomb-case-sources-177037
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"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
“Israel” has a long history of launching false flag operations and laying the blame on her enemies. Iran, does not.
Rachel Corrie was murdered, the USS Liberty scraped, and the King David hotel demolished.
“Israel” has a long history of launching false flag operations and laying the blame on her enemies.
Not against itself, it doesn’t. Rachel Corrie was an American supported Palestinians. The USS Liberty was American. The King David Hotel was British.
These were bombings of Israeli targets.
You know who has a history of bombing Israeli targets in third countries?
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_AMIA_bombing&sa=U&ei=VdA_T4WNH
YLV0QGatJXXBw&ved=0CBAQFjAA&usg=AFQjCNHK23h4VC1FaJBs-HjKytrZCZBF0A
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Indeed blowing-up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, plot to bomb London in 1947 and the Lavon Affair in Egypt.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
List of bad shit Israel has done doesn’t actually rebut the quite strong evidence of Iran’s involvement in the terror bombings.
It isn’t the papers; it’s the postings. Chris McGreal of the Guardian is in Washington. Stuart Biggs of Bloomberg is in Tokyo. Where you are biases what you hear. Just check out al Jazeera’s Washington correspondents’ coverage to see how much a DC posting affects one.
CNN’s Erin Burnett has become a classic Judith Miller reincarnation. She really should be sticking to economic talking points. Cenk on Current’s Young Turks took her to task Thursday and put into perspective, the rush to run through the Miller type talking points which don’t do anyone any favors.
Hopefully GPS with Zakaria will do a segment on Iran on Sunday.
Looks like Iran’s on the schedule
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BooMan, national interest trumps all. Wasn’t it BP’s chief executive Dudley who got booted out of Russia when BP failed to renegotiate an Arctic exploration contract. [He screwed up again with the Gulf spill] The British Embassy in Teheran was breached by protesters in November and PM Cameron was the first to back Obama’s policy for further sanctions against Iran. The years 1953 and 1979 are not easily forgotten nor forgiven. MI5 mission of spying in Moscow by means of a rock was denied for many years.
« click for spy rock
Iraq – Iran – Falklands today … it’s only about oil, Oil, OIL!
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
What journalistic bullshit. And here you are worrying about the media not being fair to poor widdle Iran. And their incompetent attempts at terrorism.
I’m tired of anonymous right wing elements of this administration sabotaging them in the press. The AP article claiming the President might unilaterally reduce tactical nuke levels to 300 or so (um, yeah right) was the same thing. Fucking Pentagon assholes.
Think Mujahadin-e Khalq! The terrorist group (on the US list!) championed by the likes of Howard Dean, Giuliani and many other big cheeses in US politics.
What would we, or Oui, have thought about someone who responded to the reports* about the Mossad killing Iranian scientists by crowing about bad things acts the Iranians had performed in the past, and linking to a conspiracy theory blaming the Iranians for the bombings?
We can’t say for sure, because nobody did that on the threads about the killings of the Iranian scientists, but I suggest that the reaction would not have been very appreciative. I further suggest that we, and Oui, should uphold the same intellectual standards regardless of team loyalties.
*reports for which there is far less evidence than there is for the Iranian bombers.
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I sincerely appreciate your opinion and I will never stoop to your level of “intelectual” standard. Just a short historical perspective of Iran since WWII, United Kingdom and British Petroleum, CIA overthrow of Mossadeq in 1953, SAVAK terror as instructed by Mossad and CIA, shedding of the shackles in the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the war of aggression by Saddam Hussein with backing of the ugly imperial power USA during the ’80s and the revenge back and forth ever since with Israel, UK and US. For the level of terror and war crimes persecuted by Israel, United kingdom and the US in the past sixty years; indeed Iran isn’t quite there yet.
Perhaps it’s better you ease up on the superficial form of replies to my comments. Bad memories arise from the days of Big Ugly Orange commenters. Your style is not appreciated by me here at the Frog Pond.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."