Friday, 14 June 2019

Citations Needed Episode 79: How ‘Neutral’ ‘Experts’ Took Over Trump’s Iran Policy

quote [ We just wanted to discuss some of these most frequent Iran expertitions, who are constantly in the press, who get quoted all the time. They include David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security, Ollie Heinonen who is at the Harvard Belfer Center, Mark Dubowitz who is at FDD, Reuel Marc Gerecht who is also at FDD and writes all the time for like The Weekly Standard and other shitty rags like that and Ray Takeyh who’s a fellow at the Council for Foreign Relations. And these five people are constantly writing articles together. They’re supporting each other’s articles, are quoting each other’s articles in their own articles and they create this network of quote unquote “experts,” which are frequently referred to yet very infrequently described as the very neoconservative commentators that they are. ]

This is a very timely ep since, as the US's attempt at a coup in Venezuela has been a spectacular failure, it's looking like the US is redirecting their efforts towards war with Iran. Yesterday there was an attack on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, with the US very quickly jumping on the opportunity to blame Iran. Luckily, the owner of one of the tankers has been very quick to point out that the US's story is bullshit.

Is Heshmat Alavi, Writer on Iran, a Fake Run By MEK Opposition?

FDD Aligned with State Department to Attack Supporters of Iran Diplomacy
[SFW] [politics] [+2]
[by steele@2:22pmGMT]

Comments

Kama-Kiri said @ 5:16pm GMT on 14th Jun
Setting aside that there is no clear motive that I can see for Iran to want to damage oil tankers, or any idea really what it might accomplish, the plan to do it seems unrealistically convoluted:

Step 1) install 3 limpet mines on an oil tanker when no one is looking, well above the waterline so there is no chance of the ship sinking and also where they can be seen by passing boats or crew inspections.
Step 2) check that all three have exploded.
Step 3) Go back at night to peel off any unexploded mines, which might or might not explode.
[and do this to a Japanese owned ship while the Japanese prime minister is visiting]
mechanical contrivance said @ 5:48pm GMT on 14th Jun
That's just what they want you to think!
Ankylosaur said @ 6:04pm GMT on 14th Jun
You're assuming we can understand the inscrutable motivations of those weird alien beings called Iranians. After all, they don't worship Jesus and they probably don't even love their fetuses and guns like we do.
cb361 said @ 8:29pm GMT on 14th Jun
If fetuses had guns, they could protect themselves!

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