Once Again, War is Prime Time and Journalism’s Role is Taboo by John Pilger

Dandelion Salad

By John Pilger
Information Clearing House
www.johnpilger.com
Dec. 2, 2011

On 22 May 2007, the Guardian’s front page announced: “Iran’s secret plan for summer offensive to force US out of Iraq.” The writer, Simon Tisdall, claimed that Iran had secret plans to defeat American troops in Iraq, which included “forging ties with al-Qaida elements”. The coming “showdown” was an Iranian plot to influence a vote in the US Congress. Based entirely on briefings by anonymous US officials, Tisdall’s “exclusive” rippled with lurid tales of Iran’s “murder cells” and “daily acts of war against US and British forces”. His 1,200 words included just 20 for Iran’s flat denial.

IAEA’s “Soviet Nuclear Scientist” Never Worked on Weapons by Gareth Porter

Updated: Nov. 12, 2011; added another interview; Nov. 11, 2011; added a video with Gareth Porter.

by Gareth Porter
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted at IPS
Nov. 9, 2011

Image via Wikipedia

WASHINGTON, Nov 9, 2011 (IPS) – The report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) published by a Washington think tank Tuesday repeated the sensational claim previously reported by news media all over the world that a former Soviet nuclear weapons scientist had helped Iran construct a detonation system that could be used for a nuclear weapon.

But it turns out that the foreign expert, who is not named in the IAEA report but was identified in news reports as Vyacheslav Danilenko, is not a nuclear weapons scientist but one of the top specialists in the world in the production of nanodiamonds by explosives.

Debunking the Iran “Terror Plot” by Gareth Porter

by Gareth Porter
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted at www.merip.org
Nov. 4, 2011

At a press conference on October 11, the Obama administration unveiled a spectacular charge against the government of Iran: The Qods Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had plotted to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir, right in Washington, DC, in a place where large numbers of innocent bystanders could have been killed. High-level officials of the Qods Force were said to be involved, the only question being how far up in the Iranian government the complicity went.

U.S. May Have Concealed Deterrent Aim of Iranian Plan by Gareth Porter

by Gareth Porter
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted at IPS
Oct. 21, 2011

WASHINGTON, Oct 21, 2011 (IPS) – Scepticism about the U.S. allegation of an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador has focused on doubts that high-level Iranian officials would have used someone like used car salesman Monssor Arbabsiar to carry out the mission.

U.S. Officials Peddle False Intel to Support Terror Plot Claims by Gareth Porter + Franklin Lamb: US anti-Iran plot doomed to failure

by Gareth Porter
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted at IPS
Oct. 17, 2011

WASHINGTON, Oct 17, 2011 (IPS) – Officials of the Barack Obama administration have aggressively leaked information supposedly based on classified intelligence in recent days to bolster its allegation that two higher- ranking officials from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were involved in a plot to assassinate Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir in Washington, D.C.

FBI Account of “Terror Plot” Suggests Sting Operation by Gareth Porter + Pepe Escobar: Iranian plot was an inside job

Updated: Oct. 15, 2011 added 2 video interviews with Gareth Porter

by Gareth Porter
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted at IPS
Oct. 13, 2011

WASHINGTON, Oct 13, 2011 (IPS) – While the administration of Barack Obama vows to hold the Iranian government “accountable” for the alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington, the legal document describing evidence in the case provides multiple indications that it was mainly the result of an FBI “sting” operation.