The anti-Iran war propaganda is setting new standards of what constitutes hogwash with each passing news cycle. one of the most recent lurid tales comes courtesy of Reuters which devoted major space last week to a series on the assets of the ruling Ayatollah Khamenei conjures up memories of the great Neocon hope that was Iraqi dissident “Curveball”. The story is told in an article entitled Iranian dissidents say Iran has built a secret new nuclear site plumbs the depths of credibility although it will sell well to the usual low information mouth-breathers who still to this day believe that Saddam Hussein was behind the September 11, 2001 attacks. The propaganda piece cites the source for the latest sinister effort by the Iranians to conquer the world, destroy Israel and reestablish the Caliphate as being an organization that calls itself “The National Council of Resistance of Iran” that is - get this - based in Paris. This will further bolster the French (formerly known as cheese eating surrender monkeys) in the esteem of the Neocon warmongers.
Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi a defector who was given the code name of “Curveball” by U.S. and German intelligence officials regaled Bush administration figures with with tales of Saddam’s mobile bioweapons labs, stating that he was a former chemical engineer with insider knowledge. This led in turn to then Secretary of State Colin Powell’s testimony at the United Nations that made the case for attacking Iraq and George W. Bush's infamous 2003 State of the Union address. While the eventual discovery that “Curveball” was full of bullshit and was probably making it all up to curry favorable treatment In the words of a former CIA official at the time he was “a guy trying to get his green card essentially in Germany, and playing the system for what it was worth” the attack and invasion commenced. The Bush administration eventually created an investigative commission and unsurprisingly the revelations included comments such as “crazy”, “out of control”, a “congenital liar” and a man who just “might be an alcoholic”. There was also some speculation that “Curveball” may have been a relative of Neocon darling Ahmad Chalabi . Mr. Alwan al-Janabi finally fessed up in a 2011 Guardian interview and expressed shock that his lies were used to bolster the case for the disastrous shock and awe military campaign and that he just had an ax to grind with Saddam - pick a number and stand in line buddy.
The exposure of the lies of “Curveball” came far too late to prevent the murder, torture and displacement of tens to hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians caught up in the military strikes and the sectarian skirmishing and score-settling in the aftermath. Not that they really matter though, they were dark complected non-Christians or what a good many exceptional Americans consider subhumans and the military and political leadership considers acceptable collateral damage. Now over ten and a half years after the bombing of Baghdad was commenced, televised with all the flag-draped hoopla by U.S. state-corporate news arms the place is still a disaster and the domestic economy has been so gutted by the preference of guns over butter that without the Federal Reserve providing a heroin fix of 85 billion dollars per month it would all collapse. The war was a hot seller in the early days and Americans cheered the exploits of the invaders and the saving of private Jessica Lynch, late exposed as a total hoax right up there with the toppling of Saddam's statue in Baghdad's Firdos Square which was also a lie. The Iraq war was the manual on how to lie the nation into wars of choice and a precursor of what has been seen in recent months, from Syria to Iran to the thoroughly rotten CBS 60 Minutes fake story on Benghazi just a few weeks back. In an interesting bit of trivia CBS's Lara Logan also reported on the Saddam statue psy-op.
The main reason for bringing up “Curveball” is that with the relentless propaganda campaign to start yet another unnecessary and evil war in the Middle East there seems to be much agitation and propaganda that is culled from the same playbook that was used to lie this country into Iraq. The Obama-Kerry push for attacking Syria over a gassing of civilians including children was a rehashed version of the “he gassed his own people” meme that was invoked against Saddam (although he probably obtained the chemicals from American corporations) but fortunately that one blew up on Barry and the boys. The Ghouta gassings have still to this day not been convincingly proven to the the acts of the Assad regime and quite frankly, even if they were (which is unlikely) why do a little over a thousand who were victims of sarin gas matter in the greater scheme of things more than the tens of thousands otherwise slaughtered in Syria? Dead is after all dead and the outrage of the Obama regime, especially Secretary of Skull and Bones John Kerry over ANY use of chemical weapons given the U.S. history of depleted uranium, white phosphorus, Napalm and Agent Orange is as laughable as it is hypocritical.
But I digress..
The spigots of the lie factory are fully open pumping out the anti-Iran propaganda in a frantic effort to once and for all sink the P5+1 talks that are set to resume now seem to be headed towards some sort of an agreement despite all of the best efforts of those who have been meddlesome. Even the right-wing regime of Israeli boss Benjamin Netanyahu now appear to be resigned to some sort of accord and are focusing on other ways to start the war. So the onslaught of Iran agitprop will continue unabated. Some of it is actually pretty amusing in a sick sort of way. I particularly enjoyed the one that told a story that longtime Obama intimate from the Windy City Valerie Jarrett has been engaged in back channel negotiations with Iran in order to circumvent Secretary of State John Kerry. Not that would ever be a bad idea to get that stammering ass of a Massachusetts liberal loser out of the process but Valerie Jarrett? The story has likely been planted to sow the seeds of divisiveness and confusion in the White House - as they don't already do a good enough job of themselves. Considering that it is largely being floated on right-wing blogs and news agrregator websites notorious for being Neocon/GOP disinformation mills it is highly likely to be bullshit. The sheer magnitude of the garbage that is put out is astounding and that many actually believe it is yet another example of how close that this country is coming to fulfilling its destiny as a historical example of what not do be, for hundreds of years into the future historians will be hauling the carcass of the U.S. empire onto an autopsy table and carving away for exactly what caused the collapse that is looming. It could be that the greed, exceptionalism, lust for power and war and the dumbing down all were just too much. The prophecy of the movie Idiocracy will soon be fulfilled here in what was once a land of plenty but thanks to decades of decay and a total abdication of adult leadership has become a pox upon the planet.
So grab some popcorn and enjoy the show, it would all be hysterical if the possibility of being turned into a cinder once the nukes start flying weren't so real. As the late George Carlin once put it - 'When you're born into this world, you're given a ticket to the freak show. If you're born in America you get a front row seat.'
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