NYT Pulls A HelenThomas

flashback 2007 - American Israel Public Affairs Committee Demands "Action" on Iran
(over and over again)
"Former CIA counterterrorism specialist Philip Giraldi, comparing the propaganda campaign against Iran to that which preceded the war on Iraq, has recently declared, "It is absolutely parallel. They're using the same dance steps-demonize the bad guys, the pretext of diplomacy, keep out of negotiations, use proxies. It is Iraq redux."

so - NYT Stokes Fear of Iran

"From the very large photo dominating page nine of the New York Times of Nov. 29, you can just tell from the look on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s face, not to mention the endless ranks of military officers standing in rows behind him, that Iran is determined to build a nuclear weapon. Anyone can tell. It’s obvious, right?

Never mind the doubting Thomases in those 16 U.S. intelligence agencies who — this time at least — have been demanding actual evidence before reversing their "high confidence" three years ago that Iran had stopped work on the warhead in the fall of 2003 and their belief that the work hadn’t resumed.

But can’t everyone tell from the defiant look on Ahmadinejad’s face that the Iranian president is a menace to us all?

I know someone will ask about those 19 advanced missiles Iran supposedly bought from North Korea. After all, we have a photo of them in a parade in North Korea, which proves this "mystery missile" really exists — despite some missile experts believing the North Koreans were just wheeling around a mock-up of the missile, not the real thing.

But the missiles — or the mock-ups — still looked real enough to be cited by the likes of Senators Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman to highlight the grave threat from Iran.

And the New York Times editors don’t want to let up on what’s become their long campaign to rally the nation behind regime change for Iran, much as the Times and many other leading U.S. newspapers pumped for regime change in Iraq. [See Consortiumnews.com's "NYT Pushes Confrontation with Iran."]

So, with the new WikiLeaks documents, the Times highlighted how Sunni Arab leaders and Israelis alike have "Sharp Distress Over a Nuclear Iran," as the Times offered little context regarding the long history of the often hysterical hostility against Shiite-ruled Iran that has emanated from Riyadh as well as Tel Aviv. [See Consortiumnews.com's "Cables Hold Clues to US-Iran Mysteries."]

If you’re a Times editor who knows it’s smart to go with the flow, don’t forget to post the missile-parade photo in color on the NYT‘s Web page, making the menacing missiles seem even more dangerous, dripping with bright red blood-color paint on the payload tips. Yes, and give it a scary title, say, "Iran Fortifies Its Arsenal With the Aid of North Korea."

And don’t forget to tell the reader that "advanced missiles from North Korea … could let [Iran] strike at Western European capitals and Moscow and help it [sic, presumably Iran, not Moscow] develop more formidable long-range ballistic missiles."

It’s just too bad that U.S. intelligence can’t snap some satellite photos showing those missiles actually being in Iran. It’s a sure bet that if Washington had such images, they’d be all over the place, whether "classified" or not."


flashback April 2010 - Senate pulled a HelenThomas

76 Senators sign on to Israel letter

"More than three quarters of the U.S. Senate, including 38 Democrats, have signed on to a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton implicitly rebuking the Obama Administration for its confrontational stance toward Israel.

The letter, backed by the pro-Israel group AIPAC, now has the signatures of 76 (Israel firsters)"