Category: Iran

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ABC, the ‘most trusted news source in Australia’, airs Netanyahu’s 30-year-old bogus Iran nuke claims

For about 30 years, Benjamin Netanyahu, the current Prime Minister of Israel, has been making the claim that Iran is on the verge (one month, two weeks, a few weeks, not very far from or variations of that theme) of having a nuclear weapon.

Thus far, there is no sign at all that Teheran has acquired nukes. Given this fact, who would air such a ridiculous claim during a program that claims to be taking a serious look at Iran and the nuclear issue?

Well, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation had no qualms about running a program on Monday (April 6) — made by the American public broadcaster PBS — which put the square-jawed Netanyahu on-screen — among others — questioning if the Islamic nation had gone nuclear. And that too, during an ongoing attack by Israel and the US which is claimed to be aimed at preventing Iran from getting such weapons (which they don’t have). Continue reading “ABC, the ‘most trusted news source in Australia’, airs Netanyahu’s 30-year-old bogus Iran nuke claims”

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Israeli envoy takes clueless Australian journos for a nice ride

Journalists based in Canberra are a compromised lot, something that was glaringly evident by their performance — or more accurately the lack of it — during an address to the National Press Club by the new Israeli Ambassador, Dr Hillel Newman, on Tuesday (March 31).

Though many of the questions started out promisingly, they were not prosecuted to any satisfactory conclusion, allowing Dr Newman, a seasoned PR practitioner who has served as consul-general in Los Angeles and ambassador in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, to override the queries with statements that were mostly half-truths.

For example, Matthew Knott, defence and national security reporter at the Sydney Morning Herald, started off the Q&A by asking Dr Newman about the new law passed by the Knesset which can impose the death penalty on Palestinians who are found guilty of terrorism offences that threaten the security of Israel.

Knott is one of two journalists from the SMH who wrote a report on 7 March 2023 claiming that China was set to launch a war to retake Taiwan within the next three years. Both he and his collaborator in this report, Peter Hartcher, the international editor of the SMH, have kept a low profile when the bogus report was raised this month. Continue reading “Israeli envoy takes clueless Australian journos for a nice ride”

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Chris Mitchell claims to be a journalist. I have my doubts

Chris Mitchell, the former editor of The Australian, has accused the world’s media at large of wanting Iran to win the current war with the US and Israel.

Mitchell, who somehow reminds me of a bulldog, was out there this week, castigating journalists for believing any statement made Iranian officials. US President Donald Trump has claimed that Washington is negotiating with Iran, but a majority of the media has tended to believe what Iran has had to say.

Mitchell doesn’t like this. Essentially, a man who loves to claim he is a journalist is asking newspapers to take sides and barrack for one side, rather than report fairly on the ongoing stoush. Continue reading “Chris Mitchell claims to be a journalist. I have my doubts”

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How the New York Times runs interference for Israel

When things go badly for Israel, there are always obliging stenographers in the American media to spin things and put the most positive spin on the screw-ups of the Jewish state.

When these include Mark Mazzetti, an employee of the New York Times, who was so close to the CIA that he would submit his articles to the agency for clearance before publication, this is a bit laughable.

It gets even more so when among the four authors of the latest cover-up for Israel is Ronen Bergman, another NYT employee, a Jew, who is extremely close to the Mossad. Some of the stuff in the latest cover-up is risible in the extreme.

The NYT effort — which also has two other authors, Julian E. Barnes and Edward Wong — was republished by the Australian newspaper, The Age. Essentially, it is a cover-up for the failure of the Israeli plan to ignite an internet uprising in Iran by launching the war that is now in train. Continue reading “How the New York Times runs interference for Israel”

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That day in October when the world really changed

As OPEC+ showed its muscle today, cutting its output and spitting in the face of the US which was seeking lower oil prices, one was reminded of how this organisation first flexed its muscles – 49 years ago, in the wake of what is known as the Yom Kippur War or the Ramadan War.

It was on Saturday, October 6, 1973, that the combined forces of Egypt, Syria and Jordan launched an attack on Israel at two minutes to two in the afternoon.

It was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar and there had been some warnings of an imminent Arab attack. But these were not taken seriously. Continue reading “That day in October when the world really changed”

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Loose lips sink ships. Joe Biden does not seem to know that

In 1991, the US, aided by a number of other countries, waged a war given the moniker Operation Desert Storm, to eject Iraqi forces from Kuwait.

Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990, after demanding billions from that tiny country which it claimed it was owed because the Kuwaitis had stolen oil from wells which were on the Iraqi side of the border.

Iraq’s demands came after a long and debilitating eight-year war with Iran, during which Kuwait backed Iraq and often suffered attacks to its oil tankers in the Gulf as a result. When Kuwait did not give in, Baghdad’s forces invaded and took over the country in a matter of days. Continue reading “Loose lips sink ships. Joe Biden does not seem to know that”

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The world has become the domain of liars

There’s a common element to much, if not most, of the news that flits across the TV screens: lies.

People attempt to add a touch of sophistry to lying, by trying to create classes of lies, but in the end it all adds up to the same thing: saying one thing when knowing that the opposite was correct.

One well-known example: the current president of the United States, Joe Biden, came to office promising a US$15 minimum wage for the country. He also promised to provide medical services for all and forgive at least a part of the billions in student debt.

Continue reading “The world has become the domain of liars”

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All the news (apart from the Middle East issue) that’s fit to print

The Saturday Paper — as its name implies — is a weekend newspaper published from Melbourne, Australia. Given this, it rarely has any real news, but some of the features are well-written.

There is a column called Gadfly (again the name would indicate what it is about) which is extremely well-written and is one of the articles that I read every week. It was written for some years by one Richard Ackland, a lawyer with very good writing skills, and is now penned by one Sami Shah, an Indian, who is, again a good writer. Gadfly is funny and, like most of the opinion content in the paper, is left-oriented.

The same cannot be said of some of the other writers. Karen Middleton and Rick Morton fall into the category of poor writers, though the latter sometimes does provide a story that has not been run anywhere else. Middleton can only be described as a hack.

Continue reading “All the news (apart from the Middle East issue) that’s fit to print”

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Saudis want US to fight another war for them

On 3 August 1990, the morning after Iraq invaded Kuwait, the Saudi Arabian government was more than a bit jittery, fearing that the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein would make Riyadh his next target. The Saudis had been some of the bigger buyers of American and British arms, but they found that they had a big problem.

And that was the fact that all the princes who were pilots of F-16 jets, considered one of the glamour jobs, had gone missing. Empty jets were of no use. How would the Saudis defend their country if Baghdad decided to march into the country’s Eastern Region? If Hussein decided to do so, he would be in control of a sizeable portion of the world’s oil resources and many countries would be royally screwed.
Continue reading “Saudis want US to fight another war for them”

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America’s Kurdish adventure will end in tears

AT THE end of World War I, many ethnic groups were able to get a patch of land for themselves, with the area and population therein largely dependent on the extent to which they had pleased the imperial powers that came out as victors of that war – France and Britain.

The Kurds were one group that missed the bus and ended up scattered over four countries – Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. They are a restless lot and the countries in which they lived often had to keep them quiet by one means or another.

The late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein gave them a limited measure of autonomy. But there was always the implicit understanding that if the Kurds got too ambitious, then they would be met with blanket slaughter. Dictators like Saddam — and his neighbour, the late Hafez al-Assad of Syria — do not do things by half-measures and for years the Kurds were content to remain within their allocated freedoms.
Continue reading “America’s Kurdish adventure will end in tears”