Posted on Categories PBC Comments, Podcast Info

Journalist Gareth Porter on the Bogus Iranian Plot, Misleading New Nuke Report on Iran, and Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan; Gary Chew Reviews ‘J.Edgar’

Journalist and historian Gareth Porter returns to further de-bunk the crazy allegations of an Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to DC, the US spin on the latest UN report on Iranian nuclear development, and the causes of civilian deaths in Afghanistan;  Gary Chew reviews the new Clint Eastwood film, J. Edgar.

Porter continues his important investigation into the highly dubious charges that Iran was plotting with the Los Zetas drug cartel of Mexico to kill Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Washington.  This caper is similar to J. Edgar Hoover’s counterintelligence tactics, using a paid criminal informant who manipulates a patsy into criminal acts.  In this case, the patsy is an Iranian-American used car salesman from Texas, Manssor Arbabsiar, who seems even dumber than Rick Perry, and a most unlikely spy for Iran.  Porter details two scenarios based on the information available, and suggests that, worst case, Iran was researching targets for retaliation if it were attacked. We talk about David Sanger’s NYT story on 11/6/11, which correctly talks about the Stuxnet virus and recent attempts to assassinate Iranian nuclear experts (one was successful) and then describes the Arbabsiar plot as fact and uses unnamed spook sources to demonize Iran.  We also talk about the UN report from the IAEA, embraced by David Allbright, that is being spun by the Obama administration as revealing Iran’s progress toward a nuclear weapon.  But in this report, Porter exposes the false claim in the IAEA report about a “former Soviet nuclear weapons scientist” who had helped Iran with detonation systems.  He identifies a Ukranian named Danilenko as an expert on detonations used to create nanodiamonds, not nuclear blasts.  We talk about the hysteria that leads to talk of a pre-emptive strike on Iran by the US or Israel and the misguided notion that we should go to war to prevent Iran from even developing a nuclear capability.  Finally, we follow up on Porter’s previous reporting on night raids and civilian deaths in Afghanistan, which are ignored or downplayed by our media and political leaders.

At about 1:08:45, Gary Chew reviews the new Eastwood film, J. Edgar, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as FBI Director Hoover.