Embedded Journalism and the Disinformation Campaign for War on Iran

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp05302006.html

May 30, 2006

Embedded Journalism and the Disinformation Campaign for War on Iran
Now Introducing, the Office of Iranian Affairs (Formerly Doing Business as the Office of Special Plans)
By GARY LEUPP

According to Laura Rozen of the Los Angeles Times, the Office of Special Plans has been reincarnated as the Office of Iranian Affairs, apparently housed in the same Pentagon offices inhabited by its predecessor and involving some of the same slimy personnel. Notably, Abram Shulsky, who headed the OSP under Douglas Feith, is back. His crew will be reporting to none other than Elizabeth Cheney, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, and daughter of the Vice President. Dick Cheney is generally understood to be the strongest advocate for an attack on Iran in the administration. (He is also, by the way, architect of Bush's "signing statements" appended to laws entitling him to ignore them. He is the man behind the throne, surrounded by neocon acolytes.)

As I wrote last November, "it is too soon to speak of the 'twilight of the neocons' while Hannah, Hadley, Luti, Wurmser, Elliott Abrams, John Bolton, John Negroponte and other neocons remain in power, with Ledeen and Shulsky still skulking about."

This was the same month that Democrats staged an abortive mini-rebellion in the Senate, demanding that the Intelligence Committee's long-delayed Phase II investigation focusing on Feith's OSP finally get off the ground. But this seems to have been deliberately delayed by the initiation of a separate in-house investigation of Feith's office by the Pentagon's inspector general. Feith's successor and fellow neocon Eric Edelman and Rumsfeld's intelligence chief Stephen Cambone are supposedly cooperating on that. I wouldn't expect any startling report detailing the disinformation campaign leading to the Iraq war anytime soon.

Meanwhile, Abram Shulsky, the neocon's neocon, a scholar of Leo Strauss and Machiavelli, who has written about the application of Strauss's thought to intelligence, is back. The Straussians of course uphold the use of disinformation ("noble lies") to prepare the public for the difficult choices they, the Wise, have made. Already there is evidence for the deliberate planting of bogus stories planted in the press, such as occurred in the months leading up to the Iraq attack. Amir Tahiri's report on the front page of Canada's National Post about a religious dress code adopted by the Iranian parliament was immediately, eagerly embraced by State Department spokesman Sean McCormick, who at a May 19 press briefing was asked by James Rozen of Fox News the following:

QUESTION: On Iran, are you aware or is the Department aware of published reports stating that the Iranian parliament this week passed a measure that would require non-Muslims to wear badges that identify them as such?

[seemslikeadream]

1. For the Cheneys, Going to War with Iran is a Family Affair

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/analysis/180

BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

Though the Bush dynasty has long been America's most notorious crime family, the current administration has been even more nepotistic towards the Cheney clan -- with disastrous results. Take one of Cheney's daughters, for example. Elizabeth Cheney's husband was appointed general counsel for the Homeland Security Department (where he blatantly hindered and stalled multiple government investigations).

But Elizabeth herself is far more connected to political favoritism and neoconservatism within the government. And it might just help the Cheney back-office effort to lead us into war with Iran.

Her official role in the Bush Administration started in 2002. In those pre-Condi Rice days, the administration needed all the help it could get in the State Department. George Bush apparently couldn't find an existing job Elizabeth was qualified for, so Cheney had someone create a brand new one through which she could monitor and influence "Foggy Bottom": Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs.

Elizabeth Cheney was no impartial bureaucrat. She left the post after just a year to work for her father's reelection campaign, where she parroted the administration's mindless rhetoric and talking points.

After the election, the nepotism grew worse. In February 2005 she was appointed the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs and Coordinator for Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiatives (how's that for a job title?). Last year the Sunday Times reported her job entailed "responsibility for bringing about a different type of regime change in Iran."