Obama Threatens Iran With "All Options" Again

Kourosh Ziabari
 

Government-run psy-ops campaigns as a prelude to war

"The continued presence of all options on the table"; this is the disappointing message which a Nobel Peace Prize laureate dispatches internationally. In his latest interview with CBS news, American President Barack Obama refused to rule out the possibility of a military strike against Iran. By saying so, he linked up with former U.S. President George W. Bush, who coined this well-known catchphrase.

Putting the nature of these options aside, the very "table" on which they should be placed is a matter to be considered too. -In terms of legitimacy, who is in a position to decide upon the destiny of Iran's nuclear program? Does the Nobel Peace Prize laureate want to set aside the question of legitimacy and rather engage in power politics? -What is wrong with Iran having a nuclear program? Why, exactly, should a 70-million nation be subjected to crippling sanctions, continued threats of military strike, isolation and economic embargo? What is the definite answer to the simple question that "why should the U.S., France and Israel possess nuclear weapons"? Which nation is the more offensive and violent? -Iran with its nuclear program, which has been demonstrated time and again to not have anything to do with military purposes, or Washington and its European allies, who have started on this adventurous, and aggressive trajectory of threats and sanctions?

 
Robert Parry, an award-winning American investigative journalist succinctly answers the questions we have in mind. In an April 2 article in Consortium News, he notes:

"if two countries with powerful nuclear arsenals were openly musing about attacking a third country over mere suspicions that it might want to join the nuclear club, we'd tend to sympathize with the non-nuclear underdog as the victim of bullying and possible aggression."

As Robert Parry notes, the "bomb bomb Iran Parlor Game" has much to do with the regular psychological operations the U.S. government ruthlessly directs against its victims and it has been seen several times during the post-World War II era that the U.S. government has resorted to the most brutal methods of black propaganda to demonize and demoralize its opponents.
 
In order to thwart Iran's efforts to achieve the zeniths of high technology and prevent the country from becoming an influential player in the Persian Gulf region and beyond, Washington has mobilized a large number of conservative think-tanks and pundits to multilaterally engage in psychological warfare against Iran.

For this purpose they also have availed themselves of the services of the New York Times, a paper well skilled in psy-ops campaigns, by running misleading and untruthful articles which get widely circulated, syndicated and which lies many people all over the globe will fall for.

The American psychological warfare, however, is not limited to mainstream media outlets, NY Times and Fox News-like stuff, campaign websites and TV shows. Numerous websites, blogs and community portals, e-zines and online publications have also been activated to function as the mouthpieces of White House so as to disseminate the same misleading and deceptive stories which regularly and misrepresent what's happening in Iran. So it would be fair to say that the wave of American psychological operation against Iran has become pretty extensive and far-reaching.

Over the past three decades and especially following the eruption of this dispute with Iran, U.S. has been carrying out other media operations too, to vigorously incite anti-Iranian sentiments. Some recent efforts include the establishment of websites such as "United Against Nuclear Iran" and the production of Hollywood-sponsored movies "300" and "The Wrestler".

Above all, carrying out psychological operations is one of the most sensitive and delicate responsibilities of the U.S. Army, CIA's Special Activities Division (SAD) and National Clandestine Service (NCS). SAD is in charge of providing the U.S. President with "special" options where diplomacy and military action is likely to fail. U.S. President has the authority to order the commencement of a new clandestine operation whenever necessary.

Covert and behind-the-scenes interference in foreign elections is one of the main tasks of SAD. It also carries out missions to undermine or even overthrow a regime which does not comply with the interests of the U.S. administration. SAD has a long history of carrying out unheard-of and paralyzing missions of psychological propaganda against different countries including Bolivia, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran.

In Iran, where people still remember the bitter memory of U.S.-backed coup d'état of 1953 which brought down the democratic government of Dr. Mosaddeq and inaugurated the tyranny of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, SAD has accomplished numerous operations, several of which have been revealed by the investigative journalists.

In July 2008, for example, the renowned American journalist Seymour Hersh published an article in the New Yorker and revealed that the Bush administration had taken practical steps, including the authorization of a Presidential Finding to legitimize the illegal entry of paramilitary troops into Iran, through the borders of Iraq, so as to help overthrow the government of Iran. Based on the documents he had obtained, Hersh wrote:

"Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran. [...] These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country's religious leadership." (Preparing the Battlefield: The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran.)

 
Hersh cited the federal law of America [under] which

a Presidential Finding, which is highly classified, must be issued when a covert intelligence operation gets under way and, at a minimum, must be made known to Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and the Senate and to the ranking members of their respective intelligence committees—the so-called Gang of Eight. Money for the operation can then be reprogrammed from previous appropriations, as needed, by the relevant congressional committees, which also can be briefed.

This greatly highlighted the significance of his discovery of the documents. "The Finding was focused on undermining Iran's nuclear ambitions and trying to undermine the government through regime change, working with opposition groups and passing money" Hersh quoted an informed, anonymous source as saying.
 
SAD has also carried out globally significant actions such as preventing the Italian Communist Party (PCI) from winning the parliamentary elections in 1948 and 1960s, overthrowing the government of Guatemala in 1954 and staging the 1957 coup d'état of Indonesia which removed from power the popular, democratically-elected President Ahmad Sukarno and led to a terrible massacre in which almost 1 million people lost their life.
 
Anyway, history seems to be repeated once again. White House and its numerous teams, departments, groups, unions and forces of psychological operation, under the decree of someone who right after winning a Nobel Prize of "Peace" began to drum for a war of bloodshed in the Middle East, are gathering together to launch a new scenario of war game and violence; however, they've simply forgotten an undeniable reality: Iran is a different country; different from all of the countries throughout the world.
 
Dear President Obama,

We know that whoever rises to presidency in your country should be first an expert of psychological warfare and a dexterous pamphleteer; you've done your job successfully by teaching us that you have the potentiality to be a duplicate of Mr. George W. Bush. Now you've satisfied your Zionist supervisors excellently. The only thing which you should know is that you had better take the options off the table and save more space consequently!

Sincerely,
Kourosh Ziabari 

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Kourosh Ziabari is Iranian media correspondent, freelance journalist and the author of Book 7+1. He is a contributing writer for websites and magazines in the Netherlands, Canada, Italy, Hong Kong, Bulgaria, South Korea, Belgium, Germany, the U.K. and the U.S. He was once a member of Stony Brook University Publications’ editorial team and Media Left magazine’s contributing writer, as well as a contributing writer for Finland’s Award-winning Ovi Magazine. As a young Iranian journalist, he has been interviewed and quoted by several mainstream mediums, including BBC World Service, PBS Media Shift, the Media Line network, Deutsch Financial Times and L.A. Times. Currently, he works for the Foreign Policy Journal as a media correspondent. He is a member of Tlaxcala Translators Network for Linguistic Diversity and World Student Community for Sustainable Development. You can write to Kourosh Ziabari at: kziabari@gmail.com [Info gently lifted from salemnews.com and mycatbirdseat.com]