There is important Iran news (h/t voteforobamain2012 at Kos) breaking this morning from NBC News, of all places: Anonymous US officials have confirmed that the group responsible for murdering Iranian scientists is the MEK terrorist group (Mujahedin-e-Khalq) encamped in eastern Iraq--anti-Ayatollah and equally anti-Shah before that, a tool of Saddam Hussein in the war with Iran and now a tool of Israeli foreign policy.
It's not exactly news that that's who the killers and their paymasters are. [jump]
Indeed it is what was generally expected (I have read somewhere that Mossad agents really do not ever go to Iran and all their work there is done by paid or volunteer surrogates). And what the Iranian government has been saying.
The real news here is the "anonymous US officials" that leaked the story (NBC doesn't even hint at which agency) who add that the Obama administration is aware but not involved. (I have been inclined from the start to believe the US really has nothing to do with these murders, and I'm glad to hear some corroboration.)
As with any leak, especially a semi-official one, what you want to know is who benefits. So it's the same day as the Times reports increasing conflict between US and Israel over Netanyahu's horribly misconceived war plans. Is our state department really starting to play hardball on this issue? I hope so.
It's also in the wake of a long campaign by Republicans to have the MEK taken off the US list of terrorist organizations. Not just Republicans, either, alas--this was a gigantic PR effort that roped in people like Howard Dean and Anthony Zinni who were paid for their participation. And where did an outfit of ex-terrorists stranded in Iraqi hills get the money to mount this thing? Now we know one of their funding sources.
The MEK is so dirty, the Netanyahu government and its PR network in America are so dirty, the whole broad attack on Iran is so dirty, doesn't it make you wonder whether Iran itself may be in some sense innocent in this matter? (I'm not suggesting that the Iranian government is doing any positive good, just the negative good of not building that bomb.)
Cross-posted at Daily Kos.
It's not exactly news that that's who the killers and their paymasters are. [jump]
 |
| Persian warriors. Pergamon Museum/Vorderasiastishes Museum, Berlin; image from Wikipedia. |
Indeed it is what was generally expected (I have read somewhere that Mossad agents really do not ever go to Iran and all their work there is done by paid or volunteer surrogates). And what the Iranian government has been saying.
The real news here is the "anonymous US officials" that leaked the story (NBC doesn't even hint at which agency) who add that the Obama administration is aware but not involved. (I have been inclined from the start to believe the US really has nothing to do with these murders, and I'm glad to hear some corroboration.)
As with any leak, especially a semi-official one, what you want to know is who benefits. So it's the same day as the Times reports increasing conflict between US and Israel over Netanyahu's horribly misconceived war plans. Is our state department really starting to play hardball on this issue? I hope so.
It's also in the wake of a long campaign by Republicans to have the MEK taken off the US list of terrorist organizations. Not just Republicans, either, alas--this was a gigantic PR effort that roped in people like Howard Dean and Anthony Zinni who were paid for their participation. And where did an outfit of ex-terrorists stranded in Iraqi hills get the money to mount this thing? Now we know one of their funding sources.
The MEK is so dirty, the Netanyahu government and its PR network in America are so dirty, the whole broad attack on Iran is so dirty, doesn't it make you wonder whether Iran itself may be in some sense innocent in this matter? (I'm not suggesting that the Iranian government is doing any positive good, just the negative good of not building that bomb.)
Cross-posted at Daily Kos.
