Sloppy Comments on Iran’s ‘Nukes’

from Consortium News:



Sloppy Comments on Iran’s ‘Nukes’
March 5, 2012

Exclusive: The New York Times and other U.S. news outlets failed miserably to tell the truth before the Iraq War – and they aren’t doing much better as new war clouds build over Iran. Journalists lazily repeat false assumptions like Iran’s purported threat to attack Israel with a nuclear bomb, Robert Parry writes.

By Robert Parry

As Americans ponder a possible war with Iran over its nuclear program, they reasonably might turn to someone like Mark Landler, the New York Times’ White House correspondent, for a careful explication of the facts. If so, they might have heard an explanation like this, which Landler provided to MSNBC viewers on Monday:

“The Israelis feel the window for that (denying Iran the capability to build nuclear weapons) is closing and it’s closing really fast, and if they allow it to close without taking military action, they would find themselves in a position where the Iranians suddenly are in possession of nuclear weapons, which they’ve threatened already to use against Israel.

“As the Israelis always say, that’s an existential threat to Israel, which is something we don’t necessarily feel here in the United States.”

Now, that sounds really scary – that the Iranians have “threatened already to use (nuclear weapons) against Israel” which the Israelis understandably perceive as an “existential threat.” Except, of course, that Iran has not threatened to attack Israel with nuclear weapons. Indeed, Iranian leaders continue to deny that they even want nuclear weapons. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2012/03/05/sloppy-comments-on-irans-nukes/