Posted on 01/28/2013 3:10:43 PM PST by ExxonPatrolUs
Here's an object lesson that shows just how far some press—and even Israeli government officials—have gone down the rabbit hole on Iran issues by propagating a story reported on a conspiracy website. The dubious tale goes like this:there was a huge explosion at Iran's main nuclear facility at Fordow, near the city ofQom, leaving hundreds of workers trapped in the underground facility. The facility is the source of much trepidation in Israel, where fears of insufficient military capabilities make the nuclear plant impenetrable to Israeli attack. The report came from a completely unreliable character writing for none other than World Net Daily,a website most famous for being the most prominent hubof the "Birther" conspiracy theory positing that Barack Obama is a secret Muslim and not American (among other conspiracy theoriesabout the Obama administration). What's more, the story, thanks to a firm denial by American officials,reveals yet another rift between the Obama administration and Israel's government over Iran—a rift that can be laid nowhere except at the feet ofovereager Israeli officials.
Vahid Salemi / AP Photos The story first popped up three days ago on WND,written by an author going by the pseudonym Reza Kahliliwho claims to be a former CIA spy in Iran. But Kahlili is unreliable, to say the least:among other outlandish claims peddled by Kahlili, he wrote that Iran already hasnuclear weapons.But that didn't stopall kinds of news media repeating Kahlili's unsubstantiated claim. The website of the Israeli paper Yedioth Ahronot ran a story on Saturday that began, "WND, an American news website affiliated with the Right, reported Friday that a mysterious explosion has destroyed a significant portion of Iran's Fordo nuclear facility." (If I was on the right,I'd be angry about the claim that my political beliefs are "affiliated" with WND.) On Sunday, the Jewish Press ran a story riddled with punctuation errors that cited WNDand Yedioth,reprinting parts of the latter's story in full. And another story today today at the Jewish Press,under a credulous headline, admitted the story might not be right in its lede.
But it didn't stop there. Speaking frankly, it's not that surprising that a tabloid like Yedioth would run with an unreliable story. (In contrast, the liberal Israelipaper Haaretz deserves kudos for not simply repeating the rumor and its unreliable source,but rather giving context and doing some —gasp!—reporting on it.)What was surprising was that Israeligovernment officials would publicly comment on such a story. But that's exactly what happened when a topnational security adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu seemed to take the report at face value. Responding to an inquiry from the Times of Israel,Homefront Defense Minister AviDichter—the acting defense minister at the time—said,"Any explosion in Iran that doesn’t hurt people but hurts its assets is welcome."That's all fine and dandy, except that it propagates a potentially false story from an unsavory source. Rather more amazingly,Israeli intelligence sources confirmed to the Timesof London that the story was real.Now, it's perfectly reasonable for Israeli officials to want to play up the notion that they—with the helpof the United States—are waging a successful shadow war against Iran's nuclear program. The problem is that if and when these stories are revealed as a bluff, the effect will be that Israel's bluster will not only be rendered hollow, but will be counter-productive to Israel's own hawkish posturing.Not only did these Israeli government officials hurt their own credibility, especially vis-avis the Iran issue, but they gave a leg-up to an unsavory conspiracy website.
And the bluff was indeed unmasked today when the American government threw cold water on the story:the White House denied the very report that Israeli officials have spent days pumping up."We have no information to confirm the allegations in the report and we do not believe the report is credible," spokesman Jay Carney said a briefing with reporters. "We don't believe those are credible reports." BuzzFeed reported the remark under the headline "White House Shuts Down Rumors OfIran Nuclear Plant Explosion." Who can deny that both named and unnamed Israeli government officials fueled this rumor, forcing the story into non-conspiracy outlets? And now the White House deigns to respond to a website that claims the President of the United States is illegitimate. How awkward.
If Jay Carney denies it, who are we to disagree?
I’ll admit that he sources for this story are not the most reliable. On the other hand, I don’t see any evidence other than Carney’s statement that it isn’t true.
A government planting false stories to hurt its enemies? I never heard of such a thing! Shocking!
Damn those Jooos
I’ll believe the Israeli government over ours any day!
When has Jay Carney ever lied to us! Jeesh.
/sarc
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.