Media Review Network – Page 1213 – Providing Context and Substance

The cia and the Iranian experiment

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

The CIA and the Iranian experiment

Thierry Meyssan

Voltairenet.org

iran

The news of alleged election fraud has spread through Tehran like wildfire, pitching ayatollah Rafsanjani’s supporters against ayatollah Khamenei’s in street confrontations. This chaotic situation is secretly stirred by the CIA which has been spreading confusion by flooding Iranians with contradicting SMS messages. Thierry Meyssan recounts this psychological warfare experiment.

In March 2000, the Secretary of State Madeleine Albright admitted that the Eisenhower administration organized a regime change in 1953 in Iran and that this historical event explained the current hostility of Iranians towards the United States. Last week, during the speech he addressed to Muslims in Cairo, President Obama officially recognized that « in the midst of the cold war the United States played a role in the toppling of a democratically elected Iranian government » [1].

At the time, Iran was controlled by a puppet monarchy headed by the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. He had been placed on the throne by the British who forced his father, the pro-Nazi Cossack officer Reza Pahlavi to resign. However, the Shah had to deal with a nationalist Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadegh. Mossadegh, with the help of ayatollah Abou al-Qassem Kachani, nationalized the oil resources [2]. Furious, the British persuaded the United States that the Iranian dissent needed to be stopped before the country became communist. The CIA then put together Operation Ajax to overthrow Mossadegh with the help of the Shah, and to replace him with Nazi general Fazlollah Zahedi who until then was detained by the British. Zahedi is responsible for having instituted the cruelest terror regime of the time, while the Shah would cover his exactions while parading for Western ‘people’ magazines.

Bbc anti Isarael bias is a myth

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

BBC anti-Israel bias is a myth
The broadcaster favours Israeli over Palestinian sources in its news reports – as does al-Jazeera, a new study shows

Sharif Nashashibi

guardian.co.uk,

I am always baffled at the ferocity and frequency of accusations that the BBC’s Middle East coverage is anti-Israel. I have yet to see convincing, thorough, statistical evidence that this is the case.

When it comes to the secret report on Middle East coverage by the BBC’s Malcolm Balen, just about every article I have read in the mainstream British press assumes that it shows an anti-Israel bias by the corporation – despite the fact that no one has read it. I guess if you make an accusation often enough, not matter how baseless, it eventually sticks.

A study (pdf) I wrote, published by Arab Media Watch on 10 June 2009, confirms that the BBC’s coverage favours Israel. This comes as no surprise, as its findings echo those of numerous previous studies by AMW, universities and others, including the major, independent impartiality review commissioned by the BBC a few years ago.

Israeli firms accused of profiting off holocaust

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

Families Battle for Assets in Court
Israeli Firms Accused of Profiting Off Holocaust
By JONATHAN COOK

Nazareth.

Israel’s second largest bank will be forced to defend itself in court in the coming weeks over claims it is withholding tens of millions of dollars in “lost” accounts belonging to Jews who died in the Nazi death camps.

Bank Leumi has denied it holds any such funds despite a parliamentary committee revealing in 2004 that the bank owes at least $75 million to the families of several thousand Holocaust victims.

Analysts said the bank’s role is only the tip of an iceberg in which Israeli companies and state bodies could be found to have withheld billions of dollars invested by Holocaust victims in the country — dwarfing the high-profile reparations payouts from such European countries as Switzerland.

Hamas leader mashal Obama changedUSrhetoric only

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

Hamas leader Mash’al: Obama changed US rhetoric only

Bethlehem – Ma’an – Senior Hamas leader Khalid Mash’al on Thursday criticized US President Barack Obama’s historic speech to the Muslim world as insufficient.

In a televised speech in response to Obama’s 4 June address in Cairo, Mesh’al said that Obama had changed US rhetoric toward the Palestinians, but not the situation on the ground.

“What Obama said wasn’t new and wasn’t enough,” said Mash’al, speaking from Damascus where he resides in exile.

While Obama called for the creation of a Palestinian state, Mash’al criticized the US leader for failing to specify the boundaries and nature of that state. He also said Obama had rejected the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in what is now Israel.

The Hamas leader also noted that years of negotiations with successive Israeli governments had failed to yield an agreement.

With regard to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech in June at Bar Ilan University, Mash’al said the leader made it clear that they reject Palestinian rights to Jerusalem and the right of return, adding that Hamas "rejects the Israeli stance."