Program Information

#515 - War on Iran, Again?

Series:

Subtitle:

And is Wikileaks a "modified limited hangout"?

Program Type:

Weekly Program

Featured Speakers/Commentators:

Webster Tarpley, Stephen Kinzer

Contributor:

Unwelcome Guests Collective Contact Contributor

Date Published:

Sept. 3, 2010, 6:39 p.m.

Summary: As the corporate media starts to spew forth anti-Iran propaganda, the alternative media are full of reports about the coming attack on Iran. This week in our first hour Webster Tarpley discusses why he expects war with Iran, and why he thinks Wikileaks is not what it appears to be. In our second hour, Stephen Kinzer gives a history of the first coup d'Ã©tat ever organised by the CIA. "Operation Ajax", motivated by the desire to regain control of the nation's huge oil revenues, ousted Iran's elected prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh, plunging the country into 25 years of US-backed bloody dictatorship.

Credits: Thanks to Guns and Butter for the Tarpley interview.

Notes: Webster Tarpley starts the show by reviewing the evidence for the coming attacks on Iran. According to his analysis, Wikileaks is a "limited hangout" which supports the agenda of the global elites.

According to Wikipedia, a "limited hangout" is a public relations or propaganda technique that involves the release of previously hidden information in order to prevent a greater exposure of more important details. Add disinformation and you have a "modified limited hangout". The question of whether Wikileaks is a "modified limited hang-out" is not a simple one, and I have no special knowledge, though I am suspicious of the sudden mainstream press attention focussed on the site surrounding the rape allegations. I am also suspicious of what the Wikileaks editor-in-chief is reported as saying on the subject of September 11th[1]:

What about 9/11? "I'm constantly annoyed that people are distracted by false conspiracies such as 9/11, when all around we provide evidence of real conspiracies, for war or mass financial fraud."

In any case, a new site was launched this week, http://www.wikileakileaks.org, to report on Wikileaks.

Our second hour, less up-to-date but more straightforward than Webster Tarpley's interview, is 2003 a lecture by Stephen Kinzer on the contents of his book, "All The Shah's Men", about the CIA lead 1953 coup d'Ã©tat in Iran. The British, who had lost massive profits from prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh's decision to nationalise the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, excited the interest of the CIA by raising the spectre of communism. While recounting the circumstances of the operation, Kinzer draws lessons from the events, pointing out that, over 50 years later, the world (and especially the US) is still suffering the consequences of CIA's fateful decision to exceed its remit of information gathering and embark on Operation Ajax, to oust Iran's popularly elected leader.

[1] http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/features/wanted-by-the-cia-wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-14880073.html

Version 1: Complete Audio