Coming soon to a synagogue or embassy near you...the IRG bogeyman (AFP/Getty)
ABC News today publishes a leaked (from whom?) memo drafted by Israeli intelligence sources warning of terror threats against Israeli government sites in this country and American Jewish communal facilities from the dreaded “Iran menace.” If you heard this story on the TV news it would sound persuasive, until you began to examine the assumptions behind it. It begins by declaring the alleged assassination plot against the Saudi ambassador as a given. This passage quotes a federal official mouthing the Israeli line:
“The thwarted assassination plot of a Saudi official in Washington, D.C., a couple of months ago was an important data point,” added the official, “in that it showed at least parts of the Iranian establishment were aware of the intended event and were not concerned about inevitable collateral damage to U.S. citizens had they carried out an assassination plot on American soil.”
“That was an eye opener, showing that they did not care about any collateral damage,” the federal official said.
Note the vagueness of “parts of the Iranian establishment were aware of the…event.” This doesn’t even place direct blame for the alleged plot on Iranian leaders themselves. It only says they were aware of it and didn’t object. What’s also ironic about this is that I haven’t seen any U.S. expression of concern for those Iranians murdered as “collateral damage” from Mossad and MEK terror attacks inside Iran. Perhaps when we do then we can expect Iranians to care about collateral damage to citizens in this country from acts of terror no one has even been able to prove were planned.
So from a single alleged planned act of terror, Israel and U.S. intelligence operatives have spun a narrative of ongoing threat from the Iranians. They could strike anywhere at any time. They’re out there, out to get us: New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago. Wherever there are Jews there is danger. We have to be vigilant. Because they hate us. They all hate us. We have to put the threat of terror in the front of our minds. We have to become paranoid, as paranoid as the Israeli and U.S. intelligence officials are postulated this nightmare scenario:
Israeli facilities in North America — and around the world — are on high alert, according to an internal security document obtained by ABC News that predicted the threat from Iran against Jewish targets will increase.
“We predict that the threat on our sites around the world will increase … on both our guarded sites and ‘soft’ sites,” stated a letter circulated by the head of security for the Consul General for the Mid-Atlantic States. Guarded sites refers to government facilities like embassies and consulates, while ‘soft sites’ means Jewish synagogues, and schools, as well as community centers like the one hit by a terrorist bombing in Buenos Aires in 1994 that killed 85 people.
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, told an audience at a closed forum in Tel Aviv recently that Iran is trying to hit Israeli targets…
Local and regional law enforcement and intelligence officials in U.S. and Canadian cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Toronto have been monitoring the situation closely for several weeks, and have stepped up patrols at Israeli government locations and Jewish cultural and religious institutions. They have issued awareness bulletins reminding officers to stay vigilant.
Federal officials in those cities told ABC News that they have also increased their efforts to watch for any threat stream pointing to an imminent attack on either Israeli facilities, Jewish cultural or religious institutions or other “soft targets.”
So because some mid-level Israeli security operative spins a tale of dread, every American Jew must start looking under his bed for hidden Iranian agents out to get him (or her). If you parse this carefully, there is absolutely no proven threat mentioned, no chatter in the terror networks, no identifiable enemy operatives. Just a load of paranoia from a bunch of spooks telling us the Iranian bogeymen are out there, somewhere, waiting, just waiting. For what?
So you want proof that there’s a threat? Here it is:
“In the past few weeks, there has been an escalation in threats against Israeli and Jewish targets around the world,” one regional document noted. “Open source has reported many demonstrations against Israel are expected to be concentrated on Israeli embassies and consulates. Such demonstrations have occurred internationally as well as domestically. These demonstrations could potentially turn violent at local synagogues, restaurants, the Israeli Embassy and other Israeli sites. … Law enforcement should be vigilant when making periodic checks at all Jewish facilities.
So get this: the “threat” is from protesters at Israeli embassies and consulates. Why? How? Doesn’t say. Are there Iranian agents who’ve infiltrated these protests? And what protests? I haven’t heard of any to speak of. Are Iranians demonstrating at Israeli embassies over threats against Iran? Hadn’t heard of that. But the end result here is Israel is setting the stage for its own attack on Iran leading to such protests by Iranians and others who oppose violence, and these protesters will be seen as potential terrorist saboteurs out to get Israelis or any American Jew they can find.
What the hell will the Israelis do with all the American Jews who will be out there on the picket lines? Perhaps we’ll be double agents betraying our people and nation by siding with the enemy. It would suit the absurdist ultranationalist narrative represented by Netanyahu and the Israeli war party. I’ve got news for them. They can attempt to insinuate their own fears into American society and use us for their own interests in ginning up hate against Iran. But I’m not buying it. I’m not going to be party to the epidemic of war fever they’re trying to inject into the body politic. I’m going to stay calm and rational. If they want to cry wolf, let them. The rest of us will be here to point out the hysteria and unfounded claims of Bibi’s hawkmeisters.
There’s another delightful (in a twisted sort of way) irony in the following:
…The Israeli bulletin warned that Israel’s own passports might be used by terrorists intent on carrying out a plot.
Now isn’t that cute. Israeli caused a massive international scandal by cloning passports of its own citizens for use by the Dubai assassins who murdered Mahmoud al-Mabouh. The Mossad violated the sovereignty of its own allies in the process. Now they have the chutzpah to tell us that they accuse Iran of planning to do the same thing. As if there’s no justice in that, and the whole world should be shocked, I say shocked that Iran might do to Israelis what Israel itself did to them by putting them in harm’s way.
Here’s the final coup de grâce of this charade:
…We operate according to the information that Iran and Hezbollah are working hard and with great intensity to release a ‘quality’ attack against Israeli/Jewish sites around the world.
Don’t you just love the use of that word “quality?” It made me want to throw up. Of course Iran may be “working hard” to attack Israel and its interests. If enemy leaders and generals threatened your country virtually every day with violent attack, you’d plan the same thing as a response to an attack. Aside from the purported Saudi assassination plot, Iran has shown no willingness to engage in any act of terror against Israeli or Jewish interests. And I predict they likely will not do so until and unless Israel attacks. But I invite Israeli intelligence officials to offer real evidence, instead of rumor-and fear-mongering.
I’m convinced we are ruled by psychopaths.
Cable #07ANKARA1360Mon, 4 Jun 2007
Today:Israel, U.S. Divided Over Timing of Potential Military Strike Against Iran
They are behaving as if it’s a national project, some thing positive, and so nonchalantly, as if it’s an argument over the timing of brunch or something. They make me sick. I’m going to vote for Ron Paul. They’ve made the choice easy.
Are you sure this isn’t a war criminal/terrorist convention? Kissinger (Vietnam, Laos & Cambodia). Rumsfeld: GITMO, Abu Ghraib), Paul Wolfowitz (Iraq murder and mayhem of 1.4m Iraqis). Gosh, a nice place for a Taliban IED or suicide vest bomber, huh?
Right, because voting for a guy with less support than Willy the Goat will actually stop anything from happening.
The most productive thing you can do is just post your feelings on blogs, cuz writing to congress ain’t goin to help either.
Do you still believe that Israel is likely to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities?
If so, what do you think Iran will do in response to such an attack?
[Comment deleted–Sorry, I can’t publish anything this over the top. You know the comment rules. If not, read them.]
Yeah, talk about twisted irony: “That was an eye opener, showing that they did not care about any collateral damage,” the federal official said.
The collateral damage of the Iraq war is counted in hundreds of thousands of Iraqi women and children and this US “federal officer” creep is moaning about collateral damage? I am on the floor laughing. Crying. Laughing again. Throwing up.
In view of Mossad’s not-so-covert war on Iran, the bottom line is that Israelis and their American benefactors fear — and they should fear — that most basic and immutable law of the universe: What goes around comes around.
This is not an accusation and no one is pointing out the injustice of it. they issued a warning and they specify that Israeli passports might be used in case of an attack. an Israeli passport can make it easy for a terrorist to enter a guarded building and the people responsible for the building security should be aware of that.
The article said it’s an awareness bulletin issued for officers to stay vigilant and they think fake passports is a legitimate threat. there’s nothing more to it.
‘Death to Israel’ has been Iran’s mantra for over 30 years. So who’s phobic?
You mean ever since the IDF & Mossad provided advanced weapons & torture training to the SAVAK? They wouldn’t have had any reason to hate Israel now would they?
To suggest that Iran’s obsession with Israel is in any way rational or justified is insane.
To suggest that Israel’s obsessions with Iran is in any way rational or justified is insane. I repurposed yr original statement to show how it fits perfectly as a mirror of Israeli attitudes toward Iran. Though I don’t fully agree with either characterization.
Israel is not obsessed with Iran. We consider it a threat, sure, but so does the entire west. The EU has recently placed an oil embargo against Iran and the US has put in place some very serious sanctions. Israel is definitely not alone in its struggle against Iran. You do not blame the EU or the US with an “Iranian” obsession, why do you single out Israel?
The “entire” west doesn’t consider Iran a threat. Some nations do, some don’t. And almost as much of the west that considers Iran a threat considers Israel one.
Well, I’m not sure what you mean by that or which western countries consider Israel a threat, but that’s not the point.
You suggested that Israel has an “obsession” with Iran. I contradicted that statement by showing that the entire EU and the US are engaged in diplomatic and economic war against Iran. If Israel is “obsessed”, then so is the EU, the US and other western countries. Obviously, obsession doesn’t play a role here, but rather the recognition of Iran’s dangerous nature, and that a nuclear Iran will be 10 times more dangerous than it is today.
Israel is certainly far more obsessed with Iran than any other country in the world. The only reason that Americans care about Iran is that Israel has guilted them into doing so & activated the Israeli lobby to flack this issue like crazy. Otherwise, Americans are certainly not obsessed with Iran.
The region is actually far more dangerous without Iran having a nuclear weapon. If it had one, Israel would never dare attack it.
If memory serves me, Israel provided the Ayatollahs with advanced weapons during the Iran-Iraq war.
The Mossad did not directly aid SAVAK until the 1960’s.
Unfortunately, SAVAK was a foreign and domestic secret service mixed together. So, if Mossad aided SAVAK in fighting Iran’s foreign enemies, that knowledge could be used against Iran’s domestic enemies as well.
BTW. Who teaches the Ayatollahs today on how to torture their citizens?
I didn’t say Mossad helped SAVAK to fight Iran’s foreign enemies. It aided the Shah in oppressing his internal enemies, which is why Iranians hated Israel after the Revolution.
As for who teaches Iranians now, unfortunately they have only to look to U.S. or Israeli torture models for an example. But torturers the world over don’t really need models. They master the “art” quite well themselves without needing that much outside help.
So Iran didn’t really need Mossad training in torture techniques?
Every little bit helps. SAVAK didn’t just wanna be good torturers, they wanted to be GREAT torturers. Mossad gave them that little extra leg up.
What’s a reliable published source on Mossad teaching SAVAK how to torture? It would be interesting to know what that source’s base for knowing this.
Also, in Israel the Shabak is the agency tasked with implementing the ole “lachatz fisi matun” (as the high court put it) on security prisoners. I am not sure that Mossad actually has that much expertise. After all, it was a Shabak interrogator who talked Eichmann into agreeing to go to Israel to stand trial, not a Mossad officer.
In the absence of anything solid beyond knowing that SAVAK used Mossad expertise, I would assume it had little to do with teaching all the new torture techniques that you can find in the Sears or Best Buy catalogues and more about the behind the scenes diplomacy that Mossad, reportedly, actually spends most of its resources on.
The Iranians, inheritors of a rich history of tyranical autocrats, didnt need to be taught how to tortue by anyone. It seems, if you take a strategic perspective, that Israel’s Mossad presence in Iran would have been more about securing arms sales, the sale of Iranian oil, and other Persian goodies, like pistachios. It seems incongruous that the quid pro quo for all that was illustrating the varieties of ass play that Col Zahavi seems so well known for.
Eichmann was physically sedated during his entire trip back to Israel. I doubt very much Israel “talked Eichmann into agreeing to do to Israel.”
It is well known that Israel helped train SAVAK torturers. Does it matter whether it was Mossad, Shabak or Moishe Oysher?
As for yr fictional portrait of Iranian history…you don’t know s(^t from shinola. Iran is one of the most cultured & sophisticated nations in the region with a civilization going back a millenia or more.
lachatz fisi matun=moderate physical pressure. Sorry, should have thrown that in.
No, it’s you blowing it out of your ass.
Read Neil Bascombe on the capture of Eichmann. Shabak interrogator Zvi Aharoni convinced Eichmann to sign a statement that he was willing to go to Israel and stand trial. Probably because he knew he would just die there on the spot if he refused.
I am quite familiar with Persian culture, having studied it and its literature in college, its cinema and political institutions. Instead of insulting me and making idiotic assertions about what I know or don’t, address the issues. Instead of backing up your nonsensical claims that Iran never attacked Israeli or Jewish concerns, why not try to substantiate your self-indulgent claims? Are you that foolish to believe that Iran has not had several thousands of years of autocratic rule? That they were autocratically ruled by despots doesn’t rob the Iranians of any of their cultural achievements–not just “a millenia” but several.
You’ve been banned. No one talks to me that way. Not you. Not anyone.
As far as Iran, you’ve claimed it has a long history of malevolent autocratic rulers. You are the one who hasn’t offered any proof of your claim. You are the one who has maligned Iran unuustifiably. I don’t care how much you studied Iran in college. You clearly came away from those studies with little understanding or appreciation of its history or culture. You’re a dunce.
[comment deleted–Sorry, not in the mood to read Andrew Bostom or see links to him or National Review today–BTW, did you know he is one of Anders Breivik’s favored writers? Read the comment rules concerning sources. I don’t promote right-wing anti-Muslim paranoia here.]
Richard. You’ve banned me a couple of times, and now I’ve been censored.
Now I know what a dissident feels like. COOOOLL!
You weren’t “censored,” you violated the comment rules, which clearly state that commenters using propaganda sources (which includes Andrew Boston) are breaking the rules. If you keep it up you’ll be banned again.
” ‘Death to Israel’ has been Iran’s mantra for over 30 years. So who’s phobic?”
Well, I’d suggest it’s whoever fails to comprehend the plain meaning of the phrase “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”.
Iran has been chanting “Death to Israel” for 30 years, you say?
Ooooooooh, scary.
Q: Have they actually attempted to bring about the “death of Israel” at any time in those 30 years?
A: No, they have been all talk and no stick.
You might want to bear that in mind as you lay cowering under your blanket.
Terrorists using Israeli passports attacking Israel? I call this poetic justice. Let the terrorism begin!
Whoa, cowboy. I don’t support calls for terrorism against either side. Even those made in jest (or half-jest).
Basiji blogger blogs Iran to wipe out Israel now today!
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4185497,00.html
Hey. Wasn’t that babyfaced Iranian scientist that got assassinated last month ALSO a Basiji?
I wouldn’t brag or boast. I don’t see that much difference between the Basij and the brutal Israeli police & intelligence interrogators who rape suspects with impunity. Thugs are thugs whether they speak Farsi or Hebrew.
Re: Israel Iranophobia
This expressed (potential) threat may be an exercise in cya. Given the gross errors made by IC bureaucrats prior to 9/11; the same concerning the underwear bomber; etc., pressures to plausibly anticipate such attacks is great, almost no matter the morbid “I told you so” consequences. Even given no smoking gun (or smoking suicide bomber body parts), this pressure on the bureaucracy is significant and should not be discounted. That it often leads to inefficiencies, mistakes, and chicken little charges, that is the cost of doing business.
“Iran has shown no willingness to engage in any act of terror against Israeli or Jewish interests”
1992–Attack on Israeli Buenos Aires embassy
1994–Again, Buenos Aires, AMIA building attack. In both of those cases, Argentine prosecutors blamed Iran.
There was also some attempted attack more recently on Israeli diplomatic institutions in Turkmenistan or Azerbaijan (I forget which).
Both of those attacks had Hezbollah–and Iranian fingerprints on them–as Iran frequently uses Hezbollah in a proxy war with Israel. True, these attacks are almost 20 years old but Iran doesn’t turn its cheek. Many Israeli targets, and even some Jewish “assets” (to borrow the lingo) are “hardened” and difficult to attack. I am sure there are many others who read this website who could mention other attacks–or attempts.
Someone believed to be connected to Hezbollah was arrested in Thailand; the Thai Defense Minister warned that he could have been targeting synagogues and the Israeli embassy (it makes sense, seeing as how Thailand is a popular destination for Israelis). Of course, I don’t know if it was an actual Hezbollah-planned attack, but it’s a definite possibility.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/13/thailand-arrests-hezbollah-suspect-terror-tipoff?newsfeed=true
Silverstein says:
“Iran is one of the most cultured & sophisticated nations in the region with a civilization going back a millenia or more.”
First of all, let’s have a little lesson in English, shall we? There is no such thing as “a millenia”. The word is “millenium” – “millenia” is the plural.
Secondly – for such an ardent supporter of Iran, I’m surprised at the injustice you do them. Iran has a civilisation going back s e v e r a l millenia.
Thirdly “To suggest that Israel’s obsessions with Iran is in any way rational or justified is insane.” Indeed? Last time I checked, it was Iran threatening to wipe Israel off the map, not the other way around.
Iran has never threatened to wipe Israel off the map. This is a false statement. I’m very tired of hasbarists dredging up the same lies serially which have been refuted here as well.
From henceforth, I will only publish comments of yours that adhere to comment rule standards which demand accuracy for such claims. More rule violations will result in losing yr privileges here.
BTW Richard.
When you censored my post where I cite to Andrew Bostom, you also censored my own original thoughts where I compared Persia to Nazi era Germany.
Oh well. Die gedanken sind frei.
You may republish whatever portion of that comment didn’t refer to Andrew Bostom or engage in propaganda.
[comment deleted–comment rules require comment to be on-topic & directly related to the post]