Media continues its amnesia over terrorist attack on Iran’s scientists

Letter to New York Times reporter David E. Sanger

Dear Mr. Sanger

Why did you omit mention of the recent, Nov. 29 assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Majid Shahriari in your Dec. 10 report on U.S. opposition to Iranian nuclear power?

You mentioned the Stuxnet “worm” whose provenance pre-dates the assassination, but the not the assassination itself, or the murder of another scientist’s wife, Mrs. Fereydoon Abbasi, in the same attack.

Sincerely,
Michael Hoffman

Note how Sanger (below) reports that Gary Samore, an Obama administration official, is pleased that covert attacks against Iran, such as the Stuxnet worm, are in place. By omitting reference to the recent assassination of the Iranian scientist, Sanger does not have to ask the administration any embarrassing questions about whether they are pleased about that covert operation as well. Furthermore, it seems that Mr. Sanger, along with most of the US media including NPR, intends to have us forget about the terror attack against Iran’s scientists. By omission and distortion, the US propaganda system, in which Mr. Sanger is a prominent player, seeks to teach us that terror attacks worth remembering occur only against the Israelis and the West, not Muslims or Iranians.

Gary Samore represented the Obama administration on Iran at the conference of the noble-sounding “Foundation for the Defense of Democracies” ((http://www.defenddemocracy.org) which David Sanger fails to mention is actually a neocon front group whose “Leadership council” consists of Newt Gingrich, Sen. Joe Lieberman and William Kristol.

U.S. and Allies Plan More Sanctions Against Iran
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/world/middleeast/11nuke.html?hp

by David E. Sanger | NY Times | Dec. 10, 2010

WASHINGTON — Three days after the first nuclear talks with Iran in more than a year adjourned with no progress, President Obama’s chief nuclear adviser said on Friday that the United States and its allies planned a new round of sanctions against the country in coming weeks, part of an effort to test “how high Iran’s pain threshold is” and force the country into suspending its production of nuclear fuel.

Another session of talks with Iran is scheduled to take place next month, probably in Turkey. But at a conference on Friday held by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies Mr. Obama’s coordinator for weapons of mass destruction, Gary Samore, suggested that Iran may have decided to resume talks with the with the members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany “because it believes it can manipulate the appearance of negotiations to weaken existing sanctions and avoid additional measures.”

“This ploy will not work,” Mr. Samore said. “In the wake of the Geneva talks, we and our allies are determined to maintain and even increase pressure. We need to send the message to Iran that sanctions will only increase if Iran avoids serious negotiations and will not be lifted until our concerns are fully addressed.”

Mr. Samore was not specific about the sanctions now being contemplated. He also would not comment on the effects of the Stuxnet worm, which appears to have been directed at disrupting Iran’s centrifuges.

“I’m glad to hear they are having troubles with their centrifuge machines,” he said with a smile, “and the U.S. and its allies are doing everything we can to make it more complicated.” But he said nothing about who was responsible for the worm. (END QUOTE)

For further research:
(Youtube video): NPR’s Propaganda System against Iran

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