As you might have noticed, Israel is the victim of a – so far – pretty incompetent campaign to kill its diplomats. A bomb went off in Georgia, and in India – the latter an attempt to kill an Israeli embassy official on the way to pick up her kids from school.
Then, a couple of days ago a terrorist managed to blow his own legs off with a grenade in Thailand:
In the Bangkok attack, one bomb went off in the bombers’ home. Another was thrown at a taxi that wouldn’t take one of the men who left the house. The third blew off the man’s leg when he tried to throw it at police and it either went off before he could throw it or it hit something and ricocheted back at him.
…
Two other men shared the rented house with him. One was arrested at Bangkok’s international airport Tuesday but he has not yet been charged. A third man slipped past security at the airport and had fled to Malaysia, police said.
The auto-amputee appears to be an Iranian: Saeid Moradi. The other arrested man is reported to be Iranian, as well.
So, who does the Guardian get to comment on these attacks? Why, none other than SOAS lecturer (of course!) Arshin Adib-Moghaddam.
Mr Adib-Moghaddam is an Iranian and an expert on Iran. Well, I say an “expert”. More of a “PR man”, or a “stooge”. Let’s have a look at his articles for Comment is Free:
22 Nov 2011: Arshin Adib-Moghaddam: The strength of the Islamic republic’s economy and government are so understated in analyses that errors of policy could follow
Europe still vital in talks with Iran
13 Nov 2010: Arshin Adib-Moghaddam: The success of EU diplomacy in 2004 in suspending nuclear enrichment shows positive mediation produces tangible results
Martin Amis is wrong about Iran
28 Jul 2009: Arshin Adib-Moghaddam: The Iran that Martin Amis envisages is very different from the future-oriented one real Iranians are fighting for
Iran: this is not a revolution
23 Jun 2009: Arshin Adib-Moghaddam: The unrest in Iran is about deciding the future path of the Islamic Republic – not about overthrowing the system
18 Feb 2009:Arshin Adib-Moghaddam: Thirty years after the Islamic revolution, Iran is still defined by its struggle for a free society, not a nuclear agenda
This is Mr Adib-Moghaddam’s analysis:
For Iran it doesn’t make sense to risk alienating India by launching an assassination attempt in the capital of the country. Similarly, Iran has good economic and political relations with Georgia and Thailand. Why would the leadership in Tehran risk a major crisis with these countries during this sensitive period when IAEA inspectors are moving in and out of Iran to investigate the country’s nuclear programme?
The true answer is that at this stage no one knows for sure who is behind the attacks. There have been news reports that the security agencies in India are examining the similarities between the explosion in Delhi and the Jama Masjid shooting and blast in 2010 when similar methods were used. According to these reports, the culprits could be the so-called Indian Mujahideen, which is unrelated to Iran and which is opposed to India’s relations with Israel. There are several other such groups that support the Palestinian cause and that have targeted India before.
This is pushed as serious analysis in the Guardian!
The conclusion, too, is laughable:
It is all the more imperative then that intellectual acumen and analytical sobriety prevail over the resurgent pro-war lobby.
So, basically, somebody is blowing people up Israeli diplomats. It is likely to be anybody but Iran. Oh, and the attacks are feeding the “pro-war lobby”.
Right.
Not a single mention in the piece, by the way, of the fact that the arrested men are Iranian. Not even an attempt to pretend that they might be Indians inexplicably posing as Iranians, or something like that.
Pieces like this are such transparent pieces of Regime propaganda, that the Guardian should be ashamed of publishing them. But the Guardian has no shame.
In a similar vein, CIFWatch has uncovered an even more transparent conspiracy spinner: Geneive Abdo, the former Iran correspondent for the Guardian, current contributor to major American newspapers and Al-Jazeera, who is also a fellow at the Century Foundation.
This is her take:
(Journalist) ELEANOR HALL: Iran’s leadership says it’s sheer lies that it’s behind the attacks and that the Israelis have planted the bombs themselves to discredit Iran?
GENEIVE ABDO: Well I think that’s entirely possible. I mean, if you consider what the Israelis did for many years in Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East, that theory is not so farfetched.
…
ELEANOR HALL: So how dangerous do you think the situation is right now?
GENEIVE ABDO: Well, I think it’s very dangerous. It’s far more dangerous than probably any escalation tension that we’ve seen in 30 years. So, you know, you have the Israelis not willing to live with a nuclear Iran. You have the Iranians going forward with their nuclear program. And you have an American president trying to be re-elected with a Jewish lobby in the United States that’s extremely powerful.
This “expert” on Iran is speaking at J Street’s upcoming conference, in Washington, DC.
UPDATE
Thailand has named the three Iranians involved. Masoud Sedaghat Zadeh escaped to Malaysia but was arrested. Saeid “Legless” Morati, and Mohammad Hazaei have already been arrested. The Telegraph reports:
The men were specifically targeting Israel diplomats and planned to plant “sticky” bombs on their vehicles, the same method used in attack on an Israeli diplomat in New Delhi and a foiled plot in Tibilisi on Monday.
Police General Prewpan Dhamapong said Thai authorities “know for certain that [the intended target] was Israeli diplomats. The issue was about individuals and the targets were specific. This was something personal.”
Thailand is to seek the extradition from Malaysia of an Iranian man who was part of the plot.
Still, as far as Comment is Free’s pet Iranian asset is concerned, this just can’t be Iran!
The Guardian: No Longer A Newspaper.
