Syria Analysis: Dissecting The Washington Post's Scary "Iran-Hezbollah 50,000 Militiamen in Syria " Story

Head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Mohammad Ali Jafari announces Tehran's military support for Assad regime, 16 September 2012

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The real question beyond "50,000 militiamen": why is the US Government, backed by an Arab ally, feeding this story to the Post now?

Is this laying the ground for the revelation that the Obama Administration --- contrary to its recent denials --- has been involved in provision of arms to the insurgency, supposedly ensuring that it can block any rise of an Iran-Hezbollah-Assad force after the fall of the regime? Is it another volley in the campaign to separate "good" insurgents from "bad" insurgents such as Jabhat al-Nusra? Is it justification for the ever-increasing US sanctions on Iran, including the measures put in place last Wednesday? All three?

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Syria Feature: US Officials --- We Are Hindered by "Intelligence Gaps" Inside Country (Miller and Warrick)

A destroyed regime tank in the Sakhour section of Aleppo on Monday

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Sixteen months into the uprising in Syria, the United States is struggling to develop a clear understanding of opposition forces inside the country, according to U.S. officials who said that intelligence gaps have impeded efforts to support the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

U.S. spy agencies have expanded their efforts to gather intelligence on rebel forces and Assad’s regime in recent months, but they are still largely confined to monitoring intercepted communications and observing the conflict from a distance, officials said.

Interviews with U.S. and foreign intelligence officials revealed that the CIA has been unable to establish a presence in Syria, in contrast with the agency’s prominent role gathering intelligence from inside Egypt and Libya during revolts in those countries.

With no CIA operatives on the ground in Syria and only a handful stationed at key border posts, the agency has been heavily dependent on its counterparts in Jordan and Turkey and on other regional allies.

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The Latest from Iran (28 May): No More Nice Guy --- Tehran Shifts Line on Nuke Talks

See also The Latest from Iran (27 May): A New Parliament Opens

1358 GMT: Dissent Watch. Former Foreign Minister and political prisoner Ebrahim Yazdi has posted another book on the Internet, as a protest against the Ministry of Culture’s failure to provide valid reasons for not approving its publication.

The Student Movement in the 1940s and 1950s was published 10 days after Yazdi uploaded his book about Mehdi Bazargan, the head of Iran’s interim state after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

In a letter to the Minister of Culture and Guidance, Yazdi wrote, “The president has said in his interviews that Iran is the freest country in the world, so it is not clear why a book about the late Mr. Bazargan cannot get a publication licence.”

Yazdi, arrested twice during the post-election protests of 2009, was the oldest political prisoner before the octogenarian was finally released last March.

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Iran Propaganda Special: US Intelligence "Trust Us --- We Know Everything"

February 2003: US Secretary of State Colin Powell explains how US intelligence knows everything about Iraq

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What I like most about this Obama Administration propaganda effort --- put out through recurrent spokesman Joby Warrick of The Washington Post --- is that it covers so many different audiences.

Are you a lily-livered lefty who thinks we are making up "intelligence" to bash the Islamic Republic? No way.

Are you a hawk-hearted Congressman who wants an immediate airstrike to stop Iran's Almost-Here Bomb? Not so fast, sir.

Are you the Supreme Leader, thinking you can stall on nuclear talks and get away with deviousness even if they take place? You best think again.

(And stop gloating about how you took down one of our drone aircraft last year. See that reference to the "RQ-170 Sentinel" in the first paragraph? Gloat on that.)

Do you worry that the US Government just doesn't know what it is doing in this political dance over Tehran? Don't. We do.

U.S. intelligence gains in Iran seen as boost to confidence
Joby Warrick

More than three years ago, the CIA dispatched a stealth surveillance drone into the skies over Iran.

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Iran Propaganda 101: Nanodiamonds, Nukes, "Western Officials", and The Washington Post

A discussion, including David Albright and Karim Sadjadpour, on a Sunday talk show about the IAEA report and Iran's nuclear programme

See also Iran Feature: Did Unnamed Officials Use the Media to Turn Nanodiamonds into Nuclear Bombs?

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A classic case study in how information/propaganda --- choose the word according to your perspective --- circulates between Western governments, supportive media, and "think tanks"....

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Iran Analysis: The Week in "Objective" US Journalism --- War, War, Secret War, Future War, War

We are watching an international media which is captivated by the chatter about an Israeli attack on Tehran and about a supposedly doom-laden report on Iran's nuclear programme. Indeed, some in that media are on the point of irresponsibility stoking confrontation, even armed confrontation.

The number one culprit is David Sanger of The New York Times, who uses the exalted podium of a "Week in Review" piece to declare that War may be the only option, "The big hitch in...containment strategies is that they are completely useless if Iran ever slips a bomb, or even some of its newly minted uranium fuel, to a proxy — Hezbollah, Hamas or some other terrorist group — raising the problem of ascertaining a bomb’s return address."

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