Morning Ireland's Propaganda Coup

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report Friday April 04, 2008 01:27 by Robbie Sinnott robbiesin at gmail dot com

How RTÉ reacted in a recent US-made Crisis

On January 9th, 2008, at approximately 7:20 a.m. RTÉ’sNo. 1 radio show and news flagship, Morning Ireland gives Dr. Rosemary Hollis , ‘expert in the Middle East from Chatham House in London’,an airing to confirm stereotypes and prejudices against Iran and to pedal Whitehouse fantasies and concocted events without any critical questioning.

The following is a transcript of the item.

Áine Lawlor: The United States has accused Iran of provocative and dangerous actions after an incident where five Iranian speed-boats harrassed three US Navy ships at the weekend. The incident happened in the Straits of Hrmuz, a major oil-shipping route. American Navy Admiral Kevin Cosgriff described what happened:

KC: ‘At one point during this encounter, we received eh, a radio; the ships received a radio-call that was threatening in nature, to the effect that they were closing our ships and that might eh, the ships would eh, the ships would explode. Subsequentally, two of these ships were observed dropping objects in the water, generally in the path of the final ship in the formation, the USS Angerham. These objects were white box-like objects that floated, and eh [?] re-see the ship passed by them safely.

AL: and htat was Admiral Kevin Cosgriff of the US Navy; the American Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, condemned the Iranian action:

Condoleeza Rice, US Secretary of State: There is nothing normal about what the Iranians did; it is provocative, and that kind of provocation is dangerous.

AL: That kind of provocation is dangerous. I’m joined by Dr. Rosemary Hollis, the Middle East expert at Chatham House. How dangerous, Dr. Rosemary Hollis, in your opinion, was this this incident?

RH: It is dangerous. If you remember the USS Cole episode; this was a US warship that was rammed by a very small boat – a little dingy that was full of explosives – and ended in an explosion that killed US sailors. That all happened in the port of Aden in Yemen, and was attributed to el-Quaeda. In this instance, the Iranians are not to be confused with al-Quaeda, but the Iranians that run those speed-boats in the Presian Gulf, are members of the Iranian Revolutionary guard Corps; and the United States has singled out that Corps of service personnel in Iran as singularly dangerous, and revolutionary and provocative to the United States.

AL: Was this a highly calculated move do you think, or just one of those incidents where one thing borrowed – because we do have President Bush visiting the region this week.

RH: eh, indeed; and in a way, it could actually suit him that this episode occurred, and has been made so public; because, one of the items on his agenda is to talk about Iran. You have the National Intelligence Estimate – the intelligences of the US – saying that they didn’t think Iran was actively pursuing a nuclear weapon at this time; and they said that – or we learnt that they’d said that – at the beginning of december; that took the heat out of an escalating tension between Iran and the US, and took away any kind of justification for a US pre-emptive attack on Iran – which some expected this Spring. However, because the Americans have their forces in Iraq, and the Iranians have a number of personnel and contacts and allies in Iraq; and because the Iranians patrol their own coastal waters and stray beyond them in the Persian Gulf, and the American Navy is there in force in the Persian Gulf; the opportunity for misunderstanding, accidents and something, some episode to spiral out of control, is considerable.

AL: mmhm…and it’s been quite difficult, hasn’t it, in recent times, to read America’s intentions towards Iran; as you say, there was a lot of speculation that there would be an attack eh, before the Bush regime left the White House, but then we had the national intelligence estimate saying they didn’t pose a nuclear threat. What do you think are the chances…?

RH: They say they didn’t pose a nuclear threat at the moment. [pretend laugh].

AL: So, what do you think the chances are that this will come to a confrontation – a military confrontation between the US and Iran before George Bush leaves office?

RH: Well, if we go back to that episode of the USS Cole I was on about, the natural reaction of the United States is going to be to shoot one of these Iranian boats out of the water before they have a chance to do anything dangerous to the American warship. In those circumstances, we would’ve immediately entered direct conflict between the Iranians and the Americans, and that’s what could escalate dramatically. The Iranians have threatened to retaliate against any type of military action by the Americans, and they’ve threatened to retaliate inside Iraq; through their allies Hezbullah in Lebanon, against Israel, and in general across the region; and President Bush goes to the region this week, in order to talk about the importance of being on the Amercan side, as opposed to the Iranian side, in the confrontation between radicals and so-called ‘moderates’ in the region.

AL: We’ve been talking about what’s been happening on the American side, what about the Iranian side; there’s been some speculation recently that Ahmedinijad wasn’t quite as powerful as he had been in Teheran; what’s going on there?

RH: This speculation goes around and round; in fact, the supreme leader has the last say including, on whether the Iranians will have some kind of repairing of relations with the Americans (with whom, they haven’t had diplomatic relations since the Iranian Revolution and the American hostage crisis in 1979-80. Now, em, in those circumstances, Ahmedinijad has to keep on the right side of the supreme ledader, but, he’s also done rather well in garnering rather a lot of populist support on the streets – beyond the sophisticated Middle Class millieau in Teheran, but across Iran in general – by fuelling anti-Americanism and blaming the Americans for most of the ills of the region, including, the Iranian economy.

AL: Alright, Dr. Rosemary Hollis, Middle East expert with Chatham House, thankyou for that eh, update on the situation that applies there ahead of President Bush’s situ eh, trip to the region tomorrow – its twenty-five past seven.