NY
Times article formatted below to fit the blog – this headline:
“John Kerry denies ever having discussed
Israeli strikes in Syria with Iran’s foreign minister”
Background: Iranian
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and John Kerry (former Secretary of
State) spoke constantly when the two were negotiating the 2015 Iran nuclear
deal.
Warmup for the
following – know the difference between:
Russian primarily (and other nations as well) masterful technique of using disinformation.
There is 100% no way we can ever trust or believe the Russians. They are experts at disinformation, and they have been since the days of Joseph Stalin.
Memorize this simple explanation to know the difference between mis- and dis- information.
Misinformation: Information or
news placed by a simple mistake or error.
Not placed covertly, and not with malice,
intent, or purpose to deceive or mislead.
vs
Disinformation: Information or news purposely placed with the intent to deceive, be harmful,
plant distrust, and cause chaos.
Placed covertly and used to try and topple
established democratic forms of government, or to compete with other political
systems around the globe.
Always for
self-interest and certainly for political, military, financial, or more
devious gain and purposes.
Zarif in a taped recording speaks for hours to an
interviewer producing an oral history of the current Iranian administration. The
report in The New York Times (April 25), Zarif says Kerry told him that Israel
had attacked Iranian interests in Syria at least 200 times.
Zarif complains in the recording that Iran’s military has long kept him in the dark on crucial matters and when an interviewer asks twice in response to Zarif saying Kerry had to tell him that Israel had attacked Iran 200 times in Syria, asking: “So, you did not know?”
Both times, Zarif replies: “No, no.”
Plus, in the recording, Zarif does not specify when Kerry was supposed to have made the comment.
That claim has sparked a furor on among GOP conservatives
who accused Kerry, Obama’s Secretary of State and now serves as Biden’s climate
envoy, of betraying Israeli secrets.
Examples of that GOP furor:
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said that if real: The remarks would
amount to “catastrophic and disqualifying recklessness.”
Sen Dan Sullivan (R-AK)
who also served in the George W. Bush State Department called for Kerry to resign in Senate floor speech saying he was: “…astonished
that Kerry would reveal the secrets of one of our most important and enduring
allies in the region to an avowed enemy, the largest state sponsor of
terrorism.”
Former Gov. and former
UN Ambassador Nikki Haley (R-SC) tweeted that the claim “was disgusting that Kerry had
tipped off Iran.”
Kerry denied the assertion and pointed to reports long in
the public domain about Israeli strikes on Iranian assets in Syria.
Israel has made little effort to deny years of strikes attributed to it by Syria’s government, news outlets and nongovernmental organizations tracking the Syrian conflict, whose chaos Iran has sought to use to establish a foothold that could threaten Israeli security.
NY Times reported in an article in 2019 that included similar information on the number of Israeli strikes against Iranian assets in Syria.
Kerry’s
tweet cited a Washington Post report of a 2018 Reuters article that sourced a
senior Israeli official that reported Israel had mounted 200 attacks on Iranian
assets in Syria.
Final Key Point:
Ned Price a State Department spokesman told reporters at a
daily briefing that he would not comment on “purportedly leaked material” and
could not “vouch for the authenticity of it or the accuracy of it,” or “what
motives might be behind its emergence now.”
Price did not specifically address whether Kerry had made such comments to Zarif, and said if so: “would not have constituted an improper disclosure because if you go back and look at press reporting from the time, this certainly was no secret. Governments that were involved were speaking on this publicly, and on the record.”
My 2 cents: The bottom line as far as I can discern is simple – there is nothing devious, illegal, or underhanded in this story between Kerry and Zarif that the growing Republican disinformation machine would have us to accept as the gospel: nothing, nada, nil, zero, zilch, zip.
But this kind of story is cannon fodder for the GOP's more recent and raw nasty ugly attacks. They keep blaming the DEMS for all that they say is wrong today across the country – I say: Try looking in the mirror for change.
Now just for fun and some seriousness, too – take this quiz and see how smart you are in spotting real, fake, disinformation, and trolling:
This was developed by Darren Linvill, a researcher at Clemson University in SC. He tracks disinformation networks associated with Russia.
His Spot the Troll shows how hard it is to tell a professional provocateur from an extremely opinionated American. Try it yourself – you might be surprised how smart you are, or how smart you thought you were but are not!!!
Finally, this related topic from NPR – NPR is always a good source for news compared to say many others who claim to be “news” check them out and compare.
Thanks for stopping by.
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