No Questions Asked

CNN has joined the NY Times and Washington Post in its begrudging acknowledgement that the American media jumped to the wrong conclusion about the need to go to war in Iraq. Like the other media giants CNN is not taking responsibility for its complicity in helping the administration gain the American public’s support for the war. The two papers blamed tricky Iraqi dissidents. CNN is blaming the CIA, Colin Powell and the White House.

The truth of the matter is — as I point out in Chapter 5 of my book and Editor & Publisher does in an article below — the media was responsible for convincing the American public that a war with Iraq was not only inevitable, but that it was necessary.

Before Colin Powell’s UN speech public opinion was turning against the idea of a war with Iraq. The media’s proclamations that Powell’s speech left no doubt that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and could use them against the U.S. changed public opinion. The editorials and pro-Powell news articles changed public sentiment and enabled the administration to take the nation to war with the public’s support.

It’s good that CNN decided to air the program about Powell’s lies in his UN speech. I just don’t have much confidence that it will change much in terms of the way the media does its job.

None of the major media outlets have explained how we can be sure they won’t make the same mistakes again. None have taken responsibility for their actions and apologised for their bad, biased reporting. No reporters on major media outlets have been fired for the mistakes they made in their reports or have been punished for them.

See my previous post for information about how the media is now promoting unsubstantiated claims about WMD in Iran by Iranian disidents who are members of a internationally-recognized terrorist organization. None of the articles in American media outlets mentioned that the claims about Iran’s nuclear weapons come from members of a group that is labeled a terrorist organization by the State Department.

Does it seem like the major media outlets have made the changes necessary to ensure that dodgy dissidents don’t manipulate the news? Who will journalists blame if these dissidents are proven wrong?

Former aide: Powell WMD speech ‘lowest point in my life’
August 19, 2005
CNN

A former top aide to Colin Powell says his involvement in the former secretary of state’s presentation to the United Nations on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction was “the lowest point” in his life.

“I wish I had not been involved in it,” says Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, a longtime Powell adviser who served as his chief of staff from 2002 through 2005. “I look back on it, and I still say it was the lowest point in my life.”

Wilkerson is one of several insiders interviewed for the CNN Presents documentary “Dead Wrong — Inside an Intelligence Meltdown.” The program, which airs Sunday at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET, pieces together the events leading up to the mistaken WMD intelligence that was presented to the public. A presidential commission that investigated the pre-war WMD intelligence found much of it to be “dead wrong.”

CNN Makes News with WMD Special, But Press Deserves Blame, Too
By Greg Mitchell
Editor & Publisher
August 19, 2005

NEW YORK A documentary to be aired on CNN this Sunday night on the “intelligence meltdown” on Iraq before the U.S. invasion is already making news. On Friday, CNN said that in the program, “Dead Wrong,” a former top aide to Colin Powell calls his involvement in the former secretary of state’s presentation to the United Nations on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction “the lowest point” in his life.

“I wish I had not been involved in it,” Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, a longtime Powell adviser who served as his chief of staff from 2002 through 2005, told CNN. He said the information in Powell’s presentation came from a document he described as “sort of a Chinese menu” that was provided by the White House. “It was anything but an intelligence document,” he added, with some assertions based on the word of known fabricators.

While the long-awaited program is sure to revive interest, and anger, over the administration’s false selling of the war on the basis of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, it may well leave the press off the hook. Yet it was the media’s swallowing of the false claims in Powell’s crucial speech that enabled the march to war to continue.

Mainstream news media suffer collateral damage from Iraq war
By Ron Hutcheson
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Aug 19, 2005

WASHINGTON - As the battle for Iraq’s future plays out half a world away, the American news media are caught in the crossfire at home.

War supporters accuse journalists of undercutting the troops by highlighting problems and ignoring progress in Iraq. War opponents also are unhappy. They say the media failed to question the need for war and sanitize the conflict by refusing to show gruesome scenes of carnage.

Military mom Cindy Sheehan, who got extensive media coverage for her anti-war protest outside
President Bush’s Texas ranch this month, voiced the view from the left in a conference call with supporters Aug. 10.

“Thank God for the Internet or we wouldn’t know anything and we would already be a fascist state,” she said. “The mainstream media is a propaganda tool for the government.”

That’s not the view from the right.

“If you believe the liberal media’s reporting on the American military effort in Iraq, you’re almost forced to be ashamed of America,” the Media Research Center, a conservative media-watchdog group, said in a recent message to potential donors.

In return for a donation, the organization will send a specially inscribed military-style dog tag to a soldier in Iraq. “Don’t believe the liberal media!” the dog tag says. “I’m just one of millions of Americans who realize that powerful elements in the media are undermining the war effort.”

I try not to plug my book on my blog, but I am so tired of journalists doing the same thing over and over again and not taking responsibility for their actions that I can’t resist: If you are interested in what happened in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks through the war in Iraq, why it happened, what the media missed and how we can avoid allowing them to promote lies, distort facts and lead us to another illegal, immoral and unnecesary war, then read my book.

It will be available in pdf format on this site until the end of September. Then it will be available in bookstores and the pdf version will no longer be available.

Once again we are in danger of being duped by disgruntled dissidents who are interested in toppling a government for fun and profit in the name of security and freedom.

This time Iranian dissidents are the ones making unsubstantiated claims. The National Council of Resistance of Iran released a report last week saying that “Iran has manufactured about 4,000 centrifuges capable of enriching uranium to weapons grade.”

These unsubstantiated claims are being reported as fact in major newspapers. Here is an example of what Americans were told:
USA Today: “Informant says Tehran has 4000 Centrifuges”

There is no way to prove whether these claims are true or not, but that has not stopped major newspapers from passing judgement. The Washington Post recently ran an editorial that ended by saying “It is no longer possible to consider the Iranian nuclear threat as anything but deadly serious.”

Here’s what was not reported: According to the U.S. State Department, The National Council of Resistance of Iran is a terrorist organization. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2003/23311.htm

This seems like an important piece of information that should be reported, especially when the group is making serious claims about weapons of mass destruction — the issue that led us into war with Iraq. Dissidents were wrong last time, can we believe this terrorist organization is providing accurate information without any ulterior motives?

Unfortunately, it may be a catalyst for the next war.

Bush hints at military option for Iran

August 13, 2005

US President George W Bush refused to rule out the use of force against Iran over the Islamic republic’s resumption of nuclear activities, in an interview with Israeli television.

When asked if the use of force was an alternative to faltering diplomatic efforts, Bush said: “All options are on the table.”

“The use of force is the last option for any president. You know we have used force in the recent past to secure our country,” he said in a clear reference to Iraq.

“I have been willing to do so as a last resort in order to secure the country and provide the opportunity for people to live in free societies,” he added.

Bush was speaking from his ranch in Crawford, Texas to a reporter from Israeli public television. The Jewish state has accused Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons and believes it is the prime target of the alleged arms program.

Here’s a question: What is the background and history of the dissidents making the allegations? What will they gain from a war with Iran? Why didn’t any newspapers mention that the allegations were made by an organization that is currently on a terrorist list? Aren’t we currently engaged in a war against terrorists?

I’m working on an in-depth article that will answer these questions and more. Look for it in a week or so.

I am astonished that the U.S. government can be so blatantly racist. As the story below illustrates, the FBI is not facing the facts when it comes to homegrown terrorists — this guy was caught boarding a plane with a bomb in OKLAHOMA CITY — and the FBI says he’s not a terrorist. What exactly is their definition of terrorist?

How many more bells have to go off before the FBI realizes that American militia members and white supremacists are just as dangerous as Muslim fanatics? A terrorist is a terrorist no matter what his religious belief or ethnicity.

Oklahoma man held before boarding plane with bomb
August 11, 2005
OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - An Oklahoma man was taken into custody after he tried to carry a bomb on board an airplane on Wednesday in Oklahoma City, an FBI spokesman said.

Charles Alfred Dreyling Jr., 24, was detained on Wednesday morning after a security screener using an X-ray machine saw the device in his luggage as he tried to board a flight to Philadelphia at Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City.

“Although the investigation is in its initial stages we have found no apparent connection to any type of terrorist activity or group,” FBI spokesman Gary Johnson said.

…Johnson said Dreyling would be charged in federal court on Thursday with possession of an explosive device at an airport.

http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=uri:2005-08-11T055030Z_01_N11533997_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-SECURITY-OKLAHOMACITY-DC.XML

Apparently the FBI has forgotten that two years ago American William Krar was caught in Texas with weapons of mass destruction. He was caught because he accidentally sent a package filled with false identification documents — passports, driver’s licenses, identity cards from the Department of Defense and United Nations, etc. — to the wrong address. The recipient called the police. Krar refused to talk to police about what his plans were, who he was working with and how many bombs he had already supplied to other potential terrorists around the country.

Is Charles Alfred Dreyling Jr a member of the same gang as Krar? We’ll never know because the FBI says he’s not a terrorist. He’ll receive a light sentence and the anti-government militia members in the U.S. will continue to plot their next attack.

Check out this story about what the FBI thought about Krar and homegrown terrorists a few years ago:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5350.htm

Charles Alfred Dreyling Jr was caught boarding a plane with a bomb in a city where a major terrorist attack occurred a few years ago. If he was from Yemen or Pakistan or Afghanistan would he be charged with possession of an explosive device at an airport or would he be an enemy combatant?

A few years ago Tom Cruise starred in a science fiction movie called The Minority Report. The film’s premise was that crimes could be predicted and prevented by the arrest and punishment of perpetrators before they acted. Nobody questioned their guilt because the system was considered infallible. And while they had not yet committed a crime it was assumed that it was only a matter of time before they did. As a result of these preventive steps taken by the U.S. government the public was considered safer.

The system’s flaws were revealed only after Cruise’s name popped up as a future murderer and he was able to prove them wrong. In the end all those convicted prior to committing a crime were set free. “What would you do if you were accused of a murder, you had not committed… yet?” the movie’s tagline asked. “The system is perfect until it comes after you.”

The prescience of the futuristic Minority Report is astonishing. While many would say I’m exaggerating, consider the world’s new approach to stopping terrorism.

London police executed Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian engineer, because they thought his backpack might have contained a bomb. They weren’t sure whether it did or not, but they shot him just to be safe. Most polls show the public supports the police’s aggressive attempt to thwart terrorism. There has yet to be a loud public outcry about the murder of an innocent man and the police have refused to apologise.

Swedish police say they regret their role in the arrest and illegal expedition of two Egyptian men who were seeking asylum. Mohammad Al-Zery and Ahmed Agiza, were arrested by Swedish police and brought to an airport where they were placed on an executive jet crewed by America security agents wearing masks. They were flown to Egypt, tortured and imprisoned. They are currently missing and Swedish police have publicly wondered what happened to them.

These men aren’t the only ones missing. A 60 Minutes story recently noted that more than 100 people around the world have disappeared or been “rendered” by U.S. officials. The procedure for each is the same: they are captured by masked men who cut off their clothes, put them in a jumpsuit and a blindfold and fly off in an unmarked jet.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/20/60minutes/main710396.shtml

Italy recently objected to CIA agents “kidnapping” a radical Muslim imam as he walked to evening prayers. He was brought to an Egyptian prison where he claims he was tortured. Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, was under investigation for terrorism in Milan when he was abducted. An Italian judge issued arrest warrants for 13 CIA agents involved in the illegal extradition.

None of the men “rendered” were read their rights, charged with a crime or given the opportunity to defend themselves in court. They were simply picked off the streets and deprived of their freedom because the U.S. government felt they were potential threats.

One of the most famous terrorism cases in the U.S. is the “Lackawanna Five” — five men from upstate New York who were accused of being al-Qaeda members and arrested. The men are American citizens of Yemeni descent who took a pilgrimage to Afghanistan where they spent time in an al-Qaeda training camp. They were accused of “aiding and abetting al Qaeda”. To avoid a possible gun charge for training with weapons and a 30-year sentence, they pleaded guilty and were sentenced to between eight and 10 years in prison.

What was rarely reported is the fact that FBI agents were never convinced the men were going to do anything wrong. Ashcroft and President Bush called them a terrorist cell, but the federal prosecutor didn’t. Michael A. Battle told the New York Times: “It’s a heavy burden to prove and I wasn’t prepared to do that.”
http://www.geocities.com/munichseptember1972/unclear_danger.htm

The head of FBI headquarters in Buffalo described the agency’s attitude toward pre-emptive arrests this way: “If we don’t know for sure they’re going to do something, or not, we need to make sure that we prevent anything they may be planning, whether or not we know or don’t know about it.”

The Buffalo FBI officials said the men were arrested after Bush administration officials asked: “‘Can you guarantee to me that these people won’t do something?’ And the answer [was] we think we can. We are probably 99 percent sure that we can make sure that these guys don’t do something — if they are planning to do something. And under the rules that we were playing under at the time, that’s not acceptable. So a conscious decision was made, `Let’s get `em out of here.’ ”

Isn’t this reminiscent of the Minority Report?

Hundreds of immigrants have been arrested in the U.S., rounded up under new terror-fighting tools. Many remain in prison, mostly for minor visa violations. Few have been charged with a crime related to terrorism.

But the most disturbing element of this new preventive arrest policy is its unbalanced nature and the equally warped media coverage. Most Americans have heard of the Lackawanna Five. How many know the name William Krar?

William Krar was caught with weapons of mass destruction, a sodium-cyanide bomb capable of killing thousands, more than 100 other explosives, half a million rounds of ammunition, dozens of illegal weapons and mounds of white-supremist and anti-government pamphlets.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1229/p02s01-usju.html

Krar is the most dangerous terrorist arrested on American soil in decades, yet very few people know about him or his arrest.

Why? Because, as UPI, wrote: “Since his appointment as attorney general, John Ashcroft’s Washington office has issued 2,295 news releases. Not one of them has mentioned the name William Joseph Krar.”
http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:SHN97ItGGXkJ:washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040311-030156-8181r.htm

Does anybody remember Oklahoma City? Why are white redneck terrorists considered less dangerous than other terrorists? Isn’t a terrorist, a terrorist no matter what the color of his skin, his nationality or his religious affiliation?

Krar was sentenced to 11 years in prison. Authorities still have no idea what he planned to do with the explosives. He obviously had accomplices — he was caught because dozens of forged identity documents were sent to the wrong address and were given to the police. Krar has not revealed with whom he was working, what their plans were or how they got the weapons.

Compare Krar to Joseph Padilla, another name most Americans are familiar with. Padilla, an American citizen accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive “dirty bomb,” has been in prison for more than three years. What is his crime? Officials have accused Padilla of planning a dirty bomb attack. Padilla did not possess any weapons and officials have not provided much evidence to support their case. Padilla was pulled from a plane he took from Pakistan to Chicago, arrested, labelled an enemy combatant and left to rot in prison without the ability to defend himself. Unlike Krar, Padilla made headlines across the U.S.

Ashcroft held a press conference about Padilla saying, “We have captured a known terrorist who was exploring a plan to build and explode a radiological dispersion device, or ‘dirty bomb,’ in the United States.”

Where is the logic? Krar had a dirty bomb, was charged with a crime, consulted with an attorney who represented him in court and was ultimately sentenced to 11 years in prison. It doesn’t appear he was tortured or abused in any way (not that I support abuse or torture, I’m just pointing out for the record that many who have committed lesser crimes have been “rendered,” tortured and killed). Padilla, who did not have anything close to the materials needed to make a dirty bomb, was never charged and remains in prison indefinitely without the right to defend himself.

White Americans have been caught with powerful explosives and receive little if any publicity, minor jail sentences and remain unknown to the American public. Other Americans have been imprisoned for visiting countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan. These men have not harmed anyone, were not caught with any weapons and many officials do not believe they planned to attack. They received front-page media play around the country and have been sentenced to long prison terms.

If the real goal is to protect the nation from future terrorist attacks, then the system appears to be flawed. Throwing innocent people in prison while allowing guilty to remain free creates the possibility of future terrorism. The Lackawanna Five’s families (many of the men had small children) are certainly unhappy with the outcome since they never committed a crime. But Krar’s friends — the ones who we know have the ability to make weapons of mass destruction, and have fake passports, drivers’ licenses and identity cards – are on the loose. The Attorney General didn’t even bother to write a press release about Krar’s arrest and it is unclear if FBI officials are still searching for his accomplices.

Certainly we all want to feel safe, but the questions become, safe from whom and at what price? Homegrown redneck terrorists have shown they are just as dangerous as religious fanatics.

Unfortunately, while The Minority Report had Cruise as its hero, there are many more cowards than heroes in real life. Cowards prefer the veil of safety to the harsh reality of a just world.

It is impossible to say what the future holds, but doesn’t every human being deserve a chance to live their lives without being pre-judged?

In the meantime, people like Lackawanna Five defendant Sahim Alwan are left to wonder what they did wrong. Alwan told the New York Times he passes time “dissecting this in my mind, saying, ‘What the hell did you do?’ ”
http://www.geocities.com/munichseptember1972/unclear_danger.htm

It is time for the American public to pay attention because the Bush administration is pulling the same dirty tricks it pulled in the build up to the war in Iraq. The media has not learned its lesson and is stenographically reporting the official line without exhibiting skepticism or asking obvious questions.

Let’s look at what has occurred in the past week:

Bolton is made envoy to the UN without Congressional approval. On Thurs., Aug. 4, he cast his first vote condemning terrorism in Iraq. He then went after Syria and Iran.

Casting his first vote as U.N. ambassador, John Bolton joined the rest of the Security Council Thursday in condemning terrorism in Iraq. He then set his sights on Syria and Iran — accusing them of not doing enough to stop foreigners from joining the insurgency.

The resolution adopted by the council strongly urged a halt to the movement, financing and arming of international terrorists emphasized the importance of cooperation particularly from Iraq’s neighbors, but no countries were singled out.

In speeches immediately after the vote, however, Bolton and Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said Iran and Syria can and should do more to keep terrorists from crossing their borders — and must keep their pledges under previous U.N. resolutions to support stability in Iraq.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050804/ap_on_re_mi_ea/un_iraq

Bolton did not present any information at that time to back his claims that Iran and Syria were aiding terrorists in Iraq.

However, that evening NBC produced the evidence:

Shipment of high explosives intercepted in Iraq
Most sophisticated of roadside bombs reportedly coming from Iran

It’s the number one killer of American troops in Iraq: roadside bombs.

The massive roadside bomb that killed 14 Marines Wednesday flipped their 37-ton vehicle on its top and blew it some 40 feet down the road.

Tonight, there’s disturbing information that some of the most sophisticated of these deadly weapons are reportedly coming from Iran. U.S. military and intelligence officials tell NBC News that American soldiers intercepted a large shipment of high explosives, smuggled into northeastern Iraq from Iran only last week.

The officials say the shipment contained dozens of “shaped charges” manufactured recently. Shaped charges are especially lethal because they’re designed to concentrate and direct a more powerful blast into a small area.

“They’ll go right through a very heavily armored vehicle like an M1-A1 tank from one side right out the other side,” says retired U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey.

…And Thursday, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld accused Iran of attempting to derail the democratic process in Iraq.

Iran’s Shiite government has also struck up a seemingly strange alliance with Sunni insurgents to try to drive the American military out of Iraq.

“They are desperate to get us out of Iraq” says Michael Ledeen, author of “The War Against the Terror Masters” and resident scholar in the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute. “If we succeed in Iraq they will be surrounded by elected governments.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8829929/

Instead of emphasizing that the military says it intercepted a truckload of explosives at the border only last week, why not ask officials why the information wasn’t announced last week and question why the news was dispensed when it was? Additionally, the story does not mention that the American Enterprise Institute is one of the primary architects of the Bush administration’s public policy and that dozens of its members have worked for Bush.

Coincidentally, when NBC ran its story Bush was having trouble explaining the many military deaths in Iraq and was under pressure to come up with some answers. Bush’s troubles were over once the Iran-Iraq alliance was announced.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/08/04/national/w135329D51.DTL

A few days later, the New York Times added credibility to the story about Iran and Iraq’s illogical alliance.

Some Bombs Used in Iraq Are Made in Iran, U.S. Says

Many of the new, more sophisticated roadside bombs used to attack American and government forces in Iraq have been designed in Iran and shipped in from there, United States military and intelligence officials said Friday, raising the prospect of increased foreign help for Iraqi insurgents.

American commanders say the deadlier bombs could become more common as insurgent bomb makers learn the techniques to make the weapons themselves in Iraq.

But just as troubling is that the spread of the new weapons seems to suggest a new and unusual area of cooperation between Iranian Shiites and Iraqi Sunnis to drive American forces out - a possibility that the commanders said they could make little sense of given the increasing violence between the sects in Iraq.

Unlike the improvised explosive devices devised from Iraq’s vast stockpiles of missiles, artillery shells and other arms, the new weapons are specially designed to destroy armored vehicles, military bomb experts say. The bombs feature shaped charges, which penetrate armor by focusing explosive power in a single direction and by firing a metal projectile embedded in the device into the target at high speed. The design is crude but effective if the vehicle’s armor plating is struck at the correct angle, the experts said.

Since they first began appearing about two months ago, some of these devices have been seized, including one large shipment that was captured last week in northeast Iraq coming from Iran. But one senior military officer said “tens” of the devices had been smuggled in and used against allied forces, killing or wounding several Americans throughout Iraq in the past several weeks.
http://nytimes.com/2005/08/06/politics/06bomb.html?hp&ex=1123387200&en=ad400d18fafde1a6&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Here’s what the US media missed and the American public did not hear:

Dutton Contradicts U.S. on Iran-Iraq Ties

The commander of British-led forces in southeastern Iraq said Friday that concerns about Iranian efforts to influence events in Iraq are based more on speculation than on facts.

The remark by Maj. Gen. Jim B. Dutton of the British Royal Marines contrasted with criticisms of Iran by U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who have said repeatedly that Iran is interfering in Iraq’s internal affairs.

Rumsfeld said Thursday that Iran is opposing Iraq’s efforts to build a democracy.

“There’s no question but that Iran is a problem for Iraq as well in terms of their developing a reasonably representative system,” Rumsfeld told the Los Angeles World Affairs Council.

“The last thing the Iranians want is to see Iraq succeed as a democracy, as a representative system, as a moderate state. It’s exactly in conflict with the situation in Iran, which has a small handful of clerics who run the country,” the secretary said.

Dutton, speaking by telephone from Basra, told reporters at the Pentagon that he doubts most Iraqis in the southeastern part of the country would favor an Iranian-style theocracy.

“My understanding of the Iraqis of southern Iraq is that they have a very different view of politics and that very few of them would wish to have a similar political system as the Iranians do,” Dutton said.

He noted that Iraqis in the southeastern-most provinces of Basra and Maysan share a border as well as a history with the Iranians.

“There are perfectly legitimate reasons for Iraqis to want to cross into Iran and Iranians to want to cross into Iraq,” Dutton said, but they are constrained by a shortage of legal border-crossing points. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050805/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_iran_1

The stories that ran in American publications did not include sources as credible as Dutton, who cast doubt on the claims. There are also obvious questions that should have been asked, such as: Doesn’t it make sense that people who spend years fighting in a war zone will learn how to make more effective weapons and adjust their tactics through trial and error? How difficult is it to make shaped chargers to penetrate armor?

A few weeks ago, the Iraqi prime minister visited Tehran and praised Iran for its support in the fight against the insurgency in Iraq. Did the U.S. media miss the fact that Iran is working with the Iraq government and not the insurgents? For years Iran has supported the Shia Muslims in their fight against Saddam Hussein’s government and the Sunni-dominated Baath party leadership. Nearly all the current leaders of Iraq lived in Iran for years with the support of the government.

Why would Iran, which has been at war for decades with Saddam’s government, suddenly support them in acts that could jeopardize their friendship with the Shia-dominated Iraqi government and possibly leave them open to attack by the U.S.?

Additionally, the bombs allegedly sent by Iran could easily kill the Shia-dominated police forces and be used to make stronger car bombs. Car bombs have already killed thousands of innocent people, among them Iranian pilgrims.

The American media once again misses the story — where are all the questions?

Silvia González, a researcher at the College of Mexico wrote an interesting book called “Hiroshima, la noticia que nunca fue,” or “Hiroshima, The News Report That Never Was”.

Journalists, she says, have to “investigate in order to know, know in order to report, and report in order to create awareness.”

If only the American media would learn from its mistakes and investigate to know, accurately report and prevent another meaningless war based on lies and deception.