The buildup in the press about the Iranian threat continues with a couple of new articles, while Scott McClellan is testifying on Capitol Hill about deceit and propaganda in the runup to the war in Iraq.
At ABC News I noticed “EXCLUSIVE: Hezbollah Poised to Strike? Officials Say “Sleeper Cells” Activated in Canada”. Authors Richard Esposito and Brian Ross began:
Intelligence agencies in the United States and Canada are warning of mounting signs that Hezbollah, backed by Iran, is poised to mount a terror attack against “Jewish targets” somewhere outside the Middle East.
The article relies on anonymous Bush administration, Canadian and Israeli sources, former CIA intelligence officer Bob Baer, and FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko, section chief for the national Press Office. It acknowledges “[t]here is no credible information on a specific target.” The first 10 source citations are based on anonymous officals, e.g. “intelligence agencies in the US and Canada warned,” “intelligence officials tell ABC News,” and “three US law enforcement agencies say.”
The second Iran-focused article catching my eye this morning was in the the New York Times. Here we learn from authors Michael R. Gordon and Eric Schmitt, “Israel carried out a major military exercise earlier this month that American officials say appeared to be a rehearsal for a potential bombing attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.” Again all sources for the premise of the article are anonymous.
I do not mean to suggest that either of these articles are necessarily wrong. Indeed, I will be (pleasantly) surprised if there are not terrorist attacks and further Israeli-Iranian provocations between now and the U.S. elections in November. But both of these stories further a building narrative suggesting that the threat from Iran is dire for the West, and must be addressed now. And this narrative is being furthered by a synergy between some parts of the media and the Bush administration.
When these daily Iran stories are juxtaposed against Scott McClellan’s ideas about the Bush Administration’s manipulation of a credulous media in the year before the Iraq War, they seem frighteningly similar. The question in my mind is: will anyone with any power to change the narrative take public notice of this? Or will we be engaged in a much larger war in the Middle East as we go to the polls in November?
