Wagging the Dog with Iran's 'Maxwell Smart' - Juan Cole

[trof]

I personally do not understand how the corporate media in the US can report the following things about Manssor Arbabsiar and then go on to repeat with a straight face the US government charges that he was part of a high-level Iranian government assassination plot.

It seems pretty obvious that Arbabsiar is very possibly clinically insane.

Here are the top 10 reasons that he cannot be Iran’s answer to 007:

10. Arbabsiar was known in Corpus Christi, Texas, “for being almost comically absent-minded”

9. Possibly as a result of a knife attack in 1982, he suffered from bad short-term memory

8. He was always losing his cell phone

7. He was always misplacing his keys

6. He was always forgetting his briefcase and documents in stores

5. He “was just not organized,” a former business partner remarked

4. As part owner of a used car dealership, he was always losing title deeds to the vehicles

3. Arbabsiar, far from a fundamentalist Shiite Muslim, may have been an alcoholic; his nickname is “Jack” because of his fondness for Jack Daniels whiskey

2. Arbabsiar used to not only drink to excess, but also used pot and went with prostitutes. He once talked loudly in a restaurant about going back to Iran, where he could have an Iranian girl for only $50. He was rude and was thrown out of some establishments.

1. All of his businesses failed one after another
http://www.juancole.com/2011/10/wagging-the-dog-with-irans-maxwell-smart.html

[no_hypocrisy]

1. The Gang (of one) That Couldn't Shoot Straight . . . .

[azul]

2. The war machine will just have to get a new team of propagandists

to sell this invasion to a susceptible public and keep the straight face of the media.

Remember the Iraqi success?

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1118-10.htm

[Javaman]

3. just another dupe for the government to trot out and the media to salivate over.

the whole thing had the ring of incredible stupidity from the get go.

a dying nation hoping to put on the big pants again by launching false accusations against an easy target.

each and everyday, I see another example of our third world status being glaringly obvious.