US Uses Leaks to Hype Iran ‘Plot’

[marmar]

from Consortium News:




US Uses Leaks to Hype Iran ‘Plot’
October 17, 2011

The U.S. government is using leaks to the news media to press its case regarding a purported Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington, but the supposed links between a cooperating FBI witness and Iranian intelligence remain tenuous at best, as Gareth Porter reports for the Inter Press Service.

By Gareth Porter


Officials of the Obama administration have aggressively leaked information supposedly based on classified intelligence in recent days to bolster its allegation that two higher-ranking officials from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were involved in a plot to assassinate Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir in Washington, D.C.

The media stories generated by the leaks helped divert press attention from the fact that there is no verifiable evidence of any official Iranian involvement in the alleged assassination plan, contrary to the broad claim being made by the administration.

But the information about the two Iranian officials leaked to NBC News, the Washington Post and Reuters was unambiguously false and misleading, as confirmed by official documents in one case and a former senior intelligence and counterterrorism official in the other.

The main target of the official leaks was Abdul Reza Shahlai, who was identified publicly by the Obama administration as a “deputy commander in the Quds Force” of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Shahlai had long been regarded by U.S. officials as a key figure in the Quds Force’s relationship to Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army in Iraq. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2011/10/17/us-uses-leaks-to-hype-iran-murder-plot/

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. Not familiar at all.

:sarcasm:

[FiveGoodMen]

2. This latest ratcheting up of the drum beat smells six ways to Sunday

Don't believe a word of it.