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Editorial See other Editorial Articles Title: The New York Times on Iranian injustice: A frightening disconnect from reality When I read editorials like this I have to ask myself what can explain such flights from reality? Ignorance? Deliberate dishonesty? Or is it the one malicious binding belief of our Beltway elite: American Exceptionalism? In the wake of the conviction of an Iranian American scholar last week for "acting against the interests of the national security" of Iran the Times editors felt it was time to lecture the Iranian government on justice. Here the Times, in a tone of incredulity mocks the Iranian government for their silly belief that the US government may have been behind some of the unrest in the wake of their Presidential election in August. "The mullahs are twisting themselves into knots trying to prove that outside forces are at work when they are facing homegrown outrage over their increasingly autocratic state. They also think they can solve the crisis with force, despite the extent of internal dissent and the refusal of many elites to condone the crackdown" How silly of the Iranian government to think that the US may be covertly involved in their domestic politics! The editors of The Times can't be expected to know that the US Congress only passed a law whose purpose was to funnel money to groups who seek to overthrow their government. The TImes can't be expected to go back and read their own paper and their numerous stories about US government covert operations in Iran directed against that government. I mean it isn't like major politicians in the US on an almost daily basis call for the overthrow of the Iranian government and call for public funds to be spent for such purposes. And it isn't like the US has a history of such activities all over the world and specifically in Iran. No, see- the Mullahs are just crazy for thinking that a country that has a quarter million troops all but surrounding them and an armada patrolling their one exit to the open sea- and passes laws in broad daylight explicitly aimed at overthrowing their government- just might have been involved in the unrest following their Presidential election. Oh- those crazy paranoid Mullahs! The Times finds it simply amazing that many arrested in the wake of the protests in August still linger in prison! Yes- the "paper of record" of a country in which those who can't afford bail "linger" in prison for months if not years before their trials and which has held foreigners for years in secret prisons with many being tortured is outraged that Iran has held a few hundreds of people for almost three months without charges! The Times also holds up 4 death sentences imposed on protesters in Iran as an example of the lack of justice in Iran. Yes- four yet to be imposed death sentences for protesters who may have been acting in the pay of a foreign power against the Iranian government is far more disturbing than the over 100 people murdered by the US government and military who never got anything approaching a trial during "enhanced interrogations" (which the Times can't bring itself to call torture even when resulting in death.) Yes, a country surrounded by the most powerful military in the world, a power whose major politicians and media organs daily talk about funding covert operations against their government, a power with a history of such acts in their country in the past, a power that has threatened to attack them with nuclear weapons in an unprovoked first strike and that is the chief supporter of another country that routinely does the same- is being irrational, paranoid, and unjust in arresting several hundred people and holding them for months who were involved in public disturbances against the government . . . according to the wise sages of the New York Times editorial office. It gets worse. The Times then mentions that Iran is holding some American hikers and holds up the disappearance of Robert Levinson, a retired FBI agent who disappeared in Iran while working as a private investigator in 2007 as more examples of Iranian "injustice": Since July 31, Iran has been holding three American hikers who were seized along the Iran-Iraq border. Robert Levinson, a former F.B.I. agent has been missing since 2007. These victims of Iran’s autocratic leaders must be released. Iran may sit at the negotiating table with the United States and other world powers, but it will never earn the respect it craves if it continues these kinds of human rights abuses. Oh right. It is Iran that will have problems earning respect at the negotiating table for their gross human rights abuses! Uh huh. Never mind that the United States held 5 Iranian diplomats for nearly two years with no charges with even their puppet government in Iraq protesting their illegal detention. And never mind that Iran currently accuses the United States government, a government that openly reserves the right to kidnap anyone they want anywhere they want, of kidnapping at least three of its citizens- one of whom was the subject of a Washington Post story in which it was claimed by the usual "anonymous source" in the government that he defected - though he has yet to turn up two years later. The Post hasn't deemed it a story to go back to that "source" and ask him about the condition and whereabouts of this "defector". This sort of oblivious self righteous indignation at acts committed by the Iranian government when similar if not far worse acts are committed by the United States is endemic among our elite and spans the political spectrum from Beltway "left" to "right". It is scary to behold such behavior among the powerful of this country. It shows an almost complete separation from reality and a total lack of concern of for how others see them. They really do believe that when the United States does something bad- it isn't bad because the United States did it. And they have absolutely no problem condemning other countries for even lessor acts of "injustice". And the Times is supposed to be the "moderate" voice of the Beltway!
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