{"id":151528,"date":"2020-01-13T12:00:15","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T12:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=151528"},"modified":"2024-09-23T14:39:33","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T13:39:33","slug":"the-context-that-goes-unmentioned-in-coverage-of-the-soleimani-assassination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/01\/the-context-that-goes-unmentioned-in-coverage-of-the-soleimani-assassination\/","title":{"rendered":"The Context That Goes Unmentioned in Coverage of the Soleimani Assassination"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Retired Major General James “Spider” Marks says Sen. Chris Murphy should “just be quiet” after he criticized President Trump’s strike on Qasem Soleimani.
(Screenshot: CNN)<\/p><\/div>\n

8 Jan 2020 – <\/em>For this week of Muzzlewatch we have no choice but to examine the assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. As of this writing, Iran had launched missiles into two US bases in north and west Iraq<\/a>\u00a0and President Trump made a televised address from the White House to\u00a0announce<\/a> \u201cIran appears to be standing down.\u201d Events are proceeding at a very rapid pace.<\/p>\n

There are two primary issues I want to look at: how this event is playing out in the mainstream media (MSM), and the coverage (or lack thereof) of Israeli state actors, U.S. based support, and individual Trump supporters who pushed for and\/or were instrumental in implementing this blatant act of war.<\/p>\n

The Soleimani\u00a0assassination\u00a0in the mainstream media<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the usual suspects and positions are being trotted out, there is an important difference when comparing this event to what has usually gone before.\u00a0 Specifically, the MSM is, relatively, far less trusting this time around, even the paper of empire, the New York Times, is publishing substantial pieces questioning basic, \u201crule of law\u201d claims<\/a> made by the administration as well as Secretary of state Pompeo\u2019s justification<\/a> for the attack:<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the intelligence supports the conclusion that killing a top Iranian official is going to either stop (the) plotting or improve American security.\u201d \u00a0<\/em>~ Rep. Adam\u00a0Schiff<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

More directly, the Washington Post published an Op-Ed stating the obvious<\/a>, Trump\u2019s rationales for the Soleimani killing are falling apart.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s not get too happy with these, \u201cexception that proves the rule\u201d examples. \u00a0 Lee Fang reports in the Intercept,\u00a0that, surprising absolutely no one, \u201cTV Pundits Praising Suleimani Assassination Neglect to Disclose Ties to Arms Industry<\/a>\u201d \u00a0 Retired generals such as David Petraeus, Jack Keane, former high governmental officials such as John Negroponte, Jeh Johnson (former Obama Homeland Security secretary) etc, have significant yet undisclosed ties with military contractors, such as Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Blackwater, military-industrial investment firms and military related lobbying firms.<\/p>\n

Gin Armstrong concisely states the problem<\/a>: \u201cThe key question is why media outlets allow anyone with a financial interest in war \u2014 regardless of their previous military or government experience \u2014 to have access to their platforms at a critical time like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even the New York Times, no stranger to ginning up reasons to go to war<\/a>\u00a0reported on this unholy connection<\/a> back in 2008.<\/p>\n

And, of course, most of the media has done what it has always done in the US, almost instinctively, taking its talking points from the administration.\u00a0The MSM immediately started up with the \u201cbad man\u201d theory of politics where this villain against all things good, has finally received his just desserts. \u00a0 Margaret Brennan, the host of Face the Nation<\/a> started the show off by intoning \u201cSoleimani directed mass murder \u2026\u2026and killed hundreds of the thousands in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

This seemingly scripted response has been repeated by not only the usual GOP suspects, but also, no surprise, democratic presidential aspirants. Elizabeth Warren warned<\/a>, \u201cSoleimani was a murderer,\u201d while Joe Biden explained<\/a>, \u201cHe deserved to be brought to justice for his crimes against American troops and thousands of innocents throughout the region.\u201d \u00a0Although doubts were expressed about tactical consequences and congressional notification, there was little attention paid to actual, you know, proof of any of the allegations<\/em>, and there has been precious little to absolute zero establishment condemnation of the obvious criminality of the murder nor the targeting of Soleimani, per se.<\/p>\n

Indeed, almost everything being claimed for Soleimani, even if true, is a projection of the Death Star level destruction the U.S. visited upon Iraq and the region.\u00a0 Indeed, lost in the rubble, was the fact that Soleimani was, apparently, on a diplomatic mission involving Iraq and Saudi Arabia<\/a>. Actually, when searching on \u201cSoleimani on diplomatic mission when killed<\/a>\u201d the first page of Google results only listed headlines such as \u201cUS says Soleimani not on \u2018diplomatic mission\u2019 when he was assassinated<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where\u2019s Israel?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Also missing\/disappeared from much MSM discussion is the role of Israel in the Soleimani killing.\u00a0 Phillip Weiss wrote here in Mondoweiss<\/a> that Israel has a strong political interest in removing Soleimani while it\u2019s difficult to see what actual strategic interest would redound to the US.\u00a0 Although the facts are pretty uncontroversial, there is nary a mention of this obvious and important connection in the MSM\u2026. but there is plenty if you know where to look.\u00a0 Counterpunch simply recounted<\/a> what is common knowledge that the Israeli Mossad head, Yossi Cohen, spoke publicly about killing Suleimani. \u00a0 Jefferson Morley, writing Oct. 24th, in deepstateblog<\/a> reported that Cohen said a possible Sulemani assassination was \u201cnot impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Jack Khoury writing for Haaretz reported<\/a> that since January 2018, Washington had given Israel the green light to kill the most powerful military figure in Iran.\u00a0 Against this backdrop, the Iranian government gave very direct signals that Soleimani was becoming a major player in the government and that his assassination would be considered a causus belli<\/em> for war.\u00a0 Let that sink in for a moment. The U.S. and Israel knew that the Iranian government was acutely aware that Soleimani was being targeted for assassination and that it would be a justification for war and yet, none of the larger news outlets in the U.S. have bothered to report any of this.<\/p>\n

Of course, Trump is strongly supported by wealthy, Iran hating \u201cIsrael Onlyists\u201d such as the Adelsons and Ron Lauder, cosmetics billionaire and head of the World Jewish Congress, among others.\u00a0 Phil Weiss reported<\/a> that this strong push to attack Iran is almost universally celebrated by Jewish Israelis and those that think they are supporting a strong Israeli position. Otherwise, there has mostly been worldwide silence, condemnation, and consternation.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll have more on this as the story develops.\u00a0 And we\u2019ll be providing a media guide to help navigate the typical ways the media acts as a mouthpiece to empire, and ways to work against this.<\/p>\n

______________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Rob Lipton is a long time member of <\/em>Jewish Voice for Peace, wrote for <\/em>JVP‘s Muzzlewatch, was an ISM participant, and was the LA director of <\/em>FAIR during the first Gulf War. He is Poet Laureate of Richmond, CA and a spatial epidemiologist.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 mondoweiss.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

8 Jan 2020 – There are two primary issues I want to look at: how this event is playing out in the mainstream media (MSM), and the coverage (or lack thereof) of Israeli state actors, U.S. based support, and individual Trump supporters who pushed for and\/or were instrumental in implementing this blatant act of war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":151522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[120,267,1126,260,1050,504,742,88,767,109,287,1759,249,95,70,126,118,172],"class_list":["post-151528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","tag-conflict","tag-geopolitics","tag-hegemony","tag-history","tag-imperialism","tag-international-relations","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-middle-east","tag-politics","tag-power","tag-targeted-assassination","tag-trump","tag-us-military","tag-usa","tag-violence","tag-war","tag-west"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":275072,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151528\/revisions\/275072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}