The interview begins with Porter commenting on todayâs article in the NYT (P.11) on Mike Pompeo and acting and soon to be Defense Secretary, Patrick Shanahan having appeared in classified briefings before the House and Senate to explain and defend the intelligence that required US military deployments to deter attacks at Iran.
The discussion, which reference two articles by Porter, listed in Notes (below), began with the fact that despite John Bolton having made no attempt to hide his meeting with his Israeli Mossad equivalent on April 15, and that Barak Ravid, a reputable Israeli journalist had disclosed on Israeli TV and on the Axios website that Israel had been the source of Boltonâs intel on the supposed Iran threat, it would not be mentioned in the US mainstream media until May 16, buried in the NY Times.
That would lead to an exchange over the role of the US media in suppressing information deemed negative to Israel and other controversial subjects that Porter says has become self-enforcing on the part of journalists who have come to know what is acceptable to report and what isnât.
As fraudulent as was the intel that was used to justify the war on Iraq, i.e., misinterpreted pictures of large tubes, Porter points out that the intel used to justify moving a US carrier and bomber squadron to the Gulf is too shabby to be taken seriously, citing as an example, the photos of missiles laying in small boats that were in no position, without a launcher, to even be used and that Iran was already has the capability of launching ground based missiles, which, nevertheless, the corporate media was eager to lap up and make it front page headlines, but played down when its legitimacy was being questioned. But, says Porter, this kind of coverage has followed a pattern during which the public needs to be frequently reminded, without any evidence being demanded by the media, that âIran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism.â
The conversation becomes wide ranging, dealing with the responses or lack of same from the Democratic presidential aspirants and the likelihood, judging from MoveOnâs endorsement of Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib for 2020 that US support for Israel will become a contentious issue among Democrats in the election year.
Interviewed by Jeff Blankfort
See "John Bolton's Nefarious Plot for War With Iran," in TruthDig, 5/11/19 and "Do Iranian 'Threats' Signal Organized US-Israel Subterfuge? in American Conservative, 5/21/19
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