So immediately after it was announced the Chuck Hagel would be nominated to serve as Obama's Secretary of Defense, the New York Times reports that photos of former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who was kidnapped while conducting a private investigation into cigarette smuggling ring, have been released by the family.
Sorry but it strains credulity to think that the timing of the photo release was coincidental, and wasn't calculated to hurt the Hagel nomination.
Oh and just FYI, those who accuse the Iranian government of being behind Levinson's kidnapping -- using nothing more than innuendo from anonymous sources -- have to yet explain what possible benefit Iran could obtain from this act, and why all the other Americans who travel to Iran aren't getting kidnapped by the same regime that issued Levinson his visa to come to Iran in the first place.
So lets see what's the evidence that the Iranian government had something to do with this:
U.S. operatives in Afghanistan managed to trace the cellphone used...
So probably Iran
It was sent from a cyber cafe in Pakistan..
All signs point to Iran
Pashtun people live primarily in Pakistan and Afghanistan..
Iran, clearly.
just across Iran’s eastern border.
Fucking knew it: Iran
(hattip to anonymouse reddit commenter)
The Chinese section of irib world service on 1/9 has reproduced an article from the People's Daily titled
The US is suffering from a delusional disorder (http://cpc.people.com.cn/pinglun/n/2013/0109/c78779-20136849.html)
see excerpts below (it has 14 paragraphs)
¶6: There is another possibility, showing these symptoms does not necessarily mean you are sick, having feigned illness, you can avoid punishment once your lies have been revealed. Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano once said, war is sold with the help of lies, in this respect somebody commented there is no better salesman than the US president.
¶7: Lyndon Johnson golf of Tonking resolution ¶8: Bush II Irak WMD
¶9 A similar technique turned up again during Iran's peaceful use of nuclear energy, rumors about nuclear weapons were spread high above the world and while the war in Syria is at a stalemate rumors about chemical weapons have caused a great clamor...
So far the article has not been mentioned (likely never will) in the English version of irib.
Posted by: wt | January 09, 2013 at 02:04 PM