Michael Rubin, formerly of the Coalition Provisional Authority, writes a regular feature for National Review Online, a summary with links of the Iran-related news of the day. A hardcore neocon whose journalistic and other credentials have often been in conflict, today Rubin notes the following:
“Hardline, state-controlled press reprinting articles from U.S.-based Antiwar.com.”
If you follow the link you find a piece by Charley Reese (although the Iranians don’t give him a byline), a King Features columnist, which did indeed appear on Antiwar.com — as it did in several newspapers across the country, as well as online on several sites.
This is the neocon smear method, which they tried — with very limited success — on professors John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt when their Harvard University study of the Israel lobby came out. David Duke, they averred, had endorsed the Mearsheimer-Walt thesis — and what else do we need to know? A great way to divert attention from the real issue, which the neocons don’t want discussed: Look! Over here! No — over there! This way, they never have to discuss any actual issues, or make any real arguments — just the argument from intimidation.
The clear implication is that we are agents of a foreign power, and/or that we support the Iranian government: after all, why would they reprint something that we posted on Antiwar.com? If the Iranians say the sky is blue, is it really blue — or some other color?