I ran into this Ahmadinejad puppet near the U.N. yesterday. And I hadn’t heard of the group, Iran 180. You can see that the spokesperson for the group there says there’s no Israel angle to Iran 180, all it cares about is “human rights.” She handed me a card (image below).
iran180 card
But Benjamin Doherty has done a number of posts at Electronic Intifida identifying Iran 180 as a pro-Israel astroturfing organization. And here the Jewish Council for Public Affairs states that the Jewish Community Relations Council started the group.
And Thunder 11, a pr group, has taken credit for Iran 180; and Doherty says that its head is an Israel lobbyist in the US and an adviser to Israeli politicians.
Be fair. All Zionists must lie all the time. Did the woman you spoke to really have a choice?
“Human rights”? Is she that sassan character in the flesh? I would have retorted “but what about “basic human rights” for the oppressed Palestinians?!” and watched her jaw hit the floor.
Argh, too much information too little time phil. i suggest you checkout this awesome article on iran 180 (excellent graphics too). you’ll recognize the journalist, she’s a pro:
link to mondoweiss.net
;)
Sounds like one of their Brainstorming sessions with PR companies. Talk about false advertising! A defending the indefensible product.
Right on, Annie — I was surprised Phil missed the previous Iran180 reporting, but like you said, too little time & too much information. It’s like trying to get a drink of water from a fire hose.
I think Allison’s piece you link to is a terrific roundup of Doherty’s EI reporting plus much additional info — she kicks ass!
Richard Silverstein also did some good work on this story, as did Scott Long at paper-bird.net (he writes brilliantly and beautifully on a variety of human rights issues; highly recommended if you haven’t already read him.)
I am not sure this is relevant to that demonstration against Ahmadinejad at the UN today is relevant but this showed up at counterpunch: link to counterpunch.org
It does sound similar.
I’m not particularly familiar w/ any of the groups mentioned in the Counterpunch article you link to, but it’s fairly clear that the Iranian feminist group, Raha, mentioned there has no connection to “Iran 180″ mentioned in this blog. Counterpunch has posted an open letter from them today:
link to counterpunch.org
And a couple of sites on them, one at the Arab Studies Institute site:
link to jadaliyya.com
link to rahacollective.org
A Raha member appears in this video:
link to youtube.com
My lack of familiarity with those groups led me to make that link. It was a mistake on my part. I am familiar with the Workers World crowd and overlooked that they authored that attack — WW cannot be trusted.
I would have asked her why Saudi Arabia is not included. Women can’t drive in Saudi Arabia, must go out in public with a male escort, I’ve heard, and in general I suspect life there for women and gays, is far more oppressive, and yet, not a peep do we hear about the Saudis. Me wonders why the silly twit shown above, ignores them?
@quercus
One of so called “allies” or “friendly states” of US in area, ( mostly goes to any country under previous definitions ). Dogs don’t bark friendlies. Frankly, goes with any state in the world. Where are friendly states with economical relations, trade, area union etc.
Wondered where former Bush administration foreign policy adviser Stephen Hadley has been. Keep in mind Hadley and Rice refuse to meet with counter terrorism expert Richard Clarke for the first 9 months (Read Clarke’s AGAINST ALL ENEMIES) of the Bush administration. Clarke had served under four administratsions both Republican and Dem administrations. He wanted to specifically talk with Hadley and Rice about Al Qeada threats specifically attacks using planes. Rice and Hadley would not meet with him until just days before 9/11. Hadley was also very much in the outing of Valerie Plame. And how can we ever forget his demand to put the 16 WMD words back in Bush’s state of the union speech. So this warmonger has been terribly wrong about foreign policy more than once. In fact he has purposely undermined U.S. national security. So now here he is over at Foreign Policy suggesting how the U.S. should deal with Iran.
Why the f— would anyone listen to this dangerously and criminally wrong warmonger about anything let alone how to deal with Iran. Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett are the experts to listen to about Iran.
The NYC Daily Newspapers have been doing over the top yellow journalism on Iran all week.
In the NY Daily News today…the op-ed called Iran being brought to Hague for war crimes for some tenuous crimes including wanting to destroy Israel. Then there was a write up about a tourist from Arkansas who struck a ‘blow for freedom’ by punching some Iranian diplomat in the stomach…and another that gleefully wrote up how the police stopped some Iranian who someone had falsely reported to be carrying a gun.
She was on to you, Phil. You notice the look back by both her and her comrade?