Associated Press reported yesterday that Iran is conducting surveillance in New York City.
Authorities have interviewed at least 13 people since 2005 with ties to Iran's government who were seen taking pictures of New York City landmarks, a senior New York Police Department official said Wednesday.
Police consider these instances to be pre-operational surveillance, bolstering their concerns that Iran or its proxy terrorist group could be prepared to strike inside the United States, if provoked by escalating tensions between the two countries.
Mitchell Silber, the NYPD's director of intelligence analysis, told Congress that New York's international significance as a terror target and its large Jewish population make the city a likely place for Iran and Hezbollah to strike. Silber testified before the House Homeland Security about the potential threat. Much of what Silber said echoed his previous statements on the potential threat, but he offered new details Wednesday about past activities in New York.
In May 2005, Silber said, tips led the NYPD to six people on a sight-seeing cruise who were taking pictures and movies of city landmarks like the Brooklyn Bridge. In September 2008, police interviewed three people taking pictures of railroad tracks. And in September 2010, federal air marshals saw four people taking pictures and videos at a New York heliport. Interviews with law enforcement revealed that all were associated with the Iranian government, but they were ultimately released and never charged, Silber said.
U.S. officials long have worried that Iran would use Hezbollah to carry out attacks inside the United States. And Iran was previously accused in a disrupted plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. here last year, a plan interpreted in the U.S. intelligence community as a clear message that Iran is not afraid to carry out an attack inside this country.
In January, James Clapper, the top U.S. intelligence official, said some Iranian officials are probably "more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived U.S. actions that threaten the regime."
But government officials have said there are no known or specific threats indicating Iranian plans to attack inside the U.S.
Does anyone else feel like this is complete and utter bullshit?
A few things. First of all, the only source for this is the god damn NYPD. They were just exposed for conducting illegal surveillance of Muslim neighborhoods, in which they found absolutely no links to terrorism whatsoever. And the entirety of counterterrorism on U.S. soil is nothing but entrapment. Their excuse of New York having a "large Jewish population" should also raise alarm bells. Iran has a pretty decent-sized Jewish population, and they get along just fine. The supposed criminals in this are "people on a sight-seeing cruise who were taking pictures and movies of city landmarks" which is not a crime as long as you're white. And they supposedly have "ties" to the Iranian government, "but they were ultimately released and never charged." Unless people are guilty until proven innocent now, then not a single person was fucking tied to the Iranian government. Nearly all of the innocent people we've released from Guantanamo had "ties" to terrorism, until we actually investigated and found out they were just normal people who we kidnapped.
Does the media actually investigate this? Do they ever question what the government tells them to report? Of course not. They go about acting like news is a business activity, never presuming that our government is in a position to benefit from stories like this. That's almost worse than a state-sanctioned media, since people actually think there's a free press. We certainly have some nerve, accusing Iran of spying on us, possessing "proxy terrorist groups," as we fly drones over their country and commit actual terrorist attacks on their soil. The Iranian military is structured entirely for defense, and they're not going to invade Israel because they know they'd be wiped off the map. This is nothing but propaganda.
There's a great moment in Christopher Hitchens' autobiography when he describes the first time he got the chance to interview an actual political leader, someone who has real power. That's when you know you've finally made it. His entire world perception comes crashing down when he realizes that he's actually a lot more knowledgeable than the person he's interviewing, and these people don't have a god damn clue what they're doing. The first time someone realizes this, it's almost a religious experience. After you get over your panic mode, you develop a sense of responsibility to gain more knowledge about the world, since the people who actually have the control are completely lacking it. Then you become the annoying kid in the back of the classroom who throws things at the teacher whenever he turns his back.
That is the mindset we need to have towards all positions of power. The problem isn't that power corrupts; it's that positions of power are natural magnets for the corruptible. Someone is going to benefit from these political campaigns, and it isn't going to be you.
There is going to be a war in Iran. It may not be a ground war, it may not even be very huge, but it is going to happen. It probably won't be very soon either. America is pretty war weary from Iraq and Afghanistan, and we're not very enthusiastic about another war right now -- but a few years down the road we're all going to forget and forgive, and the lust for death will once again entrap us all. What people don't seem to understand is that war propaganda has been hammered down to a science. When psychology was first starting to take off in the last century, professors would write quite candidly about controlling the opinions of the masses. America is a semi-democratic country, so those in power can't just smash contrary opinion and sweep people away into secret prisons. That would destroy the illusion of democracy. What they need is media control -- control the spectrum of the debate. The propaganda system is to a democratic society what the boot is to a totalitarian one.
Marx divided the world into the bourgeois and proletariat -- those who have the power, and those who do the powerful's bidding. It could be argued that this view of the world is a little too simplistic, but everyone understands it to an extent, whether they realize it or not (Occupy Wall Street's "99%" vs. "1%" terminology). This class awareness is absolutely essential if you want to understand and fight back against the lies and bullshit of world politics. And we're seeing that happening right now.
An Israeli graphic designer just started a campaign telling the Iranian people that Israelis don't actually want to destroy them. And Iranian citizens responded in kind. This video is pretty beautiful.
Here are a couple comments from the video
I'm an American and I second this message. We too, are sick and tired of war (even if our government is not). Just because our various countries are run by power-hungry sociopaths doesn't mean we (all people of the world) have to follow their examples. And if they don't care about fostering world peace, maybe it's time the people take the initiative first. Let me pledge that I am at peace with all humanity, and I refuse to recognize any human as being my "enemy", whether I am told to or not.
Im iranian and to be honist this mahmoud ahmadi nijat guy just gets in my nerves i cant hate any one more than him , He Gives us iranians a really bad look, He makes hate between us and other countries for no reason , I think we need to show love to each other and only hate the people that try to make us hate each other .
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