Gareth Porter
5.0 out of 5 stars Does for Iran What Truth Dig Did for Iraq, January 29, 2014
I *strongly* recommend this book to every citizen concerned about a government that lies all the time. The NSA debacle of recent time, on top of the CIA debacles (rendition, torture, assassination by drone) on top of the various other White House led debacles are all deeply disturbing.
I have a copy of the book on the way and will provide my usual detailed review as soon as it arrives. In the meantime, here is a snippet from a really superb review by Peter Jenikins at Lobelog:
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Porter concludes: “US and Israeli policies have been driven by political and bureaucratic interests, not by a rational, objective assessment of available indicators of the motives and intentions of Iranian leaders”.
Another central theme, one that complements the hidden motive theme, is that intelligence material and intelligence assessments have played a baleful part in this saga.
Faulty interpretation of intelligence in the early 90s led US analysts to believe in a full-scale, clandestine nuclear weapons program, according to Porter, whereas, in his view, the weapons program never amounted to more than some weapons-related research between the late 90s and 2003.
Faulty interpretations can be forgiven. More seriously, Porter's researches suggest that in the first half of the last decade US analysts ignored or discounted evidence that called into question the assessments made in the 90s.
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Peter's entire review can be easily found by searching for < Review (Guest): A Manufactured Crisis > or visiting Phi Beta Iota the Public Intelligence Blog.
Gareth Porter is one of a handful of truly stellar investigative journalists in such company as Sy Hersh, John Pilgar, archivist journalists such as John Prados, and advernture-journalists as Robert Young Pelton. I know him personally and hold him is the very highest regard.
