"We have serious signals that something is under preparation in Europe," Moniquet said, though he did not present any evidence to the meeting. "Iranian intelligence is working extremely hard to prepare its people and to prepare actions."More than that:
The center, which he said deals directly with European intelligence agencies, believes Iranian operatives have carried out "reconnaissance of targets in European cities, including nuclear power stations," said Moniquet. He mentioned no other specific targets.
Preparations to target Europe's nuclear energy plants could be tied to the diplomatic standoff over Tehran's contested nuclear program, he said.All of this is obvious nonsense.
Iran appeared to be preparing to target "British citizens on the streets of London, just as they kill British soldiers in the south of Iraq," Moniquet said.
Why on earth would Iran want to kill British citizens on the streets of London? Are we talking about evil for the sake of evil? Is this a case of the scorpion stinging because doing so is in its nature, even if the gesture brings self-destruction? Why would Iran invite military -- no: nuclear -- retaliation? If we presume that the Iranians are not fond of the idea of seeing their cities reduced to radioactive wastelands, then what the hell could they hope to gain by such pointless attacks?
The source for this story is one Claude Moniquet, the head of the ESISC, a Belgian terrorist research center founded in 2002. An interesting fellow, Claude is.This site creates the strong impression that Moniquet is just another neocon yarn-spinner -- Michael Ledeen with a French accent. (He even looks a bit like Ledeen.) Regarding a previous ESISC report on the Western Sahara:
Contrary to all expectations, what emerges in the pages of the report is an embarrassingly amateurish, poorly researched, factually inaccurate, and badly written hatchet job. The most disturbing aspect of the report is not so much its poor quality...but the clear malicious intent of Claude Moniquet and his crew.This French-language article asks "Who is Claude Moniquet?" The answers are a bit disturbing: A state security source calls him a "mercenary" and "the voice of his master, the DST" (French internal security). Another calls him a "manipulator." A journalist refers to him as "a guy who sells to the highest bidder."
(Since Moniquet has, on one occasion, brought a lawsuit against writers who displeased him, let me here state that these quotes do not reflect my assessment. These characterizations come from the afore-cited article by Belgian author Pascal Martin -- who, as far as I know, was not sued. I hope I have translated accurately.)
So that's Moniquet. That's the fellow trying to convince us that if anything goes boom in any European city, we should blame Iran. My god, haven't these spooked-up neocons caused enough trouble over the past seven years?
5 comments:
Bush Authorizes New Covert Action Against Iran
The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert "black" operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence community tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.
Of course, this too, may very well be prop-agenda.
I've linked to you on DailyKos. First thing I did on reading this piece of propaganda this morning was google Claude Moniquet and find the same disturbing pattern of unsubstantiated assertions for hire. That led me also to your post here.
What do you want to bet that Rendon Group founded ESISC under contract to the US State Department?
May 23, 2007, 1:14PM
Navy launches show of force near Iran
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Ships packed with 17,000 sailors and Marines moved into the Persian Gulf on Wednesday as the U.S. Navy staged another show of force off Iran's coast just days before U.S.-Iran talks in Baghdad.
The carrier strike groups led by the USS John C. Stennis and USS Nimitz were joined by the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard and its own strike group, which includes two landing ships carrying 2,100 members of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
Aircraft aboard the two carriers and the Bonhomme Richard were to conduct air training while the ships ran submarine, mine and other exercises.
The war games — which culminate in an amphibious landing exercise in Kuwait, just a few miles from Iran — appear to be a clear warning to Tehran, coming just ahead of the Baghdad talks and as the United Nations contemplates tightening sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.
whatever 'intelligence' moniquet might be stumbling across, it could have more to do with what the iranians are planning to do in case THEY are attacked. which seems to me, to be quite logical.
Claude Moniquet is a pen-for-hire, nothing else. Anything with his name on it is bound to have been paid for and dictated by someone else.
The lawsuit he brought, that you mentioned above, was against that same Moroccan newspaper (Le Journal) that you're quoting. It had written that his report on Western Sahara (which Morocco occupies since 1975) read like it was written for, or possibly by, the Moroccan government -- he basically just retold the lines of government spokesmen, and then published it as a scientific study, which the government has since in turn pointed to as evidence for its propaganda ... you get the picture.
The decision to go to trial was obviously taken in collusion with the government, which controls the courts. They instantly ruled that he had been slandered and gave him the largest sum for damages in the history of Morocco.
To save the paper, the editor (Aboubakr Jamaï) had to resign, at which point the chase was called off -- Moniquet much richer, criticism against the occupation discouraged, and one of Morocco's most prominent opposition figures muzzled. Everybody wins!
Well, not everybody: Reporters Without Borders condemned the whole affair, and called Moniquet's "ESISC" organization a "fake NGO". So I wouldn't be too worried about Iranian nuclear terrorism -- at least not because of this.
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