Truther Sources

I am continously amused by the sources truthers will use for their stories, without even a hint of skepticism or analysis. My favorite example being when the Scholars for 9/11 Truth posted a story from Pravda, most famous for being the official mouthpiece of the Soviet Communist Party for 70 years, reporting that an armed coup had taken place on Capital Hill.

Now another story is going around, started by prominent truther Webster Tarpley, that the US is going to launch a "sneak attack" on Iran, on the rather precise date of 4 A.M. April 6th.

WASHINGTON DC, -- The long awaited US military attack on Iran is now on track for the first week of April, specifically for 4 am on April 6, the Good Friday opening of Easter weekend, writes the well-known Russian journalist Andrei Uglanov in the Moscow weekly “Argumenty Nedeli.” Uglanov cites Russian military experts close to the Russian General Staff for his account.

The attack is slated to last for 12 hours, according to Uglanov, from 4 am until 4 pm local time. Friday is the sabbath in Iran. In the course of the attack, code named Operation Bite, about 20 targets are marked for bombing; the list includes uranium enrichment facilities, research centers, and laboratories.

Tarpley later complains that this story has been ignored by the US media, although this may have to do with the fact that Novosti considered this story so important, that they didn't even bother to post it in either English or Russian. Tarpley links to 2 articles written only in French.

Tarpley's main source, Andrei Uglanov, is only cited secondhand, so with a little research, I found the original article, posted here, (Translation mine):

IRAN TO BE "BITTEN" AT 4 IN THE MORNING, APRIL 6TH

An anonymous source in the Kremlin warned Iranian authorities that Moscow refuses to support Tehran, if Iran does not answer the IAEA inquiry, it is responsible for itself. For us Iran with a nuclear bomb or the capacity to develop one is unacceptable. We will not play in these anti-American games with them.

Such a warning to Tehran would not have been possible if the Kremlin did not know about the true plans of the United States in regards to Iran. And if they knew, they did not want to be in the same boat with a violator of the UN Resolution.

To begin with, the Vice-President of the USA, D. Cheney admitted that his country "Is considering all solutions to the Iranian problem", including military.

Russian military experts believe that the planning of the military actions by the United States reached the point of no return on 20 February. In Vienna, inconclusive talks ended between the Iranians and the head of the IAEA M. Al Baradei.

According to our information, military action will take place in the first week of April, just before the Catholic and Orthodox Easter (this year the dates are the same), when the "Western public" will be on vacation. Maybe this will even happen even on Friday April 6th, a holiday in the Muslim world.

According to the American plan it will be a one-day strike, which will last 12 hours, from 4 am to 4 pm. The code name of the operation currently is "Bite", which translates to "ukus". The very name indicates that it won't be big massacre, of course, it would involve about 20 sites where they are carrying out secret work on the development of a nuclear program.

Of course in the typical truther manner, Tarpley plays a "telephone game", repeating a story, based on an anonymous source to begin with, from a second article in French which repeats it. Contrary to his claim that the news of the attack was based on "Russian military experts close to the Russian General Staff", the article only mentions "military analysts", which could mean anything. Additionally Tarpley morphs the speculation as to the date, into a known fact. These are the truther standards for the truth, where anonymous speculation becomes proven fact.

I just hope they come up with a better name than "Operation Bite".