From Personal Liberty Digest:

On Iran, Government And Doublethink

February 27, 2012 by Bob Livingston 

“Winston sank his arms to his sides and slowly refilled his lungs with air. His mind slid away into the labyrinthine world of doublethink. To know and not know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget, whatever it necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself—that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word “doublethink” involved the use of doublethink.” –George Orwell, 1984.

Winston Smith, the protagonist in George Orwell’s 1949 novel 1984, understood doublethink. After all, he worked for the Ministry of Truth (Minitru, in newspeak) where it was his job to rewrite magazine and newspaper articles and other documents and to doctor photographs to make sure they matched with the current “party line.” Most Americans are blindly unaware that doublethink exists today. 1984 is not a work of fiction but is one of prophecy. Big Brother would be proud of the Minitru propaganda ministry that now exists. “War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.”

Senator Lindsey Graham (Neocon-S.C.), who once claimed to be a veteran of Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm but who never left the States during the war and served only as a military lawyer, is one of the leading saber rattlers for more war. It seems he finds a new enemy hiding under his bed every morning.

“Our strategic interests in Syria are much greater than they were in Libya. This regime is the biggest ally of Iran, which threatens the world even more so than the Assad regime,” Graham told CNN’s Erin Burnett.

Graham, Patriot Act and National Defense Authorization Act proponent, has never met a war he didn’t like. CNN, Fox News and the rest of the corporate media love war because their ratings soar.

So they beat the drums of war. Those few who listen hear mixed messages, but most Americans hear only the collective “boo.”

Graham, Senator Joseph Lieberman (Neocon-Conn.), Senator John McCain (Neocon-Ariz.) and neocon talking heads like William Kristol, John Bolton and many others who are part of or constantly use a compliant media fabricate and bloviate about the dangers posed to the United States by dysfunctional (as a result of U.S. meddling) Mideast/Persian countries.

We are told by the neocons that Iran poses a threat to America, that the Iranians are trying to manufacture nuclear weapons and that they would use them to attack America.

This gets good play in the Minitru corporate, war-loving MSM.

Getting less play are statements that refute the pro-war narrative, if they are reported at all. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has said repeatedly that Tehran has not made a decision to proceed with developing a weapon.

“Are they trying to develop a nuclear weapon? No. But we know that they’re trying to develop a nuclear capability,” Panetta told CBS Face the Nation’s Bob Schieffer Jan. 8.

Others in the intelligence community — including the CIA’s National Intelligence Estimate, theDirector of National Intelligence and the United Nation’s International Atomic Energy Agency — have said the same. Iran even admits this is so. As columnist and former Treasury officialPaul Craig Roberts writes, Iran is a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and, therefore, has a right to develop nuclear energy. IAEA inspectors are permanently stationed in Iran and report no diversion of nuclear material to a weapons program.

And then there’s this report from the Los Angeles Times last Wednesday, which you’ve not heard from three warmongering Republican beauty contestants nor the alphabet soup television network talking heads:

U.S. intelligence agencies don’t believe Iran is actively trying to build an atomic bomb.

A highly classified U.S. intelligence assessment circulated to policymakers early last year largely affirms that view, originally made in 2007. Both reports, known as national intelligence estimates, conclude that Tehran halted efforts to develop and build a nuclear warhead in 2003.

The most recent report, which represents the consensus of 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, indicates that Iran is pursuing research that could put it in a position to build a weapon, but that it has not sought to do so.

Yet when Ron Paul points out this fact — which he has done in all 20 GOP debates — he gets derisive laughter from the war-loving knuckleheads on stage beside him and jeers and catcalls from the sheeple in the debate audience.

Despite being one of the major oil-exporting nations of the world, Iran cannot currently produce enough gasoline for its citizens. Its navy is capable of only operating within the Persian Gulf. It has no air force capable of reaching the United States. It has no ballistic missile system capable of reaching the U.S. The U.S. has dozens of military bases surrounding it. Yet we are constantly being told Iran poses an existential threat to the U.S.

Another oft-repeated, but false meme is that Iran is attempting to carry out terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. This claim is not grounded in anything concrete, but serves to keep the American people compliant and willing to cede their freedoms for the “safety” that oppressive tyranny provides.

From the Minitru-mouthpiece Boston Globe (part of The New York Times family of papers) on Feb. 17, 2012:

The government is worried that Iran will consider a terror attack on American soil, but it has no specific or credible threat about such a plot. Police from Los Angeles to New York City said they were anxious about the risks, even as a senior U.S. intelligence official reassured Congress that it was unlikely Iran would attack. (Emphasis mine)

Classic doublethink.

More doublethink:

• Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be wiped off the map. The truth: Ahmadinejad said no such thing, but the corporate media continue to report it as if it were true.
• President Barack Obama is a Muslim who hates Israel and his policies favor Muslim nations. The truth: Obama is doing the bidding of the Israel lobby and working with the neocon elites. He is destroying Muslim nations and killing innocent men, women and children in an effort to establish U.S. hegemony over the Mideast and weaken Israel’s enemies. Columnist Roberts provides a good explanation of U.S./Israel machinations here. A weakened Iran and Syria also benefit Obama’s other master, the Saudi oil sheiks who right now are benefitting from rising gas prices and will benefit politically, economically and strategically from a weakened Iran and Syria.
• The United States, because of its financial backing of Israel, can control Israeli actions. The truth: It is no longer clear which is the dog and which is the tail in this relationship. It’s increasingly clear that the Jewish lobby is driving the conversation and policy in Congress. Anyone who dares to mention this fact is awarded the label anti-Semite. Just ask Ron Paul and Patrick Buchanan, and watch for it in the comments below.
• There is a War on Terror. The truth: The war on terror is a smokescreen for perpetual war that benefits the military-industrial complex and the banksters and is simply pretext for the West’s goal of world conquest. At some point, Russia and China are going to have enough, and World War III will erupt. I believe it may have begun already.
• The FBI is keeping us safe by stopping terrorist attacks on U.S. soil before they occur. The truth: The FBI is locating patsies that they encourage, cajole and equip to attempt ridiculously ill-conceived terror attacks so Federal agents can swoop in at the last second and “save us.” This all done to keep the American people scared and dependent upon an increasingly militarized and increasingly overbearing law enforcement apparatus and provide pretext to pass even more laws to steal our liberties.
• Congress represents the will of the people. The truth: Politicians are employees of the government whose sole aim is to benefit and grow government and pass laws to benefit large corporations and enrich themselves. They, along with the banksters and multinational corporations, are the 1 percent and government exists to benefit the 1 percent.
• The United States is a democracy. The truth: The United States has never been a democracy, but it is as far removed from democracy now as ever. The U.S. is a fascist system in which an entrenched elite of moneyed power brokers and corporations control the machinations of government to their benefit and the detriment of the American people.
• America is free. The truth: The United States is a totalitarian society in which the Constitution, which was drafted to restrain government and put power in the hands of a free people, is null and void and given only lip service by those who swear to uphold it.
• Defeating Obama in November should be the ultimate goal of American voters.The truth: Electing Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum will not spare our Nation from the inevitable collapse because they have pledged to increase military spending and adventurism and are all big government globalists and political statists. It would be tantamount to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. There is only one way to possibly slow the slide into total fascism, and that is to elect Ron Paul. There is no significant difference between Obama, Romney, Gingrich and Santorum.