Archive for June, 2012
Al Qaeda (and many groups like it) have always been funded by the CIA, the Israelis, & the Saudis.
Submitted by Center for Independent Media
A recent AP article states: “Azerbaijan arrests reporter behind Internet hit: BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — A journalist in Azerbaijan best known for creating a wildly popular Internet video that became a cult favorite in Russia has been arrested on drug possession charges [in the Republic of Azerbaijan], police said Friday. Mammadov’s lawyer, Anar Qasimli, said the charges against his client were without basis, and the reporter’s relatives insist he is the victim of a police set-up. Mammadov will be kept in custody for three months while the probe is ongoing, Qasimli said. If found guilty, Mammadov faces a prison sentence of up to 12 years. Mammadov is a member of Azerbaijan’s Talysh ethnic minority, which resides along the country’s border with Iran, and edits a local newspaper, ‘Talysh Voice.’ Mammadov has in the past criticized authorities for allegedly repressing minority populations in Azerbaijan.”
I have known Hilal Mamdedov for years. Hilal is an ethnic Iranian, from the Talesh community (near the Caspian coast). However, Hilal has never lived in the Iran of today, but lives in what is now called the “Republic of Azerbaijan.”
Roughly 150 years ago, what is today called “The Republic of Azerbaijan” was a part of Northern Iran and was seized by Russia. Soon after, Russia became the USSR and Stalin quickly realized the value of oil resources there and (rightfully) feared the risk of the native people that wanted the province to repatriate with Iran – Many people were slaughtered; many books were burned to craft a new identity for the people taken as captives in a land newly controlled by Russia. In what became a bizarre twist in history, Stalin and Turkish nationalists commenced a program to strip ethnic Iranians of their identity. Ottoman-Turkey assisted in importing Turkish nationalism, mixed with brutally repressive tactics, and after a few generations the lower Caucuses still experiences today what many historians call “a severe identity crisis that is more a consequence of Stalin’s imagination, than historical fact.” Although the USSR no longer exists, the blueprint that Joseph Stalin and the Ottoman-Turks left behind is still being exploited to siphon-off the oil from the Caspian for the benefit of everyone except the people that live there. The autocratic governement and bogus journalism emanating from the Republic of Azerbaijan is being supported and financed by major global oil companies who also hire ‘Blackwater’ type paramilitary forces to subdue the people.
Hilal Mamdedov is from the Talesh community (Mountain Iranians) – a group that did not bend to allow their identity to be taken from them. The Talesh regional flag carries the tripartite Green, White and Red Iranian colors and the famous sun emblem (though the flag is explicitly outlawed in the Republic of Azerbaijan). The news article suggests that Hilal has been arrested for “heroin” possession, which to anyone who knows him is an absurd lie on its face. He is an exceptionally learned, talented and healthy man known world-wide for his gift for journalism and passion for nature. Many years ago on a business trip to Baku, I hiked what used to be the Iranian mountains with Hilal (they are now a part of the Republic of Azerbaijan). Hilal is an outdoorsman and the kindest person one can hope to meet; he is the type of person who will go out of his way to give his time and hospitality to a complete stranger. I invite you to browse his photos on Facebook which are sort of a glimpse into his character and maybe interesting for Iranians from a perspective of cultural anthropology. I have seen on this site the term “Greater Iran” used. This is a man that represents the Iran that was. He is the ethnic cousin of Iranians, and comes from a group that would not allow their Iranian roots to be erased. I encourage you to raise awareness about his plight and to share his story. It also appears that several sites carrying his newspaper have vanished into thin air.
Below are three videos: Two are about the Talesh people; and the third is about the autocratic government that rules the Republic of Azerbaijan for the benefit of about 20-30 powerful families and the major oil companies that back them.
Who are the Talesh?
Corruption & Oil inAzerbaijan:
Before the language of the Republic of Azerbaijan became Turkic, an Iranian language (Old Persian) was the language of the people.
Even the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan in its official publications admits that the name “Azerbaijan” is a Persian word that derives from the name of a Persian General.
PBS and its affiliate “Tehran Bureau” Caught Engaging in Fraudulent Journalism & Invasion of Privacy
PBS sponsors a webpage on its site and on Facebook about Iran called “Tehran Bureau.” In PBS/Tehran Bureau’s own words its web page about Iran receives, “major funding provided by The William H. Donner Foundation.” This Foundation also provides monetary sponsorship to militant Zionist Jewish groups, and has connections with major oil interests, such as Exxon Mobil.
For example the Donner Foundation also supports an Islamophobic and militant Zionist group called the “David Horowitz Freedom Center.” According to its own website, the David Horowitz Freedom Center targets “the efforts of the radical left and its Islamist allies to destroy American values and disarm this country as it attempts to defend itself in a time of terror.” This group is in many respects the Jewish version of the KKK, and has been recognized as such by several disinterested journalists and organizations.
tehran bureau facebook iran | facebook
Chip Berlet, writing for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an organization positioned to “combat racism and promote civil rights through research, education and litigation, identified the David Horowitz Freedom Center as one of the “right-wing foundations and think tanks support[ing] efforts to make bigoted and discredited ideas respectable.” Berlet states that Horowitz falsely blames slavery on “‘black Africans … abetted by dark-skinned Arabs.’”
Similarly, its 2011 report, “Fear Incorporated: the Roots of the Islamophobia Network in the United States,” the Center for American Progress cited Horowitz as a prominent figure instrumental in demonizing Islam and spreading fear about an Islamic takeover of Western society.
PBS/Tehran Bureau is funded by the same Foundation that financially supports the Horowitz hate group and a number of other militant and rightwing Jewish groups that use misleading names.
Some of the other groups funded by the Donner Foundation include, the American Enterprise Institute; the Center for Individual Rights; the Council on Foreign Relations; the Federalist Society; the Heritage Foundation; the International Republican Institute; and the Jamestown Foundation.
PBS/Tehran Bureau claims to be “an independent news organization” – It is not. PBS/Tehran Bureau claims it is not affiliated with or funded by “any religious organization, political party, lobby or interest group.” That is also misleading.
Below are photoshop-manipulated pictures published by PBS/Tehran Bureau and presented to the public as news; in total disregard of the privacy of the child they are exploiting for political reasons.
Israel has been caught red-handed running computer centers where army staff are paid to manipulate Wikipedia entires, comments on social media, and to feed pro-Israeli propaganda to corporate news outlets. Often these paid propagandists are asked to impersonate different ethnicities to dupe people into making their pro-Israel messages more credible. These manipulative tactics are a part of the Zionist charade to deceive people and cover-up a pattern of crime, human rights abuses, and neo-colonialism that world public opinion is increasingly finding fault with and unwilling to tolerate.
Here are a few quotes about the Israeli military’s online campaigns on social media networks:
“[T]here’s talk in the IDF [Israel’s military] of a crafting a real-life master plan to invade social media.” (Noah Shachtman, Wired Magazine, January 21, 2009).
In an article titled, “YouTube, Twitter: Weapons in Israel’s Info War” Wired Magazine states, “[T]he Israeli government is launching a campaign to dominate the blogosphere.” (Nathan Hodge, Wired Magazine January 21, 2009).
The Jerusalem Post quotes the head of the Israeli Defense Forces’ media branch as saying, “The blogosphere and new media are another war zone …. We have to be relevant there.”
In an article about the 2009 protests in Iran, Wired Magazine wrote an article titled, “Facebook, Google Go Persian, Aiding Iran’s Activists.” In that article, Wired Magazine notes, “Some of the Web’s leading firms are rolling out new features … to not-so-subtly help [the uprising] inside the country.”
