How words mislead the public
Regional, Analysis, 6/16/2008

The Washington Post today reported that "British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Monday announced plans for new sanctions against Iran " by planning "to freeze the assets of Iran's largest bank, Bank Melli." The report said Britain is trying the convince the European Union to take similar action.

This comes after reports of secret British documents regarding Iran were found on a train in Britain. The British publication "The Independent" had reported yesterday that "Secret government documents detailing the UK's policies towards fighting global terrorist funding, drugs trafficking and money laundering have been found on a London-bound train and handed to 'The Independent on Sunday'."

The report added the documents "contain criticism of countries such as Iran that are signed up to the global Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body created to combat financial crime and the financing of terrorism. The confidential files outline how the trade and banking systems can be manipulated to finance illicit weapons of mass destruction in Iran."

The timing of these supposed unintentionally left-on-train documents can lead to suspicion that someone had intentionally left the material on the train because they wanted to give the impression that Iran is doing something sinister, since the next day, the UK announced the financial sanctions on Iran. The UK before the war on Iraq had announced that it had reports and incriminating evidence against Iraq that it planned to share with the public, but later refused to share these reports, which makes such claims suspect.

The documents found on the train, according The Independent, use words such as "can" while other reports used words such as "could," words that are completely inconclusive, except to serve to misguide or mislead individuals into thinking that such statements are statements conveying conclusive fact when they do not not, as in this example where the report said "The confidential files outline how the trade and banking systems _can_ be manipulated to finance illicit weapons of mass destruction in Iran."

Iran has been facing great and persistent pressure from the US, and its allies in Europe who do not want to see Iran acquire advanced nuclear capabilities, civil or military. However, the use of such tactics or words by the government to shape public opinion, if this act was intentional, leads to the dumbing down of public debate on issues. So maybe we should consider a warning label be attached to such government statements or documents stating: "consuming this material can be damaging to your thinking, unless you have been educated about the hazards."

By,
Jamil Kazoun


Author of the book: A Second American Revolution: Creating Rational Government
and the book: A Third American Revolution: A New World Government . A Plan for Liberty, Justice and Peace"

Previous Stories:
  IAEA: no diversion in Iran's nuclear program, but   (5/27/2008)
  Carter: Israel has 150 nuclear weapons   (5/27/2008)
  How US policy makers unknowingly harm the USA   (12/11/2007)
  Nuclear energy looks critical for the future   (7/13/2006)
  Arab states should pursue nuclear development   (4/19/2006)

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