From the post:
Now that August is over, the month during which you don't launch a new product, Fox is quietly and subtly beginning to link Iran -- that's Iran -- to 9/11, using as a pretext the request by Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to visit Ground Zero.
Following a interview with Joe Lieberman today (September 20, 2007), Neil Cavuto, Fox's "business news" anchor, hosted Bernie Kerik. (The Lieberman segment was billed as being about the two new bin Laden tapes but it concluded with a bit about Ahmadinejad: Lieberman: "It's an insult to the memory of those who were killed on 9/11" to let him visit the site. This is "as serious a threat" as Hitler or Mussolini.)
Ummm, how exactly would it be an insult for Ahmadinejad to visit ground zero? He had absolutely NOTHING to do with 9/11. But that didn't stop Bernie Kerik (FORMER NYC Police Commissioner) from inserting his own opinion.
Kerik said, "This guy shouldn't be allowed anywhere near there. To me, there's no difference in bringing Ahmadinejad than there is in bring in Osama bin Laden.
Notice the comparison with Osama Bin Laden? And he goes on:
Kerik said there will be New York City "cops who just refuse to go." He said he "lost 23 members of my department" on 9/11. "The Port Authority lost 37 and the fire department lost 343. I can't see any one of those agencies assisting any part of that detail going down there and it would really be a shame for us, the United States government, to let him down there."
Again referencing 9/11. It's the classic Bush Administration tactice to link Iraq and 9/11. Just say the word Iran and 9/11 in the same sentence, and BINGO, case for war is made! A commenter at News Hounds breaks it down nicely:
FOX is right:
- Iran shares a border with Iraq
- There is an al-Kaida in Iraq
- al-Kaida was responsible for the 9/11 attacks
Therefore - Iran = 9/11
It's quite simple really.
konservo | Homepage | 09.21.07 - 3:39 am | #
And there's also the, dare I say, false outrage over Ahmdinejad wanting to visit Ground Zero in the first place. Whether they are intentionally do so or not, they are spreading the meme. From Talking Points Memo
Am I the only one embarrassed by the dingbat brouhaha over Iranian President Ahmadinejad's attempt to visit Ground Zero to lay a wreath? Given relations between our countries I could see denying him a visa, but as long as we're hosting the UN that's not an option. Ahmadinejad now says he's "amazed" that such a visit would be insulting to Americans. Sen. McCain said that Ahmadinejad should be "physically restrained if necessary" from visiting the site. The National Review's Kathryn Lopez got worked up in such a lather that she begged Rudy Giuliani to "lead a human blockade keeping Ahmadinejad from getting to Ground Zero" -- thus demonstrating once and for all Rudy's true calling as the surrogate id of right-wing nerds everywhere.
So what's the problem exactly? Presumably we can be frank enough to acknowledge that the real issue here is that while Ahmadinejad is not Arab to most of us he looks pretty Arab. And he is Muslim certainly -- and pretty up in arms about it at that. And we officially don't like him. And we classify the country he runs as a state sponsor of terrorism. So even though he has absolutely nothing to do with 9/11, when you put all these key facts together, he might as well have done it himself. And what business does anyone with the blood of the victims of 9/11 on his hands have going to Ground Zero?
Will this be the new Talking Point for making the case for war with Iran?
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