One of the most disgusting phrases in the political lexicon is “plausible deniability.” It means you’re going to lie, but you can tell your lie with a straight face and nobody in the supine press will challenge you. From Aaron Maté at aaronmate.net:
With Trump’s blessing, Israel launches a devastating attack on Iran.
(Photo by Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)
Shortly after Israel began a devastating attack on Iran — which has so far killed top Iranian military leaders, nuclear scientists, scores of civilians, destroyed vital military assets, and damaged nuclear energy sites — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a speech filled with lies and distortions. Yet there was one notable acknowledgement of reality. “I want to thank President Trump for his leadership in confronting Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” Netanyahu said.
Both Netanyahu and Trump are aware that there is no such program. As a US intelligence report noted in March, “Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program suspended in 2003.” At most, Iran has “undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so,” a previous intelligence assessment found.
While deceptively omitting the US government’s official stance, Netanyahu was correct to credit Trump’s “leadership” in confronting the non-existent Iranian threat. Although Secretary of State Marco Rubio claims that the Israeli strikes were a “unilateral action” in which the US was “not involved,” Israel could not have carried out these pulverizing strikes without the backing of its chief sponsor in Washington. This would be true under any circumstance but particularly on the eve of a new round of US-Iranian talks over a revised nuclear deal that Trump claimed he was committed to.
