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From a live TV show aired on April 3, here is the audio of our special interview with journalist and historian Gareth Porter regarding his new book on Iran, Manufactured Crisis.Click here for free audiobook download from Audible, and earn $15 for the PBC Podcast!
Porter is a widely-respected journalist and historian who has covered American foreign policy since he was a bureau chief in Vietnam. In recent years, he has written frequently about Iran, the focus of his new book, Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare. This interview was conducted for a live TV broadcast on April 3, you can watch it here (soon).
Porter begins with comments on the widely promoted misconception that Iran has an active nuclear weapons program and is close to developing a bomb. He explains that both ayatollahs, Khomeini and Khamenei, have rejected nuclear and chemical weapons for religious reasons, and that Iran did not retaliate in kind when Iraq used chemical weapons on Iran in the 1980’s.
Porter notes that Iran became a major target for the US and Israel in the 1990’s, and for the US it was part of a strategy to maintain Cold War budgets in defense and intelligence. When Bush declared Iran part of his “axis of evil”, John Bolton was hyping the threat from Iran as we invaded and occupied Iraq–which made Iran stronger in the region. Porter describes the neocons’ obsession with Iran, which is mirrored by the government of Israel, which he says is determined to scuttle the current negotiations with Iran.
We talk about the election of former nuclear negotiator Hassan Rouhani as Iran’s president last year, which led to remarkable changes in the situation. And we discuss the Stuxnet virus that the US and Israel unleashed on Iran’s nuclear sector, the brazen killings of Iranian scientists, and the role of the “former terrorist group” MEK in provocative events in Iran.