Persicus Maximus

Leon Hadar introduces a book by Ervand Abrahamian. Both the critics and the admirers of the Central Intelligence Agency have tended to portray it as an all-knowing, all-powerful, invulnerable entity and to exaggerate the ability of America's spies to determine the outcome of developments around the world. An American reporter interviewing an ordinary citizen—or an official—in Cairo, Buenos Aires, or Seoul may hear that “everyone knows” that the CIA was behind the latest rise in the price of vegetables or the recent outbreak of flu among high-school kids. It’s like you Americans aren't aware of what's obvious (wink, wink). New histories of the agency, drawing on recently released classified information and memoirs by retired spies, provide a more complex picture of the CIA, its effectiveness, and its overall power, suggesting that at times Langley was manned not by James Bond clones but by a bunch of keystone cops. My favorite clandestine CIA operation, recou...

99% results have always been an indicator of falsehood, but Jason Ditz is one of those whose name demands the benefit of the doubt. He wrote :  “A grim new poll from Gallup shows an overwhelming majority of Americans, indeed 99 percent of them, believe that Iran’s civilian nuclear program is a threat “to the vital interests of the United States. The poll reflects the near complete saturation of American opinion with politicians’ claims of the “threat” posed by Iran’s civilian program, in spite of repeated reports conceding that Iran isn’t presently developing nuclear weapons and that it may indeed never choose to do so. This disconnect from reality is underscored when compared with other questions in the same poll, with only 97 percent viewing North Korea’s actual nuclear weapons a threat, despite North Korea itself spending a large amount of time trying to convince people that it is a threat. This was the first time Gallup specifically asked about either nation’s nuclear...

    Once again I could not find an English report explaining the new Iranian fighter Jet, so that I could share with you. It was as always predominantly nonsense originating from Israeli news agencies and some other Rupert Murdoch sources, whose concentration is firstly on mocking it all and secondly making sure nobody else dares make an authentic report.   It is as if a reporters credentials are dependent on making and giving their reports a certain taste of sarcasm by starting it with words like “allegedly” or “claiming” when they report on Iran. They (fearful reporters) then wait for their sponsors reactions and as expected jump on the baseless analysis of it all being false and cheats and propaganda. I suggest everyone to doubt everything said and reported over Iran coming from the known corporate media (regardless of how established). There are enough independent sources available. (antiwar.com), after all times have changed. Nevertheless, I have...

Damien McElroy and Ahmad Vahdat once (2009) researched and discovered the following based on the Photography above……...A close-up of the document (Iranian ID)  reveals he was previously known as Sabourjian – a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver. The short note scrawled on the card suggests his family changed its name to Ahmadinejad when they converted to embrace Islam after his birth.  The Sabourjians traditionally hail from Aradan, Mr Ahmadinejad's birthplace, and the name derives from "weaver of the Sabour", the name for the Jewish Tallit shawl in Persia. The name is even on the list of reserved names for Iranian Jews compiled by Iran's Ministry of the Interior.  Experts once suggested Mr Ahmadinejad's track record for hate-filled attacks on  the Jewish state could be an overcompensation to hide his past. Ali Nourizadeh, of the Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies, said: "This aspect of Mr Ahmadinejad's background explains a lot about him. "Ev...

The Assassins' library was destroyed when their fortress fell, so we do not have any original sources on their history from their own perspective. Most of what survives comes from their enemies, or from fanciful second- or third-hand European accounts. However, we know that the Assassins were a branch of the Ismaili (recognize six Imams) sect of Shia Islam (who normally recognize the 12 Imams). The founder of the Assassins was a Nizari Ismaili missionary called Hassan Sabbah, who infiltrated the castle at Alamut with his followers, and bloodlessly ousted the resident king of Daylam in 1090. From this mountaintop fortress, Sabbah and his faithful followers established a network of strongholds and challenged the ruling Saljuk Turks, Sunni Muslims who controlled Persia at the time. The name Assassin diverts from the Egyptian term of Hashishin which itself means troublemakers; all other terminologies and definitions are wrong and has nothing to do with any drugs ...