Winner 2013 Webby Awards for Best Political Website
June 18, 2013

 Choose a size
Text Size

Trending:     chris hedges     economy     nsa     politics     robert scheer
Most Read

The FBI May Have Finally Found Jimmy Hoffa

Say Hello to the 'Super Rich'

Bush Caved on NSA Surveillance After Top Officials Threatened to Resign

New Iranian President Wants to Heal 'Old Wound' With U.S.

Truthdigger of the Week: Daniel Ellsberg

Most Comments
Most Emailed

 * NEW! * The Terror Con
 * NEW! * This Will Not End Well
Great Gatsby Economics



The Unwinding


Truthdig Bazaar
Kazan on Directing

Kazan on Directing

By Elia Kazan
$19.80

more items

 
Ear to the Ground

Iran Rattles Its Missiles

Email this item Email    Print this item Print    Share this item... Share

Posted on May 2, 2010
Iran's nuclear missile
AP / Vahid Salemi

Missile love affair: A Shahab-3 medium-range, road-mobile ballistic missile passes a reviewing stand in Tehran in 2005.

Iran claims it is about to deploy a new short-range missile defense system aimed at shooting down cruise missiles and is in the “design and production phase” of several other defensive systems. 

Analysts say all this missile-rattling is intended to send a message to fellow Persian Gulf Arab states that harbor U.S. military facilities. —JCL

Reuters:

Iran, whose nuclear dispute with the West has raised the possibility of new regional conflict, has developed a short-range defense system to combat Cruise missiles, its defense minister was quoted as saying on Sunday.

“A new short range anti-Cruise defense system with the capability to fire 4,000 rounds of bullets per minute has been produced at the defense ministry and soon will be inaugurated,” Ahmad Vahidi said on semi-official Fars news agency.

“We are at the design and production phase of various defense systems in the short, medium and long-range categories,” he added, citing the Mersad air defense and Shahin missile defense systems.

Cruise missiles are guided missiles that operate at low level to evade radar detection. They can fly up to supersonic speeds carrying either conventional or nuclear warheads.

Read more

More Below the Ad

Advertisement


New and Improved Comments

If you have trouble leaving a comment, review this help page. Still having problems? Let us know. If you find yourself moderated, take a moment to review our comment policy.

Samson's avatar

By Samson, May 3, 2010 at 10:05 am Link to this comment

The propaganda on this site is fascinating. 

Note the headline and the pictures and how they differ from the text in the story.

The text in the story talks of ‘short-range’ missiles.  Obviously of no threat to America, since Iran is on the other side of the world.  So, the propaganda artists have to work around this by trying to downplay that aspect.

Further, the text in the story reveals these are defensive weapons with the goal of shooting down cruise missiles aimed at Iran. 

So, note how this is made as scary as possible by a headline that refers to ‘rattling its missiles’.  This brings up images of a warlike country threatening the world, which of course is the exact opposite in meaning than the real story.

Note also how this is reinforced by using the images of much larger ‘medium ranged’ missiles with the story.  Again, the intent is clearly to both frighten and mislead.

The question is, why are they trying to scare and mislead you?

Report this
MarthaA's avatar

By MarthaA, May 2, 2010 at 11:08 pm Link to this comment

I can’t see how any thinking person can consider that Iran’s leaders shouldn’t do what they can to protect their country from foreign threat after what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Report this
Newsletter

sign up to get updates


 
 
 
 
Join the Liberal Blog Advertising Network
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
© 2013 Truthdig, LLC. All rights reserved.