Credibility Problems at the Washington Post: Blogger Fabricates Content of Reza Kahlili Speech on Iran
Recently, I spoke at an event at the Washington Institute, where I urged the West to help Iranians free themselves from the evil regime of the Islamic Republic. My speech was warmly received by over one hundred dignitaries, state officials, and members of the press.
I have since received several congratulatory communications saying how much they appreciated the presentation, with many expressing how they wished the Obama administration would reach the same conclusion that I have been suggesting all along — that the ruling fanatics in Iran are beyond being reasoned with. Some further agreed with me that our failure stems from our trying to use a rational approach. That won’t work, because we are dealing with irrational people. They see, as I do, that nuclear-armed mullahs will not only destroy Iran and its freedom loving people, they will also destroy the world.
However, blogger Jeff Stein — who did not attend the event — posted an article on his Spy Talk blog on the Washington Post attempting to discredit me. The article is full of pure fabrications and misquotes.
Initially, he sent me an email asking me to verify the information about the Iranian nuclear enrichment surpassing 90%, which I did. But he asked of nothing else to clarify the information that he was challenging.
The title of Stein’s article:
“Reza Kahlili, self-proclaimed ex-CIA spy, makes new Iran claim”
I am not “self-proclaimed” — I am an actual ex-CIA spy. And Stein knows it, as he quotes from David Ignatius’ review of my book. Ignatius’ review included the following, which Stein must have seen:
So I did some checking. And I am happy to report that the author did indeed have a secret relationship with the CIA. That’s a relief, because the story he tells — of the Iranian revolution and how he came to despise it — is genuinely powerful.
…
Eventually, I found one of Kahlili’s former case officers, who described him as “legit” and “a very brave guy.”
Why would Stein leave that out? Did it not fit his agenda of tearing someone down? Someone he’s never met, never done any background check on? Mr. Stein, by deliberately leaving out the above, attempted to assassinate my efforts and attack my character. He did not even bother asking me to provide assurances of my collaboration with the CIA — as everyone else in the media has done — but rather stuck with his agenda of discrediting me.
Stein’s article quotes unnamed guests who claimed they rolled their eyes during my speech, and he quotes other unnamed guests who called me the equivalent to Ahmed Chalabi. Who were these sources? Even Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has recently warned that Iran is nearing nuclear bomb capability. This exact concern has issued from the Obama administration and the European Union, and is the reason for recent sanctions and extra measures taken. Yet Mr. Stein feels the need to attack me and my comments about Iran being close to a nuclear capability and that a nuclear armed Iran will be horrific for the future of the world.
Stein continues:
Kahlili’s previous accounts have been greeted with widespread skepticism.
I’ve kept very close track of everything that has been written about me, my book, and my published articles. I challenge Stein to justify this comment.
In his post, Stein makes sure his readers know that the Washington Institute for Near East Policy is an entity supported by Israel, stating the following:
Kahlili was showcased Friday by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Washington think tank founded by a former senior official of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Stein continues with this:
“From my sources,” Kahlili told his audience Friday, “I have heard Iran has successfully enriched uranium over the 90-percent threshold, and that was even before they announced the 20-percent experiment. And that they have missiles that they have not publicly shown, because that would verify their intention of carrying out [sic] nuclear warheads.”
Kahlili said he passed along that and other information to the CIA, which he suggested was suppressing his report on uranium enrichment.
This is fabricated. I never stated that I passed the enrichment information to the CIA. I did not say, in any way, shape, or form, that the CIA was suppressing that information. The audio of the event clearly shows this. It is available on the Washington Institute site.
He made up that statement on his own. Then he asked some CIA officials — who also were not present at the event — to respond to the false statement!
The Post are worth what I pay them, nothing.
Life becomes much easier and less stressful when one shuns liars. You know what the Post is. There are other sources of news.
I make it a point NEVER to believe anything a spy…especially a former member of the CIA say!
It is those who take on the mantel of covert actions via the CIA that assure the freedom to say stupid things. The word of a CIA officer over anyone claiming impatiality in the MSM is a non-issue. The MSM have proven over time they are not credible. I suggest one broaden their field of news sources outside of those located in America. It is sad that we have to link to newspapers in other nations to find out what our own government is up to.
Such a nice blanket statement with no actual intellectual effort ever needed.
But you believe the Washington Post and its minions? I think I see who the gullible one is.
I make it a point never to believe anyone who capitalizes every letter of their name. It indicates that they view themselves as far more important and influential than they actually are (i.e. delusions of grandeur).
Sorry for the barb, BARB. Here’s a tissue.
You don’t have to; he supplies the audio proof of what he said in his speech. That alone exposes Stein as a liar.
I have long since ceased to expect either honesty or accuracy from the so-called “mainstream media” here in the United States.
You’re a bit of a liar, aren’t you?
From the blog post you’re speaking of, but didn’t link to:
“Three former CIA officers who ran Iranian operations in the ’80s and should have been knowledgeable said they had never heard of such a significant penetration of the Guard during this period,” The Washington Post’s veteran spy-watcher, David Ignatius, said in a review of Kahlili’s memoir, A TIME TO BETRAY: The Astonishing Double Life of a CIA Agent Inside the Revolutionary Guards of Iran.
“A current U.S. government official, however, did vouch for Kahlili’s role as a spy,” Ignatius added.
“I can’t confirm every jot and title in the book,” the official told Ignatius, “but he did have a relationship with U.S. intelligence.”
“I can say without any doubt that Mr. Kahlili’s relationship to the U.S. intelligence community is legitimate,” his lawyer Mark Zaid said. “His book was cleared.”
This type of attempted character assassination shouldn’t be permitted from cowardly anonymity. If you’re just chatting, be an anonymouse, “Gould.” But if you’re going to make serious accusations, you should have the integrity to tell us your name. What do you think you are, a journolister?
GG,
Could you please provide a link, or citation, to the source you quote? Thank you.
Never trust the media…with the exposure of JournoList, the great number of it’s “journalists” are in reality propagandists to the Democratic party. If what you have to say is in opposition to, or doesn’t benefit the accepted narrative, you will be crucified on the pulpit of the MSM’s message.
This is why viewship and cirulation has dropped precipitously over the last decade, as different sources of news have come available, that DON’T have the bias of the present MSM. It’s a shame really, because most journalists hide behind the false curtain of “objectivity” when they anything but objective.
…is it time for some quality control at WaPo?
It is getting tougher and tougher to function as the company organ in the company town.
The mirror is cracking, even the Wapo’s ombudsman wrote the other day about the paper’s failure of reportage on the NBPP fiasco.
Why does anyone read the WaPo, or the NY Times anyway, if they are so out of it, why do stories based on crap reporting. PM is beginning to look like a bunch of hangers on, nothing original here, move along!
Their lies MUST be challenged. Otherwise, they acquire a veneer of false legitimacy. The NYT, WaPo, et. al. still have a substantial readership who deserve to know the truth.
The problem with US intelligence services is their inclination to Lie, Cheat, Steal and create mirages when none exist. It is this environment that allows liars cheats and frauds to take advantage of US intelligence apparatus in return;
Before the invasion of Kuwait we heard heart breaking eyewitness testimony of babies in incubators being killed, It was completely fabricated. The link is listed below;
http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/incubatorlie.html?q=incubatorlie.html
Chalabi is the gold standard of intelligence failures; an Iranian Spy with access to high level pentagon officials who was paid 400,000+ per month and is now shipping Iraqi Oil to Iran. Iran effectively controlled US foreign Policy to remove its adversary Saddam Hussein. Brilliant Spy Vs. Spy episode and made the US intelligence community the laughingstock of the world.
There are dozens of links regarding Chalibi and officials he manipulated; Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, Douglas fieth, Dick Cheney, Condaleeza Rice and eventually president Bush.
( the CIA on the other hand refused to endorse the claims made by Chalabi and his champions in pentagon and defense department).
Now we have a convenient Spy that has secret knowledge of Iranian inner working and research programs, pushing an agenda to invade / Attack / etc, another Nation. Unfortunately, the American public will suck it up just as before.
Are you kidding me? WRH is your source? Where today’s above-the-fold article is “Israel’s Whores in Congress”?
Your last name isn’t Jones is it? AKA General Jack Ripper.
alex,
You clearly did not bother reading Khalili’s book. He took the minimum that’s the minimum the CIA offered him — something on the order of $50,000 a year My G-d man, let’s see you put your family and yourself in that type of danger with the punishment being that they will be raped in front of your eyes, and only then will your eyes be gouged out (the typical punishment for every spy caught in Iran — if you read a few books, you might know that) — in any case, let’s see you do all that and all for thewhopping sum of $50K. There are heroes, and then there are gnats. I’ll leave it as an exercise to the reader in which category alex falls.
ya know,,, our American military always boasts of such technological superiority, like; “they can direct a cruise missile through a bedroom window from 500 miles out”.
The fact that these dirtbags are still alive gives lie to these braggadocio claims. It’s a good thing I’m not in charge of anything, or a lot of dumb Islam worshiping idiots would already be dead.
What’s wrong with identifying the enemy and taking him out?
Iran is the enemy, take them out.
The trick is knowing WHICH bedroom window. If you have that information, I am certain the US military would be happy to implement it for you.
To take out a single individual, it could be done with a near-suicidal mission to spy out said bedroom window inside Iran, and activate a spread spectrum (to make detection without knowing the hash algorithm difficult) GPS transmitter. Would make a good action movie anyway.
The problem is our weak-kneed Politiicans, who are afraid what the Wash Commiepost or NY slimes might say about them “murdering” oh say, Irans Im a dunb jihad. I doubt under stress that one such as Bebe Netanyahu has such limitations, other than the fact hes got a bigger enemy in our white house than the one in Iran.
What do you expect from liberals who rather sell out our security to the enemy than stand up in defense of freedom. They rather kiss Ahmadinejad’s hand than help Iranians free themselves from the crazy mullahs.
Mohsen Sazegara has more creditbility than this guy and had good points on past failures of reform in iran from 2006 http://youtu.be/48eou444LH4 …this guy reza kahili is a tool of fars news who 100% backs islamic regime in iran…kid you not fooling nobody..and dont you worry soon the conservatives and ahmadinegad and khamenei will all be hunted down and killed soon!
Well, ahem, “a middle east expert,” my Mother was a Psychologist with a Psy.D and both my Grandparents were Psychiatrists. That gives me the right to offer a classic “armchair analysis” of you as follows.
That anyone and I mean anyone who has the laughable audacity and self-puffery required to label themselves in public no less as (sotto voice) “a middle east expert” is most certainly not a “middle east expert.” Indeed, it’s getting tiring to type out your elongated title, Mr.”middle east expert” (we’ll overlook lack of proper capitalization), so heretofore I willl refer to you as MEE — which, more or less sum
Yes MEE, we can see that you think very very highly of yourself — you make sure to tell us this in your moniker. We all, I am sure, appreciate you tipping us off that the remainder of what you have to say can be totally disregarded because you soil any interesting strands of information that may exist in the detritus of you comment by the use of such a… well, titillating name.
It bring to mind the scene in Entebee — that’s a city in Uganda MEE where Jews were taken hostage and a gentleman quite similar to yourself, a bombastic fool named “Idi Amin Dada” swaggered about while guns were pointed at the heads of his “Jewish guests.” Actually, like you, Idi Amin Dada did not use his real name either. Rather he demanded that all refer to him as:
His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular.
At one point while he swaggered about, as you similarly do in your very choice of a name, an elderly woman attempted to ask him a question. Leaving out only a single word in his long and grand moniker (kinda like yours), he quickly corrected her as to the “proper” title of a man such as himself.
So again, I sincerely want to thank you for alerting all of us to the particular personality disorder from which you clearly suffer — one which compels you to write a comment, and expect to be taken seriously despite your signing it… (Kettle Drums and the opening notes from Copeland’s Fanfare for the Common Man are heard… and in a deep, resonating and echo-filled voice): a middle east expert (Cymbal crash)!
To:a middle expert or the Islamic agent. What fool you are.I am sure Mr.Kahlili has caused you and other Islamic agents sleepless nights. I am glad he is out there exposing you radicals and I hope soon it will be the end of the mullahs.
Jamal,
Your response showed me that I take fools like middle east expert a tad too seriously sometimes. Thank you for so succinctly “outing” this Iranian Revolutionary Guard stationed in the USA — no doubt he had to rape a few young boys & girls (they do this prior to their execution because only “virgins” may go to heaven — an added layer of cruelty which only the Mad-Mullah’s could have thought of) in order to prove his “mettle” — enabling his commanders to then trust him in our “hedonistic society.”
If Jamal’s comment seemed like anything but empty bs, you’re a bigger fool than MEE will ever be.
a middle east expert- Real funny, I suggest you take your head out of your…liberals and Islamic agents think alike!
Be thankful that he never labeled you a “racist” which his colleagues would do to discredit you.
Gentlemen, on principle, freedom of speech must end where deception begins.
Mr. Kahlili,
Thank you. Stein doesn’t have the integrity or physical courage to report on you fairly or accurately. He has always been one of the more weaselly writers on the intel beat.
I wrote the following response to Jeff Stein’s column in the Washington Post. Apparently WaPo is too cowardly to accept criticism because they disallowed comments when they saw that people were calling him on his hand.
BEGIN:
Reza Kahlili’s book “A Time To Betray” is full (do not take this out of context) of lies and falsehoods. The names are false. The places names are false, misleading, or altered; the facts are altered; the time scale monkeyed with; the premise edited by the CIA.
Virtually everything in the book that is not in the public record is a shroud over the truth.
It’s a shroud that keeps Kahlili alive, for many are the zealots who would kill him if they could. And rest assured they would kill this not ‘self-proclaimed’ but genuine spy, in from the cold.
Now compare that with Joe Stein’s column about Kahlili: Stein sits in comfortable safety where he is free to misquote, fabricate, imagine, skew and omit facts about Kahlili’s representation of himself. Stein’s column is wrong-headed and mean-spirited.
So who tells the greater lie?
Kahlili defends himself here, where you can peer through Stein’s innuendo and see the truth:
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/credibility-problems-at-the-washington-post-second-blogger-gets-called-out-for-dishonesty/?singlepage=true
END:
I wrote the following response to Jeff Stein’s column in the Washington Post. Apparently WaPo is too cowardly to accept criticism because they disallowed comments when they saw that people were calling him on his hand.
BEGIN:
Reza Kahlili’s book “A Time To Betray” is full (do not take this out of context) of lies and falsehoods. The names are false. The places names are false, misleading, or altered; the facts are altered; the time scale monkeyed with; the premise edited by the CIA.
Virtually everything in the book that is not in the public record is a shroud over the truth.
It’s a shroud that keeps Kahlili alive, for many are the zealots who would kill him if they could. And rest assured they would kill this not ‘self-proclaimed’ but genuine spy, in from the cold.
Now compare that with Joe Stein’s column about Kahlili: Stein sits in comfortable safety where he is free to misquote, fabricate, imagine, skew and omit facts about Kahlili’s representation of himself. Stein’s column is wrong-headed and mean-spirited.
So who tells the greater lie?
Kahlili defends himself here, where you can peer through Stein’s innuendo and see the truth:
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/credibility-problems-at-the-washington-post-second-blogger-gets-called-out-for-dishonesty/?singlepage=true
END:
The Washington Post went crazy after Watergate. They’ve had credibility problems since the 70′s. What I find amazing is that anyone except a liberal would take the Post as serious journalism.
The WaPo and the majority of MSM have made an art form of propaganda dissemination that any Marxist regime would be proud of.
No point spoiling it now.
Like one of the posters here stated simply, and rather naively,:I make it a point NEVER to believe anything a spy…especially a former member of the CIA say!
Once they have sacrificed their credibility, for what ever reason, it will take considerable effort to regain any modicum of trust or respect from the information consuming public.
The Washington Commiepost has had credability problems since the days when katherine Graham
The Washington Commiepost has had credability problems ever since Katherine Graham and Ben Bradlee ran the Commiepost-How can one forget Janet Cooke and the disgraced Pulitzer? Or hiding stories about JFK because Bradlee was a JFK ass kisser? Come to think of it, the entire enemy within “media” has all the credability of Izvestia or Pravda in the ole USSR days.
I have to laugh at the individual above who describes himself as an expert because of coming from a long line of pstcaiatrists,Oh Please give me a break ! If the American people who are no becoming the followers of americas neew religion in droves run by these uh hum intelligent doctors of doom with their main faalse teaching diagnosis called “Chemical Imbalance ” What a joke ask any dr of shrinkage to what blood test he can prove a chemical imbalance and soon you will be of what the devil said ” your eyes will be opened ” Psychaitry had its birth with the eugenics movement here in the USA but really was put to use in the death camps of germany. Now look at how many children in the past 10 years are lost in the trillion dollar psychparmacology grip of the public school system who believes every american is mentally ill, A great way to indoctrinate our normal kids who have become no less than guinea pigs. Don’t believe? Give it another 18 months and then your voice will never count again!
Just by reading this message, you just proved Contact Page Advertising Works!
Now you can send out highly targeted ads to millions on contact pages on the web. Very cost effective. Contact me for more details at this email address: mike.broaderbund@gmx.com