Crescent International
What is the reality of Al Jazeera's "leaks" over differences between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his intelligence chiefs? Are these really genuine leaks, carefully planted stories or they are meant to achieve an altogether a different agenda? Read on...
Toronto
February 24, 2015, 08:27 EST
The semi-literate corporate media is ecstatic about Al Jazeera’s (AJ) announcement that it has obtained, allegedly the “largest intelligence leak since Snowden." Al Jazeera, the Qatari government’s channel, is planning to run a series of reports discussing the so-called “top secret” documents. But is it really a leak and is it really intelligence?
It is easy for those not fully aware of how state institutions function, to fall for the corporate media’s narrative. At a superficial level, the story sounds plausible. In the age of instant communication, an intelligence leak reportedly occurs in South Africa, a country pretty high on the corruption index. Al Jazeera, an “unbiased” TV channel with a reputation is now informing the global public. In reality things could be and most probably are very different.
Let us look at some basic factors involved in the so-called leaks. Al Jazeera is a state financed TV channel, so any “intelligence” treasure it gets essentially belongs to the Qatari government. The Qatari tribal regime is a strategic Israeli, British and US ally; would it release documents damaging its strategic relationship with powerful states, one on whose goodwill it survives? Intelligence information is valuable only when the opposing side does not know that its adversary knows its secrets. If one were to assume that the Qatari regime would make use of those leaked documents for their own national interest, why would Qatar announce it?
The fact that one of the first AJ reports on the so-called intelligence leak was about how Mossad disagreed with Benjamin Netanyahu on Iran’s peaceful nuclear program raises a red flag. First, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the wider public are informed of the fact that legally and technically speaking, Islamic Iran is not violating any of the IAEA regulations. The public does not need a “top secret” report to know this; a simple Google search would confirm this.
So why make the first report on this topic? The West urgently needs to cool down its hostilities with Islamic Iran in order to cut its losses in the region. To sign a nuclear deal with Iran, the West needs a face saving scenario. These leaks could be part of that face saving scenario that would allow the Western regimes to sign a treaty with Islamic Iran and maintain its eroding veneer of being all-powerful.
Other documents published by AJ are even less impressive. For example a lengthy paper on Iranian presence in South Africa is a typical think-tank research paper with quotes from open sources. Another document talks about how the Obama administration is trying to block Palestinian statehood aspirations at the UN and other international institutions. Anyone who regards this as “top secret” should re-enroll in Politics 101.
In the age of half-truths peddled with the aid of modern technology, it is easy to manufacture and manage perceptions. These “leaks” should be viewed as a socio-political operation rather than a purely intelligence or security issue. People should not naïvely accept what they see on TV channel owned by a monarchical tribal regime.
Al Jazeera would not run these series without the consent of its paymaster, the Qatari government. There are much bigger issues involved than just some guy in South Africa who uploaded things on his/her hard drive. Some people might raise the legitimate question and ask if the leaks are real, the world will witness resignations of some intelligence officials.
We should learn from history and remember that at the start of the WWII, the Germans supplied Soviet leader Josef Stalin with documents that showed many of his Generals proposing the modernization of the Soviet army were German agents. To convince Stalin of their authenticity, Germans often executed their own officials responsible for guarding state secrets. The case of Marshal Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky is said to be one of them.
We at Crescent International do not entirely exclude the possibility that the leaks may be real. This probability, however, is low. But even if they are real, at the moment they are being manipulated and presented in a way to achieve the geo-strategic and socio-political goals of the imperialist regimes.
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