Iran: Desperation Is The Mother Of Invention

Reda Mansour, Druse Israeli diplomat and consul general in Atlanta, writes in The Atlanta Journal Constitution about the situation facing Iran:

More than 20 percent of the nation is unemployed, the educated are leaving the country resulting in a substantial brain drain, and despite its massive oil reserves, Iran is heavily dependent on imported fuel. It continues to scrape by because of the current high crude oil prices, but Ahmadinejad knows this is only a weak patch for a bleeding economy.

The Iranian president is desperate, and has every reason to be: His beloved Islamic revolution is almost 30 years old, but it has failed the Iranian people. Ahmadinejad is selling the nuclear illusion to his citizens to distract them from his and Khomeini's monumental failure.

One of the latest distractions is an accusation coming out of Iran that the US and Israel are in cahoots together in the pursuit of genocide. The MEMRI Blog has a post on this:

An Iranian official has said that the U.S., assisted by Israel, is seeking to create a genetic and molecular bank to manufacture new types of unconventional weapons.

Addressing an international seminar on "The Consequences of the Use of Chemical Weapons against Iran," Foundation for the Protection of the Values of the Sacred Defense head Gen. Mir Feysal Bagherzadeh said that the U.S., in collaboration with the Zionist regime of Israel, is forming a bank of the molecules and genes of the different world nations and peoples in pursuit of its hostile goals.

"This is not done in pursuit of humanitarian goals. Rather they are seeking to manufacture a weapon which could kill specific peoples in a limited geographical area," he stressed.

Claims like this are nothing new. The London Times reported back in 1998 Israel Planning 'Ethnic' Bomb as Saddam Caves In. The article was debunked...in an Egyptian newspaper, no less. From Al-Ahram in November 1998:

In Cairo, Ahmed Mostagir, a specialist in genetics, said the production of such a weapon is theoretically possible, but it will not be able to distinguish between Arabs and Oriental Jews.

"This new technology is an offshoot of genetic engineering," Mostagir said. "If the British newspaper's report is correct, this means that Israelis have made extensive studies on Arab and Jewish genes, and reached the conclusion that the Arabs have certain genes which the Jews do not have, and which could be targeted by a genetically-engineered virus."

Mostagir explained that 99.5 per cent of the genes of all the peoples of the world are identical. Genetic differences do not exceed one half per cent. But since many Jews have Arab origins, "they too will be victims of this horrible ethnic bullet," he said. [emphasis added; Hat tip: Thinking Meat]

If you do a Google search on the sinister sounding quote by then Secretary of Defense William Cohen "certain types of pathogens that would be ethnic-specific" you can find all sorts of posts and articles gleefully picking up on the idea.

Iran finds itself regurgitating an accusation that has been circulating for almost a decade.
Now that's desperation.

Technorati Tag: Iran and Mir Feysal Bagherzadeh.