I’ve been listening to the Voice of Iran again. Last night they interviewed Professor Dwight Simpson from “San Francisco University”. In fact he is from San Francisco State University, as distinct from the University of San Francisco or the University of California, San Francisco. Being British, I have no idea of the significance of that, but the interview leads me to wonder what kind of institution SFSU is.

Professor Simpson is in the Department of International Relations and his interests include, “US Foreign Policy, World Hegemony, Middle East.”

I have recorded the interview and you can listen to it [1.1MB, 8m51s] in Ogg/Vorbis format with Winamp or other players. Here are some of the things Simpson had to say to the Voice of Iran’s listeners.

The interviewer asks why Washington is claiming that Iran is pursuing nuclear programmes. Simpson answers, “…the Bush Administration […] are simply inventing a reason to put Iran on some kind of suspect list. In other words they are saying things that simply are not true about Iran, its nuclear capability, its plans for nuclear energy and so on. There’s plenty of evidence from international bodies that what Iran is doing in the atomic energy field is no threat to anybody and is not for military purposes.” He admits that he is accusing Bush of lying, and asks “why is he lying?”

“He’s lying because he’s trying to prepare the ground for an invasion or a takeover of Iran by a combination of Israeli and American power. And I think the stage is being set; and the likelihood is very strong that soon some overt step will be taken to destroy the political regime now in Tehran and replace it with one of American and Israeli choosing.”

Why is America doing this?

“Already the United States has Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and now Libya and other major deposits of oil and now if [that should go forward?] and the Iranian oil could be brought under American control or influence the United States then would have the majority of the world’s oil under its control.”

Aha! So this is all about the oil! Also, “the state of Israel will be secure and have no problems and will be able to profit from the change in the regimes of all these different countries. And you see, Iran is only the first on the list.”

Wow, America really does want to take over the world. The interviewer then asks what else “Israel — the Zionist regime, I mean” is up to. Professor Simpson knows something about that.

“Israel is in partial mobilisation right now, that’s not a secret. My contacts in Jerusalem, over the telephone, have told me, with the FBI listening –”

Wait a minute, Professor Simpson thinks he is important enough for the FBI to bother listening to his phonecalls. Why would they do that? To learn things (that aren’t secrets) about the Israelis from his “contacts”?

“– that this is true. Partial mobilisation has begun.” Apparently the Israelis are forced into these “desperate military moves” because, “their economy is deteriorating, their social system is decomposing, and they’ll go out of business soon unless they get started on some new plan such as this one facing Iran.”

All this may be the signal for what Simpson would call “world-wide war”. Simpson asserts that Dick Cheyney said that the United States “had to look forward to another hundred years of war”, but I can’t find any reference to that statement on the web. But, “to bring American power, with Israeli collaboration, to the Middle-East, to Asia and possibly elsewhere, is going to take a very long time.” Furthermore, “for the United States and Isreal to threaten and actually try to demolish all the so-called unfriendly regimes in the Middle-East is going to take a generation at least.”

So, are Israel and the USA preparing to go to war with Iran on the basis of false accusations about nuclear armament? Or are they genuinely concerned about Iran’s ambitions? In any case, if a need does arise to go to war with Iran, the Americans will be useful to have around.

Posted by Rob Fisher as World Band at 1:18 AM EST

6 Comments »

What do you call an American who criticises the American government on an Iranian radio station that broadcasts anti-American propaganda around the world?

On Thursday night, thanks to favourable atmospheric conditions, I was able to clearly hear a world band broadcast by the Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Each night it reports all the news stories that reflect badly on America, referring to the action in Iraq as “occupation” and suicide bombings in Israel as “martyrdom seeking operations”. Their mission seems to consist solely of convincing their audience that America is the source of all the world’s problems.

Richard Becker, of International ANSWER and International Action Center, thought it would be a good idea to help them out. He participated in a telephone interview in which he said:

• $40 million are being spent on this [inauguration ceremony] mostly paid for by big corporations.
• Tens of thousands of people are demonstrating […] most particularly for an end to the war and the occupation in Iraq.
• In Washington they made a very big effort to prevent demonstrators from being anywhere near the inauguration route.
• The government […] really conspired to keep the entire route […] reserved only for the supporters of President Bush…
• It’s very important that the Bush administration knows that […] it faces […] active opposition from a significant part of the US population.
• If [the Bush administration] want to go forward, for instance, with a war against Iran, which is a very definite possibility, they will face a very great response not only from the Middle East, not only from elsewhere in the world, but also from the people inside the United States.
• Condoleeza Rice, the secretary of state, who is very aggressive, represents the most aggressive element, so we know that they are continuing with this strategy of global domination.
• That plan to privatise social security constitutes a great threat to the livelihood, to the survival even, of tens of millions of people — working people — who depend on that.
• No to war and occupation, from Iraq to Palestine and everywhere.

Presumably Richard Becker hasn’t been to Iran. If he had, he might have found that life for protestors is rather worse there than it is in America.

I recorded the entire broadcast. These files are in Ogg/Vorbis format. They can be played in Winamp, among other players.

1. Station ID [244K, 2m01s] - “This is the voice of justice…”
2. Koran reading [195K, 1m35s] - I edited out most of the actual reading because I was running out of space on the minidisc, but the translation is intact. “I am going to terminate the period of your stay on Earth”, “As to those who disbelieve, I will chastise them with severe chastisement”, etc.
3. Lineup, [129K, 1m02s] - Introduction and programme lineup.
4. News, [1,522K, 12m24s] - The news. Stories include Iran’s foreign minister saying that US threats are only psychological warfare; Pentagon officials saying that reducing the number of US casualties in Iraq is more important than bringing troops back home; British newspaper the Daily Telegraph reporting on court martial of sodiers in Iraqi prisoner abuse case; South Korean activists saying Bush is the world’s number one terrorist; there being mounting opposition to Republican social security plans; and John Kerry renewing his criticism of White House policy by voting against Condoleezza Rice.
5. China, [298K, 2m23s] - A feature about the Iraqi foreign minister visiting China. The angle here seems to be that China is, “a serious rival to the US in the field of supplying energy.”
6. North Korea, [309K, 2m30] - Apparently, North Korea’s nuclear crisis is a real challenge for Bush. North Korea is calling for a change in the USA’s “hostile policy” as a precondition to entering six party talks. Pyongyang does not trust Washington because of a bill concerning human rights in North Korea.
7. Answer Interview, [916K, 7m31s] -
   The telephone interview with Richard Becker.
8. World Media, [879K, 7m11s] - A summary of stories from world media outlets. They include a Christian Science Monitor report about Condoleezza Rice opponents; a report about US social security; a Financial Times report about the USA knowing about oil smuggling in Iraq; a Los Angeles Times report about war support eroding; and an Internet site Alternet report about missile defenses used for the inaugeration ceremony.
9. Bush’s Grand Plan, [971K, 7m 52] - Now that we’ve been worn down by endless news reports slamming America, the propaganda proper gets going. Bush is inciting civil war in Iraq. “American elites such as Dr Tom Friedman would like to see muslims killing muslims, but it will never happen.” And, “Rumsfeld seems incapable of grasping either the nature of the conflict or the psychology that fuels it.” “The world’s lone superpower is roped to the ground like Gulliver, and the Pentagon is getting increasingly agitated.” Apparently, the right wing authorities insisted that the resistance in Fallujah be crushed by any means possible and Fallijah has been rubble-ized and rendered uninhabitable. And I have no idea what, “the Bush administration applied the nuclear option to Fallujah” is all about.
10. Crime and Punishment, [934K, 7m26s] - This feature seems to be about US anti-envronmentalism. Pollution, consumption, global warming, Kyoto, blah, blah, blah. “Great natural disasters have been considered acts of God in the past. But [inaudible] God is trying to tell us all something now.” Unfortunately the ionosphere is beginning to fail at this point (probably because of US pollution…) which means the radio signal is getting weaker. This recording gets hard to understand towards the end.
11. Summary, [361K, 7m26] - The signal is getting very weak now. I think this is just a summary of the news and the station ID.

In answer to my opening question, anyone who would go on such a radio station and sympathise with it is best described as a great big pussy.

Update: Instapundit has a couple of articles about ANSWER, including a link to an LA Weekly article that claims they are a front for the socialist organisation Workers World Party,

a small political sect that years ago split from the Socialist Workers Party to support the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. The party advocates socialist revolution and abolishing private property. It is a fan of Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba, and it hails North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il for preserving his country’s “socialist system,” which, according to the party’s newspaper, has kept North Korea “from falling under the sway of the transnational banks and corporations that dictate to most of the world.” The WWP has campaigned against the war-crimes trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. A recent Workers World editorial declared, “Iraq has done absolutely nothing wrong.”

The Workers World Party are indeed sympathetic towards Kim Jong Il’s regime. According to Politics1.com both International ANSWER and International Action Center are fronts for WWP. The Belligerent Bunny has amusing pictures and commentary on an anti-war rally attended by ANSWER. A Small Victory links to the snappily named Authoritarian Opportunists Who Cozy Up To Genocidal Dictators - for Peace website which has information and links about ANSWER.

Related Link: I have written previously about the Voice of Iran.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Civil Liberties, World Band at 2:03 AM EST

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When I first saw the trailer for Team America, I thought it looked likely to be very funny, but I had reservations about it. After all almost everyone, especially if they’re from Hollywood, is spouting the same boring one dimensional anti-American opinions. The last thing I wanted was to sit through an hour and a half of George Bush jokes.

But the film was made by the people behind South Park, a show with a keen sense of morals that presents sensible political views. And I remember somewhere seeing, hearing or reading an interview with either Matt Stone or Trey Parker who said that they were making fun of everyone and not taking sides. Then I saw a transcript of a rather excellent monologue from the film. I decided I must go and see for myself.

I was glad I did. For one thing, the film is laugh-out-loud wet-your-pants funny from start to finish. The puppetry is extremely clever and used to hilarious effect. The jokes against Team America are in good humour — yes, they manage to unnecessarily drive through market stalls during car chases and accidentally blow up the Eiffel Tower and wonder why the French aren’t grateful that they killed the terrorists, but they’re portrayed as the well meaning, if bumbling, good guys.

The terrorists, meanwhile, are portrayed as pure evil, while the Film Actors’ Guild, representing the American left, nuanced Europeans, and Hollywood actors who read newspapers and then repeat what they read on TV to sound intelligent, are the targets for the most cutting satire. They start out with half baked notions — corporations are evil because they make money; we can work it out if we just talk to the terrorists; “er…Global Warming!” — and end up as the film’s real baddies. Michael Moore is a suicide bomber.

That monologue turns out to be the main message of the film:

We’re reckless arrogant stupid dicks. And the Film Actors Guild are pussies. And Kim Jong Il is an asshole. Pussies don’t like dicks because pussies get fucked by dicks, but dicks also fuck assholes. Assholes who just wanna shit on everything. Pussies may think that they can deal with assholes their way, but the only thing that can fuck an asshole is a dick, with some balls. The problem with dicks is that sometimes they fuck too much, or fuck when it isn’t appropriate, and it takes a pussy to show ‘em that. But sometimes pussies get so full of shit that they become assholes themselves. Because pussies are only an inch and a half away from assholes. I don’t know much in this crazy crazy world. But I do know that if you don’t let us fuck this asshole, we’re gonna have our dicks and our pussies all covered in shit.

Go and see this film, then consider whether you’d rather be a dick or a pussy.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Reviews at 10:30 PM EST

10 Comments »

If you have a fairly fast PC and a decent Internet connection, you can see what HDTV looks like right now. Well, er, in about twenty minutes from now; some of these files are pretty big.

Microsoft are showcasing their WMV HD format, and new sample clips are being added all the time. If you enjoy what you see, there are even DVDs available with content in the WMV HD format that will play on your PC.

I’ve blogged about HDTV before, and someone called Third Time Lucky has left a link in the comments section to a company called Divico who have a software HDTV decoder and some sample clips to download. I haven’t had time to try them out yet, but watch this space for an update…

Posted by Rob Fisher as Links at 12:07 AM EST

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Today I listened to Deutsche Welle’s English shortwave broadcast, specifically the programme called Inside Eurpoe. Three stories caught my attention.

The first was an interview with journalist Hans-Martin Tillack who is in all kinds of trouble over revealing corruption in the EU. He said that all governments have corruption issues, but the EU in particular because there is no accountability, no opposition, and EU officials often act to protect the EU from bad press. Tillack was arrested by Belgian police following his story in Stern magazine about corruption at the EU statistical office. He said that this was made possible because there are no laws in Belgium protecting journalists and their sources. The EU took advantage of this despite the EU position being that such laws should be enacted.

The next story was about organised crime in Bosnia. Some Bosnian police officers have been sacked for excessive force. They say that EU human rights laws are preventing them from doing their jobs.

Then there was a story about a new smoking ban in Italy. Apparently most Italians are happy to go along with it. Many were interviewed, including one restaurateur who said that she had already banned smoking in her restaurant, found it to be good for herself and for business, and yet missing the point still welcomed the ban. The only person interviewed who was against the ban also missed the point by claiming that people had a “right” to smoke in public places.

(For the record, the point is that private property owners should be free to decide whether they allow visitors to smoke on their property).

You can listen to the programme online (but it’s more fun to listen with a radio).

Posted by Rob Fisher as General at 11:35 PM EST

2 Comments »

This, from Men at Arms by Terry Pratchet:

Cuddy had only been a guard for a few days, but already he had absorbed one important and basic fact: it is almost impossible for anyone to be in a street without breaking a law.

…reminded me of a similar (and somewhat more long winded) quote from Ayn Rand.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Civil Liberties at 11:03 PM EST

1 Comment »

Recently I bought myself a shortwave radio and a copy of the book Passport to World Band Radio. I spent most of last night finding out what I could hear.

One of the most interesting stations to listen to is the Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, tagline: “Tehran, the voice of justice. For people around the world, especially Americans.” It’s about as close to a propaganda station as I’ve found. So far I haven’t been able to make any recordings — I need to dig out my minidisc recorder — but I did take some notes. The one hour broadcast for January 14th, like other broadcasts I’ve heard, consisted almost entirely of criticism of the USA and Israel. (A bit like the BBC, then). What’s striking is the language they use. Here are some stories from the news programme:

• In coverage of a story about agreements between Iran and Senegal, poverty in Africa is described as being caused by Western colonialism. Africa, though, “succeeded in freeing itself from colonialism in the last 100 years.”
• I only partly caught this story (shortwave is susceptibe to fading which can occaionally blot out the sound for a few seconds), and I don’t understand it, but someone, somewhere is saying that the Haj ritual is a good opportunity to “reveal the crimes of the USA”.
• In reference to, I think, this story, the Iranian radio station says that five zionist soldiers were killed by Palestinians in a martyrdom seeking operation. I can’t find coverage of this story on the BBC.
• Palestinian passengers in a car miraculously survived an Israeli helicopter attack.
• A Russian envoy to the UN says it’s vital that the USA respects other UN members.

Following the news was a commentary programme. Far from criticising the UN, the USA is condemned because it apparently, “ignored warnings” about corruption in the Oil for Food programme. [Update: I think this refers to the UN blaming the USA for the oil for food corruption.] Meanwhile American forces in Iraq are consitently described as occupation forces. Much is made of Colin Powell’s refusal to say that they would leave after the Iraqi elections. Instead the timing of the departure would depend on the security situation. This apparently reveals that the true nature of the USA’s strategy is to continue the occupation.

Next was an interview with some expert or other whose name I missed. When asked why Prime Minister Sharon has said he will meet with the new Palestianian leader, the expert says that, “Israelis need a Palestinian side who will legitimise the the zionist plan.” They hope the Palestinians will surrender. When this does not happen they will claim that the new leader is a barrier to peace.

When asked about the US peace plan and the creation of a Palestinian state, the expert says that the problem with the USA’s idea is that the state will lack powers to control its own borders, foreign policy, military and economy. This, he says, makes it more like a council than a state.

When asked what the real solution to the situation is, the expert replies that the only solution is the abolition of Isreal as it currently exists. “Israel must either change or be abolished.” He does not explain how Israel must change, leaving only one possibility.

Next was a round-up of foreign media, in which the free world’s balanced press is used against it. These stories were covered:

• USA Today says that “many Americans” disapprove of the torture and sexual abuse of Iraqis to get information about terrorism.
• The LA Times says that an expensive new FBI computer system will have to be scrapped.
• New York based Human Rights Watch says more investigation into the Iraqi prisoner abuse is needed. Oddly, a story from the same source about Iranian journalists receiving death threats was not covered.
• Bloomberg goes on about the cost of the Iraq war. The obvious comparisons between that and the amount spent on tsunami aid are made by the Iranian radio station, but not in the Bloomberg article.

In the same slot, much time is spent on the highlights of the article Bush Fails a Global Test by John Nichols. Bush was apparently slow to react to the tsunami disaster, and then only grumbled about critics and bragged about a $35 million aid commitment. Niether the Iranian radio station nor John Nichols mentioned the vital role played by the US military in the distribution of aid.

Before going off the air for another night, the Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran broadcast a feature entitled, “Social Paralysis in the USA”, about plans to privatise social security. It was based on an article by someone named, I think, Sol Friedman, but I may have misheard because I can’t find the article online. The rhetoric was about the “inter-generational” nature of social security and how the young caring for the old via the government is the “right and civilised thing to do”. Far from making arguments about how social security really makes everyone poorer, conservatives are apparently only interested in “generating conflict between young and old”. Terrifyingly, President Bush used the word “problem” 39 times in a speech about pensions, according to the Washington Post.

Posted by Rob Fisher as World Band at 10:54 PM EST

8 Comments »

There is a very interesting page hosted by the Royal Mail about things you can’t post. It seems you can post living creatures and guns for sporting use, but you can’t send aspestos, matches, weapons of war or dry ice.

Fascinating.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Links at 4:00 AM EST

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I’ve just been watching a programme on Channel 4 called Derren Brown: Messiah. Derren Brown is a professional charlatan, an extremely clever one of the TV magician, hypnotist, showman and general all round trickster type. He sets out to confront other professional charlatans of the psychic, evangelist, UFO researcher and new-age types.

He’s got a very serious point to make:

Whether we believe in psychic ability, crystal energy, alien abduction, talking to the dead or Christianity, we are rightly or wrongly buying into a very powerful belief system. I’m not interested in attacking anyone’s beliefs but I think as intelligent human beings we should be prepared to question our beliefs — and the people who encourage us to make life decisions based on the information they give us.

And that’s what grabbed my attention and greatly elevated my impression of Derren Brown. Skepticism and critical thinking can’t be promoted enough, and I think it’s fantastic that he is using his considerable talents to promote these ideas. His aim is to test the skepticism of the people he confronts. Each time he carefully explains that as soon as one of them asks him if he’s tricking them he will own up.

The first people he meets are some psychics who teach psychics (to be psychic?) at the Sedona Creative Life Centre in Arizona. He asks one how she deals with the responsibility of giving people advice on important decisions. She answers that if someone is “guided” to her to ask for advice then she must be qualified to give it, which is certainly an interesting outlook.

Brown does the usual image projection test in which a viewer in one room projects an image to a receiver in another room. Scientific tests of this have always come up with no better results than you’d get from guessing, but Brown gets it right every time. How he does this I don’t know. It’s one of his best tricks. At one stage he says, “just let differemt images sail through your mind, don’t go overboard on detail”, and the woman draws a boat. Can saying the words “sail” and “overboard” really induce someone to draw a boat? If so it’s astonishing. But there is obviously more going on, it’s just hard to find out what because Brown’s shows are very cleverly edited, so we don’t get a chance to analyse completely what he’s doing.

Of course, all the psychics are thoroughly convinced. One of them goes so far as to say, “as a person who trains psychics, I would have [my students] watch that film and say ‘this is how you do it.’”

Next up, Brown goes after the Christians. He doesn’t hold back.

I used to be a full on, happy clappy Christian until my mid 20s, and then I started to realise that my belief was just as prone to circular logic and self fulfillment as all the new-age nonsense which bugged me. And then reading the New Testament as a historical document finally rid me of any religeous belief.

.

But the real point he is making is this:

But if I can convert people through non-spiritual methods, how many people are out their doing the same thing in their own way?

He goes to Rhode Island to visit Curt Nordhielm of Restoration House Ministries, whose speciality is evangelising to immigrant communities. Nordheim writes in some ministry blurb, “The huge influx of foreign people groups into this nation can be viewed in two ways. They can be seen as a threat to our way of life — both spiritually or culturally. Or they can be viewed as an opportunity for evangelism.”

What Brown appears to do is quite unbelievable. He invites a bunch of atheists, agnostics and other doubters to come to a meeting, and then apperently converts them instantly. After he gets one girl to switch from talking about how religion was forced on her by her family and she never accepted it, to talking about how she had felt a spirtual inner hug when Brown put his hand near her face, half of the meeting, including Nordhielm, walk out.

But Brown continues on. One guy voices my exact problem with religion:

How could you believe in or worship a higher being […] that’s supposed to be loving, that’s supposed to be merciful and kind, but [people] talk about free will […] well it wasn’t a three-year-old’s free will to die of leukemia. And things of that nature. That’s what makes me just not buy it.

Next thing, the same guy is standing up, facing away from Derren Brown, who holds up his hand and pulls at the air. This apparently induces the guy to fall over and then, when asked, start saying how his previous beliefs and opinions were incorrect. It’s all very odd.

It looks like Brown has hypnotised these people, but I don’t believe in hypnotism. I’d say actors were used but a caption at the start of the program claims that no stooges or actors were used in its making. This scene has me wondering on how many levels is Derren Brown a fraud, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt because it seems even more unbelievable that the whole sequence was faked. It’s more likely that there’s a very clever trick I don’t understand.

But Brown picked the wrong target in Curt Nordhielm, who is visibly shocked and skeptical about Browns antics. I think if this had been tried with a faith healer like Benny Hinn then the result would have been more convincing.

Things pick up when Brown visits Lorraine DiFelice, a publisher of a new-age magazine and organiser of a Vegas convention. He convinces her that a metal box with a switch, battery and bulb, is reading her dreams. She uses it for a week and he then attaches electrodes from it to his head and tells her what she dreamt about. Afterwards you can almost see the dollar signs spinning in her eyes when she talks about letting Brown come on her radio show and publish whatever he wants in her magazine.

As for how he did it, it seems likely Brown used cold reading techniques. He pulls a similar trick on UFO researcher and author Ann Druffel whose medical history he somehow reconstructs, a talent he tells her he had since he was abducted by aliens. Dollar signs spin in her eyes too — she wants his story published in “the most respected publications”. The best part of this section, though, is when Brown is interviewing Druffel. She tells him that abductions usually start when the victim is in a “dream state”. When he suggests that “some people” might say that the whole abduction was a dream, Druffel just looks confused and lets her friend Vince Uhlenkott answer (he mumbles about “grey areas”).

Finally, Derren Brown meets spiritualist medium and teacher Rev Janet Hohavec. He does the standard cold reading talking-to-the-dead trick, and makes a big show of how uncomfortable he is about doing it.

I personally believe, given my knowledge of the psychic industry, that I’m using techniques here used by pretty much any successful medium. But you’re going to watch this knowing that I’m fake. And if that makes you feel uncomfortable, then that is kind of my point.

And it’s a good point, because Brown’s victims get quite upset hearing about their dead loved-ones. At the end a caption states that everyone involved was told the true nature of what happened and agreed to appear in the programme. “Real” mediums (media?) would never admit what they were doing, of course. Our medium thinks Derren Brown has a gift, but (dollar signs), “to move it to another level would be incredible.”

The programme was a facsinating display of Derren Brown’s edge-of-your-seat, how-did-he-do-it? trickery, mixed in with a very serious and important message.

At the start of this post I wrote that the people Derren Brown confronted were Charlatans, but there may be more to it. That they were apparently so willing to believe him means that to a greater or lesser extent they really do believe in what they’re doing.

I can’t think of anything more depressing and pointless than dedicating your life to a falsehood, which is why I think it’s so important to maintain a healthy, active skepticism.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Imaginary Friends, Reviews at 1:48 AM EST

31 Comments »

First go here. Then read this and this.

Posted by Rob Fisher as News at 12:56 AM EST

76 Comments »