Prominent American analyst Dr. Kevin Barrett believes that the United States government is the biggest perpetrator of terror in the world and it should be blamed for the assassination of a number of Iranian nuclear scientists.
“The USA commits more terrorism than any other nation. Americans, of course, are always surprised to hear this. They are very poorly informed about their own country’s foreign policies,” Dr. Barrett said.
“More recently, the US appears to have been complicit in the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists. These attacks are clearly terrorist in nature. They are intended to frighten Iranians into abandoning their nuclear and scientific work,” he said in an exclusive interview with Fars News Agency.
Dr. Kevin Barrett, an American Muslim and Ph.D. Arabist-Islamologist, is one of America’s best-known critics of the War on Terror. Dr. Barrett has appeared many times on Fox, CNN, PBS, RT and other broadcast outlets, and has inspired feature stories and op-eds in the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Chicago Tribune, and other leading publications. He appears regularly on Press TV. Dr. Barrett has taught at colleges and universities in San Francisco, Paris, and Wisconsin, where he ran for Congress in 2008. He is the co-founder of the Muslim-Christian-Jewish Alliance, and author of the books Truth Jihad: My Epic Struggle Against the 9/11 Big Lie (2007) and Questioning the War on Terror: A Primer for Obama Voters (2009). His website is www.truthjihad.com .
Dr. Barrett took part in an exclusive, comprehensive interview with FNA and responded to our questions about the US role in the assassinations and terrorist attacks in Iran. What follows is the text of the interview.
Q: As you know, in Iran we have more than 17,000 martyrs of terror, including 5 Iranian nuclear scientists assassinated by the Mossad, CIA and MI6. How would you address a western audience discussing Iran being a victim of terrorism?
A: My book Questioning the War on Terror begins by examining the various definitions of the word "terrorism." Many people use the word very loosely to mean any political violence of which they disapprove. A more objective definition would be: "The use of violence against civilians to incite fear for political purposes." According to this objective definition, virtually all terrorism is committed or facilitated by governments, and the USA commits more terrorism than any other nation. Americans, of course, are always surprised to hear this. They are very poorly informed about their own country’s foreign policies.
There has been a wave of US-supported terrorism against Iran since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The US had been propping up the Shah’s regime, and viewed its overthrow as a disaster. So elements of the US government created and/or supported terrorism against Iran in order to punish the Iranian people for having the audacity to overthrow the US-supported Shah. Ironically, the US supported (and still supports) the People’s Mujahedin or MEK, an extreme left-wing group, even though the US was and remains officially opposed to leftist extremism and communism.
More recently, the US appears to have been complicit in the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists. These attacks are clearly terrorist in nature. They are intended to frighten Iranians into abandoning their nuclear and scientific work. There is some question about whether the US or Israel bears primary responsibility for these attacks, and there have been reports that US president Obama ordered Israel (and its MEK stooges) to stop committing these assassinations.
When explaining all this to a Western audience, I would emphasize that there is no obvious American national interest that requires the US to unleash terrorism against Iran. On the contrary, this kind of immoral and arrogant behavior simply turns the world in general and Iran in particular against the US. The American people should demand that their government stop terrorizing Iran.
Q: Why have the US and western powers always supported terrorist groups such as Tudeh Party and Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, also known as MEK, NCRI and PMOI)? Why do you think American politicians are so much interested in financing such groups and other CIA and Mossad agents to kill Iranian personalities?
A: Originally, the US supported anti-Iranian terrorists to punish Iran for its Islamic Revolution, and to try to destroy the Islamic Republic. American leaders have let it be known that they wanted "regime change" in Tehran, meaning the destruction of the Islamic Republic, and a restoration of American imperial domination over Iran. This has been a constant US policy since 1979. But it may be changing, since more and more "realist" American policy makers are pondering whether to accept the Islamic Republic and move toward normalizing relations with Iran. The most frank and forthright expression of this position is the book Going to Tehran by Flynt and Hillary Leverett. But other Iran experts like Gary Sick, and geopolitical strategists like Zbigniew Brzezinski, largely agree.
Today, it is the Zionists who dominate US Mideast policy who are primarily responsible for US support of terrorism against Iran. They oppose the realists, and oppose any move towards accepting the Islamic Republic or normalizing relations with the government in Tehran. Many of them dream of dragging the US into a war against Iran, which they imagine would be in Israel’s interest. These Zionist extremists strongly support terrorism against Iran. The Zionist lobby was responsible for pushing the US State Department to take the MEK off its list of terrorist organizations. The Zionists may be helping fund the MEK, which seems to have access to very large amounts of money which it uses to purchase the loyalties of American politicians and journalists.
Leading US investigative reporter Seymour Hersh has revealed that the US government was providing extensive training for MEK terrorists on US soil even when the MEK was officially listed by the US as a terrorist group! Hersh also discovered that the US was running "covert operations" in Iran with the help of the MEK. These "covert operations" were apparently terrorist in nature. There is no reason to believe that all of them have stopped. So even while some elements of US leadership contemplate a "grand bargain" with Iran, others continue to sponsor terrorism against Iran, whether in hopes of torpedoing the negotiations or to apply pressure to Iran to try to gain concessions.
Q: The mainstream media in the US present Iran as the most dangerous threat to the world and a supporter of terrorism in the region and the world. How do you interpret this propaganda campaign?
A: The US mainstream media are dominated by Zionists and the American "deep state." Both groups are opposed to the Islamic Republic and favor bellicose policies towards Iran.
Most US mainstream media are owned or run by Jewish Zionists, and the few that are not are afraid of them. So since Israel views Iran as an existential threat, the American Zionists broadcast that view in the US corporate media. In reality, the Zionists are afraid that Iran’s support for a Mideast "axis of resistance" – and Iran’s rejection of Israel’s legitimacy – could contribute to eroding and eventually ending the Zionist state. But they cannot say that in the American media, because they have to hide the fact that their real concern is Israel, not America. So they lie and make up absurd stories claiming that Iran is a threat to the world in general and the US in particular.
The American "deep state" also worries about Iran. They are afraid that Iran’s ability to overthrow a US puppet dictator and win independence will set a dangerous example for other countries in the region. So they join with the Zionists in demonizing Iran.
Q: The outlawed Communist Tudeh Party and the MKO have been responsible for numerous crimes, including armed campaign against the state, abduction and assassination, in Iran. Do you have similar organizations in the US? Is this a norm in the US to be killed by fellow Americans on grounds of holding allegedly false or different beliefs? Why do you believe the US and its western allies have removed the MKO from their list of terrorist groups, and blacklisted the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement as terrorist groups, instead? What’s your take on such double standard practices?
A: There are several terrorist groups in the USA. I just wrote articles for Press TV and Veterans Today about the Jewish Defense League, one of America’s notable terrorist organizations. This group has killed people and bombed people’s houses. It regularly issues death threats to people who oppose Zionism.
An FBI study of terrorism in America found that most terrorist attacks are committed by leftist and Hispanic groups. Jewish extremists commit 7% of terrorist attacks in the US, while Muslims commit 6%. Yet the media focuses almost entirely on "Islamic terrorism."
US terrorism policy is extremely hypocritical and even nonsensical. In 2003, the Bush Administration listed as one of its reasons for attacking Iraq the claim that Iraq was harboring and supporting the MEK. But the US, too, was harboring and supporting these terrorists!
The MEK’s ability to get off the terrorist lists has been primarily due to its political and journalistic lobbying, which has been backed up by big money. The most likely source of much of that money is the Zionist lobby.
The US and the West have listed Hezbollah and Islamic Resistance of Palestine as terrorist groups for the same reason: The power of the Zionist lobby. These groups are opposed to Zionism, so the Zionists, who dominate US Mideast policy, force the US to list them as alleged terrorists.
Q: How do you define “State-Sponsored Terrorism”, and which governments, in your eyes, are involved in its practice?
A: Virtually all terrorism is state-supported terrorism. Large nation states and their militaries and intelligence services commit almost all political violence that exists. For example, Mohammed Heikal, the Arab world’s leading political commentator, remarked shortly after 9/11:
"Bin Laden does not have the capabilities for an operation of this magnitude. When I hear Bush talking about al-Qaida as if it was Nazi Germany or the communist party of the Soviet Union, I laugh because I know what is there. Bin Laden has been under surveillance for years: every telephone call was monitored and al-Qaida has been penetrated by American intelligence, Pakistani intelligence, Saudi intelligence, Egyptian intelligence. They could not have kept secret an operation that required such a degree of organization and sophistication."
So even supposedly "independent" terror groups like al-Qaeda and its spin-offs enjoy support (and infiltration) by nation states. Those national governments have a motive to manufacture alleged terrorist "threats" for their own purposes. We will never be able to reduce or eliminate terrorism until we recognize who is really behind it.