Martin Eisenstadt’s Blog

You’ll recall that in yesterday’s post I was one of the first in the States to point out the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s hoaxing of a missile photograph. As I predicted, there has been “the slew of inevitable retractions and handwringing coming from the US media.” And as I further suggested yesterday, there are now a mountain of second-day stories milking the doctored-photo angle to show that the Iranians have overblown their whole missile program.

This is exactly what I was afraid of. There were very talented photo editors at newspapers across the country - to say nothing of AFP/Getty and AP - who I’m quite certain had their doubts about the veracity of the photo and let it slip into their pages, knowing that they could always blame Iran and the Revolutionary Guards if the photo turned out to be fake. I know a lot of bloggers in Israel and the US are claiming credit for being the first to ‘out’ the photo. But they bicker over that credit at their own peril.

The photo was so obviously fake (insert ‘it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out’ joke here), I’m quite certain that at least 5% of the people who saw it worldwide figured there was something wrong with it the moment they saw it. The real question is why more people didn’t notice it right away - particularly the ones whose jobs it is to notice fake photographs going into their newspapers.

(I’m wrapped up in something now, but I’ll have Jimmy add appropriate links later today.)

Did you wake up this morning and see this top picture in your local paper? If you live in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, or watch MSNBC, you did. Attributed to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (apparently, the new Reuters as a source of photojournalism), the picture was obviously doctored (AP just released the second picture). It’s clear that the smoke patterns of the missile in the middle were clumsily copied from those on the right. Video of the same event showed that only three missiles fired simultaneously (anyone with a hint of military experience knows that the odds of getting four missiles to fire simultaneously enough for a photo-op are slim). The Israeli media have already picked up on the story, but let’s wait for the slew of inevitable retractions and handwringing coming from the US media who ran the photos. (unless they did it on purpose, just to give a second-day story to how the Revolutionary Guard are a threat to the international photoshop industry. It’s hard to see a photo editor not catching this obvious deceit in about five seconds.) Either way, it will be a distraction from the very real threat posed by Iran. If you live in Tel Aviv, it won’t matter if you get hit by three or four missiles.

Of course, maybe it was someone at AP who put out the fake? If what they say is now true and Sepah News (the Revolutionary Guards) put out the second photo, then it does beg the question of who doctored the first. I’m sure that there are already spunky young bloggers hot the trail of this hoax.

Update: Photorants just posted a great piece on the controversy wherein he quotes the New York Times as saying:

As news spread across the world of Iran’s provocative missile tests, so did an image of four missiles heading skyward in unison. Unfortunately, it appeared to contain one too many missiles, a fact that had not emerged before the photo appeared on the front pages of The Los Angeles Times, The Financial Times, The Chicago Tribune and several other newspapers as well as on BBC News, MSNBC, Yahoo! News, NYTimes.com and many other major news Web sites.

I find it hard to believe that not a single photo editor at the LATimes, NYTimes, Chicago Trib, etc. noticed the doctored photo.

Congratulations to Steve Schmidt on his recent appointment. A consummate professional and brilliant strategist, Steve is admired and respected across the political spectrum and within the McCain team. We’re all proud and eager to be at his service.

Like the surge in Iraq and the rescue raid in Colombia, I have no doubt that Steve’s hiring will prove to be a turning point, a seminal shift in our road to victory. I wish I could say the same for the firing of Willie Randolph as my beloved Mets continue to disappoint.

John McCain is back! After a reshuffling of his campaign staff, McCain was on the ground in Colombia overseeing the 4 billion dollars a year we spend down there.

What a joy witnessing the Betancourts on hands and knees thanking God and country for that dramatic rescue. Ingrid Betancourt is clearly a friend of the West, a child of Europe. It wouldn’t surprise me if she quickly reentered politics as an ally of Uribe and an advocate of our geopolitical interests. Ingrid will surely make a staunch ally in our war against indigenous rumblings as represented by Chavez, Morales and the FARC. And McCain being down there on the day of her release was no coincidence.

The question voters need to start asking is whether Obama will continue the good fight we are waging not just in Iraq but in Latin America as well. My guess is that Obama would cut and run, abandoning our southern border to Marxists and terrorists.

Another reason to support a leader tried and tested not just in battle but in the ways of the world. I’m sorry, Wesley Clark: Community organizing (whatever that means) on the south side of Chicago does not prepare one to confront the FARC or to stage rescue raids deep in the Colombian jungle.

It’s come to my attention that some people have confused our work here at the Harding Institute with that of Michael Eisenstadt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Michael’s a terrific guy and a distinguished expert in the field of Middle Eastern security affairs. So out of respect for him, and to alleviate any lingering confusion, I’ve decided to start to publicly use the name that most of my friends call me anyway, Marty.

Loyal readers know that we’ve taken umbrage with NBC in the past, but when I heard the news today about the passing of Lil’ Russ, I was deeply saddened. Tim was a tower in the Washington journalism/political scene, and with his invigoration of “Meet the Press” in 1991, he set the stage for a new breed of talk show in Washington: Where insightful questions, diligent research and informed guests would dominate. He brought out the best - and sometimes - the worst in his guests. Be they politicians or pundits, Tim always kept us on our toes. Rest in peace, Tim.

Do I think that the US and Israel will attack Iran before George Bush leaves office? Yes. Iran has become a thorn in too many sides. It meddles in the affairs of other countries. It is the only country bold enough to use the Holocaust as a card in its political feuds with Israel and the West.

Iran trains, funds and arms Hamas in Israel’s south and Hezbollah in Israel’s north. Understand. It is not just Israel and the US who have beef with Iran. Sunni and Christian Lebanese are none too happy about having a Persian trained Shia militia running wild across their country. While non-fundamentalist Palestinians are none too happy about having religious fanatics, trained, funded and armed by far away Iran, grind their earthly lives into a living hell. And then there are Iran’s neighbors, our petrol allies in the Gulf, from Arabia to the Emirates, Sunni and Arab, who fear and detest Shia Persian Iran even more than we or the Israelis.

So in the event of an attack, Iran will surely find itself alone, with no friends or sympathizers save leftist Americans and weak-willed Europeans. Iran chose this path of confrontation. It was not thrust on her. I guess we’ll have to wait and see how all this plays out.

It has come to my attention that a golf blogger who moonlights as a shill for identity politics has been calling us names and challenging our right to speak freely. My assistant Jimmy thought I would be upset upon hearing this news. But I explained to him that flying under the radar in these turbulent times is not a bad thing, especially considering the sensitive national security work in which we sometimes engage. Unlike the Bill Wolfrums, Marnie Vander Helsings and Arianna Huffingtons of the world (or even my esteemed colleague Debbie Schlussel), my ego is not so out of whack that I feel compelled to plaster my face next to each and every blog entry, potentially compromising the safety of my dedicated staff and trusted contacts in the field.

To paraphrase the late Dartmouth professor Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, “a citizen is a person who, if need be, can re-create his civilization.” Here at the Harding Institute we take pride in being good citizens, and part of being a good citizen is accepting that the “other”, even if you don’t completely understand him/her, is just as real and true and worthy as yourself.

Been meaning to blog from the AIPAC conference but most of what I wanted to articulate I’ve decided to self censor for security reasons. To the lady with purple hair who spent more time at the buffet than the caterers, Passover is the unleavened bread holiday, not the atonement one. Now you know why security cross checked your badge and why you were escorted out. Better luck next time fruits of Islam.

Nice to see things are finally coming together in Iraq. Anybody who has spent time in the Middle East knows that the virtue most widely accredited to the Persians is patience. Things sometimes take 100 years. Something blowhards raised on fast food and narcissism will never understand.