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Gareth Porter (born 18 June 1942, Independence, Kansas) is an American historian, investigative journalist and policy analyst on U.S. foreign and military policy. A strong opponent of U.S. wars in Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, he has also written on the potential for diplomatic compromise to end or avoid wars in Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, Iraq and Iran. He is the author of a history of the origins of the Vietnam War, Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam.
Porter has written regular news reports and news analyses on political, diplomatic and military developments in regard to Middle East conflicts for Inter Press Service since 2005. He was the first journalist to provide a detailed account of the alleged secret Iranian diplomatic proposal to the United States in 2003, and has published an in-depth analysis of an exit strategy for Iraq
(6 comments) SHARE Friday, October 16, 2015 US Make-Believe in Syrian War
Official Washington and its mainstream media push deeper and deeper into a Mideast fantasyland where mythical "moderate rebels" in Syria represent a real force rather than a P.R. cover for Sunni jihadists, all the better to bash the Russians for their military offensive, as Gareth Porter explains at Middle East Eye.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, March 27, 2015 Will Sanctions Fixation Kill Iran Nuke Deal?
An agreement to constrain Iran's nuclear program is within reach but could still fail if President Obama succumbs to political pressure and refuses to grant Iran meaningful relief from sanctions, as Gareth Porter explains.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, April 4, 2015 Iran won upfront sanctions relief, but with potential snags
Iran is certainly concerned about how a future US administration could and would implement the agreement. Iran was insisting that the UN Security Council resolution repealing previous resolutions with a new one reflecting the comprehensive agreement be passed before the change in administration in Washington in 2017.
(5 comments) SHARE Friday, January 6, 2017 Inquiry Points Toward a Pentagon Plot to Subvert Obama's Syria Policy
The hope of provoking a Syrian-Russian decision to end the cease-fire and thus the plan for the JIC was apparently based on the assumption that it would be perceived by both Russians and Syrians as evidence that Obama was not in control of U.S. policy and therefore could not be trusted as a partner in managing the conflict. That assumption proved correct.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, January 23, 2017 How Clinton Defeat Derailed Syrian War
Hawkish think tanks had laid plans for escalating the U.S. "regime change" war in Syria after Hillary Clinton's expected election, but a different result has forced them to repackage their scheme, says Gareth Porter.
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, December 17, 2011 How Iraq Maneuvered the US Exit
The neocons' treasured Iraq War myth of their "successful surge" is belied by the actual history of how Iraqi Shiite leaders collaborated with Iran to tamp down internal violence and then destroy neocon plans for long-term U.S. military bases to project power in the Middle East.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, June 5, 2015 Demands in US-Iran nuclear talks as political Kabuki theatre
The US delegation is almost certainly preparing to give up its demands for visits to military sites on demand and interviews with Iranian scientists. Meanwhile, however, we can expect the Kabuki theatre over those demands to continue as long as it can be useful for managing the Obama administration domestic political problems.
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, December 14, 2014 The CIA's Bureaucracy of Torture
Bureaucratic inertia -- the CIA's desire for bigger budgets and then its fear of negative consequences -- helped drive the torture program from its frantic start to its belated finish, as Gareth Porter explains.
SHARE Sunday, August 14, 2016 Rigging the Coverage of Syria
The major U.S. news media has consistently slanted its coverage of the Syrian conflict to back neocon desires for more U.S. military intervention in support of "regime change," Gareth Porter wrote for FAIR.
SHARE Wednesday, October 17, 2012 Iran And West Inch Toward Nuke Deal
The outline for a resolution of the Iranian nuclear dispute is coming into focus, perhaps only waiting for the U.S. presidential election to be decided. But suspicions between Iran and the West continue to beset the slow progress toward a resolution, as Gareth Porter noted for Inter Press Service.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, March 30, 2012 What Iran Can Do to Strike Back
Israel's threats to bomb Iran have hinged on how much damage Israeli aircraft can inflict on Iran's nuclear facilities, but another worry is how much destruction Iranian missiles can inflict on Israel, a danger that Israeli officials are downplaying.
(6 comments) SHARE Sunday, May 12, 2019 Bolton Is Spinning Israeli "Intelligence" to Push for War Against Iran
John Bolton has gotten away with a dangerous deception. The national security adviser's announcement Sunday that the Pentagon has deployed air and naval forces to the Middle East, which he combined with a threat to Iran, points to a new maneuver to prepare the ground for an incident that could justify a retaliatory attack against Iran.
(8 comments) SHARE Tuesday, December 27, 2016 Behind the real US strategic blunder in Syria
Secretary of State John Kerry put strong pressure on Obama to use military force against the Assad regime. That resulted in a public commitment by the Obama administration in June 2013 to provide military support to the opposition for the first time. The deepening commitment nearly led to a new US war against the Assad regime in September, after the chemical attack on the Damascus suburbs in August 2013.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, July 9, 2016 A New Fight Over Syria War Strategy
Obama's willingness to increase cooperation with the Russians is recognition that the continuing collaboration between Nusra and the so-called "moderates" represents an untenable situation if Syrian peace negotiations are to have any meaning. If the "moderates" don't separate from Nusra, they effectively serve as its protective shield.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, April 6, 2020 How Generals Fueled 1918 Flu Pandemic To Win Their World War
The lack of concern of Washington bureaucrats for the well-being of the troops, as they pursue their own war interests, appears to be a common pattern -- seen too, in the U.S. wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. Now it has been revealed once again in the stunningly callous response of the Pentagon to the coronavirus crisis.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, March 4, 2018 How "Operation Merlin" Poisoned U.S. Intelligence on Iran
Operation Merlin is the perfect example of powerful bureaucratic interests running amok and creating the intelligence necessary to justify their operations. The net result is that Jeffrey Sterling was unjustly imprisoned and that the United States has gone down a path of Iran policy that poses serious -- and unnecessary -- threats to American security.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, September 2, 2012 IAEA Report Shows Iran Reduced Its Breakout Capacity
Media reports of a doubling of the number of centrifuges at the underground facility at Fordow were also misleading. When the information is examined more carefully, it actually provides further evidence that Iran is not striving to amass the higher level uranium needed for a breakout capability but is maneuvering to prepare for a later negotiated settlement.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, June 7, 2011 Slain Writer's Book Says US-NATO War Served Al-Qaeda Strategy
Shahzad's book "Inside Al-Qaeda and the Taliban" was published on May 24 -- only three days before he went missing from Islamabad on his way to a television interview. His body was found May 31. He reveals that Osama bin Laden was a "figurehead" for public consumption, and that it was Dr. Ayman Zawahiri who formulated the organization's ideological line or devised operational plans.