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After 1379 Days, NYT Corrects Bogus Claim Iran ‘Sponsored’ 9/11 – FAIR

One of the articles in which the New York Times claimed Iran sponsored 9/11.

In its reporting on a dubious lawsuit alleging Iranian meta-involvement in 9/11, the New York Times badly misunderstood the case and maintained for more than three years, in the paper of record, that the government of Iran sponsored the September 11, 2001, attacks. The belated correction, issued late Wednesday night on two widely spaced articles on the topic, unceremoniously noted that Iran did not, in fact, help commit the 9/11 attacks.

The correction came after a report about a lawsuit last week mistakenly claimed that Iran sponsored 9/11, something that had not been alleged in the suit. The article (6/29/17, archived) originally read:

The government has agreed to distribute proceeds from the buildings sale, which could bring as much as $1 billion, to the families of victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorist attacks, including the September 11 attacks.

That 9/11 was an Iranian-sponsored terrorist attack is a spectacular claim, and one that would radically alter the official narrative of 9/11, just casually thrown into an article by the Times. In fact, it isnt even something the lawsuit alleged. The case in question was a class action lawsuit for families of all terrorism victims, and since Iran was a state sponsor of terrorism, they were held generically responsible. (The US State Department maintains that Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism chiefly because of its support for militant groups like Hezbollah and Iraqs Kataib Hizballah, whose attacks have been mainly directed at other combatants.)

Even if this had been what the lawsuit was alleging, its remarkable that reporter Vivian Wang simply took this as fact: No alleged, no lawsuit claimsIrans guilt was simply asserted. And that assertion stood for a week until someone, evidently, got word it was grossly wrong. Late Wednesday night (6/29/17, correction updated 7/5/17), the Times quietly added this correction to the piece:

Correction: July 6, 2017 An article on Friday about a jurys decision to let the federal government seize a Midtown Manhattan skyscraper it says is controlled by Iran overstated Irans responsibility for the September 11 attacks. While a federal court found that Iran had some culpability for the September 11 attacks as a state sponsor of terrorism, it has not been established that Iran sponsored the attacks, which were planned and executed by Al Qaeda. (A similar error occurred in a September 25, 2013, article in the Times.)

Its as if the editors at the Times just got the memo about who was responsible for 9/11. But the week it took to correct this massive error was nothing compared to the close to four years it took to update the very same claim the paper made in September 2013. The original article, by Julie Satow (9/26/13, original archived), read:

Proceeds from a sale would probably be used to pay some of the $6 billion in damages claimed by family members of victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorism, including victims of the 9/11 attacks.

This article, published in the first year of Obamas second term, finally got corrected this week (9/26/13, correction updated 7/5/17), with basically the same correction that ran on last weeks story:

Correction: July 5, 2017 An article on Sept. 25, 2013, about the federal governments efforts to seize a Midtown Manhattan skyscraper it says is controlled by Iran overstated Irans responsibility for the September 11 attacks. While a federal court found that Iran had some culpability for the September 11 attacks as a state sponsor of terrorism, it has not been established that Iran sponsored the attacks, which were planned and executed by Al Qaeda.

The corrections, belated as they were, minimized the defamation of the original articles in a lawyerly manner, conceding only that it has not been established that Iran sponsored the attacks. It has also not been established that Israel or Saudi Arabia or the Bush administration sponsored 9/11, but imagine the New York Times framing allegations against those actors this way. Its unthinkable but, because Iran is an Official Enemy of the United States, it is not subject to the same editorial standards as those in good standing with the US State Department.

The North Korea Law of Journalism

Per the North Korea Law of Journalismwhich states that editorial standards are inversely proportional to a countrys enemy statusthe Times can casually smear Iran as sponsoring the deadliest act of terror on US soil, and its not taken seriously by anyone. Just thrown into an article, forgotten about and only correctedwith no special note by the paperalmost four years later.

One would be curious what the New York Times public editor would say about such a glaring error but the paper eliminated the position a month ago (FAIR.org, 6/1/17). Perhaps the Times in-house media analyst, Jim Rutenberg, who spends much of his time hand-wringing over fake news and RT, could spare a column on how this happened. This is unlikely, since with an Official Enemy, no amount of libelno matter how egregiousmerits a meaningful response from the paper of record.

See the article here:
After 1379 Days, NYT Corrects Bogus Claim Iran 'Sponsored' 9/11 - FAIR

July 7th, 2017

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Ships Exporting Iranian Oil Go Dark, Raising Sanctions Red Flags – Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Ships Exporting Iranian Oil Go Dark, Raising Sanctions Red Flags
Wall Street Journal (subscription)
Ships transporting almost a fifth of Iran's oil exports in the second half of last year either turned off their radio-signal tracking systems or gave misleading information about the origin of their cargo, red flags for governments seeking evidence of ...

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Ships Exporting Iranian Oil Go Dark, Raising Sanctions Red Flags - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

July 7th, 2017

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Hobby Lobby fined $3 million for artifacts smuggled from Iraq – Washington Post

Hobby Lobby has agreed to forfeit thousands of illegally smuggled ancient Iraqi artifacts, the company and the Department of Justice said on July 5. (Amber Ferguson/The Washington Post)

The arts-and-crafts retailer Hobby Lobby has agreed to pay a $3 million fine for illegally importing thousands of ancient Iraqi clayartifacts smuggled into the United States, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

In addition to the fine, Hobby Lobby will forfeitthousands of clay bullae, cuneiform tablets and cylinder sealsthat were falsely labeled andshipped to the companythrough the United Arab Emirates and Israel,according toa civil complaint and settlement agreement in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Cuneiform is an ancient writing system that involvedcarving inscriptions into clay or stone. Cylinder seals were used to roll impressions into clay. Clay bullae are balls of clay with seals imprinted on the surface, used toshow a documents authenticity.

The Oklahoma-based company bought more than 5,500artifacts that originated in modern-day Iraq for $1.6 million in December 2010 from an unidentified dealer in an acquisition prosecutors said was fraught with red flags. According to the complaint, Hobby Lobby got conflicting information about where the artifacts had been stored and never met or communicated with the dealer selling them. When it came time to pay, the company wired money to sevenseparate bank accounts.

American collectors and importers must ensure compliance with laws and regulations that require truthful declarations to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, so that Customs officers are able to scrutinize cultural property crossing our borders and prevent the inappropriate entry of such property, acting U.S. attorney Bridget M. Rohde said in a statement.

Hobby Lobby, whose owners are evangelical Christians, said it began collectinga variety of Bibles and other artifacts several years ago with the goal of preserving them for future generations. In a statementWednesday, the company said it did not fully appreciate the complexities of the acquisitions process and relied on dealers who did not understand how to properly ship the items.

We should have exercised more oversight and carefully questioned how the acquisitions were handled, Hobby Lobby President Steve Green said in the statement.

Hobby Lobbys ownersportray their companyas a Christian business and are known for supporting Christian causes. Green is one of the driving forces behind the Museum of the Bible,a 430,000-square-foot facility in Washington, D.C., that is set to open in the fall and will reportedly house thousands of biblical artifacts and texts.

In 2014, Hobby Lobby becamea symbol in debate over religious freedom after it prevailed in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that found family-owned corporations donot have to pay for contraception coverage under the Affordable Care Act if it violates their sincerely held religious beliefs.

According to the complaint, Hobby Lobby begancollecting a range of historically significant manuscripts and other antiquities in 2009. The following July, Green traveled with a consultant to the United Arab Emirates, where they inspecteda large cache of cuneiform tablets and other artifacts.

Two Israeli antiquities dealers and one from the United Arab Emirates attended the July 2010 inspection with Hobby Lobbys president and consultant.At the meeting, the complaint says,the artifacts were displayed informally, spread on the floor, arranged in layers on a coffee table, and packed loosely in cardboard boxes, in many instances with little or no protective material between them.

The dealers said the items were from the family collection ofa third dealer who was not present, according to the complaint. They later sent Hobby Lobby a provenance statement a guarantee of authenticity indicating that the artifacts were legally acquired in the 1960s from local markets.

After returning to the United States, the complaint says, Hobby Lobbys president and in-house lawyer spoke with an expert on cultural property law who warned them that antiquitiesfrom ancient Iraqmay have been looted from archaeological sites. In a memo, the expert told them that any items of Iraqi originthat were not properly declared could be seized by customs officials.

Hobby Lobby proceeded with the sale. Starting in late 2010, a United Arab Emirates-based dealer sent 10 packages to three different Hobby Lobby addresses in Oklahoma City, with shipping labels reading ceramic tiles or clay tiles (sample), according to the complaint. No formal entries were made for theshipments. Prosecutors said the use of multiple addresses was consistent with methods used by cultural property smugglers to avoid scrutiny by Customs.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection later intercepted five additional packages, all of them falsely declaring that the artifacts inside came from Turkey. A final shipment containing about 1,000 clay bullae arrived at one of Hobby Lobbys addresses from Israel in September 2011. That one also misrepresented the artifacts country of origin, according to the complaint.

Angel M. Melendez, aU.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent, said in a statement Wednesday: While some may put a price on these artifacts, the people of Iraq consider them priceless.

Correction: This story has been updated to remove the suggestion that the artifacts forfeited by Hobby Lobby were smuggled directly from Iraq.

No Escape From Mosul, and Unlikely Chance of Surrender – New York Times

The militants included a large number of foreign fighters: Of the 100 Islamic State extremists that were killed this week, 26 came from outside Iraq, the general said. Russian-speaking foreigners, most likely Chechens, were among the best snipers, he added, though he did not think highly of the Islamic States infantry tactics.

Nobody, however, questioned their proficiency in making and using explosives.

They cant drive car bombs at us anymore, so they hide bombs in abandoned vehicles or just try to run up to us and blow themselves up, he said.

The Iraqi military searches civilians as they try to escape the remains of the city. Men who have sought to flee have been told to remove their shirts, and some strip down to their underwear to show that they are not hiding a bomb. Believing that women are less likely to be screened as carefully, the Islamic State has been using female suicide bombers.

Three members of a CTS battalion dispatched to Mosul from Basra, in southern Iraq, were killed in the recent suicide attacks, the units commander said.

The fact that some militants have managed to get their hands on Iraqi uniforms means that the CTS has to be especially vigilant. We know our guys well, and can tell when its them, General Saadi said.

He also insisted that he was not surprised by the recent spate of suicide attacks. Tips from civilians and drones flown by the Iraqi forces, he said, had given him valuable intelligence. Still, all 17 of the recent bombers, he acknowledged, succeeded in blowing themselves up.

At the trauma stations a short drive from the front, it was clear that the Islamic States bombs were claiming their share of victims: among them, an Iraqi soldier who was already dead when he arrived Wednesday morning at a triage point run by Global Response Management, a nonprofit organization.

Alex Potter, a nurse at the center, said she could gauge the flow of the battle for Mosul from the casualties that arrived. A surge in gunshot wounds to Iraqi troops was an indication that they were making another push against Islamic State positions. Civilians with limbs and torsos crushed by debris were a sign of airstrikes. Suicide bomb blasts often resulted in severe burns and worse.

The casualties arriving from the bombings in recent days had been half civilians, half Iraqi military, said Pete Reed, an emergency medical technician who runs the Global Response Management. The majority of suicide vest attacks in the past few days have been by females, he added.

At another nearby trauma center run by the Iraqi Army and CADUS, a humanitarian organization based in Germany, an Iraqi Humvee rushed up, straight from battle in the old city. Anxious Iraqi soldiers unloaded their comrade wrapped in a thick, blood-soaked blanket.

A gaping bullet hole was in the back of the soldiers head, the work of an Islamic State sniper. The doctors quickly pronounced the soldier dead, and he was lifted into a black body bag. His name and unit were inscribed on a strip of paper that was taped to the outside. A small bag containing his possessions and athletic shoes was placed alongside. He was soon taken away, and a small pool of blood was wiped from the floor.

Follow Michael R. Gordon on Twitter at gordonnyt.

Muhammad Nashat Mahmud contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on July 7, 2017, on Page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: In Mosuls Endgame, Escape Proves Harrowing and Surrender Unlikely.

July 7th, 2017

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