(Above – Brian Hook)
So, I’m listening to NPR on my car radio this morning and I’m surprised to learn that Iran “blew up” a Japanese Oil Tanker last month when Japanese Prime Minister Abe visited Tehran last month.
The purveyor of this whopper was Brian Hook the U.S. Special Representative for Iran in Trump and Pompeo’s State Department.
He was speaking to NPR’s Steve Inskeep, who did not push back on Hook’s lie one bit.
“July 16, 20195:06 AM ETHeard on Morning EditionINSKEEP: Does the United States want to talk with Iran?
HOOK: President Trump and Secretary of State Pompeo have made clear over the last year or two that we are very open to diplomatically resolving our differences with Iran. But Iran has rejected diplomacy too many times, even as recently as Japanese Prime Minister Abe went to Tehran – the first Japanese prime minister to visit the Islamic Republic – they rejected his diplomacy. He was there on behalf of the president.
INSKEEP: Tried to be a mediator, in a sense.
HOOK: Tried to be a mediator, and the Iranian supreme leader rejected it. And while Abe was in the country, they blew up a Japanese oil tanker. And so we have made it clear that we have an ear open to what is possible. The – Secretary Pompeo has said in the past he would sit down and talk without preconditions. But Iran has got to start changing its behavior; they’ve got to choose a better path.
INSKEEP: Do you think that the economic sanctions that the U.S. has tightened and tightened and tightened are having the desired effect on Iran?
HOOK: We know they are. During the life of the Iran nuclear deal, Iran’s military spending reached record highs – they had spent $14 billion. The first month we were in office, Iran’s military spending went down 10%, and then this year it’s gone down 28%. We also have Iran’s proxies – Hezbollah and Hamas and the Houthis in Yemen are weaker today financially than when – two years ago, when we took office. And so this economic pressure is a necessary component if you want to get Iran back to the negotiating table….”
You are welcome to read the NPR article but you will not find any more evidence on Inskeep challenging Hook on this absurd lie than Hook has for the assertion that Iran perpetrated the attack on the Japanese Tanker Kokuka Courageous.
And even if you accepted the manufactured “evidence” that Iran placed a small mine on the tanker, which it’s owner does not, the goddamned ship was not “blown up” by any fevered stretch of a bloodthirsty NeoCon’s imagination:
Hook worked for John Bolton in the Bush administration of course) and last March was under investigation by the State Dept’s Inspector General for the improper firing of career State Department officials. ( I looked but could not find out if that has been resolved yet).
And that same Daily Beast article linked above explains that he is not only Pompeo’s guy for Iran, he’s one of Kushner’s guys in Saudi Arabia.
“And while staffers typically have short shelf lives in the Trump administration, Hook has managed to become a lasting and growing presence. He’s the rare member of former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s inner circle to have thrived under successor Mike Pompeo. According to two sources with direct knowledge, Hook has also cultivated ties at the White House with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner—something that bedeviled Tillerson—and Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt. Last month he traveled with Kushner to Saudi Arabia to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.”
Here he is pimping Kushner’s money for sovereignty Palestinian Peace Plan which promises Palestinians great jobs in Trump Hotel’s and Bibi Delis if they only cede their homeland…
He looks like soft butter would harden in his mouth.