“My Thoughts on the Michelle Obama Argo Presentation”
http://www.roseanneworld.com/blog/2013/02/my-thoughts-on-the-michelle-obama-argo-presentation/
By Becky | Politics & Government
WATCH the Argo presentation again…and notice the people arrayed behind her…and what they have on their jackets.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzagUypsrBg
Michelle Obama was there to give Argo, an Affleck pPopaganda film, an award. That film was designed to make people think the CIA is a great organization, and that they protect us. Never mind the 700B of heroin out of Afghanistan overseen by them, their torture, selecting targets to be droned, overthrowing countries, and the rest of the horror show. This movie was intended to reinforce brainwashing in the gullible.
Think about Russia, China, other countries toward whom we are aggressors, or would be aggressors…that was a MESSAGE. Think Darth Vader and his minions. The message to other countries, which Americans are too brainwashed to see, is that we are a National Security State.
Imagine people in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, African countries we are attacking…seeing thisCIA propaganda movie get an award from the wife of the President who represents this aggression..and behind her are military men with ribbons on. THINK of the trepidation shown when Darth Vader and his people were present…these people are having the same feeling.
Ever wonder why Russia Today tells you the truth, and CNN, Fox and MSNBC do not? They are trying to wake up the American people before the Pentagon’s Full Spectrum Dominance and The Homeland overtakes the world…RT is self defense. Russia does not have Northcom (for us), Centcom, and Africom..which is currently active in 35 African countries.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Óscar de 'Argo' muestra la debilidad del cine estadounidense
Óscar de 'Argo' muestra la debilidad del cine estadounidense
http://www.hispantv.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=215188
Actualizado: 27/02/2013 20:30 GMT
El director ruso Vladimir Menshov ha declarado este miércoles que la película estadounidense 'Argo', ganadora de un Oscar, es de nivel moderado y no la considera “una obra de maestra del cine”.
Menshov ha expresado su sorpresa porque dicha película haya ganado un premio Óscar y cree la obtención de ese premio responde a cuestiones políticas y no culturales.
Además, ha aseverado que si el mencionado largometraje hubiera sido una producción rusa, habría sido ridiculizado, ya que tanto el guión como la aventura que se narra en la película son exagerados.
Menshov ha subrayado, asimismo, que 'Argo' será olvidada muy pronto.
'Argo' narra el plan supuestamente histórico de Tony Mendez, exagente de la Agencia Central de Inteligencia estadounidense (CIA, por sus siglas en inglés), sobre el rescate de seis diplomáticos americanos durante la toma de la Embajada de EE. UU. en Teherán, la capital iraní, después de la Revolución Islámica de Irán en 1979.
A este respecto, el presidente del Comité Islámico de Rusia, Heidar Yamal, ha expresado que la película 'Argo' forma parte de las operaciones políticas de Estados Unidos contra Irán, como pone en claro el hecho de que fuera Michelle Obama, esposa del actual mandatario norteamericano, Barack Obama, la encargada de anunciar que el largometraje había sido galardonado con el Óscar a la mejor película.
La película antiraní 'Argo' de Ben Affleck ganó el domingo el Óscar a la mejor película en la 85 edición de los premios de la Academia.
ha/aa/
http://www.hispantv.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=215188
Actualizado: 27/02/2013 20:30 GMT
El director ruso Vladimir Menshov ha declarado este miércoles que la película estadounidense 'Argo', ganadora de un Oscar, es de nivel moderado y no la considera “una obra de maestra del cine”.
Menshov ha expresado su sorpresa porque dicha película haya ganado un premio Óscar y cree la obtención de ese premio responde a cuestiones políticas y no culturales.
Además, ha aseverado que si el mencionado largometraje hubiera sido una producción rusa, habría sido ridiculizado, ya que tanto el guión como la aventura que se narra en la película son exagerados.
Menshov ha subrayado, asimismo, que 'Argo' será olvidada muy pronto.
'Argo' narra el plan supuestamente histórico de Tony Mendez, exagente de la Agencia Central de Inteligencia estadounidense (CIA, por sus siglas en inglés), sobre el rescate de seis diplomáticos americanos durante la toma de la Embajada de EE. UU. en Teherán, la capital iraní, después de la Revolución Islámica de Irán en 1979.
A este respecto, el presidente del Comité Islámico de Rusia, Heidar Yamal, ha expresado que la película 'Argo' forma parte de las operaciones políticas de Estados Unidos contra Irán, como pone en claro el hecho de que fuera Michelle Obama, esposa del actual mandatario norteamericano, Barack Obama, la encargada de anunciar que el largometraje había sido galardonado con el Óscar a la mejor película.
La película antiraní 'Argo' de Ben Affleck ganó el domingo el Óscar a la mejor película en la 85 edición de los premios de la Academia.
ha/aa/
Hollywood liderado por judíos, politizado por Imperialismo
Hollywood liderado por judíos, politizado por Imperialismo
http://www.hispantv.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=215143
Actualizado: 27/02/2013 12:56 GMT
*Por Rasul Gudarzi.
La película Argo demuestra una vez más que en Hollywood, el centro de entretenimiento de Estados Unidos, la política domina el arte.
La película antiraní, Argo, ganó el Oscar a la mejor película durante la 85 edición de los premios de la Academia de Hollywood.
La película relata la toma de la embajada de Estados Unidos en Teherán en 1979 por estudiantes iraníes en reacción a las intervenciones de Washington en su país. Aunque al principio la película señala los innumerables apoyos de Estados Unidos a la formación de un sistema dictatorial en Irán antes de la Revolución Islámica, transmite una imagen irreal de la sociedad iraní de hace 35 años.
En esta película se ha tergiversado una gran realidad histórica, pues se resalta que los estadounidenses desempeñaron un papel importante en la huida de los diplomáticos de Teherán. Pero ¿Por qué un largometraje aparentemente histórica que ha tergiversado una realidad, es galardonada con el premio Oscar? Y por si fuera poco comparece en la entrega del premio, la primera dama de Estados Unidos Michelle y pronuncia el nombre de este largometraje como ganador del Oscar, algo que se considera como otro factor que ratifica la "politización" de los galardones.
Lo que es muy importante es que el nombre del director de esta película, Ben Aflleck, no se encontraba entre los candidatos al mejor director y así se confirma que esta obra no tenía nada más que cumplir con órdenes de los políticos estadounidenses con respecto a lo ocurrido en Irán.
Motivos del éxito de Argo
En esta película, como en la mayoría de los largometrajes Made In Hollywood, un estadounidense desempeña el papel de héroe que tiene que luchar contra el mal para salvar la Tierra.
Por lo tanto, si el director de Argo quería dar a conocer lo que realmente ocurrió hace 35 años en Irán y que los diplomáticos estadounidenses escaparon sin ayuda de un agente de la CIA, la película no atraería una gran audiencia, por lo que recurre a la tergiversación de la verdad.
La segunda característica a destacar de esta película es su naturaleza antiraní. Tal y como sabemos, todo lo que esté en contra de Irán o impulse la iranofobia tendrá éxito en Occidente, especialmente en Estados Unidos, razón por la cual, mentir sobre cómo se llevó a cabo la toma de la Embajada de Estados Unidos está en línea con las políticas antiraníes instigadas por Washington.
Esta película tiene por objeto mostrar, a través de imágenes, un Irán irreal, y provocar así una ola antiraní en la opinión pública en el Occidente para lograr sus objetivos contra Irán.
La película presenta imágenes recreadas en la ficción para redibujar un falso paisaje político de Irán mientras glorifica supuestas hazañas de Estados Unidos; un intento más a fin de predisponer a la opinión pública en contra del país persa.
Argo puso en claro que para ganar un Premio Oscar se deben seguir a pies juntillas las políticas de Estados Unidos, en vez de seguir criterios artísticos.
Objetivos de Hollywood y quienes lo lideran
Con un solo vistazo a las películas que cuentan con una gran audiencia se nota claramente que todas aquellas que favorecen los intereses de Israel y Occidente, encabezado por EEUU y busca tergiversar algunas realidades históricas tendrán éxito.
Un reciente estudio publicado por el diario suizo NZZ am Sonntag, casi todos los estudios cinematográficos en EE.UU. están bajo la batuta de los judíos, e incluso, la mayoría de los miembros del jurado del premio Oscar, los guionistas y los famosos comediantes son judíos.
¿Por qué los judíos ponen tanta atención al campo de la producción de películas?
Después de la llegada al poder de Hitler en Alemania, los judíos perdieron el control sobre los estudios cinematográficos germanos y austriacos, que hasta aquel entonces estaban dirigidos por ellos; entonces, se vieron obligados a huir a Estados Unidos y a afianzarse en su industria del cine, asegura el diario.
Los inmigrantes judíos, agrega la fuente, conocían concretamente los intereses de los ciudadanos norteamericanos. Por tanto, descubrieron el sueño de EE.UU. que actualmente es el principal polo de Hollywood.
Ahora al dominar la industria del cine, además de cumplir con el interés de la Casa Blanca, impulsa su política de tergiversar la historia de su existencia y cualquier cosa que motive una ola antiiraní, algo que se ve claramente en la película Argo, ya que este largometraje fue financiado por una "empresa sionista", y el proceso de su producción se realizó por los estudios Warner Bros., con sede en California.
El Imperialismo recurre a todo lo que pueda para promover sus objetivos y esta vez el hecho de entregar el galardón a la mejor película a Argo dio el mayor golpe que se le podía dar al prestigio de la Academia de Hollywood y de esa manera Hollywood sacrifica el cine artístico y de calidad a las consignas políticas y la distorsión de la realidad.
*Rasul Gudarzi, articulista de la cadena HispanTV
http://www.hispantv.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=215143
Actualizado: 27/02/2013 12:56 GMT
*Por Rasul Gudarzi.
La película Argo demuestra una vez más que en Hollywood, el centro de entretenimiento de Estados Unidos, la política domina el arte.
La película antiraní, Argo, ganó el Oscar a la mejor película durante la 85 edición de los premios de la Academia de Hollywood.
La película relata la toma de la embajada de Estados Unidos en Teherán en 1979 por estudiantes iraníes en reacción a las intervenciones de Washington en su país. Aunque al principio la película señala los innumerables apoyos de Estados Unidos a la formación de un sistema dictatorial en Irán antes de la Revolución Islámica, transmite una imagen irreal de la sociedad iraní de hace 35 años.
En esta película se ha tergiversado una gran realidad histórica, pues se resalta que los estadounidenses desempeñaron un papel importante en la huida de los diplomáticos de Teherán. Pero ¿Por qué un largometraje aparentemente histórica que ha tergiversado una realidad, es galardonada con el premio Oscar? Y por si fuera poco comparece en la entrega del premio, la primera dama de Estados Unidos Michelle y pronuncia el nombre de este largometraje como ganador del Oscar, algo que se considera como otro factor que ratifica la "politización" de los galardones.
Lo que es muy importante es que el nombre del director de esta película, Ben Aflleck, no se encontraba entre los candidatos al mejor director y así se confirma que esta obra no tenía nada más que cumplir con órdenes de los políticos estadounidenses con respecto a lo ocurrido en Irán.
Motivos del éxito de Argo
En esta película, como en la mayoría de los largometrajes Made In Hollywood, un estadounidense desempeña el papel de héroe que tiene que luchar contra el mal para salvar la Tierra.
Por lo tanto, si el director de Argo quería dar a conocer lo que realmente ocurrió hace 35 años en Irán y que los diplomáticos estadounidenses escaparon sin ayuda de un agente de la CIA, la película no atraería una gran audiencia, por lo que recurre a la tergiversación de la verdad.
La segunda característica a destacar de esta película es su naturaleza antiraní. Tal y como sabemos, todo lo que esté en contra de Irán o impulse la iranofobia tendrá éxito en Occidente, especialmente en Estados Unidos, razón por la cual, mentir sobre cómo se llevó a cabo la toma de la Embajada de Estados Unidos está en línea con las políticas antiraníes instigadas por Washington.
Esta película tiene por objeto mostrar, a través de imágenes, un Irán irreal, y provocar así una ola antiraní en la opinión pública en el Occidente para lograr sus objetivos contra Irán.
La película presenta imágenes recreadas en la ficción para redibujar un falso paisaje político de Irán mientras glorifica supuestas hazañas de Estados Unidos; un intento más a fin de predisponer a la opinión pública en contra del país persa.
Argo puso en claro que para ganar un Premio Oscar se deben seguir a pies juntillas las políticas de Estados Unidos, en vez de seguir criterios artísticos.
Objetivos de Hollywood y quienes lo lideran
Con un solo vistazo a las películas que cuentan con una gran audiencia se nota claramente que todas aquellas que favorecen los intereses de Israel y Occidente, encabezado por EEUU y busca tergiversar algunas realidades históricas tendrán éxito.
Un reciente estudio publicado por el diario suizo NZZ am Sonntag, casi todos los estudios cinematográficos en EE.UU. están bajo la batuta de los judíos, e incluso, la mayoría de los miembros del jurado del premio Oscar, los guionistas y los famosos comediantes son judíos.
¿Por qué los judíos ponen tanta atención al campo de la producción de películas?
Después de la llegada al poder de Hitler en Alemania, los judíos perdieron el control sobre los estudios cinematográficos germanos y austriacos, que hasta aquel entonces estaban dirigidos por ellos; entonces, se vieron obligados a huir a Estados Unidos y a afianzarse en su industria del cine, asegura el diario.
Los inmigrantes judíos, agrega la fuente, conocían concretamente los intereses de los ciudadanos norteamericanos. Por tanto, descubrieron el sueño de EE.UU. que actualmente es el principal polo de Hollywood.
Ahora al dominar la industria del cine, además de cumplir con el interés de la Casa Blanca, impulsa su política de tergiversar la historia de su existencia y cualquier cosa que motive una ola antiiraní, algo que se ve claramente en la película Argo, ya que este largometraje fue financiado por una "empresa sionista", y el proceso de su producción se realizó por los estudios Warner Bros., con sede en California.
El Imperialismo recurre a todo lo que pueda para promover sus objetivos y esta vez el hecho de entregar el galardón a la mejor película a Argo dio el mayor golpe que se le podía dar al prestigio de la Academia de Hollywood y de esa manera Hollywood sacrifica el cine artístico y de calidad a las consignas políticas y la distorsión de la realidad.
*Rasul Gudarzi, articulista de la cadena HispanTV
Argo, unrealistic: Ex-Israeli attaché
Argo, unrealistic: Ex-Israeli attaché
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/02/27/291141/argo-unrealistic-exisraeli-attach/
Wed Feb 27, 2013 7:8PM GMT
The Israeli regime’s last military attaché in Tehran says the Oscar-winning Argo, which depicts the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran, is not a realistic movie.
Brigadier General Itzhak Segev was quoted as saying by Haaretz that the movie was made out of a “small story.”
“They (Argo producers) took a small story and turned it into a big movie,” Segev was quoted as saying.
The retired Israeli general stated that Argo was a reminder of his own story of fleeing Iran along with other Israelis after the Islamic Revolution.
The thriller directed by the US filmmaker and actor, Ben Affleck, is loosely based on an allegedly historical account by the former CIA agent, Tony Mendez, about the rescue of six American diplomats after the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran following the 1979 victory of the Islamic Revolution.
Political analysts say Argo unmasks the elaborate US scheme to employ every medium in its propaganda apparatus to incite Iranophobia across the globe.
Observers have further lashed out at the director of Argo for portraying a stereotyped and caricatured view of the Iranian society, noting that Affleck has consciously sought to ridicule the very customs and traditions of Iran.
KA/HGH/SS
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/02/27/291141/argo-unrealistic-exisraeli-attach/
Wed Feb 27, 2013 7:8PM GMT
Director and producer, Ben Affleck, receives the Oscar of the Best Motion Picture of the Year for Argo at the 85th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California, February 24, 2013.
The Israeli regime’s last military attaché in Tehran says the Oscar-winning Argo, which depicts the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran, is not a realistic movie.
Brigadier General Itzhak Segev was quoted as saying by Haaretz that the movie was made out of a “small story.”
“They (Argo producers) took a small story and turned it into a big movie,” Segev was quoted as saying.
The retired Israeli general stated that Argo was a reminder of his own story of fleeing Iran along with other Israelis after the Islamic Revolution.
The thriller directed by the US filmmaker and actor, Ben Affleck, is loosely based on an allegedly historical account by the former CIA agent, Tony Mendez, about the rescue of six American diplomats after the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran following the 1979 victory of the Islamic Revolution.
Political analysts say Argo unmasks the elaborate US scheme to employ every medium in its propaganda apparatus to incite Iranophobia across the globe.
Observers have further lashed out at the director of Argo for portraying a stereotyped and caricatured view of the Iranian society, noting that Affleck has consciously sought to ridicule the very customs and traditions of Iran.
KA/HGH/SS
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Argo wins Oscar in Hollywood’s dirty anti-Iran game: Analysts
Argo wins Oscar in Hollywood’s dirty anti-Iran game: Analysts
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/02/25/290790/argo-wins-oscar-hollywood-plays-dirty/
Tue Feb 26, 2013 5:13PM GMT
The granting of the Best Picture Oscar to the Iranophobic movie Argo has long been foreseeable as the Machiavellian maneuvering of Hollywood propaganda harbors a much more elaborate imperialistic scheme, political analysts say.
“I put my money on this film to win the Best Picture Oscar (even though there is nothing remotely “best” about it) especially if Obama can pull off winning the Presidential election,” wrote cultural critic Kim Nicolini in an article published at Counterpunch Website in October 2012.
“Argo, above all else, is a piece of conservative liberal propaganda created by Hollywood to support the Obama administration’s conservative liberal politics as we move toward the Presidential election,” she said before Obama was re-elected for the second term.
“It also primes the war wheels for an American-supported Israeli attack on Iran, so that Leftists can feel okay about the war when they cast their vote for Obama in November (2012),” the critic pointed out.
At the 85th edition of Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, on Sunday, Michelle Obama, the US First Lady, announced Argo as winner of the Best Picture Oscar, live from the White House.
The thriller directed by US filmmaker Ben Affleck is loosely based on the allegedly historical account by former CIA agent Tony Mendez about the rescue of six American diplomats during the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The revolutionary Iranian university students who took over the US Embassy believed that the embassy had turned into a den of espionage which aimed to overthrow the nascent Islamic Republic establishment.
Argo only tells the rescue operation of the six Americans from the Canadian Embassy in Iran, with no mentioning of the 53 Americans who spent 444 days in the US Embassy.
Nicolini lashed out at Argo for completely neglecting to provide the Iranian’s side of the story, noting, “The film is a sanitized version of the events.”
She argued that “there is nothing authentic about the film’s manipulation of historical events,” and described the movie as “pure political propaganda.”
“Given the vast number of people who have died in the Middle East (Americans, Iranians, Iraqis, Afghanis, etc.), why should we give so much attention to 6 white American diplomats who were saved by Hollywood and the CIA? What about all the other people from so many cultural demographics who have and are continuing to be massacred, murdered and tortured daily?” the critic questioned.
One of the most disputed aspect of Argo’s version of events has to do with Canada’s role in the escape, as the film is considered to be a very inaccurate dramatization of a purported joint CIA-Canadian secret operation.
Former Canadian Ambassador to Iran Ken Taylor has heavily criticized the movie, saying, “The amusing side is the script writer (Chris Terrio) in Hollywood had no idea what he's talking about.”
He said Argo downplays the actual extent of the Canadian involvement which was considerable.
Taylor criticized Argo for incorporating a myriad of creative liberties that included the "black and white" portrayal of Iranian people and fabricated scenes, adding that Argo “characterizes people in a way that isn't quite right.”
The former Canadian envoy argued that Argo didn't portray “a more conventional side,” and “a more hospitable side” of the Iranian society as well, an “intent that they were looking for some degree of justice.”
Political analysts say Argo unmasks the elaborate US scheme to employ every medium in its propaganda apparatus to incite Iranophobia across the globe.
“Argo is an arrant instance of Hollywoodism. In point of fact, it is yet another attempt to foment Iranophobia not only in the USA but across the world as well,” Iranian academic Dr. Ismail Salami wrote in an article on Press TV website in November 2012.
“In recent years, Iranophobia has come to encompass a wider scope of media including cinema which is incontestably capable of exercising a more powerful effect on manipulating the audience,” he said.
The analyst also lashed out at Argo’s director for portraying a “stereotyped and caricatured view” of the Iranian society and noted that Affleck has consciously sought to ridicule “the very customs and traditions” of Iran.
In an interview with Press TV, top Iranian official Masoumeh Ebtekar who was a spokeswoman of the students who took over the US Embassy in 1979, says she initially thought that the film would be a balanced representation of events, but after seeing the film, she says it does not tell the story of the takeover as it actually happened.
“The group who took over the American Embassy were a group of young, very orderly and quite calm men and women ... The scenes that you see in Argo are totally incorrect,” Ebtekar said.
Iranian film critic Masoud Foroutan told Press TV that Argo was “politically-motivated,” noting, “The making of the film from the technical aspect is ok but the story is not authentic. The story is custom-made and you could see where it would end up. The film was a politically-motivated one.”
On the 19th of January 1981, the Algiers Accords was signed by the United States and Iran which secured the release of the American diplomats. A day later, the 53 Americans were released in Tehran and minutes later former US President Ronald Reagan was sworn into office.
Meanwhile, political observers contend that the US has always sought to keep the Algiers Accords hidden from the general public and it comes as no surprise as Argo makes no mention of the accords either.
ASH/MA/SL
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/02/25/290790/argo-wins-oscar-hollywood-plays-dirty/
Tue Feb 26, 2013 5:13PM GMT
The granting of the Best Picture Oscar to the Iranophobic movie Argo has long been foreseeable as the Machiavellian maneuvering of Hollywood propaganda harbors a much more elaborate imperialistic scheme, political analysts say.
“I put my money on this film to win the Best Picture Oscar (even though there is nothing remotely “best” about it) especially if Obama can pull off winning the Presidential election,” wrote cultural critic Kim Nicolini in an article published at Counterpunch Website in October 2012.
“Argo, above all else, is a piece of conservative liberal propaganda created by Hollywood to support the Obama administration’s conservative liberal politics as we move toward the Presidential election,” she said before Obama was re-elected for the second term.
“It also primes the war wheels for an American-supported Israeli attack on Iran, so that Leftists can feel okay about the war when they cast their vote for Obama in November (2012),” the critic pointed out.
At the 85th edition of Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, on Sunday, Michelle Obama, the US First Lady, announced Argo as winner of the Best Picture Oscar, live from the White House.
The thriller directed by US filmmaker Ben Affleck is loosely based on the allegedly historical account by former CIA agent Tony Mendez about the rescue of six American diplomats during the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The revolutionary Iranian university students who took over the US Embassy believed that the embassy had turned into a den of espionage which aimed to overthrow the nascent Islamic Republic establishment.
Argo only tells the rescue operation of the six Americans from the Canadian Embassy in Iran, with no mentioning of the 53 Americans who spent 444 days in the US Embassy.
Nicolini lashed out at Argo for completely neglecting to provide the Iranian’s side of the story, noting, “The film is a sanitized version of the events.”
She argued that “there is nothing authentic about the film’s manipulation of historical events,” and described the movie as “pure political propaganda.”
“Given the vast number of people who have died in the Middle East (Americans, Iranians, Iraqis, Afghanis, etc.), why should we give so much attention to 6 white American diplomats who were saved by Hollywood and the CIA? What about all the other people from so many cultural demographics who have and are continuing to be massacred, murdered and tortured daily?” the critic questioned.
One of the most disputed aspect of Argo’s version of events has to do with Canada’s role in the escape, as the film is considered to be a very inaccurate dramatization of a purported joint CIA-Canadian secret operation.
Former Canadian Ambassador to Iran Ken Taylor has heavily criticized the movie, saying, “The amusing side is the script writer (Chris Terrio) in Hollywood had no idea what he's talking about.”
He said Argo downplays the actual extent of the Canadian involvement which was considerable.
Taylor criticized Argo for incorporating a myriad of creative liberties that included the "black and white" portrayal of Iranian people and fabricated scenes, adding that Argo “characterizes people in a way that isn't quite right.”
The former Canadian envoy argued that Argo didn't portray “a more conventional side,” and “a more hospitable side” of the Iranian society as well, an “intent that they were looking for some degree of justice.”
Political analysts say Argo unmasks the elaborate US scheme to employ every medium in its propaganda apparatus to incite Iranophobia across the globe.
“Argo is an arrant instance of Hollywoodism. In point of fact, it is yet another attempt to foment Iranophobia not only in the USA but across the world as well,” Iranian academic Dr. Ismail Salami wrote in an article on Press TV website in November 2012.
“In recent years, Iranophobia has come to encompass a wider scope of media including cinema which is incontestably capable of exercising a more powerful effect on manipulating the audience,” he said.
The analyst also lashed out at Argo’s director for portraying a “stereotyped and caricatured view” of the Iranian society and noted that Affleck has consciously sought to ridicule “the very customs and traditions” of Iran.
In an interview with Press TV, top Iranian official Masoumeh Ebtekar who was a spokeswoman of the students who took over the US Embassy in 1979, says she initially thought that the film would be a balanced representation of events, but after seeing the film, she says it does not tell the story of the takeover as it actually happened.
“The group who took over the American Embassy were a group of young, very orderly and quite calm men and women ... The scenes that you see in Argo are totally incorrect,” Ebtekar said.
Iranian film critic Masoud Foroutan told Press TV that Argo was “politically-motivated,” noting, “The making of the film from the technical aspect is ok but the story is not authentic. The story is custom-made and you could see where it would end up. The film was a politically-motivated one.”
On the 19th of January 1981, the Algiers Accords was signed by the United States and Iran which secured the release of the American diplomats. A day later, the 53 Americans were released in Tehran and minutes later former US President Ronald Reagan was sworn into office.
Meanwhile, political observers contend that the US has always sought to keep the Algiers Accords hidden from the general public and it comes as no surprise as Argo makes no mention of the accords either.
ASH/MA/SL
Oscar for Argo: A crime against humanity
Oscar for Argo: A crime against humanity
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/02/25/290795/oscar-for-argo-a-crime-against-humanity/
Mon Feb 25, 2013 7:22PM GMT
Argo is a propaganda film. Like the films of Nazi publicist Leni Riefenstahl, it is well-made. Like those of Riefenstahl, it glorifies a murderous criminal organization. And like those of Riefenstahl, its ultimate purpose is to elicit hatred and turn its audience into mass murderers.
Riefenstahl glorified the Nazi party; Argo glorifies the CIA. Riefenstahl made Nazi war-mongering and Jew-hatred look beautiful; Argo makes Zionist-incited islamophobia and iranophobia look natural and inevitable and desirable.
Riefenstahl's films helped open the door to World War II, which killed 70 million people.
Argo is designed to open the door to war on Iran and World War III, which could kill hundreds of millions or even billions.
The only award the makers of Argo deserve is a criminal conviction for crimes against humanity. Instead, Hollywood's Zionist mafia has handed them an Oscar for best film of the year. The members of the academy should themselves be in the docket, facing war crimes charges, right alongside Ben Affleck.
But Affleck and the Hollywood mob aren't just guilty of war crimes. They are equally guilty of treason against the United States of America.
Hollywood, you see, is a virtually 100% Jewish enclave. And with a few noble exceptions, the Jewish billionaires who own and run Hollywood, and determine what kinds of motion pictures dominate the world, are rabid supporters of Israel's genocide in Occupied Palestine. Their films should be considered “enemy propaganda” - not just by Palestinians and their supporters, but by the American people.
Why? Because war on Iran - as Zbigniew Brzezinski and Chuck Hagel and all genuinely American strategists have been screaming from the rooftops - is an Israeli plan, not an American plan.
The Israelis want to drag America into wars against their enemies. And Iran is Israel's public enemy number one.
Israel's real problem with Iran isn't those nonexistent nukes. (Both the CIA and Mossad have assured us that Iran is not building nuclear weapons.) Israel's problem is that Iran's government offers formidable ideological and material support to the Palestinian resistance.
Why is that America's problem?
Because America is dominated by a powerful, treasonous Israeli fifth column. As Jewish, pro-Zionist comedian Bill Maher recently admitted, “The Israelis are controlling our government.”
Argo is enemy propaganda from Israeli-occupied Hollywood. It is a slick attempt to brainwash Americans into seeing Iranians as enemies. Argo seeks to drag the American consciousness back to 1979, when Iranians overthrew their CIA-installed torturer-in-chief, the Shah, and sought justice for his decades of misrule. It seeks to hide the fact that today, America and Iran should have good relations - and would have good relations, if Israel weren't running US foreign policy.
I watched Argo on the plane en route to Iran, where I recently spent two weeks. The film depicts Iranians as scowling, bearded fanatics lusting for American blood. When I arrived in Tehran, I was surprised - well, not really that surprised - to discover that Iranians are friendly, gracious, smiling, generous people who absolutely love Americans. (They have no difficulty making the distinction between the American people, and the policies of the Israeli-dominated American government.)
After being held hostage to their kindness, hospitality, and generosity for fourteen days, all I can say is that I hope they kidnap me again soon.
Most Americans, unfortunately, do not have the opportunity to visit Iran.
If you put Mr. Average American on a plane for Tehran, and showed him Argo as the in-flight movie, he would probably have a panic attack and try to kick open the emergency exit door and bail out of the plane. That, of course, is precisely the kind of reaction the Hollywood Zionists created Argo to elicit.
In some ways, Argo is almost like a zombie horror movie, with Americans as protagonists, and Iranians as evil flesh-eating zombies. When, in Argo, the small group of Americans visits Tehran's magnificent Grand Bazaar, only to be surrounded, mobbed, and threatened by vicious Iranian extremists hungering for their flesh and thirsting for their blood, I was reminded of nothing so much as the zombies-in-the-shopping-mall scenes from George Romero's horror classic, Dawn of the Dead.
When I visited a bazaar in Tehran earlier this month, I had a wonderful time. The scene was lively and colorful. The throngs of shoppers were enjoying themselves. The sellers were courteous and fun to haggle with. Maybe they were hungering for my dollars and thirsting for my coins, but if so, they were reasonably polite about it. I did not experience any zombie attacks.
Argo depicts Iran as a living hell for Americans. But for me and the other Americans I visited with, it was more like a paradise.
Americans can live well in Iran on very little money. The Iranian rial's value has dropped in relation to the dollar, thanks to the Zionist banksters' currency war. A can of Coca-Cola or a candy bar costs a nickle, a gourmet meal can be had for a few dollars, and all sorts of Iranian-made items are available at bargain prices. (Iranians are getting very good at making all kinds of products, since the sanctions have made imports prohibitively expensive.)
But the best thing about Iran is its people. There are no false guides and scammers accosting you, as in some Middle Eastern countries. Iran's people, regardless of philosophical, political, or religious persuasion, are both dignified and genuinely friendly. They have overcome the colonialist-imposed schizoid complex of servility/resentment. Iranians deal with Westerners, including Americans, naturally and amiably as equals.
When will the American government start treating Iran on a similar basis of natural amiability and equality?
The short answer: As soon as Americans take a lead from Bill Maher, and shake off Israel's domination of their country.
When that happens, the makers of Argo, and the other Israeli occupiers of America's media and entertainment industry, may have to seek refuge in Paraguay.
KB/JR
Dr. Kevin Barrett, a 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 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. 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. More articles by Dr. Kevin Barrett http://www.presstv.ir/Contributors/247897.html
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/02/25/290795/oscar-for-argo-a-crime-against-humanity/
Mon Feb 25, 2013 7:22PM GMT
Argo is a propaganda film. Like the films of Nazi publicist Leni Riefenstahl, it is well-made. Like those of Riefenstahl, it glorifies a murderous criminal organization. And like those of Riefenstahl, its ultimate purpose is to elicit hatred and turn its audience into mass murderers.
Riefenstahl glorified the Nazi party; Argo glorifies the CIA. Riefenstahl made Nazi war-mongering and Jew-hatred look beautiful; Argo makes Zionist-incited islamophobia and iranophobia look natural and inevitable and desirable.
Riefenstahl's films helped open the door to World War II, which killed 70 million people.
Argo is designed to open the door to war on Iran and World War III, which could kill hundreds of millions or even billions.
The only award the makers of Argo deserve is a criminal conviction for crimes against humanity. Instead, Hollywood's Zionist mafia has handed them an Oscar for best film of the year. The members of the academy should themselves be in the docket, facing war crimes charges, right alongside Ben Affleck.
But Affleck and the Hollywood mob aren't just guilty of war crimes. They are equally guilty of treason against the United States of America.
Hollywood, you see, is a virtually 100% Jewish enclave. And with a few noble exceptions, the Jewish billionaires who own and run Hollywood, and determine what kinds of motion pictures dominate the world, are rabid supporters of Israel's genocide in Occupied Palestine. Their films should be considered “enemy propaganda” - not just by Palestinians and their supporters, but by the American people.
Why? Because war on Iran - as Zbigniew Brzezinski and Chuck Hagel and all genuinely American strategists have been screaming from the rooftops - is an Israeli plan, not an American plan.
The Israelis want to drag America into wars against their enemies. And Iran is Israel's public enemy number one.
Israel's real problem with Iran isn't those nonexistent nukes. (Both the CIA and Mossad have assured us that Iran is not building nuclear weapons.) Israel's problem is that Iran's government offers formidable ideological and material support to the Palestinian resistance.
Why is that America's problem?
Because America is dominated by a powerful, treasonous Israeli fifth column. As Jewish, pro-Zionist comedian Bill Maher recently admitted, “The Israelis are controlling our government.”
Argo is enemy propaganda from Israeli-occupied Hollywood. It is a slick attempt to brainwash Americans into seeing Iranians as enemies. Argo seeks to drag the American consciousness back to 1979, when Iranians overthrew their CIA-installed torturer-in-chief, the Shah, and sought justice for his decades of misrule. It seeks to hide the fact that today, America and Iran should have good relations - and would have good relations, if Israel weren't running US foreign policy.
I watched Argo on the plane en route to Iran, where I recently spent two weeks. The film depicts Iranians as scowling, bearded fanatics lusting for American blood. When I arrived in Tehran, I was surprised - well, not really that surprised - to discover that Iranians are friendly, gracious, smiling, generous people who absolutely love Americans. (They have no difficulty making the distinction between the American people, and the policies of the Israeli-dominated American government.)
After being held hostage to their kindness, hospitality, and generosity for fourteen days, all I can say is that I hope they kidnap me again soon.
Most Americans, unfortunately, do not have the opportunity to visit Iran.
If you put Mr. Average American on a plane for Tehran, and showed him Argo as the in-flight movie, he would probably have a panic attack and try to kick open the emergency exit door and bail out of the plane. That, of course, is precisely the kind of reaction the Hollywood Zionists created Argo to elicit.
In some ways, Argo is almost like a zombie horror movie, with Americans as protagonists, and Iranians as evil flesh-eating zombies. When, in Argo, the small group of Americans visits Tehran's magnificent Grand Bazaar, only to be surrounded, mobbed, and threatened by vicious Iranian extremists hungering for their flesh and thirsting for their blood, I was reminded of nothing so much as the zombies-in-the-shopping-mall scenes from George Romero's horror classic, Dawn of the Dead.
When I visited a bazaar in Tehran earlier this month, I had a wonderful time. The scene was lively and colorful. The throngs of shoppers were enjoying themselves. The sellers were courteous and fun to haggle with. Maybe they were hungering for my dollars and thirsting for my coins, but if so, they were reasonably polite about it. I did not experience any zombie attacks.
Argo depicts Iran as a living hell for Americans. But for me and the other Americans I visited with, it was more like a paradise.
Americans can live well in Iran on very little money. The Iranian rial's value has dropped in relation to the dollar, thanks to the Zionist banksters' currency war. A can of Coca-Cola or a candy bar costs a nickle, a gourmet meal can be had for a few dollars, and all sorts of Iranian-made items are available at bargain prices. (Iranians are getting very good at making all kinds of products, since the sanctions have made imports prohibitively expensive.)
But the best thing about Iran is its people. There are no false guides and scammers accosting you, as in some Middle Eastern countries. Iran's people, regardless of philosophical, political, or religious persuasion, are both dignified and genuinely friendly. They have overcome the colonialist-imposed schizoid complex of servility/resentment. Iranians deal with Westerners, including Americans, naturally and amiably as equals.
When will the American government start treating Iran on a similar basis of natural amiability and equality?
The short answer: As soon as Americans take a lead from Bill Maher, and shake off Israel's domination of their country.
When that happens, the makers of Argo, and the other Israeli occupiers of America's media and entertainment industry, may have to seek refuge in Paraguay.
KB/JR
Dr. Kevin Barrett, a 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 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. 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. More articles by Dr. Kevin Barrett http://www.presstv.ir/Contributors/247897.html
Argo lacks artistic value: Iran culture minister
Argo lacks artistic value: Iran culture minister
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/02/25/290780/iargoi-lacks-artistic-value-iran/
Mon Feb 25, 2013 6:10PM GMT
Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Hosseini slams the Oscar-winning Argo as an “anti-Iranian” movie which lacks artistic value, saying Iran is determined to respond to the film by producing robust cinematic works.
Speaking to reporters in Tehran on Monday, Hosseini pointed to the announcement of the controversial US thriller Argo as the “Best Motion Picture of the Year” at the 85th Academy Awards, saying, “This anti-Iranian movie is devoid of artistic aspect and is very weak from the artistic point of view.”
He added that the enemies of Iran are not expected to do better than that.
The Iranian minister emphasized that the movie won the award through huge investment and extensive propaganda in order to attract more international attention.
Under the circumstances that Hollywood acts against Iran, Iran shoulders a heavier responsibility, Hosseini pointed out.
He added that Iran should produce films which portray realities for all the people around the world.
Michelle Obama, the US First Lady, announced the award live from the White House on Sunday.
The thriller directed by the US filmmaker and actor, Ben Affleck, is loosely based on an allegedly historical account by the former CIA agent, Tony Mendez, about the rescue of six American diplomats during the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Political analysts say Argo unmasks the elaborate US scheme to employ every medium in its propaganda apparatus to incite Iranophobia across the globe.
Observers have further lashed out at the director of Argo for portraying a stereotyped and caricatured view of the Iranian society, noting that Affleck has consciously sought to ridicule the very customs and traditions of Iran.
ASH/SF/SS/MA
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/02/25/290780/iargoi-lacks-artistic-value-iran/
Mon Feb 25, 2013 6:10PM GMT
Director and producer, Ben Affleck, receives the Oscar of the Best Motion Picture of the Year for Argo at the 85th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California, February 24, 2013.
Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Hosseini slams the Oscar-winning Argo as an “anti-Iranian” movie which lacks artistic value, saying Iran is determined to respond to the film by producing robust cinematic works.
Speaking to reporters in Tehran on Monday, Hosseini pointed to the announcement of the controversial US thriller Argo as the “Best Motion Picture of the Year” at the 85th Academy Awards, saying, “This anti-Iranian movie is devoid of artistic aspect and is very weak from the artistic point of view.”
He added that the enemies of Iran are not expected to do better than that.
The Iranian minister emphasized that the movie won the award through huge investment and extensive propaganda in order to attract more international attention.
Under the circumstances that Hollywood acts against Iran, Iran shoulders a heavier responsibility, Hosseini pointed out.
He added that Iran should produce films which portray realities for all the people around the world.
Michelle Obama, the US First Lady, announced the award live from the White House on Sunday.
The thriller directed by the US filmmaker and actor, Ben Affleck, is loosely based on an allegedly historical account by the former CIA agent, Tony Mendez, about the rescue of six American diplomats during the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Political analysts say Argo unmasks the elaborate US scheme to employ every medium in its propaganda apparatus to incite Iranophobia across the globe.
Observers have further lashed out at the director of Argo for portraying a stereotyped and caricatured view of the Iranian society, noting that Affleck has consciously sought to ridicule the very customs and traditions of Iran.
ASH/SF/SS/MA
‘Argo’ writer has no idea what he's talking about: Ex-Canada envoy
‘Argo’ writer has no idea what he's talking about: Ex-Canada envoy
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/02/17/289403/excanada-envoy-argo-got-it-all-wrong/
Sun Feb 17, 2013 11:53AM GMT
Former Canadian Ambassador to Iran Ken Taylor has heavily criticized the anti-Iran American film Argo, saying that the screenwriter has “no idea what he's talking about."
“The amusing side is the script writer (Chris Terrio) in Hollywood had no idea what he's talking about,” Taylor said during an audience with Ryerson University students in Toronto on Thursday, CBC reports.
Argo heads into the Oscars later this month as a nominee for best picture, with Terrio up for a best adapted screenplay Oscar.
The thriller directed by US filmmaker Ben Affleck is loosely based on the allegedly historical account by former CIA agent Tony Mendez about the rescue of six American diplomats during the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Taylor, whose role is played by Canadian actor Victor Garber in the movie, was Canada’s ambassador to Iran in 1979 when the alleged operation took place.
He criticized Argo for incorporating a myriad of creative liberties that included the "black and white" portrayal of Iranian people and fabricated scenes, adding that Argo “characterizes people in a way that isn't quite right.”
The former Canadian envoy argued that Argo didn't portray “a more conventional side,” and “a more hospitable side” of the Iranian society as well an “intent that they were looking for some degree of justice.”
The revolutionary Iranian university students who took over the US Embassy believed that the embassy had turned into a den of espionage which aimed to overthrow the nascent Islamic Republic establishment.
Political analysts say Argo unmasks the elaborate US scheme to employ every medium in its propaganda apparatus to incite Iranophobia across the globe.
Observers have further lashed out at the director of Argo for portraying a stereotyped and caricatured view of the Iranian society and noted that Affleck has consciously sought to ridicule the very customs and traditions of Iran.
In mid-January, Iran announced plans to mount a big cinematic project on the 1979 US embassy incident to give a true image of the historical event distorted in Argo.
Iranian filmmaker and actor Ataollah Salmanian is slated to represent the story as an appropriate response to Affleck’s blockbuster and ahistoric film.
The Iranian version titled The General Staff chronicles the story of the 20 American hostages who were delivered to the United States by Iran’s revolutionaries.
ASH/HMV/SL
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/02/17/289403/excanada-envoy-argo-got-it-all-wrong/
Sun Feb 17, 2013 11:53AM GMT
Former Canadian Ambassador to Iran Ken Taylor has heavily criticized the anti-Iran American film Argo, saying that the screenwriter has “no idea what he's talking about."
“The amusing side is the script writer (Chris Terrio) in Hollywood had no idea what he's talking about,” Taylor said during an audience with Ryerson University students in Toronto on Thursday, CBC reports.
Argo heads into the Oscars later this month as a nominee for best picture, with Terrio up for a best adapted screenplay Oscar.
The thriller directed by US filmmaker Ben Affleck is loosely based on the allegedly historical account by former CIA agent Tony Mendez about the rescue of six American diplomats during the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Taylor, whose role is played by Canadian actor Victor Garber in the movie, was Canada’s ambassador to Iran in 1979 when the alleged operation took place.
He criticized Argo for incorporating a myriad of creative liberties that included the "black and white" portrayal of Iranian people and fabricated scenes, adding that Argo “characterizes people in a way that isn't quite right.”
The former Canadian envoy argued that Argo didn't portray “a more conventional side,” and “a more hospitable side” of the Iranian society as well an “intent that they were looking for some degree of justice.”
The revolutionary Iranian university students who took over the US Embassy believed that the embassy had turned into a den of espionage which aimed to overthrow the nascent Islamic Republic establishment.
Political analysts say Argo unmasks the elaborate US scheme to employ every medium in its propaganda apparatus to incite Iranophobia across the globe.
Observers have further lashed out at the director of Argo for portraying a stereotyped and caricatured view of the Iranian society and noted that Affleck has consciously sought to ridicule the very customs and traditions of Iran.
In mid-January, Iran announced plans to mount a big cinematic project on the 1979 US embassy incident to give a true image of the historical event distorted in Argo.
Iranian filmmaker and actor Ataollah Salmanian is slated to represent the story as an appropriate response to Affleck’s blockbuster and ahistoric film.
The Iranian version titled The General Staff chronicles the story of the 20 American hostages who were delivered to the United States by Iran’s revolutionaries.
ASH/HMV/SL
Argo’s Oscar Win -- Hollywood’s ‘Coming Out’
Argo’s Oscar Win -- Hollywood’s ‘Coming Out’
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34105.htm
By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich
February 26, 2013 "Information Clearing House" - Foreign policy observers have long known that Hollywood reflects and promotes U.S. policies (in turn, is determined by Israel and its supporters). This fact was made public when Michel Obama announced an Oscar win for “Argo” – a highly propagandist, anti-Iran film. Amidst the glitter and excitement, Hollywood and White House reveal their pact and send out their message in time for the upcoming talks surrounding Iran’s nuclear program due to be held tomorrow - February 26th.
Hollywood has a long history of promoting US policies. In 1917, when the United States entered World War I, President Woodrow Wilson’s Committee on Public Information (CPI) enlisted the aid of America’s film industry to make training films and features supporting the ‘cause’. George Creel, Chairman of the CPI believed that the movies had a role in “carrying the gospel of Americanism to every corner of the globe.”
The pact grew stronger during World War II, when, as historian Thomas Doherty writes, “[T]he liaison between Hollywood and Washington was a distinctly American and democratic arrangement, a mesh of public policy and private initiative, state need and business enterprise.” Hollywood’s contribution was to provide propaganda. After the war, Washington reciprocated by using subsidies, special provisions in the Marshall Plan, and general clout to pry open resistant European film markets[i].
Hollywood has often borrowed its story ideas from the U.S. foreign policy agenda, at times reinforcing them. One of the film industry's blockbuster film loans in the last two decades has been modern international terrorism. Hollywood rarely touched the topic of terrorism in the late 1960s and 1970s when the phenomenon was not high on the U.S. foreign policy agenda, in news headlines or in the American public consciousness. In the 1980s, in the footsteps of the Reagan administration’s policies, the commercial film industry brought ‘terrorist’ villains to the big screen (following the US Embassy takeover in Tehran – topic of “Argo”) making terrorism a blockbuster film product in the 1990s.
Today, whether Hollywood follows US policy or whether it sets it, is up for discussion. But it is abundantly clear that Hollywood is dominated by Israelis and their supporters who previously concealed their identity. According to a 2012 Haaretz article “from the 1930s until the mid-1950s, Hanukkah never appeared on screen. This was because the Jewish studio heads preferred to hide their ethnic and religious heritage in attempting to widen the appeal of their products[emphasis added]. Jews were thus typically portrayed as participants in an American civil religion, whose members may attend the synagogue of their choice, but are not otherwise marked by great differences of appearance, speech, custom, or behaviour from the vast majority of American”. This is no longer the case.
In sharp contrast to its past, Hollywood “celebrated” Israel’s 60th “birthday” [occupation] with a Gala called “From Vision to Reality”. Israeli TV blog wrote of the Gala: ‘Don’t Worry Israel, Hollywood is behind you’. Actor Jon Voight said: “World playing a dangerous game by going against Israel”. Israeli businessman and Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan, was a longtime weapons dealer and Israeli intelligence agent who purchased equipment for Israel's nuclear program (the book, “Confidential: The Life of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon Arnon Milchan,” written by Meir Doron and Joseph Gelman, recounts Milchan's life story, his friendships with Israeli prime ministers, U.S. presidents and Hollywood stars).
It is important to understand Hollywood not only in the context of a multi-billion dollar industry, but the propaganda aspect of it and as one of the most powerful and universal methods of spreading ideas through visual propaganda. “Propaganda is defined as a certain type of messaging that serves a particular purpose of spreading or implanting a particular culture, philosophy, point of view or even a particular slogan”. With this capability, Hollywood owns the world of ideas on a scale too large and too dangerous to ignore - see this excellent example by Gilad Atzmon - Hollywood and the Past.
Atzmon writes: “History is commonly regarded as an attempt to produce a structured account of the past. It proclaims to tell us what really happened, but in most cases it fails to do that. Instead it is set to conceal our shame, to hide those various elements, events, incidents and occurrences in our past which we cannot cope with. History, therefore, can be regarded as a system of concealment. Accordingly, the role of the true historian is similar to that of the psychoanalyst: both aim to unveil the repressed. For the psychoanalyst, it is the unconscious mind. For the historian, it is our collective shame.”
As Hollywood and the White House eagerly embrace “Argo” and its propagandist message, they shamelessly and deliberately conceals a crucial aspect of this “historical” event. The glitter buries the all too important fact that the Iranian students who took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, proceeded to reveal Israel’s dark secret to the world. Documents classified as “SECRET” revealed LAKAM’s activities. Initiated in 1960, LAKAM was an Israeli network assigned to economic espionage in the U.S. assigned to “the collection of scientific intelligence in the U.S. for Israel’s defense industry” [ii].
As it stands, the purpose of the movie and its backers was to push the extraordinary revelations to the background while sending a visual message to the unsuspecting audience – to lay the blame of the potential (and likely) failure of the upcoming negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program on the Iranians -- the gun-wielding, bearded Iranians of “Argo” who deserve America’s collective punishment and the crippling, deathly sanctions.
Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich is a Public Diplomacy Scholar, independent researcher and writer with a focus on U.S. foreign policy and the role of lobby group.
[i] Martha Bayles, Wilson Quarterly, Summer 2005
[ii] U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Israel: Foreign Intelligence and Security Services, Washington, D.C., March 1979, p. 9 (typescript). The report classified SECRET, was released to the world by Iranian students who occupied the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979. Cited by Duncan L. Clarke, “Israel's Economic Espionage in the United States” (1998).
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34105.htm
By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich
February 26, 2013 "Information Clearing House" - Foreign policy observers have long known that Hollywood reflects and promotes U.S. policies (in turn, is determined by Israel and its supporters). This fact was made public when Michel Obama announced an Oscar win for “Argo” – a highly propagandist, anti-Iran film. Amidst the glitter and excitement, Hollywood and White House reveal their pact and send out their message in time for the upcoming talks surrounding Iran’s nuclear program due to be held tomorrow - February 26th.
Hollywood has a long history of promoting US policies. In 1917, when the United States entered World War I, President Woodrow Wilson’s Committee on Public Information (CPI) enlisted the aid of America’s film industry to make training films and features supporting the ‘cause’. George Creel, Chairman of the CPI believed that the movies had a role in “carrying the gospel of Americanism to every corner of the globe.”
The pact grew stronger during World War II, when, as historian Thomas Doherty writes, “[T]he liaison between Hollywood and Washington was a distinctly American and democratic arrangement, a mesh of public policy and private initiative, state need and business enterprise.” Hollywood’s contribution was to provide propaganda. After the war, Washington reciprocated by using subsidies, special provisions in the Marshall Plan, and general clout to pry open resistant European film markets[i].
Hollywood has often borrowed its story ideas from the U.S. foreign policy agenda, at times reinforcing them. One of the film industry's blockbuster film loans in the last two decades has been modern international terrorism. Hollywood rarely touched the topic of terrorism in the late 1960s and 1970s when the phenomenon was not high on the U.S. foreign policy agenda, in news headlines or in the American public consciousness. In the 1980s, in the footsteps of the Reagan administration’s policies, the commercial film industry brought ‘terrorist’ villains to the big screen (following the US Embassy takeover in Tehran – topic of “Argo”) making terrorism a blockbuster film product in the 1990s.
Today, whether Hollywood follows US policy or whether it sets it, is up for discussion. But it is abundantly clear that Hollywood is dominated by Israelis and their supporters who previously concealed their identity. According to a 2012 Haaretz article “from the 1930s until the mid-1950s, Hanukkah never appeared on screen. This was because the Jewish studio heads preferred to hide their ethnic and religious heritage in attempting to widen the appeal of their products[emphasis added]. Jews were thus typically portrayed as participants in an American civil religion, whose members may attend the synagogue of their choice, but are not otherwise marked by great differences of appearance, speech, custom, or behaviour from the vast majority of American”. This is no longer the case.
In sharp contrast to its past, Hollywood “celebrated” Israel’s 60th “birthday” [occupation] with a Gala called “From Vision to Reality”. Israeli TV blog wrote of the Gala: ‘Don’t Worry Israel, Hollywood is behind you’. Actor Jon Voight said: “World playing a dangerous game by going against Israel”. Israeli businessman and Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan, was a longtime weapons dealer and Israeli intelligence agent who purchased equipment for Israel's nuclear program (the book, “Confidential: The Life of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon Arnon Milchan,” written by Meir Doron and Joseph Gelman, recounts Milchan's life story, his friendships with Israeli prime ministers, U.S. presidents and Hollywood stars).
It is important to understand Hollywood not only in the context of a multi-billion dollar industry, but the propaganda aspect of it and as one of the most powerful and universal methods of spreading ideas through visual propaganda. “Propaganda is defined as a certain type of messaging that serves a particular purpose of spreading or implanting a particular culture, philosophy, point of view or even a particular slogan”. With this capability, Hollywood owns the world of ideas on a scale too large and too dangerous to ignore - see this excellent example by Gilad Atzmon - Hollywood and the Past.
Atzmon writes: “History is commonly regarded as an attempt to produce a structured account of the past. It proclaims to tell us what really happened, but in most cases it fails to do that. Instead it is set to conceal our shame, to hide those various elements, events, incidents and occurrences in our past which we cannot cope with. History, therefore, can be regarded as a system of concealment. Accordingly, the role of the true historian is similar to that of the psychoanalyst: both aim to unveil the repressed. For the psychoanalyst, it is the unconscious mind. For the historian, it is our collective shame.”
As Hollywood and the White House eagerly embrace “Argo” and its propagandist message, they shamelessly and deliberately conceals a crucial aspect of this “historical” event. The glitter buries the all too important fact that the Iranian students who took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, proceeded to reveal Israel’s dark secret to the world. Documents classified as “SECRET” revealed LAKAM’s activities. Initiated in 1960, LAKAM was an Israeli network assigned to economic espionage in the U.S. assigned to “the collection of scientific intelligence in the U.S. for Israel’s defense industry” [ii].
As it stands, the purpose of the movie and its backers was to push the extraordinary revelations to the background while sending a visual message to the unsuspecting audience – to lay the blame of the potential (and likely) failure of the upcoming negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program on the Iranians -- the gun-wielding, bearded Iranians of “Argo” who deserve America’s collective punishment and the crippling, deathly sanctions.
Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich is a Public Diplomacy Scholar, independent researcher and writer with a focus on U.S. foreign policy and the role of lobby group.
[i] Martha Bayles, Wilson Quarterly, Summer 2005
[ii] U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Israel: Foreign Intelligence and Security Services, Washington, D.C., March 1979, p. 9 (typescript). The report classified SECRET, was released to the world by Iranian students who occupied the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979. Cited by Duncan L. Clarke, “Israel's Economic Espionage in the United States” (1998).
¿Por qué los judíos dominan Hollywood?
¿Por qué los judíos dominan Hollywood?
http://www.hispantv.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=214991
Actualizado: 26/02/2013 09:53 GMT
Los judíos forman solo el 2 % de la población estadounidense, sin embargo, se consideran la mayoría en Hollywood, escribe el diario suizo NZZ am Sonntag en un informe.
NZZ am Sonntag, en su informe, revela lo que pasa detrás de las cortinas de Hollywood y asegura, con detalle, que este emporio cinematográfico está bajo el dominio de los judíos.
Según el diario suizo, casi todos los estudios cinematográficos en EE.UU. están bajo la batuta de los judíos, e incluso, la mayoría de los miembros del jurado del premio Oscar, los guionistas y los famosos comediantes son judíos.
NZZ am Sonntag plantea una pregunta e intenta responderla. “¿Por qué los judíos ponen tanta atención al campo de la producción de películas?”.
Después de la llegada al poder de Hitler en Alemania, los judíos perdieron el control sobre los estudios cinematográficos germanos y austriacos, que hasta aquel entonces estaban dirigidos por ellos; entonces, se vieron obligados a huir a Estados Unidos y a afianzarse en su industria del cine, asegura el diario.
Los inmigrantes judíos, agrega la fuente, conocían concretamente los intereses de los ciudadanos norteamericanos. Por tanto, descubrieron el sueño de EE.UU. que actualmente es el principal polo de Hollywood.
Los judíos se esforzaban para que no se revelara su identidad, razón por la cual cambiaron sus nombres para pasar como estadounidenses. Como ejemplo se puede indicar a Hirsch Moses que cambió su nombre a Harry Warner.
Los judíos desempeñaban el papel de los nazis en las películas antinazistas, resalta un experto de Hollywood, que para corroborar su afirmación dice que, al echar vistazo a las películas de aquel entonces, se puede observar que los judíos jugaban el rol de los nazis.
A continuación, NZZ am Sonntag resalta que los críticos del judaísmo y del régimen de Israel carecen de lugar en Hollywood. Mel Gibson, el famoso director y actor estadounidense ha vivido esta realidad, pues, justo después de criticar a los judíos, fue rechazado por el estudio de los Hermanos de Warner para dirigir una película.
Los resultados de un sondeo de opinión, llevado a cabo en 2008 en EE.UU., revelan que los ciudadanos norteamericanos creen que los judíos dominan Hollywood. Se dice, incluso, quien aspira ser famoso debe casarse con una mujer judía, pues se considera un privilegio.
A modo de colofón, el diario suizo se refiere a la película antiraní Argo (de Ben Affleck), ganadora de la estatuilla dorada, como una prueba de la influencia de los judíos en Hollywood, pues, subraya los judíos son los protagonistas en el jurado del Oscar.
nab/nl/ab/
http://www.hispantv.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=214991
Actualizado: 26/02/2013 09:53 GMT
Los judíos forman solo el 2 % de la población estadounidense, sin embargo, se consideran la mayoría en Hollywood, escribe el diario suizo NZZ am Sonntag en un informe.
NZZ am Sonntag, en su informe, revela lo que pasa detrás de las cortinas de Hollywood y asegura, con detalle, que este emporio cinematográfico está bajo el dominio de los judíos.
Según el diario suizo, casi todos los estudios cinematográficos en EE.UU. están bajo la batuta de los judíos, e incluso, la mayoría de los miembros del jurado del premio Oscar, los guionistas y los famosos comediantes son judíos.
NZZ am Sonntag plantea una pregunta e intenta responderla. “¿Por qué los judíos ponen tanta atención al campo de la producción de películas?”.
Después de la llegada al poder de Hitler en Alemania, los judíos perdieron el control sobre los estudios cinematográficos germanos y austriacos, que hasta aquel entonces estaban dirigidos por ellos; entonces, se vieron obligados a huir a Estados Unidos y a afianzarse en su industria del cine, asegura el diario.
Los inmigrantes judíos, agrega la fuente, conocían concretamente los intereses de los ciudadanos norteamericanos. Por tanto, descubrieron el sueño de EE.UU. que actualmente es el principal polo de Hollywood.
Los judíos se esforzaban para que no se revelara su identidad, razón por la cual cambiaron sus nombres para pasar como estadounidenses. Como ejemplo se puede indicar a Hirsch Moses que cambió su nombre a Harry Warner.
Los judíos desempeñaban el papel de los nazis en las películas antinazistas, resalta un experto de Hollywood, que para corroborar su afirmación dice que, al echar vistazo a las películas de aquel entonces, se puede observar que los judíos jugaban el rol de los nazis.
A continuación, NZZ am Sonntag resalta que los críticos del judaísmo y del régimen de Israel carecen de lugar en Hollywood. Mel Gibson, el famoso director y actor estadounidense ha vivido esta realidad, pues, justo después de criticar a los judíos, fue rechazado por el estudio de los Hermanos de Warner para dirigir una película.
Los resultados de un sondeo de opinión, llevado a cabo en 2008 en EE.UU., revelan que los ciudadanos norteamericanos creen que los judíos dominan Hollywood. Se dice, incluso, quien aspira ser famoso debe casarse con una mujer judía, pues se considera un privilegio.
A modo de colofón, el diario suizo se refiere a la película antiraní Argo (de Ben Affleck), ganadora de la estatuilla dorada, como una prueba de la influencia de los judíos en Hollywood, pues, subraya los judíos son los protagonistas en el jurado del Oscar.
nab/nl/ab/
Teherán acogerá la III Conferencia de 'Hoolywoodismo y Cine'
Teherán acogerá la III Conferencia de 'Hoolywoodismo y Cine'
http://www.hispantv.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=208149
Actualizado: 04/01/2013 20:56 GMT
La capitalina ciudad iraní de Teherán acogerá en febrero próximo la III Conferencia Internacional denominada "Hollywoodismo y Cine", con la participación de cineastas y expertos iraníes y extranjeros.
El encuentro que se celebrará del 2 al 7 de febrero, pretende evaluar, como sus principales ejes temáticos, el propósito de la producción de películas antiraníes y antislámicas, por cinematógrafos occidentales; las estrategias para hacer frente al cine occidental y los vínculos entre el cine de Hollywood y el sionismo.
La conferencia abordará una amplia gama de temas como; el papel fundamental que juega el cine independiente en despertar la opinión pública a nivel mundial, lo que se ha evidenciado en movimientos populares recientes como “Occupy Wall Street” (OWS, por sus siglas en inglés), la explotación de las mujeres en las producciones cinematográficas de Hollywood y el Occidente, y la promoción de la decadencia, la violencia y otros comportamientos inmorales en estas producciones, entre otros temas.
Asimismo, durante el encuentro, los participantes examinarán los temas iranofóbicos de largometrajes como; 300, Argo y El Dictador.
Los participantes podrán enviar sus artículos hasta el 19 de enero, al portal de Web, www.hollywoodism.org , o a la dirección de correo electrónico info@hollywoodism.org .
Los tres mejores artículos presentados en este encuentro recibirán premios en efectivo, informaron los organizadores de la conferencia.
ah/kt/msf
http://www.hispantv.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=208149
Actualizado: 04/01/2013 20:56 GMT
La capitalina ciudad iraní de Teherán acogerá en febrero próximo la III Conferencia Internacional denominada "Hollywoodismo y Cine", con la participación de cineastas y expertos iraníes y extranjeros.
El encuentro que se celebrará del 2 al 7 de febrero, pretende evaluar, como sus principales ejes temáticos, el propósito de la producción de películas antiraníes y antislámicas, por cinematógrafos occidentales; las estrategias para hacer frente al cine occidental y los vínculos entre el cine de Hollywood y el sionismo.
La conferencia abordará una amplia gama de temas como; el papel fundamental que juega el cine independiente en despertar la opinión pública a nivel mundial, lo que se ha evidenciado en movimientos populares recientes como “Occupy Wall Street” (OWS, por sus siglas en inglés), la explotación de las mujeres en las producciones cinematográficas de Hollywood y el Occidente, y la promoción de la decadencia, la violencia y otros comportamientos inmorales en estas producciones, entre otros temas.
Asimismo, durante el encuentro, los participantes examinarán los temas iranofóbicos de largometrajes como; 300, Argo y El Dictador.
Los participantes podrán enviar sus artículos hasta el 19 de enero, al portal de Web, www.hollywoodism.org , o a la dirección de correo electrónico info@hollywoodism.org .
Los tres mejores artículos presentados en este encuentro recibirán premios en efectivo, informaron los organizadores de la conferencia.
ah/kt/msf
Cine A Contracorriente - Argo
Cine A Contracorriente - Argo
http://www.hispantv.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=208733
Actualizado: 09/01/2013 10:16 GMT
Argo, la nueva película de Hollywood protagonizada por Ben Affleck narra la historia de seis estadounidenses que, con ayuda de la embajada canadiense en Teherán, lograron salir de Irán en 1980 durante la llamada crisis de los rehenes.
Esta historia se ambienta en 1979 cuando los estudiantes revolucionarios iraníes, tomaron la embajada estadounidense como nido de espionaje de este país en Irán y secuestraron a 60 empleados y agentes norteamericanos bajo excusa de espiar para EE.UU.
La exportación de imágenes recreadas en la ficción, la confrontación y la satanización de Irán llegan a las pantallas del público sin la más mínima consideración de toda una década de guerras e intervenciones extranjeras en Oriente Medio, distorsionando la historia de lo que verdaderamente ocurrió en la crisis de los rehenes en un nuevo intento de la propaganda iranofóbica de Hollywood para redibujar el paisaje político de Irán a los espectadores y glorificar las hazañas de los Estados Unidos.
Oma/ab/
http://www.hispantv.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=208733
Actualizado: 09/01/2013 10:16 GMT
Argo, la nueva película de Hollywood protagonizada por Ben Affleck narra la historia de seis estadounidenses que, con ayuda de la embajada canadiense en Teherán, lograron salir de Irán en 1980 durante la llamada crisis de los rehenes.
Esta historia se ambienta en 1979 cuando los estudiantes revolucionarios iraníes, tomaron la embajada estadounidense como nido de espionaje de este país en Irán y secuestraron a 60 empleados y agentes norteamericanos bajo excusa de espiar para EE.UU.
La exportación de imágenes recreadas en la ficción, la confrontación y la satanización de Irán llegan a las pantallas del público sin la más mínima consideración de toda una década de guerras e intervenciones extranjeras en Oriente Medio, distorsionando la historia de lo que verdaderamente ocurrió en la crisis de los rehenes en un nuevo intento de la propaganda iranofóbica de Hollywood para redibujar el paisaje político de Irán a los espectadores y glorificar las hazañas de los Estados Unidos.
Oma/ab/
‘Lincoln’ con 12 nominaciones encabeza candidaturas a los Oscar
‘Lincoln’ con 12 nominaciones encabeza candidaturas a los Oscar
http://www.hispantv.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=208974
Actualizado: 11/01/2013 05:38 GMT
La última película de Steven Spielberg “Lincoln” y la fantasía en 3D “La vida de Pi”, de Ang Lee, compiten como favoritas para la 85 edición de los Premios Oscar, tras obtener 12 y 11 nominaciones, respectivamente, anunció el jueves la Academia de las Artes y Ciencias Cinematográficas de Hollywood.
"Los Miserables” y “El lado luminoso de la vida”, cada una con ocho candidaturas, “Argo” con siete también luchan por las estatuillas doradas que se entregarán el próximo 24 de febrero.
A estas películas les siguen “Amor", "La noche más oscura”, "Django desencadenado" y "Bestias del sur salvaje", mientras el drama "No", de Pablo Larraín, nominada como mejor película de habla no inglesa, podría dar a Chile su primer Oscar.
"El hecho de que haya tantas grandes películas este año supone un gran, gran espectáculo en los Oscar. No hay ni una sola película que esté por encima del resto", dijo el presidente de la Academia Hawk Koch, tras anunciarse las nominaciones.
Bradley Cooper (El lado luminoso de la vida), Joaquin Phoenix (The Master), Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln), Denzel Washington (El vuelo) y Hugh Jackman (Los Miserables) compiten en la categoría de mejor actor.
En cuanto al rubro femenino aparecen Naomi Watts (Lo imposible), Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty: La noche más oscura), Jennifer Lawrence (El lado luminoso de la vida), Emmanuelle Riva (Amour) y Quevenzhane Wallis (Bestias del sur salvaje).
Por otra parte, entre los mejores actores de reparto luchan Christoph Waltz (Django sin cadenas), Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master), Alan Arkin (Argo), Robert De Niro y Tomy Lee Jones (El lado luminoso de la vida).
Y en este rubro las actrices que emergen son Amy Adams (The Master), Sally Field (Lincoln), Anne Hathaway (Los miserables), Helen Hunt (Las sesiones) y Jacki Weaver (El lado luminoso de la vida).
nj/nl/nal
http://www.hispantv.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=208974
Actualizado: 11/01/2013 05:38 GMT
La última película de Steven Spielberg “Lincoln” y la fantasía en 3D “La vida de Pi”, de Ang Lee, compiten como favoritas para la 85 edición de los Premios Oscar, tras obtener 12 y 11 nominaciones, respectivamente, anunció el jueves la Academia de las Artes y Ciencias Cinematográficas de Hollywood.
"Los Miserables” y “El lado luminoso de la vida”, cada una con ocho candidaturas, “Argo” con siete también luchan por las estatuillas doradas que se entregarán el próximo 24 de febrero.
A estas películas les siguen “Amor", "La noche más oscura”, "Django desencadenado" y "Bestias del sur salvaje", mientras el drama "No", de Pablo Larraín, nominada como mejor película de habla no inglesa, podría dar a Chile su primer Oscar.
"El hecho de que haya tantas grandes películas este año supone un gran, gran espectáculo en los Oscar. No hay ni una sola película que esté por encima del resto", dijo el presidente de la Academia Hawk Koch, tras anunciarse las nominaciones.
Bradley Cooper (El lado luminoso de la vida), Joaquin Phoenix (The Master), Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln), Denzel Washington (El vuelo) y Hugh Jackman (Los Miserables) compiten en la categoría de mejor actor.
En cuanto al rubro femenino aparecen Naomi Watts (Lo imposible), Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty: La noche más oscura), Jennifer Lawrence (El lado luminoso de la vida), Emmanuelle Riva (Amour) y Quevenzhane Wallis (Bestias del sur salvaje).
Por otra parte, entre los mejores actores de reparto luchan Christoph Waltz (Django sin cadenas), Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master), Alan Arkin (Argo), Robert De Niro y Tomy Lee Jones (El lado luminoso de la vida).
Y en este rubro las actrices que emergen son Amy Adams (The Master), Sally Field (Lincoln), Anne Hathaway (Los miserables), Helen Hunt (Las sesiones) y Jacki Weaver (El lado luminoso de la vida).
nj/nl/nal
Monday, February 25, 2013
Irán produce una película en respuesta a 'Argo'
Irán produce una película en respuesta a 'Argo'
http://www.hispantv.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=209102
Actualizado: 12/01/2013 04:37 GMT
Ataolá Salmanian, un actor y director iraní, planea producir una película en respuesta al largometraje antiraní 'Argo', anunció el viernes la agencia de noticias Mehr.
Salmanian señaló que la película, titulada 'El Estado Mayor Conjunto', debe ser una repuesta adecuada a 'Argo', que refleja una historia distorsionada de lo que ocurrió en la crisis de los rehenes en 1979, en Irán.
'Argo', la nueva película de Hollywood protagonizada y dirigida por Ben Affleck, narra la historia de seis estadounidenses que, con ayuda de la Embajada canadiense en Teherán, capital persa, lograron salir de Irán en 1980 durante la llamada crisis de los rehenes.
Esta historia se ambienta en 1979, cuando los estudiantes revolucionarios iraníes tomaron la Embajada estadounidense, por ser un nido de espías de este país en Irán, y secuestraron a 60 empleados y agentes norteamericanos.
La exportación de imágenes recreadas en la ficción, la confrontación y la satanización de Irán llegan a las pantallas del público sin la más mínima consideración de toda una década de guerras e intervenciones extranjeras en Oriente Medio.
La película fue producida por Hollywood para redibujar el paisaje político de Irán a los espectadores y glorificar las hazañas de Estados Unidos, un intento más de predisponer a la opinión pública en contra del país persa.
ka/aa/
http://www.hispantv.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=209102
Actualizado: 12/01/2013 04:37 GMT
Ataolá Salmanian, un actor y director iraní, planea producir una película en respuesta al largometraje antiraní 'Argo', anunció el viernes la agencia de noticias Mehr.
Salmanian señaló que la película, titulada 'El Estado Mayor Conjunto', debe ser una repuesta adecuada a 'Argo', que refleja una historia distorsionada de lo que ocurrió en la crisis de los rehenes en 1979, en Irán.
'Argo', la nueva película de Hollywood protagonizada y dirigida por Ben Affleck, narra la historia de seis estadounidenses que, con ayuda de la Embajada canadiense en Teherán, capital persa, lograron salir de Irán en 1980 durante la llamada crisis de los rehenes.
Esta historia se ambienta en 1979, cuando los estudiantes revolucionarios iraníes tomaron la Embajada estadounidense, por ser un nido de espías de este país en Irán, y secuestraron a 60 empleados y agentes norteamericanos.
La exportación de imágenes recreadas en la ficción, la confrontación y la satanización de Irán llegan a las pantallas del público sin la más mínima consideración de toda una década de guerras e intervenciones extranjeras en Oriente Medio.
La película fue producida por Hollywood para redibujar el paisaje político de Irán a los espectadores y glorificar las hazañas de Estados Unidos, un intento más de predisponer a la opinión pública en contra del país persa.
ka/aa/
Irán Hoy - Argo, del mito a la realidad
Irán Hoy - Argo, del mito a la realidad
http://www.hispantv.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=211782
Actualizado: 01/02/2013 17:41 GMT
Para la mayoría de los estadounidenses, la historia de las relaciones de EEUU e Irán comenzó el 4 de noviembre de 1979, día en que unos estudiantes revolucionarios iraníes tomaron el control de la embajada norteamericana en Teherán, considerado uno de los incidentes más polémicos entre los Estados Unidos e Irán. Según la narrativa americana, una mañana de noviembre unos fanáticos locos iraníes - de la nada - tomaron en su poder la embajada de EE.UU. en Teherán y, con ella, decenas de rehenes estadounidenses inocentes durante 444 días, debido tan solo a que odiaban a los americanos sin motivo alguno. He aquí lo que no cuentan: Los Estados Unidos de América respaldaron, armaron y apoyaron el gobierno tiránico de Mohammad Reza Pahlevi, el Shá de Irán, desde hace más de 25 años, dándole asilo en tierras americanas tras la victoria de la Revolución Islámica de Irán. Esto dio lugar a numerosas protestas por parte del pueblo iraní que exigía la devolución del Shá para juzgarlo en tierras iraníes y al incidente de la toma de la Embajada estadounidense en Teherán.
El filme "Argo" relata, aparentemente, la operación de fuga de 6 diplomáticos estadounidenses tras la toma de la Embajada de los Estados Unidos, que, ayudados por el agente especial de la CIA, Tony Méndez, consiguen huir de Irán. Según el plan de Méndez, los 6 estadounidenses toman la identidad de un equipo de producción cinematográfico canadiense que viaja al Oriente Medio en busca de locaciones para una película de ciencia ficción llamada "Argo". Para presentar este plan como real, Méndez, elabora una compleja fachada que incluye un guión, afiches publicitarios, prensa y una compañía productora, en el que incluso aparece John Chambers, famoso caracterizador estadounidense.
Finalmente los 6 estadounidenses, con identidad falsa y pasaportes canadienses, cruzan la frontera de Irán a través del aeropuerto internacional de Mehrabad y con un vuelo de la línea Air-Swiss, escapan hacia Europa.
Pero esta no es toda la verdad...
eha
http://www.hispantv.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=211782
Actualizado: 01/02/2013 17:41 GMT
Para la mayoría de los estadounidenses, la historia de las relaciones de EEUU e Irán comenzó el 4 de noviembre de 1979, día en que unos estudiantes revolucionarios iraníes tomaron el control de la embajada norteamericana en Teherán, considerado uno de los incidentes más polémicos entre los Estados Unidos e Irán. Según la narrativa americana, una mañana de noviembre unos fanáticos locos iraníes - de la nada - tomaron en su poder la embajada de EE.UU. en Teherán y, con ella, decenas de rehenes estadounidenses inocentes durante 444 días, debido tan solo a que odiaban a los americanos sin motivo alguno. He aquí lo que no cuentan: Los Estados Unidos de América respaldaron, armaron y apoyaron el gobierno tiránico de Mohammad Reza Pahlevi, el Shá de Irán, desde hace más de 25 años, dándole asilo en tierras americanas tras la victoria de la Revolución Islámica de Irán. Esto dio lugar a numerosas protestas por parte del pueblo iraní que exigía la devolución del Shá para juzgarlo en tierras iraníes y al incidente de la toma de la Embajada estadounidense en Teherán.
El filme "Argo" relata, aparentemente, la operación de fuga de 6 diplomáticos estadounidenses tras la toma de la Embajada de los Estados Unidos, que, ayudados por el agente especial de la CIA, Tony Méndez, consiguen huir de Irán. Según el plan de Méndez, los 6 estadounidenses toman la identidad de un equipo de producción cinematográfico canadiense que viaja al Oriente Medio en busca de locaciones para una película de ciencia ficción llamada "Argo". Para presentar este plan como real, Méndez, elabora una compleja fachada que incluye un guión, afiches publicitarios, prensa y una compañía productora, en el que incluso aparece John Chambers, famoso caracterizador estadounidense.
Finalmente los 6 estadounidenses, con identidad falsa y pasaportes canadienses, cruzan la frontera de Irán a través del aeropuerto internacional de Mehrabad y con un vuelo de la línea Air-Swiss, escapan hacia Europa.
Pero esta no es toda la verdad...
eha
Comienza III Conferencia Internacional de “Hollywoodismo y Cine”
Comienza III Conferencia Internacional de “Hollywoodismo y Cine”
http://www.hispantv.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=212011
Actualizado: 03/02/2013 12:34 GMT
La III Conferencia Internacional “Hollywoodismo y Cine” ha comenzado este domingo en Teherán, la capital iraní, con la participación de distintos cineastas, artistas, teóricos y críticos internacionales.
En este evento multinacional, celebrado en el marco del XXXI Festival Internacional de Cine Fayr, que durará hasta el 7 de febrero, se analiza la actuación del denominado Hollywood o industria cinematográfica estadounidense con contenidos relacionados con la iranofobia e islamofobia.
En la inauguración participaron, entre otros el miembro de la Comisión de Educación de la Asamblea Consultiva Islámica de Irán (Mayles), Golam Ali Hadad Adel y el director de cine y documentales, Nader Taleb Zadeh.
Los principales objetivos de la conferencia son a saber: ‘La producción de películas antiraníes’, ‘las vías para hacer frente al cine occidental’ y ‘la relación del cine de Hollywood con el sionismo’, según ha indicado el secretario del evento, Golamreza Montazemi.
Se abordará también distintas películas occidentales, como Argo, ganadora del Globo de Oro 2013 a la mejor película de drama, que refleja una historia tergiversada de lo que ocurrió en la crisis de los rehenes en Irán en 1979.
mrk/cl/msf
http://www.hispantv.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=212011
Actualizado: 03/02/2013 12:34 GMT
La III Conferencia Internacional “Hollywoodismo y Cine” ha comenzado este domingo en Teherán, la capital iraní, con la participación de distintos cineastas, artistas, teóricos y críticos internacionales.
En este evento multinacional, celebrado en el marco del XXXI Festival Internacional de Cine Fayr, que durará hasta el 7 de febrero, se analiza la actuación del denominado Hollywood o industria cinematográfica estadounidense con contenidos relacionados con la iranofobia e islamofobia.
En la inauguración participaron, entre otros el miembro de la Comisión de Educación de la Asamblea Consultiva Islámica de Irán (Mayles), Golam Ali Hadad Adel y el director de cine y documentales, Nader Taleb Zadeh.
Los principales objetivos de la conferencia son a saber: ‘La producción de películas antiraníes’, ‘las vías para hacer frente al cine occidental’ y ‘la relación del cine de Hollywood con el sionismo’, según ha indicado el secretario del evento, Golamreza Montazemi.
Se abordará también distintas películas occidentales, como Argo, ganadora del Globo de Oro 2013 a la mejor película de drama, que refleja una historia tergiversada de lo que ocurrió en la crisis de los rehenes en Irán en 1979.
mrk/cl/msf
BAFTA galardona a Ben Affleck por “distorsionar la verdad”
BAFTA galardona a Ben Affleck por “distorsionar la verdad”
http://www.hispantv.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=213018
Actualizado: 11/02/2013 13:08 GMT
En 1979, cientos de estudiantes revolucionarios iraníes tomaron la embajada estadounidense, por ser un nido de espías de ese país en Irán, y secuestraron a 60 empleados y agentes norteamericanos.
El estadounidense Ben Affleck distorsionó los acontecimientos ocurridos en Irán y la Academia británica de cine y televisión (BAFTA) le concedió el domingo el premio a la mejor película del año.
La película antiraní ‘Argo’ de Ben Affleck recibió también el premio al mejor director y mejor montaje.
La película narra la historia de seis estadounidenses que con ayuda de la embajada canadiense en Teherán, capital persa, lograron salir de Irán en 1980 durante la llamada crisis de los rehenes.
El premio al mejor actor fue para el británico Daniel Day-Lewis por su actuación en la película ‘Lincoln’ del estadounidense Steven Spielberg, y la mejor actriz para la francesa Emmanuelle Riva, de 85 años, por su papel en la película ‘Amour’ del austríaco Michael Haneke.
El largometraje Amour también ganó el premio de mejor película extranjera.
La más galardonada de la BAFTA de este año fue el musical ‘Los miserables’, al ganar cuatro premios: maquillaje, sonido, actriz de reparto y diseño de producción.
zss/cl/nal
http://www.hispantv.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=213018
Actualizado: 11/02/2013 13:08 GMT
En 1979, cientos de estudiantes revolucionarios iraníes tomaron la embajada estadounidense, por ser un nido de espías de ese país en Irán, y secuestraron a 60 empleados y agentes norteamericanos.
El estadounidense Ben Affleck distorsionó los acontecimientos ocurridos en Irán y la Academia británica de cine y televisión (BAFTA) le concedió el domingo el premio a la mejor película del año.
La película antiraní ‘Argo’ de Ben Affleck recibió también el premio al mejor director y mejor montaje.
La película narra la historia de seis estadounidenses que con ayuda de la embajada canadiense en Teherán, capital persa, lograron salir de Irán en 1980 durante la llamada crisis de los rehenes.
El premio al mejor actor fue para el británico Daniel Day-Lewis por su actuación en la película ‘Lincoln’ del estadounidense Steven Spielberg, y la mejor actriz para la francesa Emmanuelle Riva, de 85 años, por su papel en la película ‘Amour’ del austríaco Michael Haneke.
El largometraje Amour también ganó el premio de mejor película extranjera.
La más galardonada de la BAFTA de este año fue el musical ‘Los miserables’, al ganar cuatro premios: maquillaje, sonido, actriz de reparto y diseño de producción.
zss/cl/nal
Colaboración cada vez más estrecha entre Hollywood y la CIA
Colaboración cada vez más estrecha entre Hollywood y la CIA
http://www.hispantv.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=213408
Actualizado: 14/02/2013 14:13 GMT
Cada vez es más frecuente la colaboración entre la Agencia Central de Inteligencia, la CIA y el cine de Hollywood.
La cartelera cinematográfica en México tiene un predominio de más de 80 por ciento de películas de Estados Unidos, incluidas las realizadas con propósitos imperialistas. Un movimiento de documentalistas agrupados en la Organización Ambulante, busca hacer del cine una herramienta periodística que permita a los espectadores, tomar conciencia de la situación.
Del Reino Unido a los Estados Unidos hay una sospechosa unanimidad en la entrega del premio a Argo, como mejor película. Como nos recuerda este cinéfilo, dos de las películas premiadas internacionalmente, Argo y Oscuridad Cero, están basadas en consultas a la agencia de espionaje estadounidense.
La revisión de la cartelera de una sala comercial, en un día promedio en la capital mexicana, muestra 16 películas estadounidenses por solo dos europeas y una mexicana. Hay pocas alternativas como la Cineteca Nacional, donde, por el contrario, el mismo día presentan una película turca, dos europeas, seis latinoamericanas y una sola de Estados Unidos, pero ésta, justificada por la palma de oro en Cannes.
Ramsés Ancira, Ciudad de México.
eha/hnb
http://www.hispantv.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=213408
Actualizado: 14/02/2013 14:13 GMT
Cada vez es más frecuente la colaboración entre la Agencia Central de Inteligencia, la CIA y el cine de Hollywood.
La cartelera cinematográfica en México tiene un predominio de más de 80 por ciento de películas de Estados Unidos, incluidas las realizadas con propósitos imperialistas. Un movimiento de documentalistas agrupados en la Organización Ambulante, busca hacer del cine una herramienta periodística que permita a los espectadores, tomar conciencia de la situación.
Del Reino Unido a los Estados Unidos hay una sospechosa unanimidad en la entrega del premio a Argo, como mejor película. Como nos recuerda este cinéfilo, dos de las películas premiadas internacionalmente, Argo y Oscuridad Cero, están basadas en consultas a la agencia de espionaje estadounidense.
La revisión de la cartelera de una sala comercial, en un día promedio en la capital mexicana, muestra 16 películas estadounidenses por solo dos europeas y una mexicana. Hay pocas alternativas como la Cineteca Nacional, donde, por el contrario, el mismo día presentan una película turca, dos europeas, seis latinoamericanas y una sola de Estados Unidos, pero ésta, justificada por la palma de oro en Cannes.
Ramsés Ancira, Ciudad de México.
eha/hnb
El exembajador de Canadá en Irán critica al guionista de “Argo”
El exembajador de Canadá en Irán critica al guionista de “Argo”
http://www.hispantv.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=213826
Actualizado: 17/02/2013 20:36 GMT
El guionista de la película “Argo” no tiene “ni idea de lo que está hablando”, así ha criticado duramente el exembajador de Canadá en Irán Ken Taylor, a este filme antiraní producido en EE.UU.
“La parte cómica es que el guionista (Chris Terrio) de Hollywood no tiene ni idea de lo que está hablando”, ha dicho Taylor durante una audiencia con estudiantes de la Universidad de Ryerson en Toronto, la capital de Canadá, según ha informado este domingo Presstv citando a la CBC.
Argo se apunta como candidato a la mejor película y el mejor guión de los premios Oscar, que se entregarán a finales de este mes.
La película de suspense, dirigida por el cineasta estadounidense Ben Affleck, narra el plan supuestamente histórico del exagente de la CIA Tony Mendez sobre el rescate de seis diplomáticos americanos durante la toma de la embajada de EE.UU. en Teherán (capital iraní) después de la Revolución Islámica de Irán en 1979.
Taylor, cuyo papel es interpretado por el actor canadiense Victor Garber, fue embajador de Canadá en Irán en 1979 cuando la supuesta operación se llevó a cabo.
De igual manera, el exdiplomático norteamericano ha puesto en tela de juicio la falta de veracidad que se representa en este filme pues, afirma que Argo “caracteriza a las personas de una manera incorrecta”.
En 1979, cientos de estudiantes revolucionarios iraníes tomaron la embajada estadounidense por ser un nido de espías en Irán y secuestraron a 60 empleados y agentes norteamericanos.
La película presenta imágenes recreadas en la ficción para redibujar un falso paisaje político de Irán mientras glorifica supuestas hazañas de Estados Unidos; un intento más a fin de predisponer a la opinión pública en contra del país persa.
msh/nl/hnb
http://www.hispantv.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=213826
Actualizado: 17/02/2013 20:36 GMT
El guionista de la película “Argo” no tiene “ni idea de lo que está hablando”, así ha criticado duramente el exembajador de Canadá en Irán Ken Taylor, a este filme antiraní producido en EE.UU.
“La parte cómica es que el guionista (Chris Terrio) de Hollywood no tiene ni idea de lo que está hablando”, ha dicho Taylor durante una audiencia con estudiantes de la Universidad de Ryerson en Toronto, la capital de Canadá, según ha informado este domingo Presstv citando a la CBC.
Argo se apunta como candidato a la mejor película y el mejor guión de los premios Oscar, que se entregarán a finales de este mes.
La película de suspense, dirigida por el cineasta estadounidense Ben Affleck, narra el plan supuestamente histórico del exagente de la CIA Tony Mendez sobre el rescate de seis diplomáticos americanos durante la toma de la embajada de EE.UU. en Teherán (capital iraní) después de la Revolución Islámica de Irán en 1979.
Taylor, cuyo papel es interpretado por el actor canadiense Victor Garber, fue embajador de Canadá en Irán en 1979 cuando la supuesta operación se llevó a cabo.
De igual manera, el exdiplomático norteamericano ha puesto en tela de juicio la falta de veracidad que se representa en este filme pues, afirma que Argo “caracteriza a las personas de una manera incorrecta”.
En 1979, cientos de estudiantes revolucionarios iraníes tomaron la embajada estadounidense por ser un nido de espías en Irán y secuestraron a 60 empleados y agentes norteamericanos.
La película presenta imágenes recreadas en la ficción para redibujar un falso paisaje político de Irán mientras glorifica supuestas hazañas de Estados Unidos; un intento más a fin de predisponer a la opinión pública en contra del país persa.
msh/nl/hnb
Ambiente político domina Premios Óscar 2013
Ambiente político domina Premios Óscar 2013
http://www.hispantv.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=214878
Actualizado: 25/02/2013 13:05 GMT
La película antiraní 'Argo' de Ben Affleck ganó el domingo el Óscar a la Mejor película en la 85 edición de los premios de la Academia.
El ganador ha sido anunciado por Michelle Obama, esposa del actual presidente de Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, momentos en que el ambiente político gobernaba más que nunca en estos premios.
La película se ha llevado además el Óscar al mejor guión adaptado por Chris Terrio y el de mejor edición para William Goldenberg.
La película de suspense narra el plan supuestamente histórico de Tony Mendez, exagente de la Agencia Central de Inteligencia estadounidense (CIA, por sus siglas en inglés), sobre el rescate de seis diplomáticos americanos durante la toma de la embajada de EE.UU. en Teherán (capital iraní) después de la Revolución Islámica de Irán en 1979.
Este mismo año, la embajada estadounidense fue tomada por cientos de estudiantes revolucionarios iraníes, por ser un nido de espías de ese país en Irán, y secuestraron a 60 empleados y agentes norteamericanos.
sj/cl/nal
http://www.hispantv.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=214878
Actualizado: 25/02/2013 13:05 GMT
La película antiraní 'Argo' de Ben Affleck ganó el domingo el Óscar a la Mejor película en la 85 edición de los premios de la Academia.
El ganador ha sido anunciado por Michelle Obama, esposa del actual presidente de Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, momentos en que el ambiente político gobernaba más que nunca en estos premios.
La película se ha llevado además el Óscar al mejor guión adaptado por Chris Terrio y el de mejor edición para William Goldenberg.
La película de suspense narra el plan supuestamente histórico de Tony Mendez, exagente de la Agencia Central de Inteligencia estadounidense (CIA, por sus siglas en inglés), sobre el rescate de seis diplomáticos americanos durante la toma de la embajada de EE.UU. en Teherán (capital iraní) después de la Revolución Islámica de Irán en 1979.
Este mismo año, la embajada estadounidense fue tomada por cientos de estudiantes revolucionarios iraníes, por ser un nido de espías de ese país en Irán, y secuestraron a 60 empleados y agentes norteamericanos.
sj/cl/nal
'Premio Óscar a Argo, es una medida politizada'
'Premio Óscar a Argo, es una medida politizada'
http://www.hispantv.com/detail/2013/02/25/214927/premio-oscar-argo-es-medida-politizada
Actualizado: 25/02/2013 20:53 GMT
El ministro iraní de Cultura y Guía Islámica, Mohamad Huseini, considera la película estadounidense “Argo”, ganador de un Oscar, como un filme "antiraní", que carece de valor artístico.
"Esta película antiraní carece de aspecto artístico y es muy débil desde el punto de vista del arte", ha señalado este lunes Huseini a la prensa en Teherán, asegurando que la nominación de la polémica película de Argo como la "Mejor Película del Año" en la 85 entrega de Premios de la Academia, es una medida politizada para que el largometraje atraiga mayor atención en todo el mundo.
El ministro iraní ha subrayado que la película ganó el premio a través de una enorme inversión y masivas propagandas con el fin de capturar más la atención internacional.
Asimismo, el titular persa ha recalcado que Irán debería producir películas que retraten la realidad de todas las personas en todo el mundo.
El domingo, el Óscar a Mejor película fue anunciado por la esposa del presidente estadounidense Michelle Obama en una comparecencia sin precedentes por videoconferencia desde la Casa Blanca.
La película de suspenso de Ben Affleck, narra el plan supuestamente histórico de Tony Mendez, exagente de la Agencia Central de Inteligencia estadounidense (CIA, por sus siglas en inglés), sobre el rescate de seis diplomáticos americanos durante la toma de la embajada de EE.UU. en Teherán, la capital iraní después de la Revolución Islámica de Irán en 1979.
Ese mismo año, la embajada estadounidense fue tomada por cientos de estudiantes revolucionarios iraníes, por ser un nido de espías, y detuvieron a 60 empleados y agentes norteamericanos.
fm/rh/msf
http://www.hispantv.com/detail/2013/02/25/214927/premio-oscar-argo-es-medida-politizada
Actualizado: 25/02/2013 20:53 GMT
El ministro iraní de Cultura y Guía Islámica, Mohamad Huseini, considera la película estadounidense “Argo”, ganador de un Oscar, como un filme "antiraní", que carece de valor artístico.
"Esta película antiraní carece de aspecto artístico y es muy débil desde el punto de vista del arte", ha señalado este lunes Huseini a la prensa en Teherán, asegurando que la nominación de la polémica película de Argo como la "Mejor Película del Año" en la 85 entrega de Premios de la Academia, es una medida politizada para que el largometraje atraiga mayor atención en todo el mundo.
El ministro iraní ha subrayado que la película ganó el premio a través de una enorme inversión y masivas propagandas con el fin de capturar más la atención internacional.
Asimismo, el titular persa ha recalcado que Irán debería producir películas que retraten la realidad de todas las personas en todo el mundo.
El domingo, el Óscar a Mejor película fue anunciado por la esposa del presidente estadounidense Michelle Obama en una comparecencia sin precedentes por videoconferencia desde la Casa Blanca.
La película de suspenso de Ben Affleck, narra el plan supuestamente histórico de Tony Mendez, exagente de la Agencia Central de Inteligencia estadounidense (CIA, por sus siglas en inglés), sobre el rescate de seis diplomáticos americanos durante la toma de la embajada de EE.UU. en Teherán, la capital iraní después de la Revolución Islámica de Irán en 1979.
Ese mismo año, la embajada estadounidense fue tomada por cientos de estudiantes revolucionarios iraníes, por ser un nido de espías, y detuvieron a 60 empleados y agentes norteamericanos.
fm/rh/msf
Argo wins Oscar in Hollywood’s dirty anti-Iran game: Analysts
Argo wins Oscar in Hollywood’s dirty anti-Iran game: Analysts
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/02/25/290790/argo-wins-oscar-hollywood-plays-dirty/
Mon Feb 25, 2013 7:7PM GMT
The granting of the Best Picture Oscar to the Iranophobic movie Argo has long been foreseeable as the Machiavellian maneuvering of Hollywood propaganda harbors a much more elaborate imperialistic scheme, political analysts say.
“I put my money on this film to win the Best Picture Oscar (even though there is nothing remotely “best” about it) especially if Obama can pull off winning the Presidential election,” wrote cultural critic Kim Nicolini in an article published in October 2012.
“Argo, above all else, is a piece of conservative liberal propaganda created by Hollywood to support the Obama administration’s conservative liberal politics as we move toward the Presidential election,” she said before Obama was re-elected for the second term.
“It also primes the war wheels for an American-supported Israeli attack on Iran, so that Leftists can feel okay about the war when they cast their vote for Obama in November (2012),” the critic pointed out.
At the 85th edition of Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, on Sunday, Michelle Obama, the US First Lady, announced Argo as winner of the Best Picture Oscar, live from the White House.
The thriller directed by US filmmaker Ben Affleck is loosely based on the allegedly historical account by former CIA agent Tony Mendez about the rescue of six American diplomats during the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The revolutionary Iranian university students who took over the US Embassy believed that the embassy had turned into a den of espionage which aimed to overthrow the nascent Islamic Republic establishment.
Argo only tells the rescue operation of the six Americans from the Canadian Embassy in Iran, with no mentioning of the 53 Americans who spent 444 days in the US Embassy.
Nicolini lashed out at Argo for completely neglecting to provide the Iranian’s side of the story, noting, “The film is a sanitized version of the events.”
She argued that “there is nothing authentic about the film’s manipulation of historical events,” and described the movie as “pure political propaganda.”
“Given the vast number of people who have died in the Middle East (Americans, Iranians, Iraqis, Afghanis, etc.), why should we give so much attention to 6 white American diplomats who were saved by Hollywood and the CIA? What about all the other people from so many cultural demographics who have and are continuing to be massacred, murdered and tortured daily?” the critic questioned.
One of the most disputed aspect of Argo’s version of events has to do with Canada’s role in the escape, as the film is considered to be a very inaccurate dramatization of a purported joint CIA-Canadian secret operation.
Former Canadian Ambassador to Iran Ken Taylor has heavily criticized the movie, saying, “The amusing side is the script writer (Chris Terrio) in Hollywood had no idea what he's talking about.”
He said Argo downplays the actual extent of the Canadian involvement which was considerable.
Taylor criticized Argo for incorporating a myriad of creative liberties that included the "black and white" portrayal of Iranian people and fabricated scenes, adding that Argo “characterizes people in a way that isn't quite right.”
The former Canadian envoy argued that Argo didn't portray “a more conventional side,” and “a more hospitable side” of the Iranian society as well, an “intent that they were looking for some degree of justice.”
Political analysts say Argo unmasks the elaborate US scheme to employ every medium in its propaganda apparatus to incite Iranophobia across the globe.
“Argo is an arrant instance of Hollywoodism. In point of fact, it is yet another attempt to foment Iranophobia not only in the USA but across the world as well,” Iranian academic Dr. Ismail Salami wrote in an article on Press TV website in November 2012.
“In recent years, Iranophobia has come to encompass a wider scope of media including cinema which is incontestably capable of exercising a more powerful effect on manipulating the audience,” he said.
The analyst also lashed out at Argo’s director for portraying a “stereotyped and caricatured view” of the Iranian society and noted that Affleck has consciously sought to ridicule “the very customs and traditions” of Iran.
In an interview with Press TV, top Iranian official Masoumeh Ebtekar who was a spokeswoman of the students who took over the US Embassy in 1979, says she initially thought that the film would be a balanced representation of events, but after seeing the film, she says it does not tell the story of the takeover as it actually happened.
“The group who took over the American Embassy were a group of young, very orderly and quite calm men and women ... The scenes that you see in Argo are totally incorrect,” Ebtekar said.
Iranian film critic Masoud Foroutan told Press TV that Argo was “politically-motivated,” noting, “The making of the film from the technical aspect is ok but the story is not authentic. The story is custom-made and you could see where it would end up. The film was a politically-motivated one.”
On the 19th of January 1981, the Algiers Accords was signed by the United States and Iran which secured the release of the American diplomats. A day later, the 53 Americans were released in Tehran and minutes later former US President Ronald Reagan was sworn into office.
Meanwhile, political observers contend that the US has always sought to keep the Algiers Accords hidden from the general public and it comes as no surprise as Argo makes no mention of the accords either.
ASH/MA/SL
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/02/25/290790/argo-wins-oscar-hollywood-plays-dirty/
Mon Feb 25, 2013 7:7PM GMT
Actor Jack Nicholson (left) presents the award for best picture to producer/director Ben Affleck for Argo during the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on February 24, 2013.
The granting of the Best Picture Oscar to the Iranophobic movie Argo has long been foreseeable as the Machiavellian maneuvering of Hollywood propaganda harbors a much more elaborate imperialistic scheme, political analysts say.
“I put my money on this film to win the Best Picture Oscar (even though there is nothing remotely “best” about it) especially if Obama can pull off winning the Presidential election,” wrote cultural critic Kim Nicolini in an article published in October 2012.
“Argo, above all else, is a piece of conservative liberal propaganda created by Hollywood to support the Obama administration’s conservative liberal politics as we move toward the Presidential election,” she said before Obama was re-elected for the second term.
“It also primes the war wheels for an American-supported Israeli attack on Iran, so that Leftists can feel okay about the war when they cast their vote for Obama in November (2012),” the critic pointed out.
At the 85th edition of Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, on Sunday, Michelle Obama, the US First Lady, announced Argo as winner of the Best Picture Oscar, live from the White House.
The thriller directed by US filmmaker Ben Affleck is loosely based on the allegedly historical account by former CIA agent Tony Mendez about the rescue of six American diplomats during the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The revolutionary Iranian university students who took over the US Embassy believed that the embassy had turned into a den of espionage which aimed to overthrow the nascent Islamic Republic establishment.
Argo only tells the rescue operation of the six Americans from the Canadian Embassy in Iran, with no mentioning of the 53 Americans who spent 444 days in the US Embassy.
Nicolini lashed out at Argo for completely neglecting to provide the Iranian’s side of the story, noting, “The film is a sanitized version of the events.”
She argued that “there is nothing authentic about the film’s manipulation of historical events,” and described the movie as “pure political propaganda.”
“Given the vast number of people who have died in the Middle East (Americans, Iranians, Iraqis, Afghanis, etc.), why should we give so much attention to 6 white American diplomats who were saved by Hollywood and the CIA? What about all the other people from so many cultural demographics who have and are continuing to be massacred, murdered and tortured daily?” the critic questioned.
One of the most disputed aspect of Argo’s version of events has to do with Canada’s role in the escape, as the film is considered to be a very inaccurate dramatization of a purported joint CIA-Canadian secret operation.
Former Canadian Ambassador to Iran Ken Taylor has heavily criticized the movie, saying, “The amusing side is the script writer (Chris Terrio) in Hollywood had no idea what he's talking about.”
He said Argo downplays the actual extent of the Canadian involvement which was considerable.
Taylor criticized Argo for incorporating a myriad of creative liberties that included the "black and white" portrayal of Iranian people and fabricated scenes, adding that Argo “characterizes people in a way that isn't quite right.”
The former Canadian envoy argued that Argo didn't portray “a more conventional side,” and “a more hospitable side” of the Iranian society as well, an “intent that they were looking for some degree of justice.”
Political analysts say Argo unmasks the elaborate US scheme to employ every medium in its propaganda apparatus to incite Iranophobia across the globe.
“Argo is an arrant instance of Hollywoodism. In point of fact, it is yet another attempt to foment Iranophobia not only in the USA but across the world as well,” Iranian academic Dr. Ismail Salami wrote in an article on Press TV website in November 2012.
“In recent years, Iranophobia has come to encompass a wider scope of media including cinema which is incontestably capable of exercising a more powerful effect on manipulating the audience,” he said.
The analyst also lashed out at Argo’s director for portraying a “stereotyped and caricatured view” of the Iranian society and noted that Affleck has consciously sought to ridicule “the very customs and traditions” of Iran.
In an interview with Press TV, top Iranian official Masoumeh Ebtekar who was a spokeswoman of the students who took over the US Embassy in 1979, says she initially thought that the film would be a balanced representation of events, but after seeing the film, she says it does not tell the story of the takeover as it actually happened.
“The group who took over the American Embassy were a group of young, very orderly and quite calm men and women ... The scenes that you see in Argo are totally incorrect,” Ebtekar said.
Iranian film critic Masoud Foroutan told Press TV that Argo was “politically-motivated,” noting, “The making of the film from the technical aspect is ok but the story is not authentic. The story is custom-made and you could see where it would end up. The film was a politically-motivated one.”
On the 19th of January 1981, the Algiers Accords was signed by the United States and Iran which secured the release of the American diplomats. A day later, the 53 Americans were released in Tehran and minutes later former US President Ronald Reagan was sworn into office.
Meanwhile, political observers contend that the US has always sought to keep the Algiers Accords hidden from the general public and it comes as no surprise as Argo makes no mention of the accords either.
ASH/MA/SL
Argo's Oscar is like Obama's peace prize: undeserved and grotesque
Argo's Oscar is like Obama's peace prize: undeserved and grotesque
http://stopwar.org.uk/index.php/iran/2269-argos-oscar-for-cia-propaganda-is-like-obamas-peace-prize-undeserved-and-grotesque
25 February 2013 Nima Shirazi Iran
"Argo", says Ben Affleck, is "a tribute" to the "extraordinary, honorable people at the CIA" -- currently waging an illegal, immoral, unregulated and expanding drone execution program.
By Nima Shirazi
Wide Asleep in America
23 February 2013
One year ago, after his breathtakingly beautiful Iranian drama, "A Separation," won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, writer/director Asghar Farhadi delivered the best acceptance speech of the night.
"[A]t the time when talk of war, intimidation, and aggression is exchanged between politicians," he said, Iran was finally being honored for "her glorious culture, a rich and ancient culture that has been hidden under the heavy dust of politics."
Farhadi dedicated the Oscar "to the people of my country, a people who respect all cultures and civilizations and despise hostility and resentment."
Such grace and eloquence will surely not be on display this Sunday, when Ben Affleck, flanked by his co-producers George Clooney and Grant Heslov, takes home the evening's top prize, the Best Picture Oscar, for his critically-acclaimed and heavily decorated paean to the CIA and American innocence, "Argo."
Over the past 12 months, rarely a week - let alone month - went by without new predictions of an ever-imminent Iranian nuclear weapon and ever-looming threats of an American or Israeli military attack.
Come October 2012, into the fray marched "Argo," a decontextualized, ahistorical "true story" of Orientalist proportion, subjecting audiences to two hours of American victimization and bearded barbarians, culminating in popped champagne corks and rippling stars-and-stripes celebrating our heroism and triumph and their frustration and defeat.
Salon's Andrew O'Hehir aptly described the film as "a propaganda fable," explaining as others have that essentially none of its edge-of-your-seat thrills or most memorable moments ever happened. O'Hehir sums up:
The Americans never resisted the idea of playing a film crew, which is the source of much agitation in the movie. (In fact, the “house guests” chose that cover story themselves, from a group of three options the CIA had prepared.) They were not almost lynched by a mob of crazy Iranians in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, because they never went there. There was no last-minute cancellation, and then un-cancellation, of the group’s tickets by the Carter administration. (The wife of Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor had personally gone to the airport and purchased tickets ahead of time, for three different outbound flights.) The group underwent no interrogation at the airport about their imaginary movie, nor were they detained at the gate while a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard telephoned their phony office back in Burbank. There was no last-second chase on the runway of Mehrabad Airport, with wild-eyed, bearded militants with Kalashnikovs trying to shoot out the tires of a Swissair jet.
One of the actual hostages, Mark Lijek, noted that the CIA's fake movie "cover story was never tested and in some ways proved irrelevant to the escape." The departure of the six Americans from Tehran was actually mundane and uneventful. "If asked, we were going to say we were leaving Iran to return when it was safer," Lijek recalled, "But no one ever asked!...The truth is the immigration officers barely looked at us and we were processed out in the regular way. We got on the flight to Zurich and then we were taken to the US ambassador's residence in Berne. It was that straightforward."
Furthermore, Jimmy Carter, US president at the time, has even acknowledged that "90% of the contributions to the ideas and the consummation of the plan was Canadian [while] the movie gives almost full credit to the American CIA...Ben Affleck's character in the film was only in Tehran a day and a half and the real hero in my opinion was Ken Taylor, who was the Canadian ambassador who orchestrated the entire process."
O'Hehir perfectly articulates the film's true crime, its deliberate exploitation of "its basis in history and its mode of detailed realism to create something that is entirely mythological." Not only is it "a trite cavalcade of action-movie clichés and expository dialogue," but "[i]t’s also a propaganda movie in the truest sense, one that claims to be innocent of all ideology."
Such an assessment is confirmed by Ben Affleck's own comments about the film. In describing "Argo" to Bill O'Reilly, Affleck boasted, "You know, it was such a great story. For one thing, it's a thriller. It's actually comedy with the Hollywood satire. It's a complicated CIA movie, it's a political movie. And it's all true." He told Rolling Stone that, when conceiving his directorial approach, he knew he "absolutely had to preserve the central integrity and truth of the story."
"It's OK to embellish, it's OK to compress, as long as you don't fundamentally change the nature of the story and of what happened," Affleck has remarked, even going so far as to tell reporters at Argo's BFI London Film Festival premier, "This movie is about this story that took place, and it's true, and I go to pains to contextualize it and to try to be even-handed in a way that just means we're taking a cold, hard look at the facts."
In an interview with The Huffington Post, Affleck went so far as to say, "I tried to make a movie that is absolutely just factual. And that's another reason why I tried to be as true to the story as possible -- because I didn't want it to be used by either side. I didn't want it to be politicized internationally or domestically in a partisan way. I just wanted to tell a story that was about the facts as I understood them."
For Affleck, these facts apparently don't include understanding why the American Embassy in Tehran was overrun and occupied on November 4, 1979. "There was no rhyme or reason to this action," Affleck has insisted, claiming that the takeover "wasn't about us," that is, the American government (despite the fact that his own film is introduced by a fleeting - though frequently inaccurate1 - review of American complicity in the Shah's dictatorship).
Wrong, Ben. One reason was the fear of another CIA-engineered coup d'etat like the one perpetrated in 1953 from the very same Embassy. Another reason was the admission of the deposed Shah into the United States for medical treatment and asylum rather than extradition to Iran to face charge and trial for his quarter century of crimes against the Iranian people, bankrolled and supported by the US government. One doesn't have to agree with the reasons, of course, but they certainly existed.
Just as George H.W. Bush once bellowed after a US Navy warship blew an Iranian passenger airliner out of the sky over the Persian Gulf, killing 290 Iranian civilians, "I'll never apologize for the United States of America. Ever. I don't care what the facts are." Affleck appears inclined to agree.
If nothing else, "Argo" is an exercise in American exceptionalism - perhaps the most dangerous fiction that permeates our entire society and sense of identity. It reinvents history in order to mine a tale of triumph from an unmitigated defeat. The hostage crisis, which lasted 444 days and destroyed an American presidency, was a failure and an embarrassment for Americans. The United States government and media has spent the last three decades tirelessly exacting revenge on Iran for what happened.
"Argo" recasts revolutionary Iranians as the hapless victims of American cunning and deception. White Americans are hunted, harried and, ultimately courageous and free. Iranians are maniacal, menacing and, in the end, infantile and foolish. The fanatical fundamentalists fail while America wins. USA -1, Iran - 0. Yet, "Argo" obscures the unfortunate truth that, as those six diplomats were boarding a plane bound for Switzerland on January 28, 1980, their 52 compatriots would have to wait an entire year before making it home, not as the result of a daring rescue attempt, but after a diplomatic agreement was reached.
Reflecting on the most troubled episodes in American history is a time-honored cinematic tradition. There's a reason why the best Vietnam movies are full of pain, anger, anguish and war crimes. By contrast, "Argo" is American catharsis porn; pure Hollywood hubris. It is pro-American propaganda devoid of introspection, pathos or humility and meant to assuage our hurt feelings. In "Argo," no lessons are learned by revisiting the consequences of America's support for the Pahlavi monarchy or its creation and training of SAVAK, the Shah's vicious secret police.
On June 11, 1979, months before the hostage crisis began, the New York Times published an article by writer and historian A.J. Langguth which recounted revelations relayed by a former American intelligence official regarding the CIA's close relationship with SAVAK. The agency had "sent an operative to teach interrogation methods to SAVAK" including "instructions in torture, and the techniques were copied from the Nazis." Langguth wrestled with the news, trying to figure out why this had not been widely reported in the media. He came to the following conclusion:
We – and I mean we as Americans – don’t believe it. We can read the accusations, even examine the evidence and find it irrefutable. But, in our hearts, we cannot believe that Americans have gone abroad to spread the use of torture.
We can believe that public officials with reputations for brilliance can be arrogant, blind or stupid. Anything but evil. And when the cumulative proof becomes overwhelming that our representatives in the C.I.A. or the Agency for International Development police program did in fact teach torture, we excuse ourselves by vilifying the individual men.
Similarly, at a time when the CIA is waging an illegal, immoral, unregulated and always expanding drone execution program, the previous administration's CIA kidnappers and torturers are protected from prosecution by the current administration, and leaked State Department cables reveal orders for US diplomats to spy on United Nations officials, it is surreal that such homage is being paid to that very same organization by the so-called liberals of the Tinsel Town elite.
Upon winning his Best Director Golden Globe last month, Ben Affleck obsequiously praised the "clandestine service as well as the foreign service that is making sacrifices on behalf of the American people everyday [and] our troops serving over seas, I want to thank them very much," a statement echoed almost identically by co-producer Grant Heslov when "Argo" later won Best Drama.
This comes as no surprise, considering Affleck had previously described "Argo" as "a tribute" to the "extraordinary, honorable people at the CIA" during an interview on Fox News.
The relationship between Hollywood and the military and intelligence arms of the US government have long been cozy. "When the CIA or the Pentagon says, 'We'll help you, if you play ball with us,' that's favoring one form of speech over another. It becomes propaganda," David Robb, author of "Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies" told The Los Angeles Times. "The danger for filmmakers is that their product — entertainment and information — ends up being government spin."
Awarding "Argo" the Best Picture Oscar is like Barack Obama winning a Nobel Peace Prize: an undeserved accolade fawningly bestowed upon a dubious recipient based on a transparent fiction; an award for what never was and never would be and a decision so willfully naïve and grotesque it discredits whatever relevance and prestige the proceedings might still have had.*
So this Sunday night, when "Argo" has won that coveted golden statuette, it will be clear that we have yet again been blinded by the heavy dust of politics and our American mantra of hostility and resentment will continue to inform our decisions, dragging us closer and closer to the abyss.
http://stopwar.org.uk/index.php/iran/2269-argos-oscar-for-cia-propaganda-is-like-obamas-peace-prize-undeserved-and-grotesque
25 February 2013 Nima Shirazi Iran
"Argo", says Ben Affleck, is "a tribute" to the "extraordinary, honorable people at the CIA" -- currently waging an illegal, immoral, unregulated and expanding drone execution program.
By Nima Shirazi
Wide Asleep in America
23 February 2013
Ben Affleck triumphant at winning the Best Picture Oscar for his CIA propaganda movie Argo.
One year ago, after his breathtakingly beautiful Iranian drama, "A Separation," won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, writer/director Asghar Farhadi delivered the best acceptance speech of the night.
"[A]t the time when talk of war, intimidation, and aggression is exchanged between politicians," he said, Iran was finally being honored for "her glorious culture, a rich and ancient culture that has been hidden under the heavy dust of politics."
Farhadi dedicated the Oscar "to the people of my country, a people who respect all cultures and civilizations and despise hostility and resentment."
Such grace and eloquence will surely not be on display this Sunday, when Ben Affleck, flanked by his co-producers George Clooney and Grant Heslov, takes home the evening's top prize, the Best Picture Oscar, for his critically-acclaimed and heavily decorated paean to the CIA and American innocence, "Argo."
Over the past 12 months, rarely a week - let alone month - went by without new predictions of an ever-imminent Iranian nuclear weapon and ever-looming threats of an American or Israeli military attack.
Come October 2012, into the fray marched "Argo," a decontextualized, ahistorical "true story" of Orientalist proportion, subjecting audiences to two hours of American victimization and bearded barbarians, culminating in popped champagne corks and rippling stars-and-stripes celebrating our heroism and triumph and their frustration and defeat.
Salon's Andrew O'Hehir aptly described the film as "a propaganda fable," explaining as others have that essentially none of its edge-of-your-seat thrills or most memorable moments ever happened. O'Hehir sums up:
The Americans never resisted the idea of playing a film crew, which is the source of much agitation in the movie. (In fact, the “house guests” chose that cover story themselves, from a group of three options the CIA had prepared.) They were not almost lynched by a mob of crazy Iranians in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, because they never went there. There was no last-minute cancellation, and then un-cancellation, of the group’s tickets by the Carter administration. (The wife of Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor had personally gone to the airport and purchased tickets ahead of time, for three different outbound flights.) The group underwent no interrogation at the airport about their imaginary movie, nor were they detained at the gate while a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard telephoned their phony office back in Burbank. There was no last-second chase on the runway of Mehrabad Airport, with wild-eyed, bearded militants with Kalashnikovs trying to shoot out the tires of a Swissair jet.
One of the actual hostages, Mark Lijek, noted that the CIA's fake movie "cover story was never tested and in some ways proved irrelevant to the escape." The departure of the six Americans from Tehran was actually mundane and uneventful. "If asked, we were going to say we were leaving Iran to return when it was safer," Lijek recalled, "But no one ever asked!...The truth is the immigration officers barely looked at us and we were processed out in the regular way. We got on the flight to Zurich and then we were taken to the US ambassador's residence in Berne. It was that straightforward."
Furthermore, Jimmy Carter, US president at the time, has even acknowledged that "90% of the contributions to the ideas and the consummation of the plan was Canadian [while] the movie gives almost full credit to the American CIA...Ben Affleck's character in the film was only in Tehran a day and a half and the real hero in my opinion was Ken Taylor, who was the Canadian ambassador who orchestrated the entire process."
O'Hehir perfectly articulates the film's true crime, its deliberate exploitation of "its basis in history and its mode of detailed realism to create something that is entirely mythological." Not only is it "a trite cavalcade of action-movie clichés and expository dialogue," but "[i]t’s also a propaganda movie in the truest sense, one that claims to be innocent of all ideology."
Such an assessment is confirmed by Ben Affleck's own comments about the film. In describing "Argo" to Bill O'Reilly, Affleck boasted, "You know, it was such a great story. For one thing, it's a thriller. It's actually comedy with the Hollywood satire. It's a complicated CIA movie, it's a political movie. And it's all true." He told Rolling Stone that, when conceiving his directorial approach, he knew he "absolutely had to preserve the central integrity and truth of the story."
"It's OK to embellish, it's OK to compress, as long as you don't fundamentally change the nature of the story and of what happened," Affleck has remarked, even going so far as to tell reporters at Argo's BFI London Film Festival premier, "This movie is about this story that took place, and it's true, and I go to pains to contextualize it and to try to be even-handed in a way that just means we're taking a cold, hard look at the facts."
In an interview with The Huffington Post, Affleck went so far as to say, "I tried to make a movie that is absolutely just factual. And that's another reason why I tried to be as true to the story as possible -- because I didn't want it to be used by either side. I didn't want it to be politicized internationally or domestically in a partisan way. I just wanted to tell a story that was about the facts as I understood them."
For Affleck, these facts apparently don't include understanding why the American Embassy in Tehran was overrun and occupied on November 4, 1979. "There was no rhyme or reason to this action," Affleck has insisted, claiming that the takeover "wasn't about us," that is, the American government (despite the fact that his own film is introduced by a fleeting - though frequently inaccurate1 - review of American complicity in the Shah's dictatorship).
Wrong, Ben. One reason was the fear of another CIA-engineered coup d'etat like the one perpetrated in 1953 from the very same Embassy. Another reason was the admission of the deposed Shah into the United States for medical treatment and asylum rather than extradition to Iran to face charge and trial for his quarter century of crimes against the Iranian people, bankrolled and supported by the US government. One doesn't have to agree with the reasons, of course, but they certainly existed.
Just as George H.W. Bush once bellowed after a US Navy warship blew an Iranian passenger airliner out of the sky over the Persian Gulf, killing 290 Iranian civilians, "I'll never apologize for the United States of America. Ever. I don't care what the facts are." Affleck appears inclined to agree.
If nothing else, "Argo" is an exercise in American exceptionalism - perhaps the most dangerous fiction that permeates our entire society and sense of identity. It reinvents history in order to mine a tale of triumph from an unmitigated defeat. The hostage crisis, which lasted 444 days and destroyed an American presidency, was a failure and an embarrassment for Americans. The United States government and media has spent the last three decades tirelessly exacting revenge on Iran for what happened.
"Argo" recasts revolutionary Iranians as the hapless victims of American cunning and deception. White Americans are hunted, harried and, ultimately courageous and free. Iranians are maniacal, menacing and, in the end, infantile and foolish. The fanatical fundamentalists fail while America wins. USA -1, Iran - 0. Yet, "Argo" obscures the unfortunate truth that, as those six diplomats were boarding a plane bound for Switzerland on January 28, 1980, their 52 compatriots would have to wait an entire year before making it home, not as the result of a daring rescue attempt, but after a diplomatic agreement was reached.
Reflecting on the most troubled episodes in American history is a time-honored cinematic tradition. There's a reason why the best Vietnam movies are full of pain, anger, anguish and war crimes. By contrast, "Argo" is American catharsis porn; pure Hollywood hubris. It is pro-American propaganda devoid of introspection, pathos or humility and meant to assuage our hurt feelings. In "Argo," no lessons are learned by revisiting the consequences of America's support for the Pahlavi monarchy or its creation and training of SAVAK, the Shah's vicious secret police.
On June 11, 1979, months before the hostage crisis began, the New York Times published an article by writer and historian A.J. Langguth which recounted revelations relayed by a former American intelligence official regarding the CIA's close relationship with SAVAK. The agency had "sent an operative to teach interrogation methods to SAVAK" including "instructions in torture, and the techniques were copied from the Nazis." Langguth wrestled with the news, trying to figure out why this had not been widely reported in the media. He came to the following conclusion:
We – and I mean we as Americans – don’t believe it. We can read the accusations, even examine the evidence and find it irrefutable. But, in our hearts, we cannot believe that Americans have gone abroad to spread the use of torture.
We can believe that public officials with reputations for brilliance can be arrogant, blind or stupid. Anything but evil. And when the cumulative proof becomes overwhelming that our representatives in the C.I.A. or the Agency for International Development police program did in fact teach torture, we excuse ourselves by vilifying the individual men.
Similarly, at a time when the CIA is waging an illegal, immoral, unregulated and always expanding drone execution program, the previous administration's CIA kidnappers and torturers are protected from prosecution by the current administration, and leaked State Department cables reveal orders for US diplomats to spy on United Nations officials, it is surreal that such homage is being paid to that very same organization by the so-called liberals of the Tinsel Town elite.
Upon winning his Best Director Golden Globe last month, Ben Affleck obsequiously praised the "clandestine service as well as the foreign service that is making sacrifices on behalf of the American people everyday [and] our troops serving over seas, I want to thank them very much," a statement echoed almost identically by co-producer Grant Heslov when "Argo" later won Best Drama.
This comes as no surprise, considering Affleck had previously described "Argo" as "a tribute" to the "extraordinary, honorable people at the CIA" during an interview on Fox News.
The relationship between Hollywood and the military and intelligence arms of the US government have long been cozy. "When the CIA or the Pentagon says, 'We'll help you, if you play ball with us,' that's favoring one form of speech over another. It becomes propaganda," David Robb, author of "Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies" told The Los Angeles Times. "The danger for filmmakers is that their product — entertainment and information — ends up being government spin."
Awarding "Argo" the Best Picture Oscar is like Barack Obama winning a Nobel Peace Prize: an undeserved accolade fawningly bestowed upon a dubious recipient based on a transparent fiction; an award for what never was and never would be and a decision so willfully naïve and grotesque it discredits whatever relevance and prestige the proceedings might still have had.*
So this Sunday night, when "Argo" has won that coveted golden statuette, it will be clear that we have yet again been blinded by the heavy dust of politics and our American mantra of hostility and resentment will continue to inform our decisions, dragging us closer and closer to the abyss.
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