Multiple Iranian and Iraqi News Sites Seized by US DOJ and FBI

Bond. James Bond.
Steed. John Steed
Peel. Emma Peel
Templar. Simon Templar
Seven. Number Seven
Poppins. Mary Poppins
Potter. Harry Potter
and anything with Michael Caine.

That's 7 and I dispute 3 of them.

Tom Cruise alone has played more than that.

Tom Cruise is a fairy. Michael Caine could take him with a single look.

Tom Cruise is hard as nails.

And single handedly plays more action heroes in blockbuster movies than the entire population of a small nation such as Canada.

you got me there.

Yeah but could he blow the bloody doors off?

yes... yes he could

Bad. Bad federal government. Stop spending money on covertly propagandizing There, happy?

"I think everyone should know who holds the reins in any kind of news agency, but that's not what the US is doing." The second half there is wrong. That's exactly what it's doing. What would you have it do instead? Force every American ISP to inject a warning into those webpages that what you're seeing on one of these sites is foreign propaganda? Somehow do it themselves? There is no way in hell that would survive any sort of First Amendment challenge, and is one giant technical leap towards some truly repressive Great Firewall shit.

I give a fuck what we do to other countries, but that's not at issue here, which is what makes it whataboutism. What's at issue is whether or not the US defending its citizens from other countries doing it is justified, and if this is doing that in the least restrictive manner. The answer is yes, and no amount of what we do to other countries in the same vein changes that.

You seriously underestimate the number of Canadian actors in the US.

Something about them having free health care to go back to if the acting gig doesn't work out.

Right now they're literally removing their .com domains. That's worse than a banner on the site (which Facebook and Twitter both do). The problem is what the US considers propaganda and what it considers legitimate news. The US government should not have the right to make that decision for others. Hell, I have friends in Iran whom I talk to regularly, and some of the things the US would call propaganda they would tell me actually happens. I would take their word over what the three letter agencies decide I should believe.

It does matter here, because what other countries do is often in reaction to what the US has done to them in the past. The US has burned a whole lot of shit to the ground in the name of peace and freedom. That matters, and relates directly to how we're treated now by nations that have felt our boot heel.

Also, something's really wrong with the quotes, and not just yours, but mine, too. Not sure what it is.

... by the UK, for Sweden, IIRC. And that for rape, not our issues with him. We still don't have him, do we?

And we've had this conversation already several times. He deserves to rot in a cell, and he definitely helped Russia, was paid by Russia, and worked with Russian Military Intelligence. Any reference to him as a journalist at this time is beyond naive.

I recall Chelsea Manning pleading guilty and having her sentence commuted by Obama after she served a fraction of the time she was due for breaking US espionage laws while a member of our armed services. And she was striped because of suicide watch, after she specifically stated she could hurt herself with her shorts or sandals if she tried.

Nope. Neither did yours. And weapon sales from both countries to Saudi Arabia weren't impacted. Of course, holding the entire nation responsible for the failing of Boris Johnson or Donald Trump is a fruitless exercise. We did have the CIA investigate and state unequivocally that the Saudi Crown Prince was responsble for this act.

The one 70 years ago?

We were supporting British Petroleum who was worried about Iran nationalizing their assets.

Because the British asked us to.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/8/18/uks-lead-role-in-1953-iran-coup-detat-exposed

I see you are still confused about the difference between private and state actors. It's a pretty easy concept. At this point I'd have to assume it's just willful ignorance.

If you equate that to Iran or Russian state actors posing as media, it's amazing you can type out your responses.

Wait. Isn't this entire thread about you blaming an entire nation for the actions of their leaders?

This thread has been very eye-opening.

LOL. You might want to check who started this thread. And who started talking about the vaccine. Hint: Neither were me.

This thread was started because someone stated the US was wrong for revoking Iranian domains - without a hint of understanding what that actually meant, or why it was being done.

They then dovetailed when shown to be absolutely objectively wrong about their claims to how evil the US is for denying Iran our free vaccine.

I said that Iranian state actors posing as US journalists should have their domains revoked.

I said that the US didn't have an obligation to help Iran at the expense of other countries that needed the help more and asked for it.

I pointed out that we were still helping indirectly by giving vaccine to the WHO to distribute, and that we were among the first countries to ensure any other country that wanted it had access to our research.

You tell me where I said that the Iranian people should be punished for the Ayatollah's *check notes* lack of denouncing something people want denounced.

Well.

There you have it.

Once again, an entire thread of conversation could have been eliminated if we had just asked @Demiurge first.

I like how I was shown to be absolutely objectively wrong. I didn't know we had such a hot shit in this forum.

Have finally figured out what the difference is between a domain and a website?

Your last response indicated, no, you haven't.

But sorry, I can't dumb it down any more. I did try, for your sake, though.

I know the difference between a domain and a website. Initial reports were that the FBI had seized everything and that they were running on their mirrors. You still think it's okay for the US to withhold vaccines from Iran?

Do you understand the difference between state and non-state actors here? And Facebook can't put a banner on the site, only on the previews of links there (or, I suppose, if they load them in a frame, but no one does that anymore). Ditto Twitter. Likewise the US government can't put a banner on arbitrary sites. Doing so would be far more draconian than requiring a FARA registration. And do you understand if they register as foreign agents and put that sort of banner (actually just fine print is all that's required) up themselves they'll be able to get their .com domains back? And they won't have to call themselves fake news or propaganda, just identify themselves as foreign agents and who their principal is.

See, it's this kinda thing that makes me think you really don't think that people should have the right, protected by a government, to know where their news is coming from.

Not relevant. No one's stopping you from getting your news from them. All that's relevant is whether they can lie to the American people about who they are.

Nope. Both are wrong to do it, and both are right to try to stop the other from doing it.

Forgot an opening quote tag, thanks. Fixed.

All they have to do is put the scarlet 'A' on themselves. That's like @Demiurge saying the US doesn't seize cargo ships, they just say what they're going to do if you don't comply, and then they're given the ship. Easy peasy.

Would there be a reason why they'd have to lie? The US pours so much into demonizing non-US compliant nations, that the judgment comes the moment they slap on the label, even willingly. I openly talk about being a communist, and there are still dumbasses who scream "STALIN!" because they've long since been conditioned to fear it. Being completely open and honest doesn't help when you're already considered the enemy.

I disagree on the basis that the US government shouldn't get to decide what I do and do not believe is propaganda. Same goes for any other country, including Iran.

No problem, it was just making things wonky.

CIA Democrats suck.

Bingo, if laughably overdramatic. I bet you can't even find KBS's FARA disclosures on their website.

Irrelavent, but as an aside, what you don't seem to get is that they're not given the ship, they're given the contraband oil, and the ship goes on its way. What Demiurge doesn't seem to get is you're opposed to the seizure of anything at all from Iran, so his argument is unlikely to convince you of anything.

Because they actually are engaged in disinformation campaigns, in which they're posing as American news, of course. If they weren't posing as American, they'd be just about ineffective. If they said they were agents of the Iranian regime, people would view their content with a much more critical eye instead of believing it uncritically and letting it rile them up the same way the IRA's Facebook ads did in 2016.

Of course! And that's definitely something worth complaining about. But it's got nothing to do with the justice of requiring labeling of foreign agents as such. See the lack of demonization of HNK or KBS, or all the American consultancies and lobbyists that do work for foreign principals.

The US doesn't. You are perfectly capable of disregarding the FARA disclosures. What you don't get to do is decide that no one else in America should know that these "American" sites are actually Iranian, or Russian, or whatever else.

I'm not sure how many times I have to say I don't care about FARA nor do I consider it anything other than propaganda gatekeeping. It allows propaganda from US approved outlets, like Israel, but prevents other agencies from pushing anything the US government doesn't like. That's all it is, and it's bullshit.

US: "Give me your wallet or else."
Iran: "No."
US: "Very well then, give me the money in your wallet, or else."
Iran: "Or else what?"
US: "Or else you find yourself swimming back to Iran."
Iran: *gives US money from wallet*
US: "See? Just cooperate and things will be fine."

Freedom and democracy™ around the world. Brought to you by the United States. Or else.

That's the crux of it. If someone's going to just believe any news uncritically, they might as well read tabloids. I mean, hell, people think MSNBC, FOX, CNN, and other US media arms are actual news, and there's no indicator that they're a mouthpiece of the US government, though with how they breathlessly report everything as if it's the truth, and how they have US government officials on being allowed to say whatever they want uncritically, it might as well be ran by the US government. Voice of America's been doing just fine for decades as a direct arm of the US government, and yet they claim to be independent journalists.

My problem is the US deciding for me based on what they think I should know. They want to replace what they see as someone else's disinformation with their own disinformation. I'm not okay with that.

News agencies which follow a US narrative are given clear preference. Now, you might say that would make sense, but it doesn't change the fact the US plays favorites with the labels based on how favorable they are to US policies. You might think that's okay, but I don't.

Yeah, you are capable of disregarding FARA disclosures, as long as you're ready for the US to seize your domain, just like you're free to travel through international waters as long as you're willing to let the US seize your cargo. Or else.

Re: the U.S. "withholding vaccines from Iran," am I missing something?

https://www.newsweek.com/irans-supr...ccines-takes-one-made-country-instead-1604188

Iran's Supreme Leader Forgoes Western COVID Vaccines, Takes One Made in Country Instead

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is forgoing Western-made COVID-19 vaccines and received the first ever vaccine manufactured in his country instead, according to a state TV report Friday.

Khamenei was vaccinated with Iran's pharmaceutical company Shifafarmed's COVIran Barekat vaccine. It was approved last week through emergency use authorization. Doses from the U.S. and the U.K. were banned by Khamenei in January, according to the Associated Press.

Khamenei declined inoculation from a foreign-made vaccine because he wanted to "wait for the Iranian vaccine because we have to be proud of this national honor," he said.​

Yes, where I talked with @Demiurge about why the US wouldn't send vaccines to Iran. He said the US could trade with whomever they wanted, and I said he thought withholding vaccines was just trade. Then I posted where most recently the former Queen of Iran, widow of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, had asked the US to please send vaccines to Iran because they were desperately needed, and a link showing Iran asking the US to inoculate foreign nationals since their own vaccines were being prioritized for medical staff.

Apparently, they've managed to produce their own in-house, because up to this point they've been buying from other nations, especially the AstraZeneca vaccine (produced in Italy). Good. I mean, they've been doing it despite US economic sanctions, and the US seizing their cargo, so good. I have no love for the supposed "Supreme Leader," fuck him up the ass, but the people of Iran deserve better, and it's not like the US has ever asked for permission from a foreign country before going in and doing what it wants anyway.

So they can do what they want, but only if Amaris signs off on it first.

It's amazing how off the mark you are.

I'm amazing!!

That was too wholesome. I'm going to let you have that one.

Wait ... the U.S. is the bad guy because the widow of the Shah who was deposed 42 years ago, who holds no office in the Iranian government and who divides her time between Paris and Washington, requested that vaccines be sent to Iran?

Does her statement somehow override the Ayatollah forbidding U.S. vaccines from entering the country? I can't see how.