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Iranians buying American juice. The New York Times is opposed. Atta Kenare/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images.
The New York Times has a new investigative piece about how numerous American corporations have received exemptions from the U.S. Treasury to float U.S. sanctions against Iran. But what is unsettling about the Times' story is that it is framed as if this were some great scandal and an egregious offense against American law. Like it is some corporatist conspiracy with corrupt bureaucratic collusion to undermine noble Iran sanctions solely for purposes of profit. That Congress better act soon to stop such an offense.
The tone of the headline and piece makes it clear that the anti-Iran, pro-Israel folk at the Times are angry that punishing and cruel sanctions against Iran are being undermined. They want the Iranian people to suffer more. Apparently half a million Iraqi lives lost in the 1990s to U.S. sanctions wasn't enough. Let there be another half a million or more Muslims dead.
The headline reads: "U.S. Approved Business With Blacklisted Nations"
That right there sets the tone, Blacklisted Nations - it just sounds so nefarious.
The first paragraph reads: "Despite sanctions and trade embargoes, over the past decade the United States government has allowed American companies to do billions of dollars in business with Iran and other countries blacklisted as state sponsors of terrorism, an examination by The New York Times has found."
"Blacklisted" and "terrorism" all such language upfront is meant to strike you as this being a bad thing. That it is wrong to trade with Iran - a 'state sponsor of terrorism' - and that American corporations only do so for billions in profit. Again the aforementioned corrupt image.
Until you read this: "Most of the licenses were approved under a decade-old law mandating that agricultural and medical humanitarian aid be exempted from sanctions."
The Times is outraged. How dare U.S. sanctions provide for humanitarian exemptions?! This lousy paper cheered on its front-page for an Iraq war and now it is engaging in the dehumanization of Iran hoping to stifle the people there more.
