War Pimp Deja Vu Alert

By Cernig

The same old tales are being trotted out by war-hawks and their media enablers again - after all, if they worked for war on Iraq they'll work for war on Iran, right?

Today, Murdoch's London Times has a report by Daniel Foggo - headlined ‘Germ warfare’ fear over African monkeys taken to Iran - which tries hard to imply that Iran is conducting clandestine biowarfare research using African monkeys caught in the wild, based on not a thing more than the suspicions of the Tanzanian selling them the monkeys.

Manji said scientists at the Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute in Iran had bought 215 vervet monkeys from him this year but he had become suspicious about their true motive, although he was still trading with them. They had “spent a lot of money” on getting the monkeys, even sending over scientists to check on each consignment.

“Iran is very secretive,” said Manji, who has been exporting monkeys for 22 years. “They said it [the monkeys] was for ‘our country’, for vaccine. [They said] ‘We don’t buy vaccine from anywhere; we prepare our own vaccine’.

“But I think they use it for something else. You know why? Because they don’t go on kilos. Iran wants [monkeys weighing] 1.5kg to 2.5kg, [but] 1.5kg for vaccine is not possible.”

Rubibira indicated that finding out what the Iranians wanted the monkeys for would be difficult. “They cannot say, you know. They are secretive. They wouldn’t tell the truth.”

The revelation will fuel speculation that the monkeys may be used for research involving biological weapons. Primates are typically used by scientists wishing to test both the effectiveness of germ warfare agents and defences against them.

The Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, which has its headquarters in Karaj, near Tehran, has been accused in the past by an Iranian opposition group of conducting biological weapons testing.

That "opposition group" doubtless being the utterly-nutterly Mujahedeen e-Kalq, who have previously accused Iran of all kinds of stuff - including super-secter tunnel complexes and actual nuclear warheads -which was dutifully reported by the Times and others but turned out on investigation by IAEA inspectors to be entirely fictitious.

But if you think you've heard this kind of implication based on suspicions about dual-use materials before...well, you have. The same kind of stuff was used as part of the justification for invading Iraq, when the Amiriyah Serum and Vaccine Institute was spuriously singled out as a hotbed of secret biowarfare research.

So keep reading that Times article:

It is unclear exactly which type of vaccine the Razi scientists are claiming to be using the vervets for, but the World Health Organisation guidelines on the production of polio vaccine state that vervet monkeys used for testing it should weigh a minimum of 1.5kg.

However, the monkeys’ kidney cells can also be used to produce the vaccine, in which case the weight is not relevant.

...America, Russia, China and Iran are among the countries still using wild monkeys.

Ah. War pimping. It never gets old, does it?

(Foggo himself recently moved from the UK's Sunday Telegraph newspaper, where his journalistic instincts led him to falsely offer a valet to Prince Charles large sums of money if he would change his story and perjure himself on alleged Princely indiscretions.)

H/T to Kat

Comments

[ff11]

Interestingly, the Razi Institute has been conducting medical research and producing commercial vaccines for 83 years. This is not a fly by night or military operation.

[Kirk]

Looks like someone just read a Tom Claney book.
http://www.amazon.com/Executive-Orders-Jack-Ryan-Novels/dp/product-description/0425158632

[bert]

A monkey is the president of the USA since 2001. Maybe iranians are developping a new policy? That could be some kind of a "regime change"? Or a secret spy program, first you brainwash two monkeys, then you send them in the US, one to the democratic party, the other one to the republican?
Maybe those monkeys are alredy US spies, inserted in african jungle in order to secretely being embedded in iranian's absolutely horrendous military programs?