Ep. 95 Tareq Haddad on the OPCW Scandal on Syria’s Chemical Weapons, and Why He Resigned From Newsweek
Tareq Haddad was a (recently hired) reporter for Newsweek who was repeatedly rebuffed when trying to cover the emerging story of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) report on Syria. He eventually resigned. Tareq discusses how the US authorities pressured the OPCW to change the report to fit their desired narrative, and how powerful groups control the media narrative.
Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest:
- Tareq’s post giving the history of his time at Newsweek, and how the media narrative is controlled.
- The YouTube video of this interview.
- Jonathan Steele’s Counterpunch article on the OPCW scandal.
- Tareq’s new podcast, “Conversations.”
- Tareq’s Patreon account.
- Background on Operation Mockingbird.
- Help support the Bob Murphy Show.
The audio production for this episode was provided by Podsworth Media.
About the author, Robert
Christian and economist, Chief Economist at infineo, and Senior Fellow with the Mises Institute.
Excellent foray into the murky world of investigative journalism, Bob. This is quite a scoop, especially regarding the discussion about the designated censor in the newsrooms.
Regarding the Soleimani assassination, one thing which is very clear, is the extremely probable fact that the Saudis were the ones who, probably unknowingly, set up the trap to kill Soleimani, by inviting to meet with him to discuss peace. Considering the level of belligerence of the Turmp administration toward Iran, the likelihood that the ‘peace’ contacts between them and Iran were actually sanctioned by the US, or even more that they were done without US approval, is exactly zero.
BTW The Contra Cruise Roast ‘commercial’ is absolutely hilarious!!! LOL!!!
Thanks Chris (on all counts)!
.. errr meant to say that the chance that Saudi-Iran contacts were NOT sanctioned by the US was zero, of course. … and that the sole purpose of those ‘peace talks’ was to lure Soleimani to where he could be murdered.
Really great episode. I am interesting in seeing how the larger story plays out with all these journalists telling of their experiences with this type of censorship to see how pervasive this problem is.
I wonder how much Tareq is aware that he is venturing into the dangerous waters of the “Intellectual Dark Web”. Also, I think Bob’s idea of a book would be more helpful than another podcast – the mainstream people that need the truth don’t listen to podcasts (but maybe they don’t read either).