Defining War Crimes Down: Major Press Organizations Ignore Iranian Violations

Those following the war in Iran through major English-language press organizations are getting a distorted image of the conflict. According to analysis of their reporting, America, Israel, or both are being charged with “war crimes,” but never the Tehran regime alone despite numerous atrocities that qualify.Wednesday on MS NOW, a Massachusetts Democrat, Congressman Seth Moulton, accused President Trump of “resorting to war crimes” in Iran. Yet like other critics, he was silent on Tehran’s actions. It’s a public relations coup for a regime long regarded as the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism. On Thursday, a letter signed by 100 self-described “international law experts” accused America and Israel of “potential war crimes.” The signatories allowed that they “remain concerned about the risk of atrocities … posed by the Iranian government,” but limited allegations of war crimes to Washington and Jerusalem. The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis, known as Camera, shed light on how this skewed perception became conventional wisdom. As they studied reporting by CNN, NBC, the BBC, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, a picture of bias in favor of Iran emerged. In a statement on Saturday, Camera wrote that they “found 32 total applications of the phrase ‘war crime’” over the first three weeks of the conflict. Twenty-eight “were directed solely toward the actions of the United States and/or Israel.” Not one was “directed solely toward” Iran. The remaining four went unattributed or blamed all sides. “The disproportionate application of the phrase” war crime, Camera wrote, “stands in contrast with reality.” The non-profit noted that “almost all” references to “war crimes” were for the strike at Minab, Iran, “which allegedly hit a school building … originally part of an adjacent military base,” which put students in danger. Iran’s propaganda machine casts the tragedy as a deliberate American attack, akin to accusing the Allies of murdering the 20,000 French civilians killed at the Battle of Normandy. “Several of the other allegations,” Camera said, “refer to the sinking of an Iranian warship … in what can assuredly be classified as a lawful attack.” This columnist wrote about Iran having success framing that sinking of the IRIS Dena as an “atrocity.” Iran International later reported that America twice warned the ship to stay in port and that one sailor told his father that the crew argued with their commander about leaving safe harbor. Camera wrote that Iran also “escaped the media’s ‘war crimes’ focus” for firing hundreds of missiles armed with cluster munitions — banned under a 2008 international convention — at Israel. On Monday, Human Rights Watch said Iran “repeatedly used inherently indiscriminate cluster munitions … which violate the laws of war and may amount to war crimes.”Where the United States Central Command issued a “safety warning” to Iranian civilians, Iran has rained drones and missiles on hotels, airports, and civilian energy infrastructure across the region, including a school at Azerbaijan which — like Iran’s other victims — is neutral. Tehran has also fired on “at least 16 tanker, cargo, and commercial ships” in the Strait of Hormuz, Camera reported, violating the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea guaranteeing free passage for shipping. Like Iran’s mass slaughter of civilians, this wasn’t called a war crime, either.Iran, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies reported on March 6, is also “using heavily populated civilian areas to conduct military operations.” Hiding behind human shields is yet another war crime; so is using child soldiers, which Iran deployed to clear minefields during its war with Iraq in the 1980s. On Thursday, Amnesty International called Tehran recruiting children as young as 12 “a grave violation of international humanitarian law amounting to a war crime.” Camera notes that “in the rare case where Iran was included in the discussion of war crimes, the authors inevitably balanced it with an equal charge against” America and Israel. In the Iran conflict, “war crimes” have been reduced to just another selective outrage. Those hoping for a clear picture of the conflict are now on notice, thanks to Camera, that major English-language press organizations have been reporting reality through a distorted lens that favors the regime at Tehran.

Defining War Crimes Down: Major Press Organizations Ignore Iranian Violations

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