Juan Cole, president of the U.S. Middle East Studies Association (MESA), described the [Amir] Taheri article and its appearance first in Canada's
Post as "typical of black psychological operations campaigns", particularly in its origin in an "out-of-the-way newspaper that is then picked up by the mainstream press" - in this case, the
Jerusalem Post and the
New York Post. A former U.S. intelligence official described the article's relatively obscure provenance as a "real sign of [a] disinformation operation."...
Taheri is a member of Benador Associates, a public relations firm that lists a large number of leading neo-conservatives, including American Enterprise Institute associates Richard Perle, David Frum, Michael Ledeen and Joshua Muravchik, among its clients.
