Julian Borger

Julian Borger Washington, D.C.-based Guardian journalist. In August 2009, he was the Guardian's diplomatic editor.

Hawkish on Iran
Borger has published a series of articles about the Iranian "threat", e.g.,: The common thread running through these articles is an uncritical acceptance of the premise that Iran is actually has a nuclear weapons program. Ray McGovern, the former senior CIA official who briefed several US presidents, has indicated that the CIA, and even Ehud Barak, the Israeli Defense minister, all accept that the Iranians dropped their weapons program in 2003. Nowhere in Borger’s articles does one find any indication that Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapons program.
 * Israel will indeed strike Iran in 2012, UK Guardian, 25 January 2012.
 * Who is responsible for the Iran nuclear scientists attacks?, UK Guardian, 12 January 2012.
 * Iran, US and Israel announce new war games as tensions rise in the Gulf, UK Guardian, 6 January 2012.
 * IAEA due to expose Iranian nuclear weapons design and testing facility, 7 November 2011. (a photo of a nuclear mushroom cloud accompanies the article)
 * Iranian missile architect dies in blast. But was explosion a Mossad mission?, UK Guardian, 14 November 2011.
 * Iran may be researching nuclear warhead, claims watchdog, UK Guardian, November 2011.
 * Iran's nuclear ambitions have already started a war with west -- a covert one, UK Guardian, 3 November 2011. A critique of this article by Paul de Rooij can be found here. deRooj states: "'The title of this article is something to marvel at: 'Iran's nuclear ambitions have already started a war with west – a covert one.' First, it implies that Iran has a nuclear weapons program, and that Iran is the aggressor against the 'west'. NB: this statement comes a few days after Netanyahu and his cronies were trying to persuade each other to attack Iran. It is also during the same week that Israel tested a missile advertised as capable of being able to 'reach Iran.' In the article, Julian Borger takes it for granted that Iran is really trying to build nuclear weapons. Borger seems to know more than all the American intelligence agencies put together; they issued a NIE (National Intelligence Estimate) a few years ago confirming that Iran had abandoned its nuclear program in 2003. Furthermore, the uranium enrichment is for low grade materials destined for medical use. Borger neglects to state that Iran was willing to import its nuclear requirement to allay suspicions about a weapons program. Finally, about the facilities at Qom that Borger suggests are 'secret', it turns out that Iran reported them in time to the IAEA -- there is nothing secret about them. And what would Israelis do if some agency were to assassinate or kidnap its scientists? The response would be predictably violent. So, why does Borger report the assassination of Iranian scientists without a pixel of criticism? Hey, these murders are 'understandable'...What is also surprising in this article is that Borger neglects the constant war drumbeat of the Israelis and their local zionist acolytes, e.g., Emanuele Ottolenghi, who has been beating the war drums for several years now. Wouldn't it be relevant that the Israelis are pushing everyone to give them a green light, or that they are trying to get the Americans to fight yet another war for Israel? It also has a British angle, Liam Fox and his partner were meeting senior Mossad officials on this very topic... and today (November 4) we hear that the UK would actively support a US-Israeli strike...Julian Borger is not reporting on what is happening on the ground, nor is he trying to dispel some of the propaganda nonsense; Borger is merely rehashing the Israeli propaganda without a single critical element."
 * Obama administration 'supplied bunker-busting bombs to Israel', UK Guardian, 27 September 2011.

External Resources

 * Media Lens, Selective Outrage – Iran And Libya, 18 January 2012.
 * Media Lens, The IAEA, Iran And ‘Fantasy Land’, 24 November 2011.
 * Media Lens, An Existential Threat": The US, Israel and Iran, 2 September 2009.

Contact Details

 * Julian Borger - Diplomatic Editor
 * Office: +44 (0) 203 353 3579
 * Mobile: +44 (0) 7785760113
 * Blog: www.guardian.co.uk/world/julian-borger-global-security-blog
 * email: julian.borger@guardian.co.uk