Amir Taheri: tool

I just lost all respect for Amir Taheri. His story on Iranian jews being forced to wear yellow stars was false.

When a cause is just and honorable, it should be promoted with honesty. That people like Taheri, with gifts that they could bring to bear in support of worthy causes, resort to dishonesty, is a real tragedy.

UPDATE: The the false yellow stars story was already debated earlier at Dean's World. I don't think Taheri is a "neocon" (whatever definition of that we are using today) but I do think that he's long since left his original approach of rpeorting and analyzing, to outright spinning. Not to some nefarious end; he is a genuine believer in freedom, but unlike Fareed Zakaria, Taheri is not critical enough and allows his desired narrative to drive his journalism rather than the other way around. Ultimately, honesty and factuality is critical to the war on terror and Taheri is reduced to a propaganda tool rather than a positive contributor. I'm simply unable to rely on him.

Thank god for Zakaria's book.

UPDATE 2: More at Dean's World, including a healthy discussion where I debunk the claim that Taheri has been vindicated or has issued a retraction.