Gordon Duff, a columnist for Iran’s state-controlled English-language media outlet PRESSTV, penned an article Tuesday claiming that the CIA is responsible for the outcome of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
Duff’s hypothesis is based on his claim that the CIA can remotely pilot a Boeing 777-200 at will and, therefore, is not only responsible but directly involved in the fate of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. He claimed to have verified the fact that the CIA can remotely pilot the airliners with defense contractors Boeing and Raytheon, along with “commercial pilots.”
In the section titled “9/11 all over again,” Duff notes, “This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. When four airliners ‘disappeared’ on 9/11 much of what we are seeing today occurred then, but with far less technology being denied and suppressed.”
Duff also works as a senior editor for Veterans Today, a notoriously anti-Israel and anti-semitic outlet that often perpetuates and promulgates radical conspiracy theories. The majority of writers on staff at Veterans Today have promoted multiple 9/11 conspiracy theories, but they have yet to form a consensus as to whether the Israeli Mossad, American CIA, or both were involved in the operation.
On PRESSTV on December 18, 2012, Duff was asked to weigh in on the tragedy that had occurred four days earlier at Sandy Hook Elementary School. During a segment titled “Israeli death squads involved in Sandy Hook bloodbath: Intelligence analyst,” Duff argued that “Zionist interests” were behind the shooting. “Thus the world (and Americans in particular) is having to come to terms with the nasty evidence that, in order to further Zionist interests by initiating a general war against Islam, the CIA and Mossad were heavily involved in the murder of three thousand Americans,” he said.
When the government shut down this past October, Duff predictably blamed Israel. In a PRESSTV appearance titled “Israel lobby responsible for US shutdown,” Duff said, “Israel loves the image of having this great superpower basically strolling around town like a dog on a leash with Israel holding onto that leash.”
In Iran, there are no constitutional protections guaranteeing free speech. The Ayatollah Khamenei has ruled over Iran’s populace unelected as the country’s “Supreme Leader” since 1989. Iran’s deficit in basic human rights recognitions renders a free media within its borders an impossibility. PRESSTV is one of the many arms of Iran’s English-language media structure, designed to disburse the propaganda and disinformation of the regime at will.