The difference between misinformation and disinformation is simple: you have disinformation from Russia, while I was merely misinformed by my sources. Now, disinformation from Russia is a real thing. The Russians call it “active measures”, a phrase used by political scientist Thomas Rid as the title of his book on the subject. I found it highly informative, and hopefully it is true too. Or was I disinformed?

Misinformation, getting it wrong, easily turns into disinformation, deliberately making it up. If you watch a White House press conference — though why anyone would if they weren’t paid to is beyond me — you can see it happening in real time. Politics is about winning. No one likes a loser, especially in America.

Robert Malley, the Special Envoy to Iran and longtime confidant of the grievously misunderstood Hamas and Hezbollah, has been having a hard time. His professional reputation as a diplomat will stand or fall on the nuclear talks in Vienna, and it is not looking good. So not good, in fact, that he may have to end his days teaching in a university, which is where they send diplomats whose dreams have collapsed under the pressure of reality.

If the Iranian regime ever intended to submit to a revived nuclear treaty, they have no incentive to do so now. The Iranians are supposed to be canny negotiators but, to their credit, they’ve been quite candid in Vienna about not wanting to revert to the old deal, even as they’ve been secretly spinning centrifuges, building rockets and hiding nuclear labs under mountains back home. It’s the Americans who have been both unserious and dishonest.

Malley and his team have repeatedly assured Congressional committees and the US media that a revived deal is within reach. They have declared their red lines, then done their best to pass them: floating the idea of taking the Revolutionary Guards off the terrorism list, for instance, or promising to lift sanctions when they know that Congress will reinstate them. This cannot be disinformation, because only the Russians do that, so Malley’s team must have been misinformed, apparently by itself. Officials might have better informed themselves by watching the new series of Tehran, which is where I get my information on Iran.

Instead, they have offered further concessions to Tehran — the place, not the TV series — even as the administration launched its proxy war with Russia, without whose co-operation an Iran deal cannot be made. They even offered concessions to Russia after the beginning of the war in Ukraine: one part of the State Department actively undermining another.

Last week, footage emerged in which Malley pronounced: “Hezbollah and Hamas, there is so much misinformation there”. These charming and sadly misunderstood groups have, he explained, “their own rationality” and “none of them are crazies”. They’re just different—part of the rich and explosive-packed diversity of political fauna. Hezbollah and Hamas are both on the State Department’s list of terrorist organisations.

Malley is on the State Department’s list of employees. Hezbollah and Hamas are also on the Iranian government’s payroll. Malley would rather empower them, and slide from misinformation to disinformation, than admit that he is wrong.

The Biden administration has reached the watershed between getting it wrong and making it up faster than any administration in living memory. This is because they had a head start. Other administrations have to find their feet before they can put a foot wrong.

But Biden’s team is Obama’s team after four years of R&R in various think tanks under Trump.
Which is information, misinformation and disinformation? The information is that the Biden administration is pettily peeved by the Israeli-Arab reconciliations that began with the Abraham Accords, and continued in recent days with the Israel-UAE trade deal.

The misinformation is that Iran will consent to a revived nuclear deal on the same terms. The disinformation, which we’re about to hear, is that the deal would have worked out but Israel and its supporters in Congress blocked it. As to what’s really going on between Israel and Iran, I refer you to Tehran. The TV show.