Amir Taheri, who recently made news for spreading false rumors that a law had been passed in Iran requiring the country's Jews to wear identifying markers, now slings more B.S. in an article for Commentary* (B.S. eagerly seized upon by the right):

When things have been truly desperate in Iraq -- in 1959, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1980, 1988, and 1990 -- long queues of Iraqis have formed at the Turkish and Iranian frontiers, hoping to escape....

Since the toppling of Saddam in 2003, this is one highly damaging image we have not seen on our television sets -- and we can be sure that we would be seeing it if it were there to be shown.

Er, Amir?

Little known to the rest of the world, the recent war in Iraq has created large numbers of refugees who have fled to Syria, escaping the lawlessness, harassment, and persecution that has followed. Iraqis, some accused of supporting the Americans, cite attacks, kidnappings, and threats of murder by insurgent groups upon themselves and their families as reasons for their flight....

Now totaling an estimated 500,000, only a small fraction of these refugees have approached the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to apply for temporary protection from refoulement....

--Refugees International report, November 15, 2005

"We're very concerned because the displacement doesn't seem to be subsiding," said Dana Graber, IDP monitoring director for the International Organization for Migration in Iraq, which is tracking displacement trends and working with non-governmental organizations on relief efforts. IOM estimates that 70,000 people have been displaced since the February mosque bombing, and more than 165,000 individuals have left their homes since the war began.

Bill Frelick, the refugee policy director of Human Rights Watch who just returned from a trip to Jordan to assess the refugee situation from there, said his group estimates at least 750,000 Iraqi refugees are living in that country today.

--Fox News, May 17, 2006

An Iraqi vice president said on Friday 100,000 families -- perhaps some half a million people -- are living as refugees because of sectarian violence wracking the country....

--Reuters, April 28, 2006

See this on our TVs? Hell, we hardly see any Iraq news on TV at all these days.

(Via Memeorandum.)

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*UPDATE: Try this link instead.