US officials demanded Iranian self-scrutiny while exempting their own behavior from it.

Evidence

But let us concede that the issue is not fairness but accuracy. The United States’ man-on-the-spot is advising Washington. What does he rely on? A handful of Orientalist clichés that could have been taken verbatim from Sir Alfred Lyall’s description of the Eastern mind, or from Lord Cromer’s account of dealing with the natives in Egypt. If according to Laingen, Ibrahim Yazdi, then foreign minister of Iran, resists the idea that “Iranian behavior has consequences on the perception of Iran in the United States,” which American decision-maker was prepared to accept in advance that American behavior had consequences on the perception of the United States in Iran? — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam, 107

Categorization

• XREF: The asymmetry-of-scrutiny point parallels the double standard Said critiques in Orientalism and echoes in the 1988 Coleman piece on signaling trust through names and surveillance.