| Author | Message | | Alpha | |  | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2005 5:57 am Post subject: |
| Cheney Orders STRATCOM To Prepare Nuclear Attack Against Iran
Politcal activists and observers have sent out a "world wide red alert' in response to what they called Cheney's "Hitler-like" state of mind.
July 28, 2005
By Greg Szymanski
A number of political observers and activists today sounded ‘a red alert’ after rumors surfaced this week Vice President Dick Cheney directly ordered Strategic Command (STRATCOM) to make contingency plans for a nuclear strike against Iran in the aftermath of another ‘9/11 type attack' on America.
Cheney's orders first surfaced in an article by Philip Geraldi in the Aug 1, 2005, issue of The American Conservative. Giraldi was unavailable for comment, but excerpts of the article went on to say:
“Vice President Cheney's office has specifically told the Pentagon that the military should be prepared for an attack on Iran in the immediate aftermath of "another 9-11." That's "not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the United States," notes Giraldi's article.
The statement was then distributed widely over the internet as a number of political observers have issued “world wide” warning statements,” declaring Cheney's order to be interpreted as “sounding the bell for World War III.”
In response to Cheney's order, outspoken political activist and former candidate for U.S. President, Lyndon La Rouche, Wednesday issued a “world wide” internet warning covering the time period of August 2005, saying:
“Vice President Dick Cheney, with the full collusion of the circles of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, to unleash the recently exposed plans to stage a preemptive tactical nuclear strike against Iran.
“The danger of such a mad, Hitler-in-the-bunker action from the Cheney circles would be even further heightened, were the United States Congress to stick with its present schedule, and go into recess on July 30 until September 4. With Congress out of Washington, the Cheney-led White House would almost certainly unleash a "Guns of August" attack on Iran.”
In the warning distributed widely throughout the world on July 27, LaRouche based his alarming assessment on a series of factors reported to him over the recent days, beginning with the qualified report, from a former U.S. intelligence official, published in the American Conservative magazine.
The report claims that Cheney already ordered the Strategic Command to prepare contingency plans for a conventional and tactical nuclear strike against hundreds of targets in Iran, in the event of a "new 9/11-style attack" on the United States.
And as reported several months ago, La Rouche said the Bush Administration, under CONPLAN 8022, had already placed the relevant "mini-nukes" under the control of theater military commanders, as part of a new Global Strike doctrine, a doctrine originally conceived when Dick Cheney was Secretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush in the early 1990s.
“The recent bombings in London have provided Tony Blair with his own "Reichstag fire" incident, and the full resources of the British "liberal imperial" faction can now be expected to weigh in behind the brutish Cheney circles in Washington, added La Rouche.
“The most compelling evidence of this "Guns of August" plan in discussions I've had with colleagues is the pattern of eyewitness reports of Dick Cheney's state of mind. Cheney is living out an American version of "Hitler in the bunker," lashing out at Republican Senators who have dared to resist his mad tirades, accusing anyone who fails to follow his orders—including senior members of the United States Senate—of being "traitors" and worse.”
For more informative articles, go to www.arcticbeacon.com.
Greg Szymanski | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2005 10:11 am Post subject: THE IRAN WAR BUILD-UP |
| THE IRAN WAR BUILD-UP
By Michael T. Klare
Nation
July 21, 2005 (web only)
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050801&s=klare
There is no evidence that President Bush has already made the decision to
attack Iran if Tehran proceeds with uranium-enrichment activities viewed in
Washington as precursors to the manufacture of nuclear munitions. Top
Administration officials are known to have argued in favor of military action
if Tehran goes ahead with these plans -- a step considered more likely with
the recent election of arch-conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Iran's
president -- but Bush, so far as is known, has not yet made up his mind in the
matter. One thing does appear certain, however: Bush has given the Defense
Department approval to develop scenarios for such an attack and to undertake
various preliminary actions. As was the case in 2002 regarding Iraq, the
building blocks for an attack in Iran are beginning to be put into place.
We may never know exactly when President Bush made up his mind to invade Iraq
-- some analysts say the die was cast as early as November 2001; others claim
it was not until October 2002 -- but whatever the case, it is beyond dispute
that planning for the invasion was well advanced in July 2002, when British
intelligence officials visited Washington and issued what has come to be known
as the Downing Street memo, informing Prime Minister Tony Blair that war was
nearly inevitable.
What these officials undoubtedly discovered -- as was being reported in
certain newspapers at the time -- was that senior officers of the U.S. Central
Command (CENTCOM) in Tampa, Florida, had already been developing detailed
scenarios for an invasion of Iraq and that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
had been deeply involved in these preparations. On July 5, 2002, for example,
the *New York Times* revealed that "an American military planning document
calls for air, land, and sea-based forces to attack Iraq from three directions
-- the north, south, and west." Further details of this document and other
blueprints for war appeared in the *Washington Post* and the *Wall Street
Journal*. At the same time, moreover, the Pentagon reportedly stepped up its
aerial and electronic surveillance of military forces in Iraq.
This record is worth revisiting because of the many parallels to the current
situation. Just as Bush gave ambiguous signals about his intentions regarding
Iraq in 2002 -- denying that a decision had been made to invade but never
ruling it out -- so, today, he is giving similar signals with respect to Iran.
"This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply
ridiculous," Bush declared in Belgium on February 22. He then added: "Having
said that, all options are on the table." And, just as Bush's 2002 denials of
an intent to invade Iraq were accompanied by intense preparations for just
such an outcome, so, today, one can detect similar preparations for an attack
on Iran.
Just what form such an attack might take has probably not yet been decided.
Just as he considered several plans for an invasion of Iraq before settling on
the plan described in the *Times*, Rumsfeld is no doubt considering a variety
of options for action against Iran. These could range from a burst of air and
missile attacks to a proxy war involving Iranian opposition militias or a
full-scale U.S. invasion. All have obvious advantages and disadvantages. An
air and missile attack would undoubtedly destroy some key nuclear centers but
could leave some hidden facilities intact; it would also leave the hated
clerical regime in place. The use of proxy forces could also fail in this
regard. An invasion might solve these problems but would place almost
intolerable demands on the deeply over-stretched U.S. Army.
It is these considerations, no doubt, that are preoccupying U.S. military
planners today. But while a final decision on these options may be put off
for a time, the Defense Department cannot wait to make preparations for an
assault if it expects to move swiftly once the President gives the go-ahead.
Hence, it is taking steps now to prepare for the implementation of any
conceivable plan.
The first step in such a process is to verify the location of possible targets
in Iran and to assess the effectiveness of Iranian defenses. The
identification of likely targets apparently began late last year, when the
Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) began
flying unmanned "Predator" spy planes over Iran and sending small
reconnaissance teams directly into Iranian territory. These actions, first
revealed by Seymour Hersh in the *New Yorker* in January,
(http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/2101/) are supposedly intended to pinpoint
the location of hidden Iranian weapons facilities for possible attack by U.S.
air and ground forces. "The goal," Hersh explained, "is to identify and
isolate three dozen, and perhaps more, such targets that could be destroyed by
precision [air] strikes and short-term commando raids."
It is also probable, says military analyst William Arkin, that CENTCOM is
probing Iran's air and shore defenses by sending electronic surveillance
planes and submarines into -- or just to the edge of -- Iranian coastal areas.
"I would be greatly surprised if they're not doing this," he said in an
interview. "The intent would be to 'light up' Iranian radars and
command/control facilities, so as to pinpoint their location and gauge their
effectiveness." It was precisely this sort of aggressive probing that led to
the collision between a US EP-3E electronic spy plane and a Chinese fighter
over the South China Sea in April 2001.
As this information becomes available, it is no doubt being fed into the
various "strategic concepts" and "strike packages" being developed by U.S.
strategists for possible action against Iran. That such efforts are indeed
under way is confirmed by reports in the international press that Pentagon
officials have met with their Israeli counterparts to discuss the possible
participation of Israeli aircraft in some of these scenarios. Although no
public acknowledgment of such talks has been made, Vice President Dick Cheney
declared in January that "the Israelis might well decide to act first" if Iran
proceeded with the development of nuclear weapons -- obviously hinting that
Washington would look with favor upon such a move.
There are also indications that the CIA and SOF officials have met with
Iranian opposition forces -- in particular, the Mujaheddin-e Khalq (MEK) -- to
discuss their possible involvement in commando raids inside Iran or a
full-scale proxy war. In one such report, *Newsweek* disclosed in February
that the Bush Administration "is seeking to cull useful MEK members as
operatives for use against Tehran." (Although the MEK is listed on the State
Department's roster of terrorist groups, its forces are "gently treated" by
the American troops guarding their compound in eastern Iraq, Newsweek
revealed.)
Given the immense stress now being placed on U.S. ground forces in Iraq, it is
likely that the Pentagon's favored plan for military action in Iran involves
some combination of airstrikes and the use of proxy forces like the MEK. But
even a small-scale assault of this sort is likely to provoke retaliatory
action by Iran -- possibly entailing missile strikes on oil tankers in the
Persian Gulf or covert aid to the insurgency in Iraq. This being the case,
CENTCOM would also have to develop plans for a wide range of escalatory moves.
Repeating what was said at the outset, there is no evidence that President
Bush has already made the decision to attack Iran. But there are many
indications that planning for such a move is well under way -- and if the
record of Iraq (and other wars) teaches us anything, it is that such planning,
once commenced, is very hard to turn around. Hence, we should not wait until
after relations with Iran have reached the crisis point to advise against U.S.
military action. We should begin acting now, before the march to war becomes
irreversible.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
http://nomorewarforisrael.blogspot.com
'JINSA John' Bolton provided untruthful information
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thenewswire/archive/2005/07/it-seems-unusual-that-mr_4852.html
Do a search for JINSA at www.google.com
Rumsfeld looking for any ’excuse’ to bomb Iran for Israel:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2005/07/13/iran-could-be-behind-israel-bomb-blast.php
http://www.libertyforum.org/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=news_international&Number=293827811&page=&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=21&vc=1&t=0#Post293827811 | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2005 5:57 pm Post subject: Backlash Builds Against Cheney's 'Guns Of August' |
| Just saw the following linked at www.whatreallyhappened.com
Backlash Builds Against
Cheney's 'Guns Of August'
By Jeffrey Steinberg
8-9-5
As millions of copies of Lyndon LaRouche's July 27 "Cheney's Guns of August" statement circulate worldwide (see www.larouchepac.com), a Washington policy brawl has erupted into public view, over the Bush Administration's now-confirmed contingency plans to stage a pre-emptive military strike against Iran-possibly using nuclear weapons. The report that Vice President Dick Cheney had tasked the Strategic Command (STRATCOM) to develop military contingencies for a massive aerial bombardment campaign against Iran, in the event of a new 9/11 attack, was first revealed in The American Conservative magazine's Aug. 1 edition. The story highlighted the likely use of nuclear weapons, and the widespread military opposition to the pre-emptive nuclear war scheme.
Since that initial story by former CIA officer Philip Giraldi, this news service has confirmed the accuracy of the report from a significant number of horrified U.S. government officials-from Senators on both sides of the aisle, to military officers, diplomats, and spies. One former U.S. ambassador in the Persian Gulf reported that he had received angry reports from officials of the Central Command (CENTCOM), who have been tasked as part of the contingency planning.
Another military source suggested that there are probably pre-positioned tactical nuclear weapons at the U.S. military base at Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, under the new military reorganization, which created a "Global Strike" plan for rapid, massive assaults anywhere on the planet.
The bottom line: Vice President Cheney, the architect of the pre-emptive nuclear attack plan, has gone stark raving mad, and is prepared to bring the world to the brink of chaos, before he is driven from power. Democratic Party figure Lyndon LaRouche describes Cheney's state of mind as "like Hitler in the bunker."
White House De Facto Confirms
In response to a question from EIR's White House correspondent Bill Jones, Presidential spokesman Scott McClellan let the cat out of the bag on July 28. Asked by Jones about the American Conservative report on the bombing contingencies, McClellan pointedly chose not to deny the charges, and instead, after telling Jones he "appreciated the question," went into a discussion of Iran's alleged secret nuclear program, threatening United Nations sanctions and other actions, should Iran fail to shut down its nuclear reprocessing efforts.
In response to a follow-up question by CBS reporter John Roberts about whether an attack on Iran might fall under the Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive action against "terror states," given the new Iranian President's former position in the Revolutionary Guard, McClellan again refused to reject the possibility, reminding the press that the Administration still considered Iran a "state sponsor of terrorism."
It should be recalled that on Jan. 20, 2005, the day of the Bush-Cheney second inauguration, the Vice President appeared on the Don Imus show on MSNBC cable TV, to target Iran. Using language identical to his earlier lies about Iraq, Cheney accused Iran of pursuing "a fairly robust nuclear program" and of sponsoring terrorism. "That combination is of great concern," he declared, warning that Israel could be expected to launch preventive bombing attacks on Iran's alleged nuclear weapons sites, if the Iranians don't abandon those supposed nuclear efforts.
NIE Leaked
One of the most dramatic signs of the ferocious behind-the-scenes fight was the Aug. 2 lead story of the Washington Post, which leaked a recent National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) concluding that, far from being on the verge of achieving a nuclear bomb, Iran was at least ten years away from such a capability. The story, by staff writer Dafna Linzer, noted that "the carefully hedged assessments, which represent consensus among U.S. intelligence agencies, contrast with forceful public statements by the White House. Administration officials have asserted, but have not offered proof, that Tehran is moving determinedly toward a nuclear arsenal."
The last time an NIE was prepared on Iran, it was estimated that Iran was five years away from obtaining a nuclear bomb, and that was in 2002. When Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited President Bush at his Crawford, Texas ranch this past April, his top military aide, Gen. Yoav Galant, presented an Israeli assessment that Iran had a "very advanced" nuclear weapons program, could have a bomb within 12-18 months, and was near to reaching a "point of no return," when "it could not be any longer stopped."
The leak of the NIE, which was carefully prepared over a six-month period, beginning in January of this year, was widely hailed as a direct factional move, from high-level intelligence community circles, against the Cheney madness. One former Cabinet official noted that the mass circulation of LaRouche's "Guns of August" statement had created the necessary political conditions for the leak to occur, seriously undermining Cheney and the neo-conservatives' race to a new confrontation with Tehran.
The National Intelligence Council, the coordinating body of the 15 agencies that comprise the U.S. intelligence community as a whole, is now housed in the office of Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte. Just days before the leak to the Washington Post, Negroponte's deputy, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, had testified before the House Intelligence Committee about the overhaul of the NIE process, to assure that there would be no repetition of the horrid mistakes made in the October 2002 Estimate on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. That rushed October 2002 NIE vastly overstated and misrepresented Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program, particularly its purported nuclear weapons program, and was a large contributing factor to the U.S. Congress's capitulation to Bush and Cheney, in sanctioning the Iraq pre-emptive invasion-even as United Nations weapons inspectors were continuing their inspections with minimal interference from the Saddam Hussein regime, and were stating that no nuclear weapons production was to be found.
Hayden emphasized that the Estimates would now reflect the views of all the relevant intelligence agencies, would be much more "nuanced," and would not be released without a thorough review process, including an assessment of the quality of the sources of key intelligence findings. According to the New York Times's Douglas Jehl, "Other government officials said the standard had already been applied, to a recent highly classified intelligence report on Iran."
The Usual Suspects
In further probing of the Cheney-led drive for a pretext to bomb Iran, EIR has confirmed that the same cast of neo-con characters who led the disinformation campaign against Iraq, in the run-up to the March 2003 invasion, have been tasked to carry out the same effort, this time targetting the regime in Tehran. Furthermore, while some media have portrayed the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last month as President of Iran as the trigger for the new war push, the truth is that the campaign was launched, in earnest, within days of the November 2004 dubious re-election of Bush and Cheney.
In November 2004, Dr. Jerome Corsi, a leading player in the Karl Rove-inspired dirty-tricks apparatus known as Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth, suddenly emerged as the new head of the Iran Freedom Foundation (IFF), promoting regime change in Tehran. Corsi was touted by Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) as being the driving force behind the Iran Freedom and Support Act of 2005, which calls for $10 million in funds to be handed out to Iranian dissident groups. Corsi had co-authored the Rove-inspired propaganda book Unfit To Serve, smearing Bush's Democratic Presidential rival John F. Kerry over his military service in Vietnam. In March 2005, Corsi published another propaganda book, Atomic Iran, peddling scare stories about Iran's imminent possession of nuclear bombs.
From May 15 to May 18, Dr. Corsi led an "Iran Freedom Walk" from Philadelphia to Washington, where a rally was addressed by neo-con Richard Perle, and where Corsi was congratulated, in a written statement, by Dick Cheney.
In April 2005, Regnery Publishing, Inc. released another fractured-fairy-tale propaganda piece, promoting pre-emptive war on Iran, this one by Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.). Sources familiar with the book report that Weldon was snookered by ex-CIA Director and leading neo-con war party operative James Woolsey, and self-proclaimed "universal fascist" Michael Ledeen, into buying fake intelligence, pushed through a former Iranian minister under the Shah, who has more recently been a business partner of discredited Iran-Contra gun dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar. Representative Weldon concealed the identity of his high-level "source," referring to him only as "Ali." But "Ali" was soon identified as Fereidoun Mahdavi, a former commerce minister, who fled Iran shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and never looked back.
In an interview with The American Prospect's Laura Rozan, Mahdavi professed shock and outrage that his "information" had formed the basis for Weldon's shrill book. He confirmed that all of the information he passed on to the Congressman had, in fact, originated with Ghorbanifar, a notorious disinformationist, and Iran-Contra ally of the Washington neo-cons. Weldon's saga with "Ali," as recounted in his book, Countdown to Terror-The Top-Secret Information That Could Prevent the Next Terrorist Attack on America ... And How the CIA Has Ignored It, began in March 2003, at the very moment that the Bush-Cheney regime was about to launch its Iraq invasion.
In late June of this year, Kenneth Timmerman, a propagandist for the neo-cons and for right-wing Israeli circles around former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, published another book, Countdown to Crisis: The Coming Nuclear Showdown With Iran, which makes a string of preposterous claims, all based on information provided by the Mujahideen-e-Khalq, an Iranian exile group on the U.S. State Department's list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Timmerman asserted that: Iran was behind the 9/11 attacks; Iran is safehousing Osama bin Laden inside the country; and Iran has all of the elements to produce nuclear weapons, and possibly provide them to terrorist cells already infiltrated into American cities.
When the Timmerman book was published, the Washington Times ran three days of excerpts, along with an editorial touting the book and calling for action against Iran.
If all of this sounds remarkably similar to the propaganda run-up to the Iraq invasion of March 2003, that's because it is. The same Michael Ledeen/Richard Perle/Dick Cheney circles that brought you Operation Iraqi Freedom, are aggressively pushing war against Iran. But this time, with 170,000 American troops bogged down in Iraq, Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, et al. are now pushing their decade-old plan to conduct pre-emptive nuclear strikes.
http://www.larouchepub.com/pubs/subscribe.html | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2005 5:34 am Post subject: |
| Subject: U.S. Prepared to Grab Iran's Southwesten Oil Rich Province after Saturation Bombings
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
August 10, 2005 -- U.S. prepared to grab Iran's southwestern majority Arab and oil-rich province after saturation bombing of Iranian nuclear, chemical, and command, control, communications & intelligence (C3I) targets. According to sources within the German Federal Intelligence Service (Bundesnachrichtendienst - BND), the Bush administration has drawn up plans to hit Iran's nuclear, other WMD, and military sites with heavy saturation bombing using bunker buster bombs and tactical nuclear weapons. The attack will be coordinated with urban and rural critical infrastructure sabotage carried out by elements of the People's Mujaheddin (MEK), Pentagon Special Operations units, and other Iranian dissident groups. The German intelligence comes from classified briefings provided by elements within the CIA that are concerned the neocons in the Bush administration will, in attacking Iran, set off a chain of events that will lead to world war. Intelligence on U.S. plans to attack Iran has also been passed by CIA agents to counterparts in France, Britain, Canada, and Australia. The Bush war plans for Iran also entail quickly seizing Iran's southwestern Khuzestan Province, where most of Iran's oil reserves and refineries are located. Khuzestan has a majority Shia Arab population that has close links with their ethnic and religious brethren in Iraq. The Bush plans call for a U.S. military strike across the Iraqi border and from naval forces in the Persian Gulf in answer to an appeal for assistance from the Al Ahwaz Popular Democratic Front and Liberation Organization rebel forces in Khuzestan, which will declare an independent Arab state of the Democratic Republic of Ahwaz and receive diplomatic recognition from the United States and a few close U.S. allies. After World War I, Khuzestan was annexed by Iran, then called Persia. There are also plans to incite rebellions among Iran's other minorities, including Azeris and Turkmenis in the oil-rich Caspian Sea region. Other minorities targeted by the neo-con planners are Iranian Kurds along the Iraqi and Turkish borders and Baluchis along the border with Pakistan. The neo-con plan seeks to separate Iran from its oil resources and create an "Irani triangle" centered around Teheran, Isfahan, Qom, and other historically Persian centers. In anticipation of the U.S. attack, the spy sub USS Jimmy Carter has placed taps on undersea communications cables in the Persian Gulf that carry Iranian commercial, diplomatic, and military traffic. In addition, Task Force 121 covert paramilitary forces have scouted Iran using the cover of journalists and businessmen to pinpoint military targets.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Who's Behind the Coming War with Iran?
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2005/08/06/who-s-behind-the-coming-war-with-iran.php | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 2:57 am Post subject: Envoys: Iran Faces Sept. Deadline on Nukes |
| Envoys: Iran Faces Sept. Deadline on Nukes
By SUSANNA LOOF, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 4 minutes ago
The U.N. nuclear watchdog expressed "serious concern" Thursday over Iran's resumption of activities that could lead to an atomic bomb, and diplomats said Tehran has a Sept. 3 deadline to stop or face another possible referral to the Security Council.
Iran, showing the defiance it has increasingly displayed since its new president was inaugurated last weekend, responded with indignation. Tehran's chief delegate here vowed that Iran would become a nuclear fuel producer and supplier within a decade.
"This resolution is political," said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi, according to the state-run news agency. "It comes from American pressure. ... It lacks any legal or logical basis and is unacceptable."
The topic of the International Atomic Energy Agency resolution, adopted by consensus by its 35-nation board, was Iran's move Wednesday to reopen its uranium conversion plant in the mountains outside the southern city of Isfahan.
With the plant now working at full force, Iran's hard-liners are pushing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to ignore European warnings and resume uranium enrichment.
Mohammad Javad Larijani, a member of Iran's powerful Expediency Council, said the transfer of power to Ahmadinejad has given the country an opportunity to change the rules of the game.
He called France, Germany and Britain — the countries negotiating with Iran — "three international savages" and said any debate over enrichment is "shameful."
Starting up the enrichment facility, a plant built mainly underground outside the city of Natanz to protect it from airstrikes, would heighten tensions with Europe and the United States. Enrichment is the final step in uranium development, producing either fuel for a nuclear reactor for electricity or material for a nuclear bomb.
Iran denies it seeks to develop nuclear weapons and says its program is only for peaceful purposes. But Tehran insists it has the right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to develop the full fuel cycle, including enrichment.
"Any government in Iran that gives up nuclear technology will collapse since the issue has turned into a matter of national pride. There is no doubt that Natanz will resume work sooner rather than later," said Ahmad Tavakoli, a lawmaker allied with Ahmadinejad.
President Bush, meeting at his Texas ranch with his foreign policy team, welcomed the nuclear agency's warning to Tehran. He also indicated Ahmadinejad will receive a U.S. visa to attend an annual United Nations gathering next month in New York.
After the meeting, National Security Adviser Steve Hadley met with reporters and noted that president of Iran indicated that there could be more talks.
"We think that is the right step, to have — for Iran to come back into compliance with the Paris Accord, and to resume the negotiations and discussions with the EU-3," he said.
Britain's Foreign Office said the IAEA resolution "sends a clear message to Iran of what it must do. We still believe there is a non-confrontational way forward if Iran wants to take it."
In Vienna, the nuclear agency asked IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei to deliver a report on Iran's implementation of nuclear safeguards by Sept. 3. Diplomats made clear that insufficient progress by that date could mean the board would consider referring Iran to the U.N. Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized by their governments to discuss the issue.
Thursday's resolution did not mention the Security Council, given concerns such a move could backfire by hardening Iran's position. Iran had said it would rather endure sanctions than back down.
Security Council diplomats in New York say the IAEA may also be wary of referring Iran to the council because there is a real risk the body would not agree to sanctions. China, for example, has said it opposes bringing the issue before the council, and could use its veto power to block a resolution punishing Iran.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the IAEA "has spoken with one voice" and he expects its resolution to be implemented, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at U.N. headquarters in New York.
The board's next scheduled meeting is Sept. 19, but members can call emergency meetings at any time. This week's meetings were called by France, Germany and Britain after Iran announced it planned to resume uranium conversion.
Iran had suspended that process and the subsequent enrichment process under an agreement with the three European Union countries.
Tehran saw the text adopted Thursday as unacceptable because it would bar it from enrichment and other related activities that are allowed under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, or NPT, said Sirus Nasseri, the country's chief IAEA delegate.
"All Iran wants to do is to enjoy the right under the NPT, the right which has been denied to it for more than two decades," he said.
He said his country would be a "nuclear fuel producer and supplier within a decade" and dismissed the resolution as an attempt "to apply pressure."
But he also told reporters the Iranians did "not leave the door closed to (the Europeans)" and would, for now, keep the enrichment process suspended "to give a chance for negotiations."
"If they wish to negotiate on the enrichment facility in Natanz and how we would put it into operation through an agreed arrangement, we would consider (it)," he said.
ElBaradei said he was "very encouraged" by statements from the EU and Iran that the talks would continue.
EU envoys said the burden was now on Iran to keep talks alive.
"A breakdown will be a matter of regret to the EU, because the EU hoped that it could persuade Iran to take measures that might lead to a restoration of international confidence in Iran's nuclear intentions," the statement said. "But the EU is confident that another way of making possible the necessary restoration of confidence in Iran's nuclear intentions can be found.
___
Associated Press writer Ali Akbar Dareini contributed to this report from Natanz, Iran.
___
On the Net:
IAEA: http://www.iaea.org | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 3:03 am Post subject: "wargaming the Mullahs" |
| Forwarded:
Newsweek article on "wargaming the Mullahs" - Pentagon wargames about bombing Iran's nuclear facilities, which always end up with escalation of the conflict:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6039135/site/newsweek/.
Interestingly, the Japanese Navy also wargamed the battle of Midway. The results were eerily prescient - the games always ended with the Jap carriers on the bottom of the Pacific. But the wargamers were afraid of what the admirals might think, so they changed the rules unrealistically to provide for a different outcome. You know what really happened. | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 7:55 am Post subject: Is JINSA Israel first operative John Bolton the unnamed indi |
| Is JINSA Israel first operative John Bolton the unnamed individual in the AIPAC scandal?:
"A source close to the defense said that one of the U.S. officials involved, who has not been indicted, was recently appointed to a senior Bush administration post. The source, who asked not to be identified, would not name the official"
http://www.virtualjerusalem.com/news/usnews/?disp_feature=xETxtD.var
"Bolton has had a long-standing sympathy for Israel and has taken pains to develop friendships with Israeli officials. One of his close Israeli friends is Ron Prossor, the director-general of the Foreign Ministry, who served previously in Washington. "
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=611141
"Perle today chairs the Defense Policy Board, Feith is an Undersecretary of Defense, and Wurmser is special assistant to the Undersecretary of State for Arms Control, John Bolton, who dutifully echoes the Perle-Sharon line. According to the Israeli daily newspaper Ha'aretz, in late February,
U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton said in meetings with Israeli officials … that he has no doubt America will attack Iraq and that it will be necessary to deal with threats from Syria, Iran and North Korea afterwards.
On Jan. 26, 1998, President Clinton received a letter imploring him to use his State of the Union address to make removal of Saddam Hussein's regime the “aim of American foreign policy” and to use military action because “diplomacy is failing.” Were Clinton to do that, the signers pledged, they would “offer our full support in this difficult but necessary endeavor.” Signing the pledge were Elliott Abrams, Bill Bennett, John Bolton, Robert Kagan, William Kristol, Richard Perle, and Paul Wolfowitz. Four years before 9/11, the neocons had Baghdad on their minds."
http://www.amconmag.com/03_24_03/cover.html
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The Expulsion of the Palestinians, 1947-1948 - http://www.robincmiller.com/pales2.htm
News - http://www.astandforjustice.org
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Treason at a high level: Pentagon Zionists, AIPAC and Israel:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2004/09/08/treason-in-high-places-pentagon-zionists-aipac-and-israel.php | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 7:00 pm Post subject: Armageddon Gets No Press |
| Armageddon Gets No Press
http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts114.html
Armageddon Gets No Press
by Paul Craig Roberts
What has become of the print and TV media watchdogs who hounded President Nixon from office because he lied about when he learned of a minor burglary of no consequence in itself?
What became of the watchdog media that bayed after President Reagan because some low-level neoconservative officials sold arms to Iran and diverted the money to anti-communist insurgents in Latin America?
President Clinton was impeached by the House, though not convicted by the Senate, for lying about a sexcapade with a White House intern.
Now that we really need them, the watchdog media has hired out as public relations and propaganda shills for the Bush administration and the neocon network.
The entire Bush administration—not merely the president—is involved in the most extraordinary lies and fabrication of false intelligence claims in order to lead America into an unwarranted and illegal invasion of Iraq, an invasion that has cost the US taxpayers $300 billion and resulted in the deaths and maiming of tens of thousands of people.
The sordid affair has been revealed in leaked top-secret Downing Street memos, which were prepared for UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and his cabinet. Unlike the Nixon episode, there is no need to search for a "smoking gun." Smoking guns have been printed all over the pages of the London Times. Yet hardly a peep from the watchdog media.
The August 1 issue of The American Conservative reports that Vice President Cheney has instructed the US Strategic Command to prepare a plan to spread the war by attacking Iran with tactical nuclear weapons in the event of another terrorist attack on the US. Appalled US Air Force officers have leaked the story, but you have not learned of it from the tamed media.
A federal prosecutor seems to be closing in on Karl Rove, president Bush’s right-hand man, and on Scooter Libby, vice president Cheney’s right-hand man. The two are suspected of leaking the identity of a covert CIA agent, a felony. Both have had to hire lawyers. But there is no demand for accountability from the US media.
American civil liberties have been trounced by the "Patriot" Act. Torture of detainees is now a routine practice of the US government and defended by the attorney general. Senators and military officers who try to place constraints on the inhumane treatment of detainees are stonewalled by the White House.
The mainstream media has been co-opted as propaganda organ for the Bush administration. How did this come about?
It came about through media concentration. There are no longer independent voices in the mainstream media. American news reporting is a corporate operation run with a view to advertising profits and the accommodation of government in order to protect holdings of valuable federal licenses. For reporters and editors, knowing what to say and not to say is the main qualification for job security.
A person who wants to find out anything must go online and spend time learning the sites that are trustworthy.
The Internet, thought invaluable for spreading news, hasn’t the impact on the public of a story pounded over and over on TV news or newspaper front pages. Exposure on the Internet doesn’t have the same embarrassment factor as exposure on TV news and the New York Times front page.
The public is still socialized into taking its cue from the old TV and print media. This media is now heavily controlled, partly through job fears of editors and reporters.
This raises the question whether government officials who have broken the law and betrayed trust will be held accountable.
Consider the implications if the Bush administration escapes accountability:
The executive branch will have established itself as above the law.
The executive, armed with a compliant media, will have war-making power subject only to successful PR spin. It means the final end of the people’s right to declare war via elected representatives in Congress.
The few remaining restraints on the executive’s ability to detain people indefinitely without charges will be removed. This power will silence the Internet.
Spiteful neighbors, employees, former spouses, whomever will gain the power to report any disliked person. The anti-terrorist apparatus needs victims to demonstrate its effectiveness, and as warrants, hearings, and evidence are no longer required, Americans will simply disappear like Soviet citizens in the Stalin era.
The "imperial judiciary" will disappear overnight. No checks and balances will remain.
Gentle reader, you can continue with this theme in "How the Worst Get on Top," a chapter in F.A. Hayek’s classic, The Road to Serfdom. You might as well learn what it is going to be like as you are already half way there.
The worst rise rapidly as the honest depart the corrupt system. Two US Military prosecutors, Major Robert Preston and Captain John Carr, resigned after denouncing rigged Guantanamo trials of detainees as "a severe threat to the reputation of the military justice system and a fraud on the American people."
Altogether now, let’s yell, "I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any longer."
August 2, 2005
Dr. Roberts [send him mail] is John M. Olin Fellow at the Institute for Political Economy and Research Fellow at the Independent Institute. He is a former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, former contributing editor for National Review, and a former assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury. He is the co-author of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.
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Get Ready for World War III
http://www.antiwar.com/roberts/?articleid=6936
August 15, 2005
Get Ready for World War III
by Paul Craig Roberts
With every poll showing majorities of Americans both fed up with Bush's war against Iraq and convinced that Bush's invasion of Iraq has made Americans less safe, the White House moron proposes to start another war by attacking Iran. VP Cheney has already ordered the U.S. Strategic Command to come up with plans to strike Iran with tactical nuclear weapons.
Bush refuses to meet with Cindy Sheehan, instead using his vacation time at the Crawford ranch to talk war with Israeli television. In a recent interview with Israeli TV, Bush said "All options are on the table" with regard to Iran.
Likudnik Israel is Bush's last remaining ally, or egger-on, in his war against "Islamic terrorism." Israel, which is loaded with nuclear weapons and is not a signatory to the nuclear pacts, is the accuser against Iran, asserting that Iran's nuclear energy program is just a veil behind which to produce weapons. Israel's Likud Party fears that Iranian weapons would be a check to its plans to complete the dispossession of the Palestinians and further expand Israel's borders.
Iran has signed the nonproliferation pact and is willing for the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor the nuclear energy program.
Bush, however, dismisses all facts and assurances and is willing to attack Iran based on nothing but Israel's paranoia.
Bush can ignore the American public, because the Democrats, like the Tory Party in the UK, have completely collapsed as an opposition party. The Republican Party is now increasingly referred to as the Republikud Party.
The only check on Bush is the lack of U.S. troops. Bogged down in the Iraqi quagmire, U.S. commanders are stating that a third rotation of our exhausted and demoralized troops in Iraq can be avoided only by troop withdrawals by next spring.
However, on Aug. 11, Bush nixed the military's talk of reducing U.S. troops in Iraq. The next day, the commander of U.S. logistics in Iraq announced that the number of insurgent attacks on US forces along supply routes has doubled in the last year, making it clear that far from winning, the U.S. is not even holding its own.
Cindy Sheehan has the right question for Bush: What noble cause is being served by all this suffering and destruction?
Bush is in hiding from Mrs. Sheehan, because he knows only ignoble causes are being served. According to the CIA, the main beneficiary of the war is Osama bin Laden's recruitment drives. While America's military recruitment falters and U.S. generals announce that the war has broken the Reserves and National Guard, the cause of Islamic extremism basks in the Iraqi war.
Gentle reader, do you realize the danger of having a president so disconnected from reality that he plots to attack Iran – a country three times the size of Iraq – when he lacks sufficient forces to occupy Baghdad and to protect the road from Baghdad to the airport?
Despite all the high profile "sweeps" of U.S. forces through insurgent strongholds, U.S. commanders report a doubling of insurgent attacks.
The Bush administration is insane. If the American people do not decapitate it by demanding Bush's impeachment, the Bush administration will bring about Armageddon. This may please some Christian evangelicals conned by Rapture predictions, but World War III will please no one else.
Last edited by Alpha on Mon Aug 15, 2005 8:48 pm; edited 1 time in total | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
