Iran

Who Is Planning Our Next War?
Patrick J. Buchanan | San Francisco Chronicle

Of the Axis-of-Evil nations named in his State of the Union in 2002, President Bush has often said, "The United States will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons."

He failed with North Korea. Will he accept failure in Iran, though there is no hard evidence Iran has an active nuclear weapons program?

William Kristol of the Weekly Standard said June 22 that a U.S. attack on Iran after the election is more likely should Barack Obama win. Presumably, Bush would trust John McCain to keep Iran nuclear free.

To start a third war in the Middle East against a nation three times as large as Iraq, and leave it to a new president to fight, would be a daylight hijacking of the congressional war power and a criminally irresponsible act. For Congress alone has the power to authorize war.

Yet Israel is even today pushing Bush into a pre-emptive war with a naked threat to attack Iran itself should Bush refuse the cup.

In April, Israel held a five-day civil defense drill. In June, Israel sent 100 F-15s and F-16s, with refueling tankers and helicopters to pick up downed pilots, toward Greece in a simulated attack, a dress rehearsal for war. The planes flew 1,400 kilometers, the distance to Iran's uranium enrichment facility at Natanz.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert came home from a June meeting with Bush to tell Israelis: "We reached agreement on the need to take care of the Iranian threat. ... I left with a lot less question marks regarding the means, the timetable restrictions and American resoluteness. ...

If Bush is discussing war on Iran with Ehud Olmert, why is he not discussing it with Congress or the nation?

Dear Senator Obama,

We the undersigned may have different views on U.S. foreign policy with respect to Iran. We all, however, are deeply concerned about the stories in the press in the past few weeks suggesting that the Bush administration might be considering a military strike on Iran, that it might give a green light to such an attack by Israel, or that it might engage in other acts of war, such as imposing a blockade against Iran.

We welcomed your stand against the war on Iraq in 2002. And we were encouraged by your early campaign statements emphasizing diplomacy over military action against Iran. Today, you have an opportunity to forestall a repeat of the tragic Iraq war. We hope you will use that opportunity.

We agree with the conclusion of Muhammed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, that "A military strike ... would be worse than anything possible. It would turn the region into a fireball..."

From Rep. Barney Frank:

I thank you for contacting me about language in the resolution
regarding Iran that calls for a blockade of its naval activity. I agree
that this should not be our policy, and I regret the fact that I did not
read this resolution more carefully. I'm going to consult with the
authors to see if a change can be made that would omit this
language, and if they are unwilling to do that, I will make very
clear my disagreement with this in the most appropriate form. I
am grateful to those who called this to my attention. I apologize
again for not having read this more carefully.

I do support sanctions against Iran and I disagree with those who
think that sanctions are inappropriate. I believe that sanctions
appropriately done can have an impact on the behavior of countries
whose behavior ought to be changed. The fact that our European
allies, and even Russia and China, have agreed with us on the

By Sherwood Ross

The recent surge of terrorist violence in Iran likely is being funded in part by the Bush administration with the support of Congress.

According to a report in the July 7-14 issue of The New Yorker magazine, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh says the U.S. reportedly has been funding the Iranian dissident terrorist group Mujahideen-e-Khalq, or M.E.K.; the Kurdish separatist Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan, or PJAK; and, according to some sources, the Jundallah, or Iranian People’s Resistance Movement.

“Hardly a day goes by now we don’t see a clash somewhere,” retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner is quoted by Hersh as stating. “There were three or four incidents over a recent weekend, and the Iranians are even naming the Revolutionary Guard officers who have been killed.” Gardiner has taught strategy at the National War College and is monitoring the violence in Iran.

From Iran Nuclear Watch

The National Peace Council was formally launched on July 3, 2008 in Iran by Shirin Ebadi and more than 70 other prominent intellectuals, academics, dissidents and human rights defenders to advocate a peaceful solution to the current standoff between Iran and the United States. Found members include Ibrahim Yazdi, head Freedom Movement; Hashem Aghajari, who was sentenced to death but pardoned for apostasy; film director Jafar Panahi, winner of the top prizes at the Berlin and Venice film festivals and Iran's leading female film-maker Rakhshan Bani Etemad.

Below is a statement of support from the Nobel Women’s Initiative. The International Herald Tribune, AFP and Associated Press also ran articles on the launch of the National Peace Council.

Nobel Women’s Initiative Supports National Peace Council in Iran

By Rep. Ron Paul, Source

Statement on House Congressional Resolution 362 before the US House of Representatives, June 28, 2008

Today the Dow Jones Average was down 350-some points, gold was up $32, and oil was up another $5. There is a lot of chaos out there and everyone is worried about $4 gasoline. But I don't think there is a clear understanding [of] exactly why that has occurred.

Pentagon Warns Against Israeli Attack on Iran
Joint Chiefs Chair Adm. Mike Mullen: "A Third Front ... Would Be Extremely Stressful"

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, who was in Israel over the weekend, issued a strong warning today about the dangers of a military attack on Iran.

At a Pentagon press conference, Mullen was asked directly, "How concerned are you … that Israel may undertake a unilateral strike against Iran by the end of the year?"

"My strong preference, here, is to handle all of this diplomatically with the other powers of governments, ours and many others, as opposed to any kind of strike occurring," he answered. "This is a very unstable part of the world. And I don't need it to be more unstable."

Mullen refused to talk specifically about what was said in his talks with the Israelis, but he made it clear wants to avoid military confrontation.

An Emergency Call to Action:
An Attack could be Imminent
We Can't Afford to Wait
Take It to the Streets This Summer
U.S. out Of Iraq, Money for human needs, not war!

Endorse the call
List your local action
Donate to help with organizing expenses
Sign the online petition

MASS MARCH IN NYC - SATURDAY, AUGUST 2
Assemble 12 p.m. at Times Square
43rd St. & Broadway

AN APPEAL TO ORGANIZERS AND ACTIVISTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND AROUND THE WORLD:
Consider as soon as possible if you can organize a STOP WAR ON IRAN protest in your locality during the weekend of August 2 – 3. Let us know so that your protest can be listed.

YET ANOTHER U.S. WAR?
The U.S. occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan is hated by the people there. These wars have no support at home and are ruining the domestic economy. Instead of pulling out, the Bush administration is preparing for still another war—this time against Iran. This must be stopped!

By Gareth Porter, IPS

WASHINGTON, Jul 2 (IPS) - A senior Iranian official reportedly told members of the Iranian parliament Monday that Iran has agreed to freeze its enrichment programme for six weeks and begin negotiations with the P5+1 group of states as early as next week, according to reports of that decision by the Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) and by a Farsi-language website in Iran.

Remarks by Iranian Foreign Minister Manoucher Mottaki and a top adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Tuesday also seemed to indicate that decision to accept a "freeze for freeze" proposal from the P5+1 to begin at least preliminary negotiations.

The P5+1 consists of the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia -- and Germany.

By Joby Warrick, Washington Post

A former CIA operative who says he tried to warn the agency about faulty intelligence on Iraqi weapons programs now contends that CIA officials also ignored evidence that Iran had suspended work on a nuclear bomb.

The onetime undercover agent, who has been barred by the CIA from using his real name, filed a motion in federal court late Friday asking the government to declassify legal documents describing what he says was a deliberate suppression of findings on Iran that were contrary to agency views at the time.

By Bernard Weiner, The Crisis Papers

The question is not whether Iran will be attacked, but by whom and whether the bombing will commence within the next several months or shortly after the November election.

The U.S. for many months has made bellicose noises about thwarting Iran's
nuclear ambitions with force -- complete with a virtual repeat of its pre-war
propaganda campaign prior to "shock&awe" against Iraq. Israel is reported to
have just carried out a military exercise practicing for an attack on Iran. Iran is letting it be known how destructive and unconventional its retaliation would be if it is bombed. What
is going on?

Though one can decry it, at least one can understand why Israel, just a
short missile flight from Iran, might want to take "pre-emptive" action against
that country were it to possess nuclear-weapons capabilities. But what's driving

By Gareth Porter, IPS

WASHINGTON, Jun 30 (IPS) - New arguments by analysts close to Israeli thinking in favour of U.S. strikes against Iran cite evidence of Iranian military weakness in relation to the U.S. and Israel and even raise doubts that Iran is rushing to obtain such weapons at all.

The new arguments contradict Israel's official argument that it faces an "existential threat" from an Islamic extremist Iranian regime determined to get nuclear weapons. They suggest that Israel, which already has as many as 200 nuclear weapons, views Iran from the position of the dominant power in the region rather than as the weaker state in the relationship.

Will Anti-War Forces Seize this Opportunity?
By Muriel Mirak-Weissbach, Global Research

According to the new Seymour Hersh article, the Bush administration has ramped up covert action inside Iran, and has notified the congressional leadership that it's planing to spend up to $400 million on it. Thanks, Democratically-controlled Congress!

But the most important part of the piece is this:

But a lesson was learned in the incident [in January when tiny Iranian boats sailed near US battleships]: The public had supported the idea of retaliation, and was even asking why the U.S. didn’t do more. The former official said that, a few weeks later, a meeting took place in the Vice-President’s office. “The subject was how to create a casus belli between Tehran and Washington,” he said.

The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran.
By Seymour M. Hersh

Operations outside the knowledge and control of commanders have eroded “the coherence of military strategy,” one general says.

Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership. The covert activities involve support of the minority Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi groups and other dissident organizations. They also include gathering intelligence about Iran’s suspected nuclear-weapons program.

Bomb Iran? What's to Stop Us?
by Ray McGovern | Anti-War.com

Unlike the attack on Iraq five years ago, to deal with Iran there need be no massing of troops. And, with the propaganda buildup already well under way, there need be little, if any, forewarning before shock and awe and pox – in the form of air and missile attacks – begin.

This time it will be largely the Air Force's show, punctuated by missile and air strikes by the Navy. Israeli-American agreement has now been reached at the highest level; the armed forces planners, plotters and pilots are working out the details.

Emerging from a 90-minute White House meeting with President George W. Bush on June 4, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the two leaders were of one mind:

"We reached agreement on the need to take care of the Iranian threat. I left with a lot less question marks [than] I had entered with regarding the means, the timetable restrictions, and American resoluteness to deal with the problem. George Bush understands the severity of the Iranian threat and the need to vanquish it, and intends to act on that matter before the end of his term in the White House." --Italics by ~Chip :).

By Dave Lindorff

Now that the primary season is over, we can see that the clear winner was Hillary Clinton.

Oh, I know. Barack Obama got the most votes and the most delegates, and he’ll be the Democratic presidential nominee this August, but increasingly, it’s becoming obvious that he’s just a pretty wrapper. Sneak a peak inside the wrapper and you’ll find Hillary Clinton inside.

Look at the facts.