Iran
What we are seeing now is the conservative message machine preparing the country to accept the ideas of a nuclear war and nation destruction against Iran. The technique used is the "slippery slope." It is done by degrees. Like the proverbial frog in the pot of water – if the heat is turned up slowly the frog gets used to the heat and eventually boils to death – the American public is getting gradually acclimated to the idea of war with Iran.
The traditional way to start a war: a false flag attack. (07/31/2008)
Israeli War games called Precursor to an Attack on Iran
Ex-CIA agent says CIA ignored Iran facts. (07/01/2008)
US plans to attack Iran (6/24/2008)
Bush 'plans Iran air strike by August' 28 May 2008
Bush threatens Iran with military action 17 Jun 2008 George Bush has warned Iran that military action is still "on the table" if it fails to respond to tightening diplomatic pressure to abandon its nuclear weapons programme. The EU is planning to announce the freezing of all overseas assets of the main bank in Iran. Sanctions are also to be tightened on gas and oil exports by Iran.
On CBS's Face the Nation, Lieberman said, "If [the Iranians] don't play by the rules, we've got to use our force, and to me, that would include taking military action to stop them from doing what they're doing."
Fearing Escalation, Pentagon Fought Cheney Iran Plan 06 Jun 2008 Pentagon officials firmly opposed a proposal by Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney last summer for airstrikes against Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) bases by insisting that the administration would have to make clear decisions about how far the United States would go in escalating the conflict with Iran, according to a former George W. Bush administration official. J. Scott Carpenter, who was then deputy assistant secretary of state in the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, recalled in an interview that senior Defence Department (DoD) officials and the Joint Chiefs used the escalation issue as the main argument against the Cheney proposal.
- First, describe Iran as evil – part of the axis of evil. An inherently evil person will inevitably do evil things and can't be negotiated with. An entire evil nation is a threat to other nations.
- Second, describe Iran's leader as a "Hitler" who is inherently "evil" and cannot be reasoned with. Refuse to negotiate with him.
- Then repeat the lie that Iran is on the verge of having nuclear weapons —weapons of mass destruction. IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei says they are at best many years away.
- Call nuclear development "an existential threat" – a threat to our very existence.
- Then suggest a single "surgical" "attack" on Natanz and make it seem acceptable.
- Then find a reason to call the attack "self-defense" — or better protection for our troops from the EFP's, or single-shot canister bombs.
- Claim, without proof and without anyone even taking responsibility for the claim, that the Iranian government at its highest level is supplying deadly weapons to Shiite militias attacking our troops, while not mentioning the fact that Saudi Arabia is helping Sunni insurgents attacking our troops.
- Give "protecting our troops" as a reason for attacking Iran without getting new authorization from Congress. Claim that the old authorization for attacking Iraq implied doing "whatever is necessary to protect our troops" from Iranian intervention in Iraq.
- Argue that de-escalation in Iraq would "bleed" our troops, "weaken" America, and lead to defeat. This sets up escalation as a winning policy, if not in Iraq then in Iran.
- Get the press to go along with each step.
- Never mention the words "preventive nuclear war" or "national destruction." When asked, say "All options are on the table." Keep the issue of nuclear war and its consequences from being seriously discussed by the national media.
- Intimidate Democratic presidential candidates into agreeing, without using the words, that nuclear war should be "on the table." This makes nuclear war and nation destruction bipartisan and even more acceptable.
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0228-28.htm
US preparing for war with Iran (4/26/2008)
Israel is said to be preparing attack on Iran
Scott Ritter: US is preparing for war with Iran
Generals will resign if US strikes Iran (2/26/2008)
What is the prospect for war in Iran ?
Drums of War (video)
Israel's influence on US foreign policy
An Interview with Seymour Hersh (2/11/2008)
Ex-CIA official: Israel will attack Iran on its own (12/22/2007)
Spooks refuse to toe the line on Iran (November 10, 2007)
IAEA findings on Iran dismissed (October 29, 2007)
Will the US attack Iran ? Project Censored
Iraq sets the stage for possible US war with Iran
Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst, wrote this piece for Alternet. (more).
We can attack Iran, says US commander 20 Oct 2007 America's top military
officer said the country does have the resources to attack Iran, despite the
strain of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Adm Michael Mullen, who took over as
chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff three weeks ago, said diplomacy
remained the priority in dealing with Iran's suspected plans to develop a
nuclear weapon and its [alleged] support for anti-US 'insurgents' in Iraq. But
at a press conference he said: "there is more than enough reserve to
respond (militarily) if that, in fact, is what the national leadership wanted to
do".
Shifting Targets --The Administration's plan for Iran By Seymour M. Hersh 08 Oct 2007 The revised bombing plan for a possible attack, with its tightened focus on counterterrorism, is gathering support among generals and admirals in the Pentagon. The strategy calls for the use of sea-launched cruise missiles and more precisely targeted ground attacks and bombing strikes, including plans to destroy the most important Revolutionary Guard training camps, supply depots, and command and control facilities. "Cheney's option is now for a fast in and out—for surgical strikes," the former senior American intelligence official told me... A Pentagon consultant on counterterrorism told me that, if the bombing campaign took place, it would be accompanied by a series of what he called "short, sharp incursions" by American Special Forces units into suspected Iranian training sites. He said, "Cheney is devoted to this, no question."
US garners support for strike on Iran 02 Oct 2007 Australia, Britain and Israel have reportedly "expressed interest" in a US campaign to launch surgical bombing raids on Iran targeting Revolutionary Guard Corps facilities. A report in The New Yorker by the journalist Seymour Hersh said the Bush Administration had stopped trying to justify a campaign against Iran on the basis of curtailing Iran's nuclear ambitions. It is instead redefining the war in Iraq as a strategic battle between the US and Iran.
US 'planning surgical Iran strikes' 01 Oct 2007 Australia, Britain and Israel have "expressed interest" in a US campaign to launch "surgical" bombing raids on Iran targetting the Revolutionary Guard Corps facilities, according to one of America's leading investigative reporters, Seymour Hersh.
How Cheney Cooked the Intelligence on Iran
Dick Cheney has been trying to pressure intelligence analysts who have not drunk the neocon kool-aid on Iran to go along with his line on the issues at stake in a National Intelligence Estimate on Iran that the White House has been holding up for more than a year.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7302
Cheney urging strikes on Iran:
(August 9, 2007)
At a news conference Thursday, Bush said Iran had been warned of unspecified
consequences if it continued its alleged support for anti-American forces in
Iraq. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker had conveyed the warning in
meetings with his Iranian counterpart in Baghdad, the president said.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/18834.html
Report that a US strike on Iran is imminent.
Bush setting America up for war with Iran
The Ad the New York Times would not print.
A Preview of Bush's 'Attack Iran' Speech
By Michael T. Klare, Tomdispatch.com. Posted March 2, 2007.
http://www.alternet.org/stories/48671/
Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski (ret.) on the coming war with Iran.
(another war for Israel?) Iran May be the Greatest Crisis of Modern Times by
John Pilger
http://www.antiwar.com/pilger/?articleid812
So are we now going to war with Iran ?
What is the prospect for war in Iran ?
According
to Seymour Hersh, Bush and Cheny have
already launched
pre-war operations in Iran with money illegally taken from elsewhere, exactly
as they began the current war in Iraq over four years ago.
Even more incredibly, Hersh reports Bush and Cheney are funneling the money to Al Qaeda groups - the very terrorists who murdered nearly 3,000 Americans on September 11, whose destruction has allegedly been the ultimate goal of the Bush Administration ever since.
Iran was our ally after 9/11 and helped us drive the Taliban out of Afghanistan. In 2003, Iran sent a letter to Bush through the Swiss ambassador and Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) offering far-reaching compromises on its nuclear program, relations with Hezbollah and Hamas and support for a Palestinian peace agreement with Israel. Yet Cheney rejected the offer and even reprimanded the Swiss ambassador for sending it.
Now Bush is accusing Iran of arming Iraqi insurgents, but evidence to the contrary is piling up. Here's a growing collection of lies about Iran by the White House. And here are simple talking points for opponents of this looming war.
With
two aircraft carrier groups in the Persian Gulf, Bush could bomb Iran on a
moment's notice. If Bush administration bombs Iran despite our efforts, we
will respond. And we will hold Congressmen Dennis Kucinich and John Conyers
to their commitments to pursue impeachment if Bush and Cheney attack Iran:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/iranresponse
Daniel Ellsberg, of "Pentagon Papers" fame, told Democracy Now that he believes Bush plans to attack Iran, probably without informing Congress. Ellsberg says a similar escalation happened during the Vietnam War, when the battlefield was extended into Laos and Cambodia. Could this be possible?
The analogy is correct. I think this president is looking to expand the war. His comments about Iran and Syria were not conciliatory. He's rattling the saber at a time when saber-rattling hurts our troops. It's the kind of tough talk that dragged us into this war, the same braggadocio that doesn't pass for statecraft, but shows an administration that's out of control. Here's a president who's putting his foot on the accelerator as the car heads toward the cliff. http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/48535/
Regime Change Is the Reason, Disarmament the Excuse
An interview with Scott Ritter by Scott Horton Interviewed February 20, 2007 – Listen to the interview.
Is Iran making nuclear weapons? Is the United States preparing to wage war against them to prevent them from obtaining nuclear weapons? Our guest is Scott Ritter. He is a former Marine, United Nations weapons inspector, and author of an armful of books: Endgame, War on Iraq, Frontier Justice, Iraq Confidential, and his latest is Target Iran: The Truth About the White House's Plans for Regime Change.
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/horton.php?articleid=10595
U.S. Iran Tensions Arise
Second American Aircraft Carrier Heads to Persian Gulf. Interview with Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian- American Council, conducted by Scott Harris Script summary/Related links
US Sending Third Carrier Strike Group to Persian Gulf
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021107B.shtml
The Iranians have reason to feel paranoid. At least one former White House
official contends that some Bush advisers secretly want an excuse to attack
Iran. A second Navy carrier group is steaming toward the Persian Gulf, and a
third carrier will likely follow.
Israel seeks all clear for Iran air strike
By Con
Coughlin in Tel Aviv
02/24/07 "The Telegraph" -- -- Israel is negotiating with the United States for permission to fly over Iraq as part of a plan to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.
The Coming Attack on Iran
Paul Craig Roberts
The US media is totally unreliable. It cannot go against Israel, and it will
wrap itself in the flag just as it did for the invasion of Iraq. The American
public has been deceived (again) and believes that Iran is on the verge of
possessing nuclear armaments to be used to wipe Israel off the map.
http://tinyurl.com/w7xve
So are we now going to war with Iran ?
Physicians for Social Responsibility
