News -n- Views

This just in from Justin Raimondo at Anti-War.com:

Cheney’s Plan: Nuke Iran

A recent poll shows six in ten Americans think a new world war is coming: the same poll says about 50 percent approve of the dropping of the atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. Somewhat inexplicably, about two-thirds say nuking those two cities was “unavoidable.” One can only wonder, then, what their reaction will be to this ominous news, revealed in a recent issue of The American Conservative by intelligence analyst Philip Giraldi:

“The Pentagon, acting under instructions from Vice President Dick Cheney’s office, has tasked the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with drawing up a contingency plan to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States. The plan includes a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons. Within Iran there are more than 450 major strategic targets, including numerous suspected nuclear-weapons-program development sites. Many of the targets are hardened or are deep underground and could not be taken out by conventional weapons, hence the nuclear option. As in the case of Iraq, the response is not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the United States. Several senior Air Force officers involved in the planning are reportedly appalled at the implications of what they are doing – that Iran is being set up for an unprovoked nuclear attack – but no one is prepared to damage his career by posing any objections.”

Two points leap out at the reader – or, at least, this reader – quite apart from the moral implications of dropping nukes on Iran. The first is the completely skewed logic: if Iran has nothing to do with 9/11-II, then why target Tehran? As in Iraq, it’s all a pretext: only this time, the plan is to use nuclear weapons. We’ll wipe out the entire population of Iran’s capital city because, as Paul Wolfowitz said in another context, “it’s doable.”

The other weird aspect of this “nuke Iran” story is the triggering mechanism: a terrorist attack in the U.S. on the scale of 9/11. While it is certain that our government has developed a number of scenarios for post-attack action, one has to wonder: why develop this plan at this particular moment? What aren’t they telling us?

I shudder to think about it.

The more I look at it, and the more I think of it, the more I sense a monumental evil casting its shadow over the world, and I have to tell you, it makes me wonder how much more time I want to spend on this earth. In my more pessimistic moments, I doubt whether we can avoid the horrific fate that seems to await us just around the next corner, the next moment, looming over the globe like a gigantic devil stretching its wings and blotting out the sun.

It seems to me that the question of whether life is really worth living anymore is inextricably bound up with the question of whether or not these madmen can be stopped. If not, then the only alternative is to live it up while we can and laugh defiantly in the face of the apocalypse. Why write columns, why comment at all, if we can’t have any effect on the outcome? […]

Read full article here.

Iran
911
Iraq
Foreign Policy
News
Politics
News and politics
Current Affairs
Current events
Weblogs
Weblog
Personal
Journal
Life
Media

Excerpt from a satirical, yet thought-provoking piece published yesterday on the international alternative news site, Signs of the Times:

Open Letter from George Bush to the American People

SOTT

Dear Western World (and all others blessed by a Western-style corpotocracy instead of a representative government),

It has come to my attention that you are unaware of one very important piece of information. This information is so important that I (along with my media whores) will be taking time out from my busy schedule to personally bring you the facts over the next few months.

This information is shocking, not least for a decent home-loving boy like myself, so I urge you to brace yourself and ensure that you are in a seated position:

IRAN IS THE LIVING INCARNATION OF…..EVIL! (cue orpheus)

Yes indeedy folks, while we may have been buddies up until recently, we may have meddled in their affairs and installed the regime that suited us best at the time, we may have known for years that the Iranian clerics pursue a somewhat less than “free” form of government, but things have changed, and current needs dictate that you, my darling public morons, begin to believe fervently that Satan himself lives in Tehran.

To this end you will begin to see all manner of reports in the mainstream media which will subtly inform you of just how evil Iran is, and just how much its people need a good dose of American-style freedom and democracy.

During this time, you may feel slightly uncomfortable and the nagging sense that you are being manipulated may arise; this is normal, do not adjust your television sets, the feeling will pass - try eating a tube of toothpaste (the extra flouride kind).

To get the ball rolling, consider the following:

Journalist is jailed for 14 years after ‘insulting’ authority

By Daniel Howden
25 February 2005

A prominent Iranian journalist and blogger has been sentenced to 14 years in prison on charges ranging from spying to aiding counter-revolutionaries. His sentence comes as part of the latest clerical crackdown on freedom of speech.

Arash Sigarchi, a regional newspaper editor, was accused of inciting a riot through his writings and insulting the authorities. His lawyer, Mohammad Saifzadeh, questioned the authority of the court and said he would appeal. […]

I know you will all join with me in condemning those evil Iranian Muslim, Persian devils! All this poor guy was doing was exercising his free speech on the net! And he gets 14 years in jail for it! Now that’s just pure old-fashioned evil folks! These people need to be taught a lesson!

Mr Sigarchi is said by authorities to be a paid employee of Farda radio, a US-funded station based in Prague. Hardliners in Iran accuse the network of seeking to incite public unrest and destabilise the ruling Islamic establishment.

Now just in case you happen to come across it, there are some reports out there that this particular person was being used by the CIA to stir up popular revolt in Iran and that, as such, he has little to complain about. There are also some allegations that the CIA facilitated his arrest so that the Iranian government could then be condemned in the world press. I would just like to confirm that such claims are scurrilous and that such covert operations simply do not occur.

The previous August (1989) a contingent of the Maktal (Mossad reconnaissance unit) and several naval commandos had headed up the Euphrates, their target was an explosives factory located in the city of Al-Iskandariah. Information the Mossad had received from American intelligence revealed that every thursday a small convoy of trucks came to the complex to be loaded with explosives for the purpose of manufacturing cannon shells. The objective was to take position near the base on Wednesday August 23rd and wait until the next day when the trucks would be loaded. At that point, several sharpshooters would fire one round each of an explosive bullet at a designated truck while they were in the process of loading, so that there would be a carry on explosion into the storage facility.

The operation was quite successful and the explosion generated the sort of publicity the Mossad was hoping for in attracting attention to Saddam’s constant efforts at building a gigantic and powerful military arsenal. The Mossad shared its “findings” with the Western intelligence agencies and leaked the story of the explosion to the press.

Since this was a guarded facility Western reporters had minimal access to it. However, at the beginning of September, the Iraqis were inviting Western media people to visit Iraq and see the rebuilding that had taken place after the [Iran-Iraq] war, and the Mossad saw an opportunity to conduct a damage assessment.

A man calling himself Michel Rubiyer saying he was working for the French newspaper “le figaro”, approached Farzad Bazoft, a thirty one year old reporter freelancing for the British newspaper the Observer. Rubiyer was in fact Michel M. a Mossad agent.

Michel told Farzad that he would pay him handsomely and print his story if he would join a group of journalists heading for Baghdad. The reason he gave for not going himself was that he had been black-listed in Iraq. He pointed out the Bazoft could use the money and the break especially with his criminal background. Michel told the stunned reporter that he knew of his arrest in 1981 for armed robbery in Northhampton England. Along with the implied threat he told Bazoft that he would be able to print his story in the Observer as well.

Michel told Bazoft to collect information regarding the explosion ask questions about it get sketches of the area and collect earth samples. He told the worried reporter that Saddam would not dare harm a reporter even if he was unhappy with him. The worst the Saddam would do was kick him out of the country, which would in itself make him famous.

Why this particular reporter? He was of Iranian background and would make punishing him much easier for the Iraqis and he wasn’t a European whom they would probably only hold and then kick out. In fact, Bazoft had been identified in a Mossad search that was triggered by his prying into another Mossad case in search of a story involving an ex-Mossad asset Dr Cyrus Hashemi who was eliminated by mossad in 1986. Since Bazoft had already stumbled on too much information for his own good - or the Mossad’s for that matter - he was the perfect candidate for this job of snooping in forbidden areas.

Bazoft made his way to the location as he was asked and as might be expected was arrested. Tragically, his British girlfriend, a nurse working in a baghdad hospital was arrested as well.

Within a few days of his arrest, a Mossad liaison in the US called the Iraqi representative in Holland and said that Jerusalem was willing to make a deal for the release of their man who had been captured. the Iraqi representative asked for time to contact Baghdad, and the liaison called the next day, at which point he told the Iraqi representative it was all a big mistake and severed contact. Now the Iraqis had no doubt that they had a real spy on their hands, and they were going to see him hang. All the Mossad had to do was sit back and watch as Saddam proved to the world what a monster he really was.
On March 15th 1990 Farzad Bazoft, who had been held in the Abu Gharib prison met briefly with the British Ambassador to Iraq.

A few minutes after the meeting he was hanged. (The Other Side of Deception, Victor Ostrovsky)

I know y’all will join with me in condemning the targetting of journalists for simply reporting factual information that is damaging to a government as despicable behavior that should never be tolerated.

Iran girl gets 100 lashes for sex

A teenage girl and two young men in Iran have been sentenced to lashes for having sex.

The court dismissed the girl’s claim that she was raped. It said she had sex of her own free will, the official Iran Daily newspaper reported.

The girl was sentenced to 100 lashes because her accusations of rape and kidnap could have landed her partners a death penalty, the Tehran judge said.
Sex outside marriage is illegal in Iran and capital punishment can be imposed.
The young men in the case were sentenced to 30 and 40 lashes each.

Rights violations

The Iran paper quotes the girl, who has not been named, as confessing: “I trusted one of these young men, whom I got to know by phone, and went to his place.

“But because he betrayed me, I filed the case against him and his friend out of revenge.”

This kind of thing goes on all the time in Iran, people! What more do we need to know?! This country is clearly in need of democratising! Think about the children! Think back to just before Gulf War I. Remember those babies in incubators? Okay, so we made that story up, but it was true in the sense that it correctly protrayed the image that we wanted you all to have of Saddam, and it worked! Sure, we may have killed 500,000 Iraqi children as a result of sanctions in the 10 years after the Gulf war, but that wasn’t our fault! It was Saddam and his evil regime who wouldn’t allow a US take over of his oil fields!

Clearly something must be done for the Iranian people. I know that my fellow Americans will join with me in refusing to sit back smugly and keep all of the freedom and democracy to ourselves, heck! there’s plenty to go around, right!? I mean, have ever thought about just what we have to offer the world! […]

For full article, see: George Bush to the American People

News
Politics
News and politics
Articles

Speaking to a full house in Olympia’s Capitol Theater on February 18, the former UNSCOM weapon’s inspector, Scott Ritter, appearing with journalist, Dahr Jamail, made two startling revelations to the audience. The first being that plans had been submitted to the US President for a June attack on Iran, and that he had approved them. The second revelation came when Ritter stated that the Iraqi elections had been rigged. According to Mark Jensen’s article, Scott Ritter Says U.S. Plans June Attack on Iran, ‘Cooked’ Jan. 30 Election Results (full text below), Ritter revealed that U.S. authorities in Iraq had “manipulated the results in order to reduce the percentage of the vote received by the United Iraqi Alliance from 56% to 48%”.

Of course, those who have been following events as they unfold in the Middle East, and understanding that the US, in concert with Israel, are undertaking to build an empire in that part of the world, will not be surprised at this news. The media machine was set in action long ago with the task of demonizing Iran and programming the American public with the idea that Iran was a nuclear power to fear - a nuclear power that could launch an unprovoked attack on the US. What they fail to recognize is that, to date, the only nuclear power that has been making unprovoked attacks recently is the US itself, and now they are intending on making another one on Iran. So, to those aware of these things, the only thing that may be a true revelation in Ritter’s statement regarding Iran is that now we have an approximate date for the attack - June. And Syria is next on the list.

Jensen’s article is very revealing. It is included below for your perusal and thought. Read it, and then consider buckling down in preparation for some very tough years ahead. The Middle East is a powder keg that is just about to blow. And when it blows, we’re all going to find ourselves in the middle of WWIII.

A. Borean

SCOTT RITTER SAYS U.S. PLANS JUNE ATTACK ON IRAN, ‘COOKED’ JAN. 30 IRAQI ELECTION RESULTS

By Mark Jensen
United for Peace of Pierce County (WA)
February 19, 2005

Scott Ritter, appearing with journalist Dahr Jamail yesterday in Washington State, dropped two shocking bombshells in a talk delivered to a packed house in Olympia’s Capitol Theater. The ex-Marine turned UNSCOM weapons inspector said that George W. Bush has “signed off” on plans to bomb Iran in June 2005, and claimed the U.S. manipulated the results of the recent Jan. 30 elections in Iraq.

Olympians like to call the Capitol Theater “historic,” but it’s doubtful whether the eighty-year-old edifice has ever been the scene of more portentous revelations.

The principal theme of Scott Ritter’s talk was Americans’ duty to protect the U.S. Constitution by taking action to bring an end to the illegal war in Iraq. But in passing, the former UNSCOM weapons inspector stunned his listeners with two pronouncements. Ritter said plans for a June attack on Iran have been submitted to President George W. Bush, and that the president has approved them. He also asserted that knowledgeable sources say U.S. officials “cooked” the results of the Jan. 30 elections in Iraq.

On Iran, Ritter said that President George W. Bush has received and signed off on orders for an aerial attack on Iran planned for June 2005. Its purported goal is the destruction of Iran’s alleged program to develop nuclear weapons, but Ritter said neoconservatives in the administration also expected that the attack would set in motion a chain of events leading to regime change in the oil-rich nation of 70 million — a possibility Ritter regards with the greatest skepticism.

The former Marine also said that the Jan. 30 elections, which George W. Bush has called “a turning point in the history of Iraq, a milestone in the advance of freedom,” were not so free after all. Ritter said that U.S. authorities in Iraq had manipulated the results in order to reduce the percentage of the vote received by the United Iraqi Alliance from 56% to 48%.

Asked by UFPPC’s Ted Nation about this shocker, Ritter said an official involved in the manipulation was the source, and that this would soon be reported by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist in a major metropolitan magazine — an obvious allusion to New Yorker reporter Seymour M. Hersh.

On Jan. 17, the New Yorker posted an article by Hersh entitled The Coming Wars (New Yorker, January 24-31, 2005). In it, the well-known investigative journalist claimed that for the Bush administration, “The next strategic target [is] Iran.” Hersh also reported that “The Administration has been conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran at least since last summer.”

According to Hersh, “Defense Department civilians, under the leadership of Douglas Feith, have been working with Israeli planners and consultants to develop and refine potential nuclear, chemical-weapons, and missile targets inside Iran. . . .

Strategists at the headquarters of the U.S. Central Command, in Tampa, Florida, have been asked to revise the military’s war plan, providing for a maximum ground and air invasion of Iran. . . . The hawks in the Administration believe that it will soon become clear that the Europeans’ negotiated approach [to Iran] cannot succeed, and that at that time the Administration will act.”

Scott Ritter said that although the peace movement failed to stop the war in Iraq, it had a chance to stop the expansion of the war to other nations like Iran and Syria. He held up the specter of a day when the Iraq war might be remembered as a relatively minor event that preceded an even greater conflagration.

Scott Ritter’s talk was the culmination of a long evening devoted to discussion of Iraq and U.S. foreign policy. Before Ritter spoke, Dahr Jamail narrated a slide show on Iraq focusing on Fallujah. He showed more than a hundred vivid photographs taken in Iraq, mostly by himself. Many of them showed the horrific slaughter of civilians.

Dahr Jamail argued that U.S. mainstream media sources are complicit in the war and help sustain support for it by deliberately downplaying the truth about the devastation and death it is causing.

Jamail was, until recently, one of the few unembedded journalists in Iraq and one of the only independent ones. His reports have gained a substantial following and are available online at dahrjamailiraq.com.

Friday evening’s event in Olympia was sponsored by South Puget Sound Community College’s Student Activities Board, Veterans for Peace, 100 Thousand and Counting, Olympia Movement for Justice & Peace, and United for Peace of Pierce County.

News
News and politics
Articles