Filed under: 2008 Election, Afghanistan, AIPAC, central bank, CIA, Credit Crisis, DEBT, Dissent, Dollar, Dow, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, elbaradei, energy, Federal Reserve, gas prices, gold, GOP, Great Depression, Greenback, h.con.res.362, House, Inflation, interest rate cuts, Iran war resolution, Iraq, nation building, nevada, NIE, occupation, Oil, Petrol, Propaganda, Protest, rally, rate cut, Ron Paul, Saber Rattling, Sanctions, Senate, Stock Market, UN, US Economy, Washington D.C., WMD | Tags: revolution march, ron paul march, Ron Paul Rally
Ron Paul: Iran war will triple energy prices
Press TV
June 28, 2008
Republican congressman Ron Paul warns against military engagement in Iran, saying ‘bombing Iran’ will cause energy prices to skyrocket.
In a speech on the House floor, Congressman Paul suggested that the US is inching toward an ‘endless struggle’ similar to the Iraq war.
“In the last several weeks, if not for months we have heard a lot of talk about the potential of Israel and/or the United States bombing Iran. Energy prices are being bid up because of this fear. It has been predicted that if bombs start dropping, that we will see energy prices double or triple,” said the Republican.
“To me it is almost like deja vu all over again. We listened to the rhetoric for years and years before we went into Iraq. We did not go in the correct manner, we did not declare war, we are there and it is an endless struggle,” he told a nearly empty House chamber.
“I cannot believe it, that we may well be on the verge of initiating the bombing of Iran,” said the war veteran.
The 72-year-old former presidential candidate then blasted what he called the ‘virtual Iran war resolution’, which is soon to be considered by the House of Representatives.
“This resolution, House Resolution 362 is a virtual war resolution. It is the declaration of tremendous sanctions, and boycotts and embargoes on the Iranians. It is very, very severe,” Paul said.
Supported by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), House Resolution 362 (and the Senate version Resolution 580), known as the ‘Iran War Resolution’ can be considered a means of imposing harsher sanctions as well as a naval blockade restricting exports to the oil-rich country.
This bill, which was introduced at an AIPAC annual policy conference, has gained 208 co-sponsors in the House and 29 in the Senate. It will likely be put to a vote after July 4.
“The fear is, they say, maybe some day, [Iran is] going to get a nuclear weapon, even though our own CIA’s National Intelligence Estimate has said that the Iranians have not been working on a nuclear weapon since 2003,” continued the 10-term congressman.
The US and Israel accuse Tehran of making efforts to produce nuclear weapons; Iran insists its nuclear program is directed at peaceful purposes.
The most recent UN nuclear watchdog report on Tehran’s nuclear program, however, has conceded that there is no link between the use of nuclear material and ‘the alleged studies’ of weaponization attributed to Iran by Western countries.
“This is unbelievable! This is closing down Iran. Where do we have this authority? Where do we get the moral authority? Where do we get the international legality for this? Where do we get the Constitutional authority for this?” asked Paul.
Ron Paul on How The Fed Creates Inflation
Ron Paul March in Washington D.C. on July 12
http://ronpaulforum.info/index.php?topic=362.0
Filed under: 2-party system, 2008 Election, airstrikes, Barack Obama, Bill Kristol, Coup, egypt, elbaradei, False Flag, Fox News, Iraq, Israel, left right paradigm, Media, middle east, military strike, nation building, neocons, Nuke, occupation, PNAC, Preemptive Strike, preemptive war, Propaganda, Psyops, Saber Rattling, Saudi Arabia, Shock and Awe, Tehran, UN, War On Terror, WW3, ww4 | Tags: Mohammad Ali Hosseini
Strike on Iran could turn Mideast into fireball, official says
AP
June 21, 2008
The U.N. nuclear watchdog chief warned in comments aired Saturday that any military strike on Iran could turn the Mideast to a “ball of fire” and lead Iran to a more aggressive stance on its controversial nuclear program.
Mohamed ElBaradei made the remarks in an interview aired on Saturday by Al Arabiya TV. The interview comes a day after reports emerged that Israel conducted an large-scale military exercise that the United States believes is in part a message to Iran that Israel has the capability to attack its nuclear program.
“In my opinion, a military strike will be the worst. … It will turn the Middle East to a ball of fire,” ElBaradei said on Al-Arabiya television. It also could prompt Iran to press even harder to seek a nuclear program and force him to resign, he said.
Iran also criticized the Israeli exercises Saturday. The official IRNA news agency quoted a government spokesman as saying the exercises demonstrate that Israel “jeopardizes global peace and security.”
Israel sent warplanes and other aircraft on a major exercise in the eastern Mediterranean this month, U.S. military officials said Friday.
Israel’s military refused to confirm or deny that the maneuvers were practice for a strike in Iran, saying only that it regularly trains for various missions to counter threats to the country.
But the exercise the first week of June may have been meant as a show of force as well as a practice on skills needed to execute a long-range strike mission, one U.S. official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record on the matter.
Iran says Israel not capable of threatening it
Reuters
June 23, 2008
Iran said on Monday Israel could not threaten it, a few days after a U.S. newspaper reported that Israel’s air force had apparently rehearsed a potential bombing raid of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Iran and Israel have engaged in a sharp exchange of words this month over suspicions Tehran is looking to develop nuclear weapons, helping to push global oil prices higher.
“They do not have the capacity to threaten the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told a news conference.
He was asked about a New York Times report on Friday that quoted U.S. officials as saying Israeli jets conducted a long-range Mediterranean exercise this month that appeared to be a practice for a mission against Iran.
“They (Israel) have a number of domestic crises and they want to extrapolate it to cover others. Sometimes they come up with these empty slogans,” Hosseini said in comments translated by Iran’s English-language Press TV satellite station.
Iran’s defense minister on Sunday accused Israel of “psychological warfare”, but said Tehran would give a “devastating” response to any attack.
On Friday, the U.N. nuclear watchdog chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, said a military strike on Iran would turn the Middle East into a fireball and prompt Tehran to launch a crash course to build nuclear weapons.
http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m45047&hd=&size=1&l=e
ElBaradei: If you attack Iran, I quit
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=60539§ionid=351020104
Iran says Israel a ’dangerous regime’
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Middle_East/10222718.html
Filed under: Ahmadinejad, Baghdad, balkanization, Congress, Dictatorship, elbaradei, ethnic cleansing, Eugenics, Genocide, George Bush, Hitler, House, IAEA, Iran, Iraq, Iraqnam, james moran, Kurdish, Maliki, Military, nation building, occupation, Seymour Hersh, Shiite, sunni, Taliban, Troops, UN, veterans, Vietnam, War On Terror
Congressman: ‘Sure, there’s less violence, but that’s because we’ve ethnically cleansed most of Baghdad’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poCp59v5HLw
‘The President Has Accepted Ethnic Cleansing’
Spiegel Online
September 28, 2007
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was just in New York (more…) for the United Nations General Assembly. Once again, he said that he is only interested in civilian nuclear power instead of atomic weapons. How much does the West really know about the nuclear program in Iran?
Seymour Hersh: A lot. And it’s been underestimated how much the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) knows. If you follow what (IAEA head Mohamed) ElBaradei (more…) and the various reports have been saying, the Iranians have claimed to be enriching uranium to higher than a 4 percent purity, which is the amount you need to run a peaceful nuclear reactor. But the IAEA’s best guess is that they are at 3.67 percent or something. The Iranians are not even doing what they claim to be doing. The IAEA has been saying all along that they’ve been making progress but basically, Iran is nowhere. Of course the US and Israel are going to say you have to look at the worst case scenario, but there isn’t enough evidence to justify a bombing raid.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Is this just another case of exaggerating the danger in preparation for an invasion like we saw in 2002 and 2003 prior to the Iraq War?
Hersh: We have this wonderful capacity in America to Hitlerize people. We had Hitler, and since Hitler we’ve had about 20 of them. Khrushchev and Mao and of course Stalin, and for a little while Gadhafi was our Hitler. And now we have this guy Ahmadinejad. The reality is, he’s not nearly as powerful inside the country as we like to think he is. The Revolutionary Guards have direct control over the missile program and if there is a weapons program, they would be the ones running it. Not Ahmadinejad.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Where does this feeling of urgency that the US has with Iran come from?
Hersh: Pressure from the White House. That’s just their game.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: What interest does the White House have in moving us to the brink with Tehran?
Hersh: You have to ask yourself what interest we had 40 years ago for going to war in Vietnam. You’d think that in this country with so many smart people, that we can’t possibly do the same dumb thing again. I have this theory in life that there is no learning. There is no learning curve. Everything is tabula rasa. Everybody has to discover things for themselves.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Even after Iraq? Aren’t there strategic reasons for getting so deeply involved in the Middle East?
Hersh: Oh no. We’re going to build democracy. The real thing in the mind of this president is he wants to reshape the Middle East and make it a model. He absolutely believes it. I always thought Henry Kissinger was a disaster because he lies like most people breathe and you can’t have that in public life. But if it were Kissinger this time around, I’d actually be relieved because I’d know that the madness would be tied to some oil deal. But in this case, what you see is what you get. This guy believes he’s doing God’s work.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: So what are the options in Iraq?
Hersh: There are two very clear options: Option A) Get everybody out by midnight tonight. Option B) Get everybody out by midnight tomorrow. The fuel that keeps the war going is us.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: A lot of people have been saying that the US presence there is a big part of the problem. Is anyone in the White House listening?
Hersh: No. The president is still talking about the “Surge” (eds. The “Surge” refers to President Bush’s commitment of 20,000 additional troops to Iraq in the spring of 2007 in an attempt to improve security in the country.) as if it’s going to unite the country. But the Surge was a con game of putting additional troops in there. We’ve basically Balkanized the place, building walls and walling off Sunnis from Shiites. And in Anbar Province, where there has been success, all of the Shiites are gone. They’ve simply split.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Is that why there has been a drop in violence there?
Hersh: I think that’s a much better reason than the fact that there are a couple more soldiers on the ground.
SPIEGEL ONLINE:So what are the lessons of the Surge (more…)?
Hersh: The Surge means basically that, in some way, the president has accepted ethnic cleansing, whether he’s talking about it or not. When he first announced the Surge in January, he described it as a way to bring the parties together. He’s not saying that any more. I think he now understands that ethnic cleansing is what is going to happen. You’re going to have a Kurdistan. You’re going to have a Sunni area that we’re going to have to support forever. And you’re going to have the Shiites in the South.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: So the US is over four years into a war that is likely going to end in a disaster. How valid are the comparisons with Vietnam?
Hersh:The validity is that the US is fighting a guerrilla war and doesn’t know the culture. But the difference is that at a certain point, because of Congressional and public opposition, the Vietnam War was no longer tenable. But these guys now don’t care. They see it but they don’t care.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: If the Iraq war does end up as a defeat for the US, will it leave as deep a wound as the Vietnam War did?
Hersh: Much worse. Vietnam was a tactical mistake. This is strategic. How do you repair damages with whole cultures? On the home front, though, we’ll rationalize it away. Don’t worry about that. Again, there’s no learning curve. No learning curve at all. We’ll be ready to fight another stupid war in another two decades.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Of course, preventing that is partially the job of the media. Have reporters been doing a better job recently than they did in the run-up to the Iraq War?
Hersh: Oh yeah. They’ve done a better job since. But back then, they blew it. When you have a guy like Bush who’s going to move the infamous Doomsday Clock forward, and he’s going to put everybody in jeopardy and he’s secretive and he doesn’t tell Congress anything and he’s inured to what we write. In such a case, we (journalists) become more important. The First Amendment failed and the American press failed the Constitution. We were jingoistic. And that was a terrible failing. I’m asked the question all the time: What happened to my old paper, the New York Times? And I now say, they stink. They missed it. They missed the biggest story of the time and they’re going to have to live with it.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=699_1198279617
All Iraqis Agree U.S. Occupation Causes Violence
http://www.washington…2/18/AR2007121802262_pf.html
Bush, Maliki Break Iraqi Law to Renew U.N. Mandate for Occupation
http://www.alternet.org/story/71144/
Iraq Vet War Critics Detained at Bragg
http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,158521,00.html?wh=wh
Mobile Labs to Target Iraqis for Death
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/121307.html
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