Filed under: 2-party system, 2008 Election, Coup, democratic debate, False Flag, George Bush, Hillary Clinton, Iran, Iraq, Kyl-Lieberman amendment, left right paradigm, Lieberman, Military, military strike, neocons, Neolibs, Propaganda, Psyops, Revolutionary Guards, Saber Rattling, Troops, ww4
Clinton Flogs Alleged Iranian Role in Iraq – More Than Bush
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
November 16, 2007
In Thursday night’s debate, defending her vote for the Kyl-Lieberman amendment – which critics have charged was intended to escalate towards military confrontation with Iran – Senator Clinton said, “The Iranian Revolutionary Guard has assisted the militias… in killing…Americans.”
This unsubstantiated allegation echoes unsubstantiated claims by Senator Lieberman and the Bush Administration that both Lieberman and Administration have claimed would justify U.S. military attacks on Iran. But, as Senator Clinton surely knows, the Bush Administration has not produced evidence to substantiate these allegations. Why is she repeating them, now, when even the Bush Administration has moved away from them?
On February 12, the Washington Post reported on a much-awaited U.S. military briefing in Iraq that was supposed to substantiate these claims. “The officials offered no evidence to substantiate allegations that the ‘highest levels’ of the Iranian government had sanctioned support for attacks against U.S. troops.,” noted the Post, adding that “the U.S. government has never publicly offered evidence proving the allegations.”
Iraq’s deputy foreign minister said the Iraqi government remains in the dark about the U.S. investigation into Iranian activities in Iraq. “It is difficult for us here in the diplomatic circles just to accept whatever the American forces say is evidence,” he said. “If they have anything really conclusive, then they should come out and say it openly.”
The components of the one device shown at the briefing “require precision machining that Iraq has shown no evidence of being able to perform,” U.S. officials said.
But as NBC reported on February 23, U.S. military officials subsequently admitted that these devices were indeed being manufactured in Iraq. That doesn’t prove that some were not also coming from Iran, but it does undermine the previous U.S. claim that they had to be coming from Iran since they couldn’t be manufactured in Iraq.
Regardless of what was true in the past, U.S. military officials are now saying that Iran has halted the smuggling of bombs into Iraq. “We have not seen any recent evidence that weapons continue to come across the border into Iraq.” Army Maj. Gen. James Simmons said, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday. “We believe that the initiatives and the commitments that the Iranians have made appear to be holding up.”
It’s very unfortunate, to say the least, that Senator Clinton is still pushing the claim that Iran is responsible for the deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq when even the Bush Administration is moving away from it. “Aktar maliki min il malik,” as they say in Arabic – more royalist than the king.
Ask Congress to Oppose War with Iran.
Filed under: Bloggers, Coup, False Flag, George Bush, Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton, Iran, Iraq, Jim Webb, Karl Rove, Kyl-Lieberman amendment, Lieberman, military strike, nation building, occupation, Propaganda, Psyops, Revolutionary Guards, Robert Byrd, Saber Rattling, Senate, Shock and Awe, War On Terror, ww4
Lieberman: ‘Paranoid, Hyper-Partisan’ ‘Left-Wing Blogs’ Wrote ‘Conspiracy Theories’ On Iran
Think Progress
November 9, 2007
Speaking today at the Johns Hopkins Center for Politics and Foreign Relations, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) accused “left-wing blogs” of making up “conspiracy theories” about the Kyl-Lieberman amendment, which passed the Senate last month. It designated part of the Iranian army a terrorist organization. Lieberman called opponents of the amendment “politically paranoid” and “hyper-partisan.”
He also claimed that the “amendment contained nothing” that could be seen “as a green light” for war:
These were absurd arguments. The text of our amendment contained nothing–nothing–that could be construed as a green light for an attack on Iran. To claim that it did was an act of delusion or deception.
On the contrary, by calling for tougher sanctions on Iran, the intention of our amendment was to offer an alternative to war.
Lieberman’s argument is the only “deception” going on. It didn’t take “conspiracy theories” to realize that the amendment would move America closer to war with Iran. In the original version of the bill, which was only changed after pressure from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), language was included that explicitly endorsed the use of “military instruments” against Iran:
4) to support the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq, including diplomatic, economic, intelligence, and military instruments, in support of the policy described in paragraph (3) with respect to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies.
Even after the “military instruments” language was removed from the amendment, the final bill still shifted America into a more war-prone posture. As Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) noted at the time, just labeling Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp as “a foreign terrorist organization” could “mandate” the military option against Iran:
It could be read as tantamount to a declaration of war. What do we do with terrorist organizations? If they are involved against us, we attack them.
Given the language of the bill and Lieberman’s previous calls for “aggressive military action” against Iran, progressive blogs were hardly “delusional” in warning against the dangers of the amendment. But Lieberman would rather lash out at straw men caricatures of “left-wing blogs” and “hyper-partisans” than deal with legitimate criticism.
Rove Decries ‘Nutty’ ‘Vitriolic’ Bloggers Who Spew ‘Bad Words’
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/11/09/rove-bloggers/
Hillary’s Testy Iran Kyl-Lieberman Exchange In Iowa
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/th…_vote_prompts_a_h.html
Byrd: Senate’s ‘Saber-Rattling’ Is ‘Sleep-Walking’ America To War With Iran
http://noworldsystem.com/2007/10/05/….merica-to-war-with-iran/
Mike Gravel Grills Hillary for Supporting Iran War Amendment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3gQfz8GC0o
BREAKING: Lieberman-Kyl’s Iran amendment passes
http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Find-Freedom.htm?At=024323&From=News
Durbin: Lieberman-Kyl Amendment Is ‘Dangerous,’ ‘Puts Us On Record’ In Support Of Iran War
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/25/durbin-lieb-kyl-amdt/
More Disasterous Iran Legislation On Its Way
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.c….ous-iran-legislation-on.html
Filed under: Al Gore, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, Co2, environmental taxation, environmentalists, global tax, Global Warming, Lieberman
Global Warming Enslavement Bill Advances
AP
November 1, 2007
WASHINGTON – Lawmakers took the first step Thursday on a bipartisan global warming bill that would impose mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases from power plants, industrial facilities and transportation.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., pushed the legislation out of his global warming subcommittee by a 4-3 vote, agreeing to a number of changes aimed primarily at garnering the needed majority to advance it.
The bill calls for setting limits on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that are emitted from power plants, refineries, factories and motor fuels. Polluters could exceed the limits by buying credits from companies whose emissions are under their allowable ceiling.
Lieberman called the vote “potentially a landmark event, the moment at which the United States finally began a serious fight against the threat of unchecked global warming.”
Approval of the bipartisan legislation, whose co-sponsor is Sen. John Warner, R-Va., had been expected, but not without some early horse-trading for votes.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., who favors more aggressive cuts in greenhouse gases, agreed to support the bill after additional emission reductions from natural gas use were included. Earlier, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., was persuaded to support the measure when changes were made in the bill to help farmers.
Voting against the bill were Sens. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Bernard Sanders, I-Vt.
The full Senate Environment and Public Works Committee plans to take up the bill in coming weeks, when its chairman, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is expected to seek greater greenhouse gas cuts.
Some Republicans complain the emission requirements may already be too stringent, especially in earlier years when carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas, would have to be cut by at least 15 percent by 2020.
Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said earlier this week the bill will have trouble getting the 60 votes need to overcome an expected filibuster on the Senate floor unless there is an easing of the early-year requirements.
Many environmental groups support the legislation, but some environmentalists argue that it gives too much of a break to coal-burning power plants, a major source of carbon dioxide.
Filed under: army, Centcom, Condoleezza Rice, Coup, Dick Cheney, Dissent, George Bush, Iran, Iraq, JCS, Lieberman, Military, military resistance, military strike, nation building, Nuke, occupation, Pentagon, Propaganda, Revolutionary Guards, Saber Rattling, Seymour Hersh, staged provocation, Syria, troop surge, Troops, UN, White House, William Fallon, WMD, ww4
Military Resistance Forced Shift on Iran Strike
Gareth Porter
IPS
October 19, 2007
WASHINGTON, Oct 18 (IPS) – The George W. Bush administration’s shift from the military option of a massive strategic attack against Iran to a surgical strike against selected targets associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), reported by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker earlier this month, appears to have been prompted not by new alarm at Iran’s role in Iraq but by the explicit opposition of the nation’s top military leaders to an unprovoked attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
The reorientation of the military threat was first signaled by passages on Iran in Bush’s Jan. 10 speech and followed by only a few weeks a decisive rejection by the Joint Chiefs of Staff of a strategic attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Although scarcely mentioned in press reports of the speech, which was devoted almost entirely to announcing the troop “surge” in Iraq, Bush accused both Iran and Syria of “allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq”. Bush also alleged that Iran was “providing material support for attacks on American troops”.
Those passages were intended in part to put pressure on Iran, and were accompanied by an intensification of a campaign begun the previous month to seize Iranian officials inside Iraq. But according to Hillary Mann, who was director for Persian Gulf and Afghanistan Affairs on the National Security Council staff in 2003, they also provided a legal basis for a possible attack on Iran.
“I believe the president chose his words very carefully,” says Mann, “and laid down a legal predicate that could be used to justify later military action against Iran.”
Mann says her interpretation of the language is based on the claim by the White House of a right to attack another country in “anticipatory self-defence” based on Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. That had been the legal basis cited by then National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice had in September 2002 in making the case for the invasion of Iraq.
The introduction of a new reason for striking Iran, which also implied a much more limited set of targets related to Iraq, followed a meeting between Bush and the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Dec. 13, 2006 in which the uniformed military leaders rejected a strike against Iran’s nuclear programme. Time magazine political columnist Joe Klein, reported last May that military and intelligence sources told him that Bush had asked the Joint Chiefs at the meeting about a possible strike against the Iranian nuclear programme, and that they had unanimously opposed such an attack.
Mann says that she was also told by her own contacts in the Pentagon that the Joint Chiefs had expressed opposition to a strike against Iran.
The Joint Chiefs were soon joined in opposition to a strike on Iran by Admiral William Fallon, who was nominated to become CENTCOM commander in January. Mann says Pentagon contacts have also told her that Fallon made his opposition to war against Iran clear to the White House.
IPS reported last May that Fallon had indicated privately that he was determined to prevent an attack on Iran and even prepared to resign to do so. A source who met with Fallon at the time of his confirmation hearing quoted him as vowing that there would be “no war with Iran” while he was CENTCOM commander and as hinting very strongly that he would quit rather than go along with an attack.
Although he did not specifically refer to the Joint Chiefs, Fallon also suggested that other military leaders were opposing a strike against Iran, saying, “There are several of us who are trying to put the crazies back in the box,” according to the same source.
Fallon’s opposition to a strike against Iranian nuclear, military and economic targets would make it very difficult, if not impossible for the White House to carry out such an operation, according to military experts. As CENTCOM commander, Fallon has complete control over all military access to the region, says retired Air Force Col. Sam Gardiner, an expert on military strategy who has taught at the National War College.
Douglas McGregor, a retired Army Lt. Col. who was a tank commander in the 1991 Gulf War and has taught at the National Defense University, agrees. “I find it hard to imagine that anything can happen in the area without the involvement of the Central Command,” says McGregor.
The possibility that Fallon might object to an unprovoked attack on Iran or even resign over the issue represents a significant deterrent to such an attack.
Former NSC adviser Mann believes the Iraq-focused strategy is now aimed at averting any resignation threat by Fallon or other military leaders by carrying out a very limited strike that would be presented as a response to a specific incident in Iraq in which the deaths of U.S. soldiers could be attributed to Iranian policy. She says she doubts Fallon and other military leaders would “fall on their swords” over such a strike.
Gardiner agrees that Fallon is unlikely to refuse to carry out such a limited strike under those circumstances.
Mann believes the Bush-Cheney purpose in advancing the strategy is to provoke Iranian retaliation. “The concern I have is that it would be just enough so Iranians would retaliation against U.S. allies,” she says.
But the issue of what evidence of Iranian complicity would be adequate to justify such a strike evidently remains a matter of debate within the administration. A story published by McClatchy newspapers Aug. 9 reported that Vice President Dick Cheney had argued some weeks earlier for a strike against camps in Iran allegedly used to train Iraqi Shiite militiamen fighting U.S. troops if “hard new evidence” could be obtained of Iran’s complicity in supporting anti-U.S. forces in Iraq.
But Cheney and his allies have been frustrated in the search for such evidence. Mann notes that British forces in southern Iraq patrolled the border very aggressively for six months last year to find evidence of Iranian involvement in supplying weapons to Iraqi guerrillas but found nothing.
After several months of trying to establish specific links between Iraqis suspected of trafficking in weapons to a specific Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard contact, the U.S. command has not claimed a single case of such a link. Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the U.S. commander for southern Iraq, where most of the Shiite militias operate, admitted in a Jul. 6 briefing that his troops had not captured “anybody that we can tie to Iran”.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, who is known to be closely allied with Cheney on Iran policy, has betrayed impatience with a policy that depends on obtaining proof of Iranian complicity in attacks. On Jun. 11 he called for “strike over the border into Iran, where we have good evidence that they have a base at which they are training these people coming back into Iraq to kill our soldiers.”
Lieberman repeated that position on Jul. 2, but thus far it has not prevailed.
*Gareth Porter is an historian and national security policy analyst. His latest book, “Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam”, was published in June 2005.
Bush Admin. Gearing up for a War with Iran for years
http://www.esquire.com/features/iranbriefing1107
Filed under: 2-party system, Afghanistan, Baghdad, Blackwater, Concentration Camp, Detainees, egypt, Gulag, Iran, Iraq, iraq deaths, Lieberman, Military, Neolibs, Saudi Arabia, Senate, sunni, Syria
Lieberman Has No Plans To Investigate Blackwater, Corrupt Iraq Contractors
Huffington Post
October 10, 2007
Joe Lieberman (I-CT), who chairs the Senate committee responsible for government oversight, says he has no plans to investigate Blackwater and other Iraq war contractors accused of potentially criminal wrongdoing. Roll Call reports (sub req’d):
Though Lieberman said he gets “angry when I hear about fraud or corruption in the spending of American dollars,” he said he in part chooses what to have hearings on by “watching who else is doing what,” noting that [House oversight chairman Henry] Waxman has held several hearings on Iraq oversight, as have the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees. “You’ve got to set your own priorities, and it was clear to me that other committees were going to pick this up,” said Lieberman.
Roll Call notes that on the day Iraq revoked Blackwater’s license after the shooting of 17 civilians, Waxman immediately announced hearings on private security contractors. Lieberman “announced two firefighting grants for the towns of Bolton and Willington in his home state.”
Lieberman has held only one hearing all year on “reconstruction challenges in both Iraq and Afghanistan,” compared to eight hearings on Iraq and contracting abuses in the House.
US detains nearly 25,000 in Iraq
AFP
October 10, 2007
BAGHDAD (AFP) — The US military is holding nearly 25,000 people in its prisons in Iraq, 860 of whom are under the age of 16, the general in charge of their detention said on Wednesday.
Eighty-three percent of inmates are Sunnis and 16 percent are Shiite, General Douglas Stone told a press conference in Baghdad.
Egyptians, Iranians, Saudis and Syrians number among 280 foreign nationals imprisoned by the US military in Iraq, he said.
There are two prisons run by the Americans on Iraqi soil: one at their Camp Cropper base outside Baghdad, the other at Camp Bucca near the southern port of Umm Qasr.
These prison receive an average of 60 news inmates each day, according to Stone, while the average length of time for incarceration of a detainee is 300 days.
Since the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in mid-September, the US military has freed around 50 to 60 prisoners every day.
Civilians killed in military strike
http://www.washingtontimes.com/ar….IGN/110100041/1003
Security guards fired randomly: Iraq official
http://today.reuters.com/news/art…_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ.xml
Filed under: 2008 Election, Coup, False Flag, George Bush, Hillary Clinton, Iowa, Iran, Iraq, Kyl-Lieberman amendment, Lieberman, military strike, Neolibs, Propaganda, Psyops, Revolutionary Guards, Saber Rattling, Sanctions, War On Terror, ww4
Hillary’s Testy Iran Kyl-Lieberman Exchange In Iowa
Washington Post
October 8, 2007
Randall Rolph said he came to New Hampton, Iowa, on Sunday to see Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) with an open mind about whether to support her candidacy. After a tough exchange over Iran, he left saying he had ruled her out.
Rolph was one of several hundred people who turned out in this small town in northern Iowa for Clinton’s appearance. When she called on him for a question, he pulled out a piece of paper and read a question about Iran.
Rolph asked Clinton to explain her Senate vote Wednesday for a resolution urging the Bush administration to label the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization. Rolph interpreted that measure as giving Bush authority to use military action against the Iranians.
“Well, let me thank you for the question, but let me tell you that the premise of the question is wrong and I’ll be happy to explain that to you,” Clinton began.
She offered a detailed description of the resolution, which she said stressed robust diplomacy that could lead to imposing sanctions against Iran, and then pointedly said to Rolph that her view wasn’t in “what you read to me, that somebody obviously sent to you.”
“I take exception,” Rolph interjected. “This is my own research.”
“Well then, let me finish,” Clinton responded.
Rolph, from nearby Nashua, fired back that no one had sent him the material.
“Well, then, I apologize. It’s just that I’ve been asked the very same question in three other places,” she said.
Clinton then explained that she had gone to the Senate floor in February to state that Bush does not have the authority to use military action against Iran and that she is working on legislation to put that into law. Rolph once again challenged her recent vote, suggesting that it amounted to giving Bush a free hand..
“I’m sorry, sir, it does not,” she said, her voice showing her exasperation. “No, no, let me just say one other thing because I respect your research. There was an earlier version that I opposed. It was dramatically changed … I would never have voted for the first version. The second version ripped out what was considered very bellicose and very threatening language.”
The campaign said later that the excised language stated that “it should be the policy of the United States to combat, contain, and roll back the violent activities and destabilizing influence inside Iraq of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” and “to support the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq, including … military instruments, with respect to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
The New Hampton audience gave Clinton a round of applause. Some said later that she was right to stand her ground.
When the event was over, Rolph was surrounded by reporters and said he felt the need to stand his ground when Clinton challenged him: “She tried to … accuse me of using someone else’s words and being stupid. And that offended me. I felt the need to defend myself in view of that kind of comment.”
Had he come to the meeting supporting any candidate? “I came here with an open mind, that’s why I had to ask this question. By asking this question, that was going to be the defining moment for me. But it has been a defining moment,” Rolph said.
Byrd: Senate’s ‘Saber-Rattling’ Is ‘Sleep-Walking’ America To War With Iran
http://noworldsystem.com/2007/10/05/….merica-to-war-with-iran/
Mike Gravel Grills Hillary for Supporting Iran War Amendment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3gQfz8GC0o
BREAKING: Lieberman-Kyl’s Iran amendment passes
http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Find-Freedom.htm?At=024323&From=News
Durbin: Lieberman-Kyl Amendment Is ‘Dangerous,’ ‘Puts Us On Record’ In Support Of Iran War
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/25/durbin-lieb-kyl-amdt/
Filed under: Ahmadinejad, Coup, George Bush, Iran, Israel, john hagee, Lieberman, military strike, Propaganda, Psyops, religion, Saber Rattling, tom delay
Tom Delay: “The Second Coming is What I Live For”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K30_Zz7tHYs
Bush: All religions pray to ‘same God’
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58026
Filed under: Al Gore, Coup, False Flag, George Bush, Iran, Iraq, Kyl-Lieberman amendment, Lieberman, military strike, nation building, occupation, Propaganda, Psyops, Robert Byrd, Saber Rattling, Saddam Hussein, Senate, Shock and Awe, War On Terror, ww4
Byrd: Senate’s ‘Saber-Rattling’ Is ‘Sleep-Walking’ America To War With Iran
Think Progress
October 05, 2007
On the Senate floor today, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) decried the recent Kyl-Lieberman amendment on Iran that 72 of his colleagues voted for, calling it an exercise in “international verbal spitball.” Byrd warned his colleagues against “sleep-walking” into another war, saying “I hope that we can stop this war of words before it becomes a war of bombs.”
Byrd added that the Senate’s “chest-pounding” and “saber-rattling” towards Iran was “deeply troubling,” as the Iraq war has shown “all too clearly where it leads”:
It is deeply troubling to see the U.S. Senate joining the chest-pounding and saber-rattling of the Bush administration. I am no apologist for the Iranian regime, anymore than I was for Saddam Hussein, but I fear that we may become entangled in another bloody quagmire. We have been down this path before. We have seen all too clearly where it leads.
Watch it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epi61tCR5zA
As former Vice President Al Gore noted in his book, The Assault on Reason, Byrd made a similarly prescient speech in 2003, warning against the invasion of Iraq:
We are truly “sleepwalking through history.” In my heart of hearts I pray that this great nation and its good and trusting citizens are not in for a rudest of awakenings.
To engage in war is always to pick a wild card. And war must always be a last resort, not a first choice. I truly must question the judgment of any President who can say that a massive unprovoked military attack on a nation which is over 50% children is “in the highest moral traditions of our country”. This war is not necessary at this time. Pressure appears to be having a good result in Iraq. Our mistake was to put ourselves in a corner so quickly. Our challenge is to now find a graceful way out of a box of our own making. Perhaps there is still a way if we allow more time.
At that time, Byrd noted that the Senate was “ominously silent” and failed to question the Bush administration’s invasion plan. “There is no debate, no discussion, no attempt to lay out for the nation the pros and cons of this particular war,” he said. Let’s hope that with Iran, the Senate wakes up before it’s too late.
Related News:
War With Iran? Who Decides?
http://www.thenewamerican.com/node/5787
Bush’s Agenda in Iran
http://www.alternet.org/audits/64221/
Fake Al-Qaeda Tape Says Bin Laden Alive
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hcEMJaZGZG06I5qCP04xPZ_v5wWw
Australia: We Won’t Follow US Into Iran
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/02/2049069.htm
Mike Gravel Says AIPAC Is Pushing Confrontation With Iran
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2007/10/sen-gravel-say-.html
Mottaki says U.S. can’t start war against Iran
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0323119320071003
US gearing up for war with Iran, despite denials
http://thestar.com.my/columnis….404&sec=Midweek
More Disasterous Iran Legislation On Its Way
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.c….ous-iran-legislation-on.html
Israel admits air strike on Syria
Neocons Told to Look for Reasons to Attack Iran
U.S. Trains Gulf Air Force For War With Iran
Bolton: Attack Iran, ‘remove’ its leader
Gordon Brown accused of backing U.S. plans for bombing raids on Iran
Hersh: Bush, Cheney ‘really want’ Iran war
Israel Foreign Min Calls For Urgent UN Action Against Iran
Bolton: We Should Carry Out Regime Change In Iran Because ‘It Did Work In Iraq’
Bolton calls for bombing of Iran
I hate all Iranians, Bush aide tells MPs
Israeli airstrike hit military site, Syria confirms
Neocon “Freedom’s Watch” Spends Big Bucks to Push Attack Iran Agenda
Hersh: ‘War with Iran will be about protecting the troops in Iraq’
Syrian ‘research station’ says shocked to hear of attack on its facility
Mike Gravel Grills Hillary for Supporting Iran War Amendment
Hillary Prods Bush to Go After Iran
Right-Wing New York Sun Declares: ‘Attack On Iran Said To Be Imminent’
‘Combat Outpost Shocker:’ The base that could spark Iran conflict
Debunking the Neocons’ Iran War Measure
Fox Pushes Attacking Iran While its “Business News” Anchor Lies About a Surge in Oil Prices Due to That Very Fear
BREAKING: Lieberman-Kyl’s Iran amendment passes
Durbin: Lieberman-Kyl Amendment Is ‘Dangerous,’ ‘Puts Us On Record’ In Support Of Iran War
CFR’s Hart Suggests False Flag Event For Iran War
Clinton supports Israeli ‘strike’ on Syria
Military Opens Camp on Iranian Border
Newt Gingrich: Bush Should Blow Up Iran’s Natural Gas Insfrastructure
Ex-Cheney Adviser Denies Trying To Stir War With Iran
Filed under: 2-party system, 2008 Election, CIA, Coup, democratic debate, Dictatorship, False Flag, George Bush, Hillary Clinton, Iran, Kyl-Lieberman amendment, Lieberman, Mike Gravel, Nazi, Neolibs, operation ajax, Torture, ww4
Mike Gravel Grills Hillary for Supporting Iran War Amendment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3gQfz8GC0o
Jon Stewart: Hillary Clinton Showcasing Her “Humanity”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o72Cq7AgjSQ
Hillary Prods Bush to Go After Iran
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/092707.html
Bush Clinton Fatigue
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070928/ap_on_el_pr/bush_clinton_fatigue_2
Clinton supports Israeli ‘strike’ on Syria
http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/Ar….,L-3453963,00.html
BREAKING: Lieberman-Kyl’s Iran amendment passes
http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Find-Freedom.htm?At=024323&From=News
Durbin: Lieberman-Kyl Amendment Is ‘Dangerous,’ ‘Puts Us On Record’ In Support Of Iran War
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/25/durbin-lieb-kyl-amdt/
Filed under: army, Combat Outpost Shocker, Coup, Defense Authorization Act, Dick Cheney, False Flag, George Bush, Gulf of Tonkin, Iran, Iraq, Lieberman, Military, military base, neocons, occupation, Propaganda, Psyops, Saber Rattling, Shock and Awe, Troops, UN, ww4
Right-Wing New York Sun Declares: ‘Attack On Iran Said To Be Imminent’
Think Progress
September 28, 2007
The New York Sun, a reliable neoconservative outlet that has advocated for a Dick Cheney presidential campaign, declares today: “Attack on Iran Said To Be Imminent.” The article’s lead states:
In a sign that U.N. Security Council-based diplomacy is losing steam, a number of sources are reporting that a military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities may be imminent. France and America also are pushing for tighter economic sanctions against Tehran, without U.N. approval.
Yesterday’s edition of Le Canard Enchaîné, a French weekly known for its investigative journalism, reported details of an alleged Israeli-American plan to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. The frontpage headline read: “A report sent to the Elysée — Putin tells Tehran: They’re going to bomb you!”
Ironically, the right-wing clamor for war is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Here’s why:
– The success of the right-wing’s push for military action hinges on establishing that the U.N. Security Council can’t stop Iran’s nuclear program. As the Sun notes, the U.S. and French are already considering an effort to proceed “without U.N. approval,” in essence forming a “coalition of the willing” that ignores the U.N. (It wouldn’t be the first time.)
– Russia and China, both members of the permanent five, have rebuffed efforts to increase sanctions on Iran, fearing that they “will be exploited to support a U.S. policy of regime change or military action.”
– That fear, precipitated by right-wing rhetoric, then inhibits the U.N.’s ability to agree on sanctions that could be used “to increase the pressure on Tehran to comply with the Security Council’s demand to suspend uranium enrichment.” The failure to instill a new sanctions regime then allows the administration to push for confrontation.
Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said this week: “Definitely what we are seeing is a confrontation in the making.”
And if the Bush administration can’t establish the need to go to war based on the threat of a nuclear Iran, it appears appears ready to claim that Iran’s cross-border activity in Iraq may justify military action. On that front, Congress — not wanting to appear weak — is facilitating the administration’s case.
Glenn Greenwald writes the “virtual refusal of senior military officials to permit a war with Iran” may be all that stands in the Bush administration’s way.
UPDATE: The AP writes today, “In a setback for the United States, Iran won a two-month reprieve from new U.N. sanctions over its nuclear program on Friday. The Bush administration and its European allies ceded to Russian and Chinese demands to give Tehran more time to address international concerns. … The decision marks another blow for Washington in its diplomatic struggle to toughen existing U.N. sanctions on Iran.”
‘Combat Outpost Shocker:’ The base that could spark Iran conflict
Raw Story
September 28 2007
The US military is building a base in Iraq just five miles from the border with Iran to prevent cross-border arms smuggling. The base, called “Combat Outpost Shocker,” will be manned by 200 soldiers, along with agents from the US Border Patrol, and will monitor truck traffic and cellphone conversations among Shi’ite pilgrims.
“Obviously, [the Iranians] probably won’t be very happy about it,” Col. Mark Mueller, the commander of the border transition team, told ABC News.
Border security has been essentially ignored since the US invasion of Iraq, but the establishment of the base at this time is also seen as targeting what the US claims are Iranian attempts to smuggle advanced arms to Iraqi insurgents. The Associated Press, however, concludes that it is likely to be a drop in the bucket when dealing with a 900-mile long border where smuggling is a centuries-old way of life.
In a telephone conversation with RAW STORY earlier this month, Steve Clemons, director of the American Strategy Program at New America Foundation and publisher of The Washington Note said his gravest concern surrounding Iran was that the US might seize on an accidental incident — such as a collision between a US and Iranian ship or a border skirmish between Iraq and Iran — as a casus belli.
“A mistake in the Gulf where ships collide or US soldiers are attacked or Israel fires a low-level cruise missile attack against Natanz or there’s a border skirmish between Iraq and Iran that results in the death of a high-ranking military or diplomatic official – any of these could spark a conflict,” he said.
He also says Bush has deviated from a Cheney-laid track to launch a first-strike on Iran, citing, as examples, frustrations that the vice president’s aides are airing, a conversation with a journalist who sat in on a December 2006 strategy meeting, and private conversations with high-level foreign policy players.
The following video is from ABC’s World News, broadcast on September 25.
Related News:
Debunking the Neocons’ Iran War Measure
http://www.alternet.o….ernet.org/audits/63740/?page=entire
Fox Pushes Attacking Iran While its “Business News” Anchor Lies About a Surge in Oil Prices Due to That Very Fear
http://www.newshounds.us/2007/09/27/….at_very_fear.php
BREAKING: Lieberman-Kyl’s Iran amendment passes
http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Find-Freedom.htm?At=024323&From=News
Durbin: Lieberman-Kyl Amendment Is ‘Dangerous,’ ‘Puts Us On Record’ In Support Of Iran War
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/25/durbin-lieb-kyl-amdt/
CFR’s Hart Suggests False Flag Event For Iran War
http://infowars.net/articles/september2007/270907Hart.htm
Clinton supports Israeli ‘strike’ on Syria
http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Com….iew/1,2506,L-3453963,00.html
Military Opens Camp on Iranian Border
http://www.abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=3649942
Newt Gingrich: Bush Should Blow Up Iran’s Natural Gas Insfrastructure
http://www.newshounds.us/2007/09/…ral_gas_insfrastructure.php
Ex-Cheney Adviser Denies Trying To Stir War With Iran
http://www.nysun.com/article/63477
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Bush setting America up for war with Iran
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Bush Calls for the Mass Murder of Iranians
Neocons One Step Closer to Attacking Iran
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Bush Warns of ‘Holocaust’ if Iran Gets Nukes
Iran says U.S. accusations on Iraq “not true”
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US Opposition Political Leaders Issue Urgent False Flag Terror Warning
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Study: US preparing ‘massive’ military attack against Iran
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US Funding Al-Qaeda out of VP’s Office to Attack Iran
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Filed under: CFR, Coup, Defense Authorization Act, Dick Cheney, Dick Durbin, False Flag, Harry Reid, Iran, Iraq, Jim Webb, Kyl-Lieberman amendment, Lieberman, Neolibs, Robert Gates, State Sponsored Terrorism, War On Terror, WMD, WW2, ww4
BREAKING: Lieberman-Kyl’s Iran amendment passes
Freedom’s Pheonix
September 27, 2007
By a vote of 76-22, the Senate passed the Lieberman-Kyl amendment, which threatens to “combat, contain and [stop]” Iran via “military instruments.” Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) called the amendment “Cheney’s fondest pipe dream” and said it could “read as a backdoor method of gaining Congressional validation for military action.”
UPDATE Before the vote today, changes were made to the original amendment, with paragraphs three and four taken out completely. This paragraph was also added at the end:
“Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stated on September 16, 2007 that “I think that the administration believes at this point that continuing to try and deal with the Iranian threat, the Iranian challenge, through diplomatic and economic means is by the preferable approach. That the one we are using. We always say all options are on the table, but clearly, the diplomatic and economic approach is the one that we are pursuing.”
Read the full marked up amendment here.
UPDATE II: The roll call for the vote is here. The following senators voted against the amendment:
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Byrd (D-WV)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Dodd (D-CT)
Feingold (D-WI)
Hagel (R-NE)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Leahy (D-VT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lugar (R-IN)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Sanders (I-VT)
Tester (D-MT)
Webb (D-VA)
Wyden (D-OR)
Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Barack Obama (D-IL) didn’t vote.
Durbin: Lieberman-Kyl Amendment Is ‘Dangerous,’ ‘Puts Us On Record’ In Support Of Iran War
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/25/durbin-lieb-kyl-amdt/
Filed under: CFR, Coup, Defense Authorization Act, Dick Durbin, False Flag, Harry Reid, Iran, Iraq, Jim Webb, Kyl-Lieberman amendment, Lieberman, Neolibs, State Sponsored Terrorism, War On Terror, WMD, WW2, ww4
ACTION ALERT:
Call Your Senators and Tell Them to Oppose the Lieberman-Kyl amendment
(800) 862-5530
(800) 833-6354
(866) 340-9281
(866) 220-0044
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt
Durbin: Lieberman-Kyl Amendment Is ‘Dangerous,’ ‘Puts Us On Record’ In Support Of Iran War
Think Progress
September 26, 2007
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) spoke forcefully this afternoon on the Senate floor against the Lieberman-Kyl amendment. Durbin described the “sense of the Senate” legislation as a “dangerous effort to put us on the record for the use of military force in Iran.”
Noting that the language of the amendment suggests the use of “military instruments,” Durbin said:
What does that mean? Does that mean we are supporting the invasion of Iran? That we are supporting military tactics against Iran? Shouldn’t we be extra careful in the language of these resolutions when we find that the authorization for force for Iraq has dragged us into a war now in its fifth year, a war longer than World War II with bloody and deadly consequences for the United States and innocent Iraqis.
“I think it is dangerous language,” Durbin said, concluding his statement by saying he will oppose the amendment as it is currently written.
Due to early concerns raised by Sen. Jim Webb, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced this afternoon that the language of the Lieberman-Kyl amendment was being modified. The Senate then released new language, but as Carah Ong notes, the modifications did little to ease fears:
The new language allows for the use of U.S. military instruments inside of Iraq for dealing with Iran, but it still does not contain a measure to prevent a conflict from spilling beyond Iraq’s borders.
Due to the still outstanding concerns raised over the amendment, Reid announced this evening on the Senate floor that Lieberman-Kyl bill “will not have a vote in the near future.” Reid added that negotiations are ongoing and “maybe the night will be bring more clearness to the issue. But right now I think it’s fair to say there will be no votes tonight.”
Filed under: Britain, Coup, David Petraeus, european union, False Flag, George Bush, gordon brown, Iran, Iraq, Lieberman, neocons, Nuke, Pullout, Saber Rattling, Shiite, Shock and Awe, Troops
British Troops Head To Iran-Iraq Border
Raw Story
September 12, 2007
As tensions between the United States and Iran increases, military action along the Iran-Iraq border intensifies.
The latest moves comes from America’s primary ally in its invasion of Iraq: Britain.
Ostensibly to guard against importation of Iranian weapons and fighters targeting Western troops in Iraq, the UK is sending up to 350 troops to the Iranian border instead of bringing them home, The Independent of London reports Wednesday.
The troop move was requested by US commanders, the paper says, and it will delay — perhaps indefinitely — the homecoming of 250 British troops who were told just days ago that they would be returning to the UK as part of a drawdown of forces in Iraq.
Newly elected Prime Minister Gordon Brown initiated the drawdown, and about 500 British troops completed their withdrawal from Basra Palace, their last remaining base in the city, to an airport on the city’s outskirts. The move was expected to be the final stage in Britain’s complete extraction from Iraq.
Wednesday’s report follows on the heels of news that US troops would be establishing a base on the border to guard against Iranian-imported weapons.
Tensions between the US and Iran have gone from bad to dismal in recent years, with some fearing all-out war will erupt between the two countries, and the top US commander in Iraq has refused to rule out that possibility.
US Army Gen. David Petraeus demurred Tuesday when he was asked by Sen. Joseph Lieberman whether the war should be expanded “in Iranian territory.” And Petraeus “strongly implied” that action against Iran would be necessary soon, The Independent reported.
“There is a pretty hard look ongoing at that particular situation,” he told the paper in an interview after Congressional testimony Monday in which he often invoked the threat American troops face from Iran’s intervention.
Petraeus and his diplomatic counterpart Ambassador Ryan Crocker told lawmakers that Iran was providing weapons and training to Shiite militias in Iraq, although he never overtly suggested an expansion of the war effort.
RAW STORY has previously reported that the Bush administration has shifted its focus from Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions to its meddling in Iraq as a possible justification for war with that country, and the US has the capability to launch a “massive” military strike against the country without warning.
Along with British and US troops, Georgia recently sent about 1,200 extra troops to Iraq to patrol the border with Iran.
Filed under: Bill Kristol, CIA, Coup, False Flag, Fox News, George Bush, Iran, Iraq, John Bolton, Lieberman, Troops, UN
Bolton: I ‘Absolutely’ Hope The U.S. Will Attack Iran In The Next ‘Six Months’
Think Progress
August 23, 2007
Yesterday, Raw Story pointed out that former CIA operative Bob Baer told Fox News that the Bush administration will likely attack Iran in the coming months. “Iran policy is on close hold, but the feeling is we will hit the Islamic Revolutionary Guard corps sometime next six months or so,” said Baer.
Today, former U.N. ambassador John Bolton appeared on Fox News and responded. He said that while he couldn’t confirm Baer’s statements, he “absolutely” hoped they were true:
HEMMER: One final step here, too, that I want to take with you. You told one of our producers earlier today that you don’t know if it’s true — and you’ve made that clear in our interview here, that you don’t know what the odds are or are not against that — but you hope it’s true. Why do you hope it’s true?
BOLTON: Absolutely. I hope Iran understands that we are very serious, that we are determined they are not going to get a nuclear weapon capability, and unless they change the strategic decision they’ve been pursuing for close to 20 years, that that’s something they better factor into their calculations.
Watch it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzgFKpFa7No
Bolton’s calls for strikes against Iran mirror those of other neocons, such as Bill Kristol and Michael Rubin, who also pushed for the Iraq invasion. Bolton’s claim that “Iran is interfering in Iraq and is posing a direct threat to our troops” is not a reason to strike the country. In reality, both Gen. Peter Pace and the National Intelligence Estimate have confirmed that Iran is “not likely” to be a major driver of violence in Iraq.
Lieberman: If “we” don’t attack Iran we’ll be seen as weak..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEK76FQc4hE
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Filed under: Colin Powell, Continuity of Government, Dick Cheney, Dictatorship, Executive Order, Geneva Convention, Guantanamo, Gulag, halliburton, Iraq, john ashcroft, KBR, Lieberman, Martial Law, NSA, Operation TIPS, Patriot Act, Police State, Posse Comitatus, Surveillance, War On Terror
Martial Law Threat is Real: Lucky that the Military is Breaking Down
After Downing Street
July 27, 2007
The looming collapse of the US military in Iraq, of which a number of generals and former generals, including former Chief of Staff Colin Powell, have warned, is happening none too soon, as it may be the best hope for preventing military rule here at home.
From the looks of things, the Bush/Cheney regime has been working assiduously to pave the way for a declaration of military rule, such that at this point it really lacks only the pretext to trigger a suspension of Constitutional government. They have done this with the active support of Democrats in Congress, though most of the heavy lifting was done by the last, Republican-led Congress.
The first step, or course, was the first Authorization for Use of Military Force, passed in September 2001, which the president has subsequently used to claim—improperly, but so what? —that the whole world, including the US, is a battlefield in a so-called “War” on Terror, and that he has extra-Constitutional unitary executive powers to ignore laws passed by Congress. As constitutional scholar and former Reagan-era associate deputy attorney general Bruce Fein observes, that one claim, that the US is itself a battlefield, is enough to allow this or some future president to declare martial law, “since you can always declare martial law on a battlefield. All he’d need would be a pretext, like another terrorist attack inside the U.S.”
The 2001 AUMF was followed by the PATRIOT Act, passed in October 2001, which undermined much of the Bill of Rights. Around the same time, the president began a campaign of massive spying on Americans by the National Security Agency, conducted without any warrants or other judicial review. It was and remains a program that is clearly aimed at American dissidents and at the administration’s political opponents, since the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court would never have raised no objections to spying on potential terrorists. (And it, and other government spying programs, have resulted in the government’s having a list now of some 325,000 “suspected terrorists”!)
The other thing we saw early on was the establishment of an underground government-within-a-government, though the activation, following 9-11, of the so-called “Continuity of Government” protocol, which saw heads of federal agencies moved secretly to an underground bunker where, working under the direction of Vice President Dick Cheney, the “government” functioned out of sight of Congress and the public for critical months.
It was also during the first year following 9-11 that the Bush/Cheney regime began its programs of arrest and detention without charge—mostly of resident aliens, but also of American citizens—and of kidnapping and torture in a chain of gulag prisons overseas and at the Navy base at Guantanamo Bay.
The following year, Attorney General John Ashcroft began his program to develop a mass network of tens of millions of citizen spies—Operation TIPS. That program, which had considerable support from key Democrats (notably Sen. Joe Lieberman), was curtailed by Congress when key conservatives got wind of the scale of the thing, but the concept survives without a name, and is reportedly being expanded today.
Meanwhile, last October Bush and Cheney, with the help of a compliant Congress, put in place some key elements needed for a military putsch. There was the overturning of the venerable Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which barred the use of active duty military inside the United States for police-type functions, and the revision of the Insurrection Act, so as to empower the president to take control of National Guard units in the 50 states even over the objections of the governors of those states.
Put this together with the wholly secret construction now under way–courtesy of a $385-million grant by the US Army Corps of Engineers to Halliburton subsidiary KBR Inc–of detention camps reportedly capable of confining as many as 400,000 people, and a recent report that the Pentagon has a document, dated June 1, 2007, classified Top Secret, which declares there to be a developing “insurgency” within the U.S, and which lays out a whole martial law counterinsurgency campaign against legal dissent, and you have all the ingredients for a military takeover of the United States.
As we go about our daily lives–our shopping, our escapist movie watching, and even our protesting and political organizing—we need to be aware that there is a real risk that it could all blow up, and that we could find ourselves facing armed, uniformed troops at our doors.
Bruce Fein isn’t an alarmist. He says he doesn’t see martial law coming tomorrow. But he is also realistic. He says, “This is all sitting around like a loaded gun waiting to go off. I think the risk of martial law is trivial right now, but the minute there is a terrorist attack, then it is real. And it stays with us after Bush and Cheney are gone, because terrorism stays with us forever.” (It may be significant that Hillary Clinton, the leading Democratic candidate for president, has called for the revocation of the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force against Iraq, but not of the earlier 2001 AUMF which Bush claims makes him commander in chief of a borderless, endless war on terror.)
Indeed, the revised Insurrection Act (10. USC 331-335) approved by Congress and signed into law by Bush last October, specifically says that the president can federalize the National Guard to “suppress public disorder” in the event of “national disorder, epidemic, other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident.” That determination, the act states, is solely the president’s to make. Congress is not involved.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has added an amendment to the upcoming Defense bill, restoring the Insurrection Act to its former version—a move that has the endorsement of all 50 governors–but Fein argues that would not solve the problem, since Bush still claims that the U.S. is a battlefield. Besides, a Leahy aide concedes that Bush could sign the next Defense Appropriations bill and then use a signing statement to invalidate the Insurrection Act rider.
Fein argues that the only real defense against the looming disaster of a martial law declaration would be for Congress to vote for a resolution determining that there is no “War” on terror. “But they are such cowards they will never do that,” he says.
That leaves us with the military.
If ordered to turn their guns and bayonets on their fellow Americans, would our “heroes” in uniform follow their consciences, and their oaths to “uphold and defend” the Constitution of the United States? Or would they follow the orders of their Commander in Chief?
It has to be a plus that National Guard and Reserve units are on their third and sometimes fourth deployments to Iraq, and are fuming at the abuse. It has to be a plus that active duty troops are refusing to re-enlist in droves—especially mid-level officers.
If we are headed for martial law, better that it be with a broken military. Maybe if it’s broken badly enough, the administration will be afraid to test the idea.
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