Filed under: Afghanistan, bin laden, bush, CIA, Coup, gulf war, Iraq, nation building, north korea, Nuke, occupation, osama, Pakistan, Saddam Hussein, State Sponsored Terrorism, War On Terror, WMD | Tags: Abdul Qadeer Khan, Khan Research Laboratories
Saddam’s Nuke Salesman Was Protected By U.S. Government
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
March 10, 2010
The Washington Post has completely whitewashed new revelations concerning how close Saddam Hussein came to obtaining a nuclear bomb by failing to mention the fact that the provider, Khan Research Laboratories, was shielded from investigation by the U.S. government for decades.
“As troops massed on his border near the start of the Persian Gulf War, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein weighed the purchase of a $150 million nuclear “package” deal that included not only weapons designs but also production plants and foreign experts to supervise the building of a nuclear bomb, according to documents uncovered by a former U.N. weapons inspector,” reports the Post today.
“The offer, made in 1990 by an agent linked to disgraced Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, guaranteed Iraq a weapons-assembly line capable of producing nuclear warheads in as little as three years.”
However, the report completely fails to even mention the fact that Khan Research Laboratories, the source from which Saddam would have procured a nuclear bomb, was protected from investigation by the U.S. government since at least the mid-1970’s, as investigative journalist Greg Palast exposed in a 2001 BBC report.
In 2004, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan’s atom bomb program, admitted sharing nuclear technology via a worldwide smuggling network that included facilities in Malaysia that manufactured key parts for centrifuges.
Khan’s collaborator B.S.A. Tahir ran a front company out of Dubai that shipped centrifuge components to North Korea.
Despite Dutch authorities being deeply suspicious of Khan’s activities as far back as 1975, the CIA prevented them from arresting him on two occasions.
“The man was followed for almost ten years and obviously he was a serious problem. But again I was told that the secret services could handle it more effectively,” former Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers said. “The Hague did not have the final say in the matter. Washington did.”
Lubbers stated that Khan was allowed to slip in and out of the Netherlands with the blessing of the CIA, eventually allowing him to become the “primary salesman of an extensive international network for the proliferation of nuclear technology and know-how,” according to George W. Bush himself, and sell nuclear secrets that allowed North Korea to build nuclear bombs.
“Lubbers suspects that Washington allowed Khan’s activities because Pakistan was a key ally in the fight against the Soviets,” reports CFP. “At the time, the US government funded and armed mujahideen such as Osama bin Laden. They were trained by Pakistani intelligence to fight Soviet troops in Afghanistan. Anwar Iqbal, Washington correspondent for the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, told ISN Security Watch that Lubbers’ assertions may be correct. “This was part of a long-term foolish strategy. The US knew Pakistan was developing nuclear weapons but couldn’t care less because it was not going to be used against them. It was a deterrent against India and possibly the Soviets.”
In September 2005 it emerged that the Amsterdam court which sentenced Khan to four years imprisonment in 1983 had lost the legal files pertaining to the case. The court’s vice-president, Judge Anita Leeser, accused the CIA of stealing the files. “Something is not right, we just don’t lose things like that,” she told Dutch news show NOVA. “I find it bewildering that people lose files with a political goal, especially if it is on request of the CIA. It is unheard of.”
In 2005, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf acknowledged that Khan had provided centrifuges and their designs to North Korea.
Having armed once branch of the “axis of evil,” it’s no surprise that Khan was also used in an attempt to arm Saddam Hussein with nuclear weapons, opening up another perfect justification for Iraq to subsequently be invaded and occupied by U.S. forces.
Although the 2003 invasion was sold on the lie that Saddam was hiding weapons of mass destruction which proved to be non-existent, it wasn’t for the want of trying, since efforts to arm Saddam with nuclear weapons via the Khan network were a mere continuation of the U.S. government’s program to provide Saddam with chemical and biological weapons, tools used to commit atrocities that were later cited by the U.S. as one of the primary reasons for the attack.
Of course, since the Washington Post is a mouthpiece for the new world order and the Bilderberg Group that owns it, in covering the Khan-Saddam connection writer Joby Warrick knows that his bosses wouldn’t be pleased if he actually gave you more than half the story, which is why his article amounts to nothing more than a misleading whitewash.
Filed under: bush, Bush Sr., chemical ali, civilian casualties, corruption, Dictatorship, Empire, George Bush, Iran, Iraq, iraq casualties, kangaroo court, Milosevic, nation building, occupation, reagan, rumsfeld, Saddam Hussein, scandal, War On Terror | Tags: Ali Hassan al-Majid, ICC, international criminal court, Iran-Iraq War
Chemical Ali Could Have Exposed Iraq-Gate
consortiumnews.com
January 26, 2010
Editor’s Note: The hanging of Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali” for his role in using chemical weapons in Iraqi wars of the 1980s and early 1990s, silenced yet one more witness who otherwise could have filled in the blanks of the Reagan-Bush-I roles in secretly assisting Saddam Hussein’s armies, the so-called Iraq-gate scandal.
If Majid had been turned over to the International Criminal Court – rather than prosecuted by kangaroo tribunals set up in Iraq by George W. Bush’s administration – he could have been systematically debriefed about what U.S. officials, including George H.W. Bush, did to facilitate Iraq’s acquisition of dangerous chemical weapons.
Instead, Majid – wearing a red jump suit, his head covered by a black sack and a noose around his neck – was dropped through the trap door of a scaffold on Monday. His potential to embarrass the Bush Family was eliminated, just as was done to Saddam Hussein three years ago, as this Dec. 30, 2006, article (slightly modified) recounts:
The hanging of Saddam Hussein was supposed to be – as the New York Times observed – the “triumphal bookend” to George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. If all had gone as planned, Bush might have staged another celebration as he did after the end of “major combat,” posing under the “Mission Accomplished” banner on May 1, 2003.
But by the end of 2006, with nearly 3,000 American soldiers already killed and the Iraqi death toll exceeding 600,000 by some estimates, Bush was forced to savor the image of Hussein dangling at the end of a rope a little more privately.
Still, Bush had done his family’s legacy a great service, while also protecting secrets that could have embarrassed other senior U.S. government officials, both past and present.
By arranging Saddam Hussein’s execution, Bush had silenced a unique witness to crucial chapters of the secret history that stretched from Iran’s Islamic revolution in 1979 to the alleged American-Saudi “green light” for Hussein to attack Iran in 1980, through the eight years of the Iran-Iraq War during which high-ranking U.S. intermediaries, such as Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates, allegedly helped broker supplies of war materiel for Hussein.
Hussein now won’t be around to give troublesome testimony about how he obtained the chemical and biological agents that his scientists used for producing the unconventional weapons that were deployed against Iranian forces and Iraqi civilians. He can’t give his perspective on who got the money and who facilitated the deals.
Nor will Hussein be available to give his account of the mixed messages delivered by George H.W. Bush’s ambassador April Glaspie before Hussein’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Was there another American “green light” or did Hussein just hear what he wanted to hear?
Like the climactic scene from the Mafia movie “Casino” in which nervous Mob bosses eliminate everyone who knows too much, George W. Bush guaranteed that there would be no public tribunal where Hussein could give testimony on these potentially devastating historical scandals and thus threaten the Bush Family legacy.
That could have happened if Hussein had been turned over to an international tribunal at The Hague as was done with other tyrants, such as Yugoslavia’s late dictator Slobodan Milosevic. Instead Bush insisted that Hussein be tried in Iraq despite the obvious fact that the deposed Iraqi dictator would receive nothing close to a fair trial before being put to death.
Hussein’s hanging followed his trial for executing 148 men and boys from the town of Dujail in 1982 after a foiled assassination attempt on Hussein and his entourage. Hussein’s death effectively mooted other cases that were supposed to deal with his alleged use of chemical weapons to kill Iraqi civilians and other crimes that might have exposed the U.S. role.
Filed under: Afghanistan, Baluchistan, big pharma, Blackwater, CIA, colombia, corruption, death squads, drug cartel, drug smuggling, drug trafficking, drugs, Extraordinary Rendition, FATA, gangsters, Hamid Karzai', heroin, India, Iran, Iran Contra, Iraq, islamibad, Israel, karachi, karzai, mafia, medical industrial complex, mercenaries, Military, Military Industrial Complex, nation building, Nicaragua, obama, occupation, Oliver North, Opium, Pakistan, quetta, Saddam Hussein, scandal, Taliban, Troops, Venezuela, war on drugs, War On Terror, Waziristan, Weinberger, Zardani | Tags: government drug smuggling
Are America’s Mercenary Armies Really Drug Cartels?
Gordon Duff
December 29, 2009
News out of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India reports massive corruption at the highest levels of government, corruption that could only be financed with drug money. In Afghanistan, the president’s brother is known to be one of the biggest drug runners in the world.
In Pakistan, President Zardani is found with 60 million in a Swiss Bank and his Interior Minister is suspected of ties to American groups involved in paramilitary operations, totally illegal that could involve nothing but drugs, there is no other possibility.
Testimony in the US that our government has used “rendition” flights to transport massive amounts of narcotics to Western Europe and the United States has been taken in sworn deposition.
American mercenaries in Pakistan are hundreds of miles away from areas believed to be hiding terrorists, involved in “operations” that can’t have anything whatsoever to do with any CIA contract. These mercenaries aren’t in Quetta, Waziristan or FATA supporting our troops, they are in Karachi and Islamabad playing with police and government officials and living the life of the fatted calf.
The accusations made are that Americans in partnership with corrupt officials, perhaps in all 3 countries, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, are involved in assassinations, “unknown” criminal activities and are functioning like criminal gangs.
There is no oil. There is nothing to draw people into the area other than one product, one that nobody is talking about. Drugs.
The US got involved in massive drug operations, importation, processing and distribution during the Reagan years, supposedly to finance covert CIA operations involving death squads tasked with murdering Sandinista “infrastructure” in Nicaragua.
The deal involved Israel, Iran and the Colombian cartel. Saddam was even involved. In the end, President Reagan was put on the stand only to remember little or nothing of his tenure in office. Lt. Col. Oliver North was convicted as was Secretary of Defense Weinberger and many others. Pardons and “other methods” were used to keep the guilty out of jail.
Now we find what was supposed to be a CIA operation with one company only, Xe, operations that were meant to hunt a couple of terrorist/Taliban leaders in and around Quetta, a city of 1 million in remote Baluchistan has turned into a honeycomb of operations involving millions of dollars and personnel of all kinds, perhaps even ranking diplomats and high government officials, the highest.
The cover of hunting terrorists in remote areas with hundreds of armed men in cities on the other side of the country, cities filled with 5 star hotels, country clubs, polo, cricket and fine restaurants is not really cover, even by CIA standards.
The reports, bribes, actions that look and smell like drug gangs at work, tell a story that nobody wants to talk about.
With 50 billion dollars of opium from Afghanistan alone and crops in Pakistan and India also, managing the world’s heroin supply is, by my estimation, how all of this “muscle” is staying busy. When you see a black van full of armed men, is there a sign somewhere saying:
“We are counter terrorists working for the Central Intelligence Agency and we are only in town here, hundreds of miles from the nearest terrorist because we need a hot shower and to get a noise in the transmission checked out.”
Everyone can choose to believe what they want. It’s time we stopped lying. Its about drugs, always has been, always will, drugs and money. It buys men, it buys guns and it can buy governments and has, as anyone with eyes can see.
Filed under: 2-party system, 4th reich, Afghanistan, airstrikes, Bill Clinton, bin laden, blackops, Britian, bush, Chile, CIA, civilian casualties, Congress, Coup, Dictatorship, economic sanctions, El Salvador, Empire, Eugenics, False Flag, Fascism, gaza, Genocide, George Bush, Globalism, guatemala, Hitler, inside job, Iran, Iran Contra, Iraq, kuwait, Lebanon, Mi6, Military, military coup, Military Industrial Complex, military strike, Mohammed Mossadeq, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, morales, Nazi, New World Order, Nicaragua, NWO, occupation, Oil, operation ajax, osama bin laden, pahlavi, panama, Preemptive Strike, preemptive war, proxy war, Reza Pahlavi, Saddam Hussein, Sanctions, shah dictatorship, shah of iran, Shock and Awe, Soviet Union, State Sponsored Terrorism, sudan, Taliban, terrorist funding, UN, united nations, Vietnam, war casualties, war on drugs, War On Terror, White House, WW3, ww4 | Tags: Lebanon, salvador allendem, u.s. history
U.S. History They Won’t Teach In Schools
Filed under: 9/11, 9/11 Truth, Afghanistan, al-qaeda, bin laden, blackops, bosnia, Britain, Chechnya, CIA, double agent, fake terrorists, False Flag, George Bush, global terrorism, Hoax, IEDS, inside job, Iran, Iraq, ISI, Israel, Jundullah, khalid sheikh mohammed, kosovo, Media, Media Fear, Military Industrial Complex, military strikes, MKO, Mujahedin Khalq Organization, mujahideen, Muqtada al-Sadr, nation building, NATO, neocons, osama bin laden, Pakistan, Pentagon, Propaganda, proxy war, Saddam Hussein, SAS, serbia, State Sponsored Terrorism, Taliban, Troops, Turkey, u.s. soldiers, u.s. troops, UN, united nations, War On Terror, Wayne Madsen, World Trade Center, yugoslavia
Western Governments Funding Taliban & Al-Qaeda To Kill U.S. Troops, Destabilize Countries
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
July 2, 2009
Recent revelations concerning the U.S. importing Taliban members into Iraq to foster false flag terrorism is merely the tip of the iceberg when compared to the U.S. intelligence complex’s multi-decade history in sponsoring Sunni Al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist groups around the world.
Wayne Madsen recently revealed how Taliban fighters were being imported from Afghanistan into Iraq to attack civilians and U.S. soldiers, as well as how Muqtada al-Sadr’s al-Mahdi Army was being allowed to import materials to make IEDs.
However, this is just one aspect of how the U.S. has used terrorist groups as pawns on the global chessboard, moving them around the globe in line with their geopolitical objectives.
As is voluminously documented, the U.S. first worked covertly with Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan from 1979-1989.
Following this, the Al-Qaeda pawns were moved on to Bosnia shortly after the outbreak of war in 1992 to fight against Bosnian Serbs who were subsequently the target of NATO air strikes.
Following the end of the war, “hundreds of Bosnian passports were provided to the mujahedeen by the Muslim-controlled government in Sarajevo,” according to Lenard Cohen, professor of political science at Simon Fraser University. This all happened with the approval of the United Nations and the United States, who had brokered the peace deal to end the war.
“They also set up secret terrorist training camps in Bosnia — activities financed by the sale of opium produced in Afghanistan and secretly shipped through Turkey and Kosovo into central Europe,” reports the National Post.
Shortly before the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, the Sunni terrorist groups moved into Kosovo, Serbia’s southern province, to aid the Kosovo Liberation Army, the Albanian terrorist faction that was being supported by the U.S. and NATO in its terror campaign against Serbs in the region.
“The United States, which had originally trained the Afghan Arabs during the war in Afghanistan, supported them in Bosnia and then in Kosovo,” reports the Post.
With the help of Bin Laden’s terror network, backed up by the U.S. and NATO, no less than 90% of Serbians were “ethnically cleansed” and forced to leave the region, while the international media played its role dutifully in portraying the Albanians as the “victims” of Serbian aggression.
As Professor Michel Chossudovsky writes, “The fact of the matter is that the Atlantic Alliance had been supporting a terrorist organization. The KLA was not supporting the rights of ethnic Albanians. Quite the opposite. The activities of this terrorist organization on the ground, in Kosovo, provided NATO and the US with the pretext to intervene on humanitarian grounds, claiming that the Serb authorities had committed human rights violations against ethnic Albanians, when in fact the NATO sponsored KLA was involved in terrorist acts on behalf of NATO, which triggered a response from the Serb police and military.”
Barely weeks before 9/11, former members of Al-Qaeda who had subsequently joined the Kosovo Liberation Army were airlifted out of Macedonia by U.S. paratroopers.
As German sources reported, “Samedin Xhezairi, also known as Commander Hoxha, joined the Kosovo Liberation Army when armed conflict in Kosovo began, fighting in three operation zones. He was a fighter in Chechnya, trained in Afghanistan and acted as the commander of the Mujahideen 112th Brigade operating in the summer of 2001 in the region of Tetovo [Macedonia]. In August of the same year 80 members of the 3/502 battalion of U.S. paratroopers evacuated him from Aracinovo [Macedonia], together with his Albanian extremists and 17 instructors of the U.S. private military company MPRI which was training the Albanian paramilitary formations.”
“In other words, the US military was collaborating with Al Qaeda, which according to the Bush administration was involved in the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon. Yet, the US military was working hand in glove with “enemy number one” barely a few weeks before 9/11, and we are led to believe that the Bush administration is committed to waging a battle against Al Qaeda,” wrote Chossudovsky.
Following the invasion of Afghanistan, MSNBC reported that in November 2001, hundreds of Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters were rescued from Kunduz and flown out on Pakistani air force cargo planes. This could not have possibly happened without the approval of U.S. forces who had secured the region.
With the U.S. now attacking targets in Pakistan under the pretext of going after the Taliban, the lineage of how this situation developed, with the U.S. moving their pawns around the globe at the most opportune times, can be clearly traced.
All the more revealing therefore were the comments of Qari Zainuddin, a former Taliban leader who defected to the Pakistani government, alleging that the Taliban were senselessly attacking civilian targets and that they were working with U.S. and Israeli intelligence. A few days after he dropped this bombshell, Zainuddin was shot dead.
Meanwhile, in Iran, A senior member of the Jundullah terrorist group confessed in an Iranian court case to being trained and financed by the U.S. and Israel.
Jundullah is a Sunni Al-Qaeda offshoot organization that was formerly headed by alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Under the 2007 program aimed at destabilizing Iran and fomenting regime change, the U.S. government is arming and bankrolling Jundullah to carry out terrorist attacks in Iran, such as the May bombing of a mosque in Sistan-Baluchestan which killed 25 people.
In addition, the fingerprints of another U.S. sponsored terror group, Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), which was formerly allied with Saddam Hussein in Iraq, have been found in the recent election unrest in Iran. In addition to supporting terror groups from Iraq, the Anglo-American establishment has also staged terror attacks, such as the February 2006 Samarra mosque bombing.
And if there aren’t enough terrorists in supply, why not just dress up and pretend to be them? That’s what two British SAS members did when they were caught dressed in Arab garb with fake beards, driving a car full of explosives while shooting at Iraqi police officers in Basra in September 2005.
After the SAS men were caught in the act and taken to jail, U.S. and British forces launched a rescue operation, blowing up half the prison and allowing 150 inmates to escape.
All over the Middle East and the Balkans, from Afghanistan, to Bosnia, to Serbia, to Pakistan, to Iraq and to Iran, the United States, through black budget programs, has funded and armed Sunni Al-Qaeda terrorist groups to destabilize and topple regimes targeted by the Anglo-American establishment.
This documented fact debunks the “war on terror” as a cruel hoax and exposes how current events in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran are being carefully orchestrated while the media sells the public on the belief that manufactured sock-puppet enemies, and not geopolitical domination and control of resources and the global drug trade, are why these wars are being fought, when in reality groups like Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are firmly in the pocket of the U.S. military-industrial complex.
Filed under: 9/11, Ahmed Chalabi, army, bin laden, blockade, Bush Sr., civil liberties, civil rights, civil war, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Coup, David Petraeus, Dick Cheney, Disinformation, Donald Rumsfeld, fallen soldiers, False Flag, false information, federal crime, George Bush, george h. w. bush, human rights, Iran, Iraq, iraq deaths, Iraqnam, Jordan, Martial Law, Military Industrial Complex, nation building, neocons, occupation, Oppression, paul bremer, paul wolfowitz, presidential directive, Propaganda, Richard Armitage, Saddam Hussein, Shiite, Shock and Awe, sunni, UN, veterans, War Crimes, WMD | Tags: CPA, iraq antiques, iraq culture, iraq heritage, looting, ORHA, soldiers, u.s. soldiers
No End in Sight – (Iraq war movie)
Petraeus Says He Will Never Declare Iraq Victory
Filed under: 9/11, 9/11 hijackers, 9/11 patsies, 9/11 Truth, Afghanistan, afghanistan deaths, al-qaeda, Big Brother, CIA, Dennis Kucinich, Dick Cheney, Dictatorship, Disinformation, Empire, false information, federal crime, George Bush, George Tenet, Impeach, Media, mohammed atta, nation building, neocons, occupation, Saddam Hussein, scandal, scooter libby, Surveillance, uav, Uncategorized, War Crimes, War On Terror, White House, WMD | Tags: mike allen, robert richer, Ron Suskind, The Way of The World
CIA Official: Cheney Likely Ordered Fake Letter Linking Iraq to 9/11
Raw Story
August 9, 2008
In damning transcript, ex-CIA official says Cheney likely ordered letter linking Hussein to 9/11 attacks
A forged letter linking Saddam Hussein to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks was ordered on White House stationery and probably came from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a new transcript of a conversation with the Central Intelligence Agency’s former Deputy Chief of Clandestine Operations Robert Richer.
The transcript was posted Friday by author Ron Suskind of an interview conducted in June. It comes on the heels of denials by both the White House and Richer of a claim Suskind made in his new book, The Way of The World. The book was leaked to Politico’s Mike Allen on Monday, and released Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the White House released a statement on Richer’s behalf. In it, Richer declared, “I never received direction from George Tenet or anyone else in my chain of command to fabricate a document … as outlined in Mr. Suskind’s book.”
The denial, however, directly contradicts Richer’s own remarks in the transcript.
“Now this is from the Vice President’s Office is how you remembered it–not from the president?” Suskind asked.
“No, no, no,” Richer replied, according to the transcript. “What I remember is George [Tenet] saying, ’we got this from’–basically, from what George said was ’downtown.’”
“Which is the White House?” Suskind asked.
“Yes,” Richer said. “But he did not–in my memory–never said president, vice president, or NSC. Okay? But now–he may have hinted–just by the way he said it, it would have–cause almost all that stuff came from one place only: Scooter Libby and the shop around the vice president.”
“But he didn’t say that specifically,” Richer added. “I would naturally–I would probably stand on my, basically, my reputation and say it came from the vice president.”
“But there wasn’t anything in the writing that you remember saying the vice president,” Suskind continued.
http://in.news.yahoo.com/137/200..wl-u-s-plans-surveillance-buildup-in-ir_1.html
US-led soldiers kill 5 Afghan civilians
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=65965§ionid=351020403
Fierce clashes near Afghan border
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7548744.stm
Kucinich: We did it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUuhKJYFUfg
Filed under: 9/11, 9/11 hijackers, 9/11 patsies, 9/11 Truth, al-qaeda, CIA, Condoleezza Rice, Dick Cheney, Dictatorship, Disinformation, Empire, false information, federal crime, George Bush, George Tenet, Impeach, Iraq, Media, mohammed atta, muslims, neocons, Propaganda, Psyops, Saddam Hussein, scandal, War Crimes, War On Terror, WMD, World Trade Center | Tags: david gregory, Paul O’Neill, Ron Suskind, Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, Tony Fratto
Bush Ordered Fake Letter Linking Iraq To 9/11
Raw Story
August 5, 2008
A blockbuster new book from investigative journalist Ron Suskind adds another revelation to the growing canon demonstrating the lengths to which President Bush and members of his administration lied, misled and deceived the American people to pursue its invasion of Iraq.
Bush allegedly ordered the CIA to forge a handwritten letter from the head of Iraq’s intelligence service to Saddam Hussein that purported to link the Iraqi dictator to the ringleader of the hijackers who toppled the Twin Towers on 9/11, according to news accounts of Suskind’s new book, The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism. Such use of an intelligence service to influence domestic political debate could be an impeachable offense, Suskind writes.
Politico’s Mike Allen reports:
According to Suskind, the administration had been in contact with the director of the Iraqi intelligence service in the last years of Hussein’s regime, Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti.
“The White House had concocted a fake letter from Habbush to Saddam, backdated to July 1, 2001,” Suskind writes. “It said that 9/11 ringleader Mohammad Atta had actually trained for his mission in Iraq – thus showing, finally, that there was an operational link between Saddam and al Qaeda, something the Vice President’s Office had been pressing CIA to prove since 9/11 as a justification to invade Iraq. There is no link.” […]
The author claims that such an operation, part of “false pretenses” for war, would apparently constitute illegal White House use of the CIA to influence a domestic audience, an arguably impeachable offense.
The faked letter was first reported as genuine by the conservative London Sunday Telegraph in December 2003. Right-wing commentators and Bush defenders harped on that disclosure as evidence of Saddam Hussein’s involvement in the 9/11 attacks. According to Suskind’s book, the CIA had been protecting Habbush in the early months of the invasion; the agency persuaded the Iraqi intelligence chief to write the letter in his own handwriting and paid him $5 million.
CBS White House correspondent Bill Plante reported Tuesday that Suskind’s sources had seen a draft of the letter written on White House stationary.
The Way of the World is Suskind’s third book on the inner workings of the Bush administration, joining The One Percent Doctrine, which outlined the often extreme anti-terror policies advanced by the likes of Vice President Dick Cheney, and The Price of Loyalty, which painted a picture of the early day’s of Bush’s presidency with the help of ousted former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill.
Predictably, the White House is unhappy with Suskind’s latest offering and the Bush administration is relying on its trademark push-back of insulting the messenger. White House spokesman Tony Fratto insulted Suskind, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his work with the Wall Street Journal, as a practitioner of “gutter journalism,” and called the allegations “absurd.”
Suskind appeared Tuesday on NBC’s Today Show for interviews about the latest book.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/2008080..Aht9ABZiuDR5rD.iWNyG9KMGw_IE
Filed under: 2012 election, 9/11, 9/11 Truth, al-qaeda, Al-Qaeda Tapes, Anti-War, Bill Clinton, bin laden, Bin Laden Tapes, Bush Sr., Communism, Controlled Demolition, Coup, Dick Cheney, Dictatorship, Dissent, Empire, False Flag, Fascism, Founding Fathers, George Bush, George H.W. Bush, Goering, Gulf of Tonkin, howard stern, inside job, Iraq, Iraqnam, jeb bush, middle east, nation building, navy, navy seals, Nazi, neocons, occupation, Oil, PNAC, Protest, Saddam Hussein, Sanctions, Saudi Arabia, State Sponsored Terrorism, thomas jefferson, Vietnam, war on drugs, World Trade Center, wtc-7
Jesse Ventura Talks 9/11 Truth On Howard Stern
http://www.nypost.com/seven/07312008/ne..to_us_122366.htm
Man Charged With Placing 9/11 Stickers On A Plane
http://infowars.net/articles/july2008/300708Utah.htm
Filed under: 2008 Election, 2012 election, 9/11, 9/11 Truth, al franken, Dictatorship, Empire, False Flag, Fascism, foreign aid, Founding Fathers, Fox News, George Bush, Goering, Hitler, inside job, Iraq, jesse ventura, Media, nation building, Nazi, neocons, occupation, Saddam Hussein, Sean Hannity, WMD
Jesse Ventura Bodyslams Hannity.. (Again.)
Filed under: 4th amendment, 9/11, Abu Ghraib, airstrikes, al-qaeda, C-Span, CIA, Cindy Sheehan, Congress, Coup, DEBT, Dennis Kucinich, despotism, Detainee, Dick Cheney, Dictatorship, Economy, Empire, Extraordinary Rendition, fallen soldiers, False Flag, false information, Fascism, federal crime, FISA, Founding Fathers, George Bush, Guantanamo, House, House Subcommittee, Impeach, Iran, Iraq, iraq deaths, john ashcroft, John Bolton, judiciary committee, Karl Rove, Martial Law, Media, military strike, nation building, Nazi, neocons, Neolibs, occupation, Preemptive Strike, preemptive war, Propaganda, Protest, republic, Robert Wexler, Saddam Hussein, scooter libby, secret prisons, Shock and Awe, Tehran, Torture, Troops, US Constitution, US Economy, vincent bugliosi, War Crimes, war games, War On Terror, warrantless search, warrantless wiretap, WMD, WW3, ww4 | Tags: doug fife, fallujah, harriet myers, House Judiciary Committee, impeachment hearing, jonathan turley, judiciary hearing, kucinich, steve king, vincent bugliosi
Dam Breaks as Media Covers Bush Impeachment Hearing
Prisonplanet.com
July 25, 2008
The House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Bush Administration’s use of executive power has finally been covered by the corporate media:
LA Times: Is hearing to impeach Bush merely ‘anger management’?
FOX News: Rep. Kucinich Gets His Day to Air Impeachment Article
The Hill: Kucinich raises Bush impeachment at hearing
CBS: Big Crowd Gathers For House Judiciary Hearing On Bush “impeachment”
AP: Bush critics get an unimpeachable forum
Videos from the hearing:
Rep. Wexler recommends impeachment hearings
Rep. Steve King of Iowa argued there was no evidence that the Bush administration had committed any high crimes and misdeameanors.
Conyers: These Are Not Impeachment Hearings
George Washington’s Blog
July 23, 2008
John Conyers is now taking the position that no one at Friday’s impeachment hearing can accuse Bush or Cheney of any crime, or any impeachable offense, or dishonorable conduct, or even lying.
Moreover, Conyers is now saying that he will shut the hearing down if anyone does accuse the boys of crimes, impeachable offenses, or otherwise being naughty.
As David Swanson summarizes it:
“Apparently the rules of Congress are designed to allow impeachable offenses to be discussed only in impeachment hearings. Apparently this didn’t occur to Chairman Conyers when he decided to hold a non-impeachment impeachment hearing. As a result, his hearing may be quickly shut down, and he will have a choice of holding a real impeachment hearing, resigning, or dropping the pretense that he intends to resist Cheney and Bush in any way whatsoever.”
Please watch this must-see 10 minute video.
And read this.
Takes Phone Calls On Impeachment
http://www.cbsnews.com/storie../thecrypt/main4292489.shtml
Cindy Sheehan Kicked-Out of Judiciary Hearing
http://rawstory.com//news/20..eehan_exits_Judiciary_hearing_0725.html
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep John Conyers Plans Bush Impeachment Substitute
http://www.daily.pk/world/world..eachment-substitute.html
Fallujah Braces For Another Assault
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43248
Iraq Official: U.S. Troops May Leave By 2010
http://ap.google.com/articl..YeFwuWKCusr2jrojs98w8wD9228UM00
Turley fears Dems will let alleged ‘Bush crimes’ stay buried forever
http://rawstory.com//news/2008/.._pardons_prevent_0723.html
’Imperial presidency’ hearing to feature 13 witnesses
http://rawstory.com//news/2008..earing_to_feature_13_0724.html
Filed under: 1st amendment, 9/11 Truth, Ahmadinejad, bill of rights, CFR, Cindy McCain, Dictatorship, Empire, Fascism, flip flip, flip flopping, free speech, Hillary Clinton, Iran, Iraq, Israel, John McCain, Keith Olbermann, Media, minnesota, MSNBC, nation building, Nazi, neocons, occupation, Pakistan, Police State, Protest, rape, Saddam Hussein, scandal, Sex Scandal, Tehran, Troops, US Constitution, veterans, War On Terror, We Are Change, WMD, WW3, ww4 | Tags: janet reno, St. Paul Town Hall Meeting
John McCain Jokes About Women Enjoying Rape
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBALqvp08Vk
McCain Suggests Rationing Vets Health Care
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/07/military_mccain_healthcare_072208/
McCain Thought Iraq Bordered Pakistan
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=64464§ionid=351020101
Bush pushing for McCain presidency to ’cover over’ the misdeeds of his presidency
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thVvJajZAuc
McCain says US will never allow a ’second Holocaust’ as a potshot against Iran
http://www.spacewar.com/2006/080721180258.rdyx8bq6.html
Filed under: 9/11, Africa, Ahmadinejad, airstrikes, al-qaeda, army, Bill Clinton, bin laden, Colin Powell, Coup, Dictatorship, Empire, False Flag, George Bush, Impeach, Iran, Iraq, JCS, Lebanon, Libya, middle east, Military, military strike, nation building, navy, neocons, Nuke, occupation, paul wolfowitz, Pentagon, Preemptive Strike, preemptive war, Saddam Hussein, Shock and Awe, Somalia, sudan, Syria, Tehran, Troops, War Crimes, War On Terror, wesley clark, WMD, WW3, ww4
U.S. Will Invade 7 Countries in 5 Years – Wesley Clark
Filed under: Ahmadinejad, airstrikes, catastrophic event, Congress, Coup, EMP, EMP bombs, False Flag, Fox News, gps, Hegelian Dialectic, IAEA, Iran, Iraq, Military, military strike, nation building, neocons, Nuke, occupation, Preemptive Strike, preemptive war, Problem Reaction Solution, Propaganda, Psyops, Saber Rattling, Saddam Hussein, Shock and Awe, State Sponsored Terrorism, super weapons, Tehran, uav, War On Terror, WMD, WW3, ww4 | Tags: House Armed Services Committee, William R. Graham
Neo-Cons Recycle Iran “EMP Attack” Fraud
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
July 8, 2008
Neo-Con news outlets are busy recycling a debunked 2005 report that stated Iran could be planning to detonate deadly EMP bombs above American cities, presumably in the belief that the public will now believe the same snake oil salesmen that pushed non-existent weapons of mass destruction and Saddam’s mythical biological drone armies as reasons to invade Iraq in 2003.
“More than four years after a stunning report about America’s vulnerability to a nuclear electromagnetic pulse attack was released to Congress, the House Armed Services Committee will hear testimony from the scientist who issued the warning and who believes Iran is pursuing such an option,” reports World Net Daily.
William R. Graham, chairman of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack, will present an updated brief to the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday, during which he will push the notion that Iran, in addition to its non-existent nuclear weapons program which last year’s NIE clearly stated had ended in 2003, is still pursuing the production of an EMP weapon
“Briefly, a single nuclear weapon exploded at high altitude above the United States will interact with the Earth’s atmosphere, ionosphere and magnetic field to produce an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) radiation down to the Earth and additionally create electrical currents in the Earth,” states the 2005 report.
“Few if any people would die right away. But the loss of power would have a cascading effect on all aspects of U.S. society. Communication would be largely impossible. Lack of refrigeration would leave food rotting in warehouses, exacerbated by a lack of transportation as those vehicles still working simply ran out of gas (which is pumped with electricity). The inability to sanitize and distribute water would quickly threaten public health, not to mention the safety of anyone in the path of the inevitable fires, which would rage unchecked. And as we have seen in areas of natural and other disasters, such circumstances often result in a fairly rapid breakdown of social order.”
If anything of this nature were to happen then the very Neo-Cons that are yearning to stage a false flag event in order to justify a military attack on Iran would be the primary suspects.
Despite the fact that every independent observer agrees that Iran is not involved in nuclear weapons production, including the IAEA and the National Intelligence Estimate, which stated that Iran halted any effort towards nuclear weapons production in 2003, the same liars that sold a war based on non-existent “weapons of mass destruction” are hoping we are going to buy their bullshit one more time.
The EMP fraud is merely the updated version of Saddam’s deadly biological UAV drones that we were warned would disperse terror over American cities during the propaganda build-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
At the time, Fox News told us that, “Iraq could be planning a chemical or biological attack on American cities through the use of remote-controlled “drone” planes equipped with GPS tracking maps, according to U.S. intelligence.”
Filed under: Ahmadinejad, airstrikes, Baghdad, Bahrain, Black-Ops, blackops, Britain, Congress, Coup, Europe, european union, False Flag, gas prices, George Bush, gulf, Gulf of Tonkin, h.con.res.362, Iran, Iran war resolution, Iraq, Israel, Kurdish, kuwait, MEK, Military, military strike, mujahedin, nation building, navy, Nuke, occupation, Oil, Pentagon, Petrol, PJAK, PKK, Preemptive Strike, preemptive war, Propaganda, Psyops, red cross, Revolutionary Guards, Saddam Hussein, Shock and Awe, State Sponsored Terrorism, Strait of Hormuz, Tehran, Troops, Turkish, United Kingdom, war games, War On Terror, WW3, ww4 | Tags: Exercise Stake Net, kevin cosgriff, Mahmoud Othman
U.S. holds Navy exercise in the Gulf
Reuters
July 7, 2008
The U.S. Navy said on Monday it was carrying out an exercise in the Gulf, days after vowing that Iran will not be allowed to block the waterway which carries crude from the world’s largest oil-exporting region.
“The aim of Exercise Stake Net is to practise the tactics and procedures of protecting maritime infrastructure such as gas and oil installations,” Commodore Peter Hudson said in a U.S. Fifth Fleet statement.
The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in remarks published late last month that Tehran would impose controls on shipping in the Gulf and the strategic Strait of Hormuz if it was attacked.
Speculation about a possible attack on Iran because of its nuclear programme has risen since a report last month said Israel had practised such a strike.
Vice-Admiral Kevin Cosgriff, the commander of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, said last week the United States would not allow Iran to block the Gulf.
Fear of an escalation in the standoff between the West and Iran, the world’s fourth largest oil producer, has helped propel oil prices over $140 a barrel.
Two U.S. vessels were taking part in the exercise alongside a British warship and one from Bahrain, a Gulf Arab ally which hosts the Fifth Fleet. “Stake Net seeks to help ensure a lawful maritime order as well as improve relationships between regional partners,” the fleet’s statement said.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Hold War Games
Reuters
June 7, 2008
Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards began military maneuvers on Monday, news agencies said, the same day the U.S. Navy said it was carrying out an exercise in the Gulf.
The war games were conducted by missile units of the Guards’ naval and air forces, the Fars and Mehr news agencies said. They said the exercises, which began a few hours ago, were aimed at improving combat readiness and capability.
The reports did not give details of where the exercise was taking place. The Guards often conduct maneuvers in the Gulf.
Speculation about a possible attack on Iran because of its disputed nuclear program has risen since the New York Times newspaper reported last month that Israel’s armed forces had practiced such a strike.
Military action ‘would destabilise Iraq’
The Independent
July 6, 2008
Iraq will be plunged into a new war if Israel or the US launches an attack on Iran, Iraqi leaders have warned. Iranian retaliation would take place in Iraq, said Dr Mahmoud Othman, the influential Iraqi MP.
The Iraqi government’s main allies are the US and Iran, whose governments openly detest each other. The Iraqi government may be militarily dependent on the 140,000 US troops in the country, but its Shia and Kurdish leaders have long been allied to Iran. Iraqi leaders have to continually perform a balancing act in which they seek to avoid alienating either country.
The balancing act has become more difficult for Iraq since George Bush successfully requested $400m (£200m) from Congress last year to fund covert operations aimed at destabilising the Iranian leadership. Some of these operations are likely to be launched from Iraqi territory with the help of Iranian militants opposed to Tehran. The most effective of these opponent groups is the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), which enraged the Iraqi government by staging a conference last month at Camp Ashraf, north-east of Baghdad. It demanded the closure of the Iranian embassy and the expulsion of all Iranian agents in Iraq. “It was a huge meeting” said Dr Othman. “All the tribes and political leaders who are against Iran, but are also against the Iraqi government, were there.” He said the anti-Iranian meeting could not have taken place without US permission.
The Americans disarmed the 3,700 MEK militants, who had long been allied to Saddam Hussein, at Camp Ashraf in 2003, but they remain well-organised and well-financed. The extent of their support within Iran remains unknown, but they are extremely effective as an intelligence and propaganda organisation.
Though the MEK is on the State Department’s list of terrorist groups, the Pentagon and other US institutions have been periodically friendly to it. The US task force charged by Mr Bush with destabilising the Iranian government is likely to co-operate with it.
In reaction to the conference, the Iraqi government, the US and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have started secret talks on the future of the MEK with the Iraqi government pressing for their expulsion from Iraq. Dr Othman, who speaks to the MEK frequently by phone, said: “I pressed them to get out of Iraq voluntarily because they are a card in the hands of the Americans.”
An embarrassing aspect of the American pin-prick war against Iran is that many of its instruments were previously on the payroll of Saddam Hussein. The MEK even played a role in 1991 in helping to crush the uprising against the Baathist regime at the end of the Gulf war. The dissidents from Arab districts in southern Iran around Ahwaz were funded by Saddam Hussein’s intelligence organisations, which orchestrated the seizure of the Iranian embassy in London in 1980 which was supposedly carried out by Arab nationalists from Iran.
The one community in Iran most likely to oppose the Tehran government is the Iranian Kurds. There have been an increasing number of attacks by PJAK, the Iranian wing of the Turkish PKK, which claims to be a separate party. Based in the Kandil mountains in Iraqi Kurdistan, PJAK has carried out frequent raids into Iran and has reportedly been able to win local support. But it would be extremely dangerous for the US to be seen as a supporter of PJAK as this would offend the Turks who have a military co-operation agreement with Iran against terrorism
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/06/content_8499511.htm
Israel: US leaders divided on Iran war
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=62854§ionid=351020104
Iran warns US against new adventurism
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=62745§ionid=351020101
Kuwait: Iran strike reports exaggerated
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx..id=351020104
Ahmadinejad: Israel and U.S. won’t dare attack Iran
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/999720.html
US Pentagon doubts Israeli intelligence over Iran’s nuclear programme
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ne..an%27s-nuclear-programme.html
Iran: Oil unlikely to surge to $250
http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=172456
Iran says offers talks without nuclear freeze
http://www.spacewar.com/2006/080705081755.6y5ym674.html
Filed under: Ahmadinejad, airstrikes, Alan Greenspan, Big Banks, Britain, California, central bank, Coup, Credit Crisis, DEBT, Dictatorship, Dollar, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Empire, energy, Euro, Europe, european union, euros, False Flag, Federal Reserve, florida, gas prices, Great Depression, Greenback, imf, Inflation, Iran, Iraq, kuwait, LA, london, Los Angeles, Media, Media Fear, military strike, nation building, national debt, New York, Nuke, occupation, Oil, OPEC, Petrol, Preemptive Strike, preemptive war, Propaganda, Saddam Hussein, Saudi Arabia, Senate, Shock and Awe, Stock Market, Tehran, United Kingdom, US Economy, War Crimes, War On Terror, Washington D.C., White House, WMD, World Bank, WW3, ww4
OPEC dumping the dollar could be the real reason for a war with Iran
Recent News:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/motorin..NOA62976920080626
Federal Reserve leaves key interest rate at 2%
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld..un26,0,7851841.story
Kuwait Buying Up U.S. Infrastructure
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080624/kuwait_fund_us_banks.html?.v=1
U.S. Senate To Pass Bank Bailout Bill
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080625/D91H2TT80.html
Bad economy cancels central Florida city’s 4th of July fireworks display
http://www.local6.com/money/16709180/detail.html
Utilities Cutting Off More Customers
http://www.usatoday.com/money/indu..ff-disconnect_N.htm
Suburbia Life Tougher Because Of Gas Prices
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/24/business/exurbs.php
Oil prices ’will not come down’ says OPEC boss
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/mone..06/24/bcnoil124.xml
LA Seeing More People Living In Cars
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D91FV1E80&show_article=1
Economy on brink of recession, Greenspan says
http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNew..s&rpc=23&sp=true
OPEC talks: Saudi Arabia to boost oil output
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/m..oost-oil-output.html
IMF sees zero US growth in 2008
http://www.gulf-news.com/business/Economy/10222823.html
Few people are conscious of how the United States can use food as a political weapon
Big Shots Jump at Bilderberg’s Oil Orders
Paulson & Co. Says Writedowns May Reach $1.3 Trillion
Japan Offers Helping Hand To World Banks
Bush administration wants to give Federal Reserve more power
Filed under: airstrikes, Australia, Baghdad, Coup, ehud olmert, f-16, False Flag, gaza, greece, H. Con. Res 362, hamas, IAEA, Iran, Iran war resolution, Iraq, Israel, kevin rudd, Kyl-Lieberman amendment, Military, military strike, NIE, north korea, Nuke, Olmert, palestine, Pentagon, Preemptive Strike, preemptive war, Propaganda, Robert Wexler, Russia, Saber Rattling, Saddam Hussein, Sergey Lavrov, shaul mofaz, Shock and Awe, Syria, Tehran, Troops, War On Terror, WW3, ww4 | Tags: Mike McConnell, Yediot Aharonot
U.S. Says Israel Military Exercise Directed At Iran
IHT
June 19, 2008
Israel carried out a major military exercise earlier this month that American officials say appeared to be a rehearsal for a potential bombing attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Several American officials said the Israeli exercise appeared to be an effort to develop the military’s capacity to carry out long-range strikes and to demonstrate the seriousness with which Israel views Iran’s nuclear program.
More than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters participated in the maneuvers, which were carried out over the eastern Mediterranean and over Greece during the first week of June, American officials said.
The exercise also included Israeli helicopters that could be used to rescue downed pilots. The helicopters and refueling tankers flew more than 900 miles, which is about the same distance between Israel and Iran’s uranium enrichment plant at Natanz, American officials said.
Israeli officials declined to discuss the details of the exercise. A spokesman for the Israeli military would say only that the country’s air force “regularly trains for various missions in order to confront and meet the challenges posed by the threats facing Israel.”
But the scope of the Israeli exercise virtually guaranteed that it would be noticed by American and other foreign intelligence agencies. A senior Pentagon official who has been briefed on the exercise, and who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the political delicacy of the matter, said the exercise appeared to serve multiple purposes.
One Israeli goal, the Pentagon official said, was to practice flight tactics, aerial refueling and all other details of a possible strike against Iran’s nuclear installations and its long-range conventional missiles.
A second, the official said, was to send a clear message to the United States and other countries that Israel was prepared to act militarily if diplomatic efforts to stop Iran from producing bomb-grade uranium continued to falter.
“They wanted us to know, they wanted the Europeans to know, and they wanted the Iranians to know,” the Pentagon official said. “There’s a lot of signaling going on at different levels.”
Several American officials said they did not believe that the Israeli government had concluded that it must attack Iran and did not think that such a strike was imminent.
Shaul Mofaz, a former Israeli defense minister who is now a deputy prime minister, warned in a recent interview with the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot that Israel might have no choice but to attack. “If Iran continues with its program for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack,” Mofaz said in the interview published on June 6, the day after the unpublicized exercise ended. “Attacking Iran, in order to stop its nuclear plans, will be unavoidable.”
But Mofaz was criticized by other Israeli politicians as seeking to enhance his own standing as questions mount about whether the embattled Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, can hang on to power.
Israeli officials have told their American counterparts that Mofaz’s statement does not represent official policy. But American officials were also told that Israel had prepared plans for striking nuclear targets in Iran and could carry them out if needed.
Iran has shown signs that it is taking the Israeli warnings seriously, by beefing up its air defenses in recent weeks, including increasing air patrols. In one instance, Iran scrambled F-4 jets to double-check an Iraqi civilian flight from Baghdad to Tehran.
“They are clearly nervous about this and have their air defense on guard,” a Bush administration official said of the Iranians.
Any Israeli attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities would confront a number of challenges. Many American experts say they believe that such an attack could delay but not eliminate Iran’s nuclear program. Much of the program’s infrastructure is buried under earth and concrete and installed in long tunnels or hallways, making precise targeting difficult. There is also concern that not all of the facilities have been detected. To inflict maximum damage, multiple attacks might be necessary, which many analysts say is beyond Israel’s ability at this time.
But waiting also entails risks for the Israelis. Israeli officials have repeatedly expressed fears that Iran will soon master the technology it needs to produce substantial quantities of highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons.
Iran is also taking steps to better defend its nuclear facilities. Two sets of advance Russian-made radar systems were recently delivered to Iran. The radar will enhance Iran’s ability to detect planes flying at low altitude.
Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, said in February that Iran was close to acquiring Russian-produced SA-20 surface-to-air missiles. American military officials said that the deployment of such systems would hamper Israel’s attack planning, putting pressure on Israel to act before the missiles are fielded.
For both the United States and Israel, Iran’s nuclear program has been a persistent worry. A National Intelligence Estimate that was issued in December by American intelligence agencies asserted that Iran had suspended work on weapons design in late 2003. The report stated that it was unclear if that work had resumed. It also noted that Iran’s work on uranium enrichment and on missiles, two steps that Iran would need to take to field a nuclear weapon, had continued.
In late May, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Iran’s suspected work on nuclear matters was a “matter of serious concern” and that the Iranians owed the agency “substantial explanations.”
Over the past three decades, Israel has carried out two unilateral attacks against suspected nuclear sites in the Middle East. In 1981, Israeli jets conducted a raid against Iraq’s nuclear plant at Osirak after concluding that it was part of Saddam Hussein’s program to develop nuclear weapons. In September, Israeli aircraft bombed a structure in Syria that American officials said housed a nuclear reactor built with the aid of North Korea.
The United States protested the Israeli strike against Iraq in 1981, but its comments in recent months have amounted to an implicit endorsement of the Israeli strike in Syria.
Pentagon officials said that Israel’s air forces usually conducted a major early summer training exercise, often flying over the Mediterranean or training ranges in Turkey where they practice bombing runs and aerial refueling. But the exercise this month involved a larger number of aircraft than had been previously observed, and included a lengthy combat rescue mission.
Much of the planning appears to reflect a commitment by Israel’s military leaders to ensure that its armed forces are adequately equipped and trained, an imperative driven home by the difficulties the Israeli military encountered in its Lebanon operation against Hezbollah.
“They rehearse it, rehearse it and rehearse it, so if they actually have to do it, they’re ready,” the Pentagon official said. “They’re not taking any options off the table.”
Your last chance: Israel’s warning
Sydney Morning Herald
June 19, 2008
ISRAEL’S Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, has warned the radical Islamic movement Hamas that the truce due to take effect today is the last chance to avoid a massive military incursion into the Gaza Strip.
In an exclusive interview with the Herald – his first interview with the Australian media in four years – Mr Olmert said the people of Gaza were “pissed off with Hamas” and sick and tired of the years of violence.
Since Israel withdrew from Gaza three years ago, the 250,000 residents who surround Gaza have been subjected to almost daily rocket attacks from Palestinian militants.
“You think the people of Adelaide would put up with this?” demanded Mr Olmert. “Or the people of Brisbane?
“I think the strategy of Hamas, which does not want to recognise Israel’s right to exist in the first place, and the extremism, and the fanaticism, and the religious dogmatism is the enemy of peace. We are at the end of our tolerance with regard to terror in Gaza.”
Dismissing an escalating corruption investigation which looks certain to force either his resignation or fresh elections by November, Mr Olmert said he was “going nowhere” and did not rule out running again for the leadership of his Kadima party.
So certain is Mr Olmert of his political survival that he has already sent an invitation for Kevin Rudd to visit Israel later this year.
“I don’t know yet personally enough the new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, but I am very impressed with his friendship and his commitment to the well-being of the state of Israel,” Mr Olmert said.
Greeks help Israel prepare for Iran war?
Press TV
June 20, 2008
The Greek Air Force says it partook in an Israeli military exercise which is regarded as a rehearsal for a potential attack on Iran.
Greek sources speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed a New York Times report that Israel’s military maneuvers which were carried out earlier this month off the southern Mediterranean island of Crete, were preparations for a future war with the Islamic Republic.
The Greek source, however, assured that no terrestrial targets were involved as the operation was mainly aimed at personnel training.
According to a New York Times report, more than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters participated in the military drills which involved simulated aerial combat, attacks on terrestrial targets, aerial refueling, and search and rescue missions.
http://www.bloomberg.com/..jLlSBbx5E&refer=home
Israeli attack on Iran: “not a matter of if, but when”
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jun2008/iran-j20.shtml
Tehran pledges to deal ’powerful blow’ against attack
http://en.rian.ru/world/20080620/111496436.html
Uh-Oh…Wexler Backs Naval Blockade of Iran
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert..n-steroids_b_108122.html
How Iran would retaliate if it comes to war
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0620/p07s04-wome.html
Russia’s Lavrov warns against attack on Iran
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080620/ap_on_re_eu/russia_iran
Bomb Iran? What’s to Stop Us?
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/061908c.html