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Ex-U.N. Inspector: Decision Already Made To Attack Iran

by Open-Publishing - Wednesday 8 February 2006
52 comments

Wars and conflicts International USA

Ex-U.N. inspector: Iran’s next: Ritter warns that another U.S. invasion in Mideast is imminent

By Brandon Garcia

02/06/06 (Santa Fe New Mexican, The (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) The former U.N. weapons inspector who said Iraq disarmed long before the U.S. invasion in 2003 is warning Americans to prepare for a war with Iran.

"We just don’t know when, but it’s going to happen," Scott Ritter said to a crowd of about 150 at the James A. Little Theater on Sunday night.

Ritter described how the U.S. government might justify war with Iran in a scenario similar to the buildup to the Iraq invasion. He also argued that Iran wants a nuclear energy program, and not nuclear weapons. But the Bush administration, he said, refuses to believe Iran is telling the truth.

He predicted the matter will wind up before the U.N. Security Council, which will determine there is no evidence of a weapons program. Then, he said, John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, "will deliver a speech that has already been written. It says America cannot allow Iran to threaten the United States and we must unilaterally defend ourselves."

"How do I know this? I’ve talked to Bolton’s speechwriter," Ritter said.

Ritter also predicted the military strategy for war with Iran. First, American forces will bomb Iran. If Iranians don’t overthrow the current government, as Bush hopes they will, Iran will probably attack Israel. Then, Ritter said, the United States will drop a nuclear bomb on Iran.

The only way to prevent a war with Iran is to elect a Democratically controlled Congress in November, said Ritter, a lifelong Republican. He later said he wasn’t worried his advice would be seen as partisan because, "It’s a partisan issue." He said the problem is one party government and if Democrats controlled the presidency and Congress, he would advise people to elect Republicans.

Most of Ritter’s hour-long speech focused on Iraqi weapons programs from shortly before the Persian Gulf War in 1991 to 2003, when the U.S. invaded Iraq. He also discussed the weapons-inspections process during that time.

Ritter was in charge of U.N. weapons inspections until he resigned in 1998. Before the Iraq invasion, Ritter said, he told Congress that inspections needed to continue.

He also said he was a Marine in the Persian Gulf War and was part of an assassination attempt on Saddam Hussein in the early 1990s.

Throughout the 1990s, Ritter said, America’s real policy for Iraq was regime change — not forcing Iraq to disarm and destroy chemical-, biological- and nuclear-weapons programs. The U.S. insisted on regime change, he said, because it believes transforming the Middle East countries into democracies will help ensure American access to oil.

The policy, he said, was borne from a political problem, not a threat to national security.

Ritter said the CIA knew Iraq had no ballistic, nuclear, chemical and biological weapons by 1995. "We knew there were no WMDs in Iraq," he said.

Ritter blamed Americans’ apathy for allowing Bush to claim there was an intelligence failure. Presidents can lie to the public too easily about national security issues because Americans aren’t paying attention, he said.

"It’s a damn shame there’s so many more people interested in the Seattle Seahawks and the Pittsburgh Steelers," he said in reference to the two teams that played in Sunday’s Super Bowl.

After his speech, Ritter took questions from the audience. The first questioner wondered whether the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were faked. Ritter, a fiery speaker, seemed irritated by the question and said the attacks were real.

Someone else asked if he was interested in running for Congress. While the question drew applause, Ritter responded, "I hate politics."

Ritter, 44, was promoting his book Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of the Intelligence Conspiracy to Undermine the UN and Overthrow Saddam Hussein. The speech was sponsored by Peace Action New Mexico.

Contact Brandon Garcia at 995-3826 or at bgarcia@sfnewmexican.com
 http://www.informationclearinghouse...

Forum posts

  • BushCo are going to start the war with Iran long before the November elections! They want war, and they will have war, no matter how many people get killed on either side. They are a bunch of homicidal, megalomaniac psychopaths and sociopaths. If they attack another country, I think the rest of the world has an obligation to bring about a regime change in the USA. The problem is, BushCo will fight like the cornered rats they are, and are likely to cause a nuclear war across the whole world!

    • Of course that attacks on 9/11 were real. The pertinent question is who was behind them. The evidence, for those willing to look at it, points to an inside job.

    • Read the neocon manifesto - Their Straussian agenda is being implemented to a TEE!..The confessed "MYTH" ( their word, not mine) that to stop the inward rot of American society, a war without end, using the "spread of democracy" as the excuse, must
      take place. Never mind that the insult to American society has nothing to do with foreign countries, but, rather, a repulsive
      forced media diet of sex, violence and apathy. Its quite clear if the neocon founders were really interesting in saving the U.S., they would drop their weapons of mass destruction on Hollywood, not Iraq. However, for some reason murdering the people Israel hates, seems to be the appropriate method of handling America’s social illnesses.....Logical, no?....NO!...THE GIG IS UP! THIS IS THE GREATEST CRIME EVER COMMITTED AGAINST THE WEST, THE MIDDLE EAST, THE WHOLE WORLD! AND IT MUST BE STOPPED.

    • Who was behind the attacks is easy to see when you realize there were six wargames going
      on during the attacks. The wargames were simulating airline attacks on the towers, among
      other targets, in order to confuse air traffic controllers about which were real attacks, and
      which were wargames. This was vital for the stand-down of the U.S. Airforce; otherwise the planes
      would have been intercepted before they got within thirty miles of the W.T.C. Ask yourself:
      could Muslim fanatics have arranged this, working largely out of caves, and using highly
      interceptical cell phones and laptops?

    • I’ll drink to that!

    • I agree; and I am not quite sure why Ritter would be irritated, if that was the case. Clearly, when you look at all of the available evidence, and "curious" coincidences one cannot escape the conclusion that 911 was an inside job.

    • There is a new twist found on the Wayne Madsen Report stipulating that an former Israeli intelligence insider confirms that Mossad was trailing the 911 hijackers; and that the 120 or so "Art Students" were part of this operation.

      http://www.waynemadsenreport.com

    • Yes, I am in total agreement with Scott Ritter; Bush & Co have already decide to attack Iran; no ifs ands or buts. What is uncertain for then and all of us is’when’. There is no real timetable like in the ’attack on Iraq’; I don’t think they can even make an ’educated, stratigic guess’ right now. WHY you ask? Well it’s because they need to construe and develop a reason to ’feed the American people’. They had it for Iraq; they just had to ’develop it a little more’ to make sure, ’every American wanted America to go in and kick every Iraqi’s ass for 911’.
      The Bush Cabal is just waiting, waiting for some Islam fundamentalist to pull something off like 911 and they know they will, soon or later, Bush and his Boys, just don’t know WHEN. However, they are just bidding their time waiting for the ’Pearl Harbor/911 of 2006, or 2007 or ?????’.
      We as Americans must see to ’all of their removal from Washington in this November’s election; as Scott said, "We have to CHANGE CONGRESS"!!
      LET’S ROLL!!!!!!

    • Cheers
      masood raji
      Neyshabur, Iran.

    • Someone should find the best qualified 435 men and women who believe in the Bill of Rights and the original constitution go door to door across America with a deliberate clear cut strategy saying they will go in AND IMMEDIATELY ARREST THE ADMIN AND ALL COMPLICIT SENATORS , < WHY WE ARE AT IT MIGHT AS WELL CLEAN HOUSE OF EVERY FEDERAL EMPLOYEE< ,and start over from scratch. I would also recommend repealing every law since Lincoln started this unitary fiasco, wipe out all debts, jail all fed reserve board members for the rest of their unnatural vampiristic existence. Go through the jail system with qualified review boards and get the nonviolent people out of these hell holes and except for white collar criminals who should all have their sentences extended for 50 years without parole.How would we survive this organized anarchist political movement, I will tell you how. Declare all current federal employees enemy combatants, they fit the definition. We can separate the chaff from the grain at our conveinence, like their inhumane laws say.In the meantime after enough signatures have been obtained by going door to door with a unified new party pledge with ideas similar to these and a few more we will discuss later, diebold , triad and all electronic voting could be rendered useless by these fascists with voter registration checked signatures signing on to a unified agenda by the next 435 congressmen who will defeat each incumbent in office.How can we finance something like this? Here’s how!! Sell lottery tickets for a chance to win a trip to torture one of these criminals in the bush regime on ppv torture series broadcast around the world every day.If only 5% of the world population were to buy into a years subscription of this daily televized extravaganza the sales from tv alone would rake in 5 trillion annually, do the math. Then the real money would come from selling daily lottery tickets around the world to win the daily chance to be one of 500 lucky daily winners that get to pick one of the 2500 feds who will now be enemy combatants after the november elections and torture them on tv for 15 minutes. not anything really inhumane like what they do , but humane daily humiliation would be a very sweet justice for what these criminals have tried to do. The government rakes in around 3 trillion annually if all taxes were able to be collected, with this plan i see 20 trillion a year from this, enough money to feed clothe and house every human being on earth from the first years profits alone. With the second years profits we could modernize trains like the one china has built in Shanghai that runs from magnetics and lithium batteries. This plan would not only fix every social ill in the world , it would also bring about WORLD PEACE because every one would want to stay home and see bush cheney rice dumby rummy hot head bolton scalia and all the rest of the criminal thugs in the bush admin and our congress and senate and cfr and all the problem areas of dc get humiliated daily. Lets roll. We could call the new party POP party of the people. POP pops the Gop and de DNC.

    • Who will lead the "regime change" in the USA? Will it be Egypt perhaps? Of how about France? Will it be French troops who will force Bush out of office and have him committed?

      Perhaps it will be some coalition, do you have any ideas of who it will be? The rest of the world, you say. Who exactly? Indonesia and some Gurkhas who joined in the last minutes. You can always depend on the Gurkhas if you pay them. Who is going to pay them, though. Do you think the Saudis will make a donation?

      Who has cornered Bush and which corner is he in? The corner behind your left ear?..or the corner under your leg?

      You cant do anything. the whole world cant do anything and you better ask God if He cares or take it to Church and pray over it, because you are a limp wank with a bad grasp of the real world.

      Bush will do exactly as he pleases and the world will let him do it. They may squeal real loud but nobody anywhere will do anything to stop him. You will all get under the table and curse but you wont actually DO anything.

      Or have I misjudged you. ?

      But if you do decide to DO something...then in all probability you will have to push the US Marines aside because they work for Geogie and they are laughing at you.

      And yes I do think we will be using Atomics on Iran. When you get in the US’s way you usually get tossed down the stairs.

      happy landing ,punk. Say hello to sweet jesus.

    • The Israeli Air Force would attack Iran’s nuclear facility at Bushehr using US as well as Israeli produced bunker buster bombs. The attack would be carried out in three separate waves "with the radar and communications jamming protection being provided by U.S. Air Force AWACS and other U.S. aircraft in the area".

      The US has troops and military bases in Turkey, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, and of course Iraq. Iran is completely surrounded.

      In other words, Iran is virtually surrounded by US military bases. These countries including Turkmenistan are members of part of NATO`s partnership for Peace Program. and have military cooperation agreement with NATO.

      In other words, we are dealing with a potentially explosive scenario in which a number of countries, including several former Soviet republics, could be brought into a US led war with Iran.

      A Russian based news and military analysis group has suggested, in this regard:

      "since Iranian nuclear objects are scattered all over the country, Israel will need a mass strike with different fly-in and fly-out approaches - Jordan, Iraq, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and other countries... Azerbaijan seriously fears Tehran’s reaction should Baku issue a permit to Israeli aircraft to overfly its territory." (Defense and Security Russia, 12 April 2005).

      Iran is the next military target. The planned military operation, which is by no means limited to punitive strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities, is part of a project of World domination, a military roadmap, launched at the end of the Cold War.

      Military action against Iran would directly involve Israel’s participation, which in turn is likely to trigger a broader war throughout the Middle East, not to mention an implosion in the Palestinian occupied territories. Turkey is closely associated with the proposed aerial attacks.

      Why did Bush just complete a circle of attention visits to India, Turkey, Pakistan etc? They are being lined up for the strike. They will all be ready when it goes down.

      Israel is a nuclear power with a sophisticated nuclear arsenal. The use of nuclear weapons by Israel or the US cannot be excluded, particularly in view of the fact that tactical nuclear weapons have now been reclassified as a variant of the conventional bunker buster bombs and are authorized by the US Senate for use in conventional war theaters. ("they are harmless to civilians because their explosion is underground")

      The planned attack on Iran must be understood in relation to the existing active war theaters in the Middle East, namely Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine.

      The conflict could easily spread from the Middle East to the Caspian sea basin. It could also involve the participation of Azerbaijan and Georgia, where US troops are stationed.

      An attack on Iran would have a direct impact on the resistance movement inside Iraq. It would also put pressure on America’s military capabilities and resources in both the Iraqi and Afghan war theaters.

      In other words, the shaky geopolitics of the Central Asia- Middle East region, the three existing war theaters in which America is currently, involved, the direct participation of Israel and Turkey, the structure of US sponsored military alliances, etc. raises the specter of a broader conflict.

      Moreover, US military action on Iran not only threatens Russian and Chinese interests, which have geopolitical interests in the Caspian sea basin and which have bilateral agreements with Iran. It also backlashes on European oil interests in Iran and is likely to produce major divisions between Western allies, between the US and its European partners as well as within the European Union.

      Through its participation in NATO, Europe, despite its reluctance, would be brought into the Iran operation. The participation of NATO largely hinges on a military cooperation agreement reached between NATO and Israel. This agreement would bind NATO to defend Israel against Syria and Iran. NATO would therefore support a preemptive attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, and could take on a more active role if Iran were to retaliate following US-Israeli air strikes.

      Needless to say, the war against Iran is part of a longer term US military agenda which seeks to militarize the entire Caspian sea basin, eventually leading to the destabilization and economic conquest of the Russian Federation. ..and eventually China.

      The US intends to proceed for the entire coming Century to achieve full Spectrum Dominance of the planet. They may do it.

    • A Regime Change in the United States...with what, the mighty French Army? Who precisely in the world is going to bring down the United States government?

      Let me know if you find anybody between here annd the Moon, sweety.

    • The "rest" of the world has an obligation? Who will lead this regime change in the United States? Who will fund it. Who will provide the raw meat for the job?

      You? A regime change in the United States...a tall order indeed. You are full of indignation but that wont do the job now, will it?

      What SPECIFICALLY will do the job? Do you have any ideas or is it just left there for "somebody"? Somebody DO something, sort of thing?

      The rest of the world? Like North Korea and the French? Who? The brave citizens of Zimbabwe and the ferocious armies of the Euroweenies? Who? And they will all land on the beaches of New jersey and head for Kansas?

      Fart real loud and get under the table and I will play "Lion" with you. You get down there and I will throw you the meat. How’s that?

      And let me know when the "rest of the wolrd" get in their rowboats and take Texas.

      The United States will do exactly what it wants to do and the ’rest" of the world can howl in the closet.

      The reason you dont matter and the United States does, is that we work out an plan that works and you just wait around for somebofy ELSE to fry your bacon for you.

      Those 50 Armored Divisions and the 13 Aircraft Carrier Battle Fleets are no accident. Let me know when you find your keys.

    • Furthermore, the FBI has recently stated that there was never hard evidence that Bin Laden had anything to do with the events of 911 anyway: http://tinyurl.com/e5w3d

    • So far, both Syria and Iran have been smart enough not to allow themselves to be provoked into joining the fray, and I reckon they will continue being that smart. On the other hand, if attacked, Iran will defend itself furiously. Seeing that Iran can field some 100,000 well trained and fanatic Pasdaran elite troops and probably close to a million regulars, the few thousand American soldiers in all these military bases you mention would be no match against the Iranians.

    • Furthermore, America won’t be able to convince Moslem troops in those Nato-related countries sucn as Kyrghistan, Azerbaijan, etc., to fight against fellow Moslems, since one of the strongest injunctions in their religion is that they are forbidden to kill fellow Moslems or wage war against another Moslem country. The Iraq-Iran war was started by a secular Iraq, and Iran could therefore fight against Iraq since Iran was defending itself. So, whatever treaties and agreements the compliant and corrupt tyrants ruling those countries may have entered into with the US and Nato, their Moslem troops will likely not obey.

    • The fact that you resorted to insults and name-calling demonstrates that you lost the argument before even entering it.

    • From a poisoned cup, my friend, a poisoned cup.

    • It will be a domestic regime-change - possibly a violent and bloody one, but it will come from within. Furthermore, the USA is bankrupt, and its financial collapse is nigh, and the world will probably help attain that by boycotting all things American and calling in their loans.

  • Of course war is imminent but the threat isn’t truthfully explained by the American Empire leaders. The only threat to the USA isn’t the atomic weapons Iran doesn’t have or really care to have but the March opening of the Iranian Oil Bourse spelling flight from the petrodollar to the petroeuro and the impending dumping of trillions of dollars by China and others rendering the US a has been empire in history. Human life isn’t the primary concern of the money controllers so hows a few million Iranians wiped out by a bomb compare with complete dollar bankrupcy! Besides, as punishment for challenging the Empire, we can steal their oil and control the market. It ain’t about the bomb or personal security folks its about greed-money-power-wealth. The American Empire and a few others around the world are based on oil as the backing for its money supply and its being threatened by Iran, China and Russia! The question should be: Are we willing to sacrifice thousands of American soldiers lives in the middle east, wipe out millions of human lives in Iran and start countless wars to keep feeding corporate america, the billionaire boys club and keep our "happy slave" way of life in the American dream?

    • Iran will use its 300+ Shahab-3 ballistic missiles to attack US bases in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq. It may or may not attack Israel directly, but most probably not, knowing that Israel will not hesitate to retaliate massively, even though Israeli planes attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities first.

      Israel will have mobile atomic launchers moving 24/7 and will just be waiting to launch. Resources from Dimona will be dispersed and deployed...and targetted on Iran.

      And you have to realize that events will move incredibly fast. Iran either launches everything fast or loses it. And the US has by far a longer reach. And the Americans are waiting. It will all look like it was forced on us and we had to defend ourselves. Right between the towelies eyes. S’truth.

      Iran will directly attack sitting-duck US naval ships in the Gulf with its Russian Sunburn missiles, with spectacular effect. Look for an aircraft carrier to be sunk within 24 hours. Iran will also use its hundreds of Exocet missiles to attack other warships in the Gulf. Look for another 5-15 American warships to be damaged with losses within two days. American losses will be heavy. And it will make the entire population of the United States very deliberately homicidal. They will be ready, willing, and CAPABLE of killing every Moslem on earth if necessary.

      Everybody stay very still in Cairo and Damascus and anyplace else. I dont want to see any of you smile or blink.

      Another Pearl Harbor. The new “day of infamy” to justify the new “defensive” war.

      This is as far as the Neocon cabal in the Bush Administration has imagined. They expect this, and, like Roosevelt with the Japanese, are prepared to sacrifice thousands of head (like cattle) of other people’s sons and daughters to justify an all-out war against the Arab world, to seize half the world’s oil supply for the future benefit of the USA and the oil companies who support the American political establishment, and to seize thousands of square miles of new territory for Israel.

      But Iran doesnt think the US will forsee and plan for all this...even the losses. And Iran doesnt comprehend that we will use nukes on them. They simply dont think such a thing is even possible. Its too horrible, isnt it?
      Do you think Dick Cheney cares?

      This next decade will see the entire Middle East done from top to bottom, end to end. Afghanistan is gone, Iraq has a new flag and a new government and what existed before will NEVER come back. Anyone who touches Israel gets a bullet. Nukes will be used on Iran. The US has things it wants to "test", micro-nuetron bombs...nice stuff, never been seen before. Iran gets it. They wanted to make gasoline cost $15/gallon in the US ( $30/gallon in the EU). Islam wants to play? How do YOU think the world really works?

      We are going to uproot their culture, smash their Moslem institutions, break their flags, and rearrange their dirtbag borders. By 2010 Iran will be done up like Iraq is already done up. Afghanistan is out of the game. Syria is up on blocks and bleeding through the rectum
      Saudi will be partitioned and Mecca made a merry go round by 2015. There will be a whole LOT of DEAD Moslems. The US will use small nukes on Iran. And the rest of the Middle east better get used to the new rules after that. You think reason will prevail and "cooler heads" will somehow restore Peace to a seamey world? Human nature doesnt go there.

      Think the worst. Think absolute hell in a turban by 2025. Think of what happens on an Iraqi street and magnify it by 48 million souls.

      Boom!

    • Absolute nonsense.

    • What I meant is that your last few paragraphs are absolute nonsense.

  • I lost all respect for Scott Ritter when the child molestation story came out - his voice (and obvious agenda) does not deserve to be heard.

    • Let it be known that the child molestation charges against Ritter was dropped and case sealed. There was not enough evidence whatsoever to substantiate the charges. Looking at the recent developments in the Valerie Plame Leak Case, the Bush Administration seem to have a history of arm-twisting and retaliating against people who have a different view. Although the truth may never be known, I would give Scott Ritter the benefit of doubt. I would tend of believe that the Bush administration retaliated against Ritter by these false charges.

      Hey you who posted the original one-liner. Your right-wing intentions are fully exposed. I suggest you study the techniques used by Fox News to advance right-wing agenda. I find your attempt pathetic. You can do better than that.

    • So you took these mendacious, trumped-up charges on face value and ignored the fact that they were dropped for lack of evidence?

  • bush and the bush crime family are putting us all in extreme jeopardy. The bushes and the NWO pawns and poodles want desperately for Israel to attack Iran because it wants to see Israel destroyed - and make no mistake, Israel will be pulverized into oblivion.

    The NWO are working furiously to attempt to bait Israel into attacking Iran - thus the inflammatory rhetoric from Iran’s leadership. If that fails, the US will take the lead and bomb Iran.

    Where we are in extreme jeopardy is with China. China has recently made major oil deals with Iran (since the US/NWO have secured Iraq) and an attack on Iran will threaten them. China will come to Iran’s aid by destroying the United States. They have the means, the firepower and the capability to do it.

    The US is an occupied (by the NWO) nation, run by individuals who are not Americans, who care nothing for Americans or for this country and would just as soon see it destroyed - whether it is by China or Mexico or nuclear bombs.

    We are at a stage where the American people are held hostage to the occupiers and if cooler heads do not prevail we will all be in a position where the living will envy the dead.

    • Islamophobia is worse in America now than after 9/11, survey finds. James Zogby, president of the Washington-based Arab-American Institute, Isn’t surprised. "Politicians, authors and media commentators have demonised the Arab world since 2001."

      More than half of Americans believe there are more violent extremists within Islam than in any other religion and that the faith encourages violence against non-Muslims, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll yesterday.

      Negative feelings towards Islam are much more pronounced now than in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 2001 terror attacks, the survey found.

      A majority, 58%, of those interviewed now believe that Islam has more violent followers than any other religion. The poll of 1,000 was conducted by phone last week and has a three-point error margin.

      Since January 2002 the proportion of those who believe mainstream Islam promotes violence against non-believers has risen from 14% to 32%.

      Analysts blame the surge on a confluence of factors: the proposed takeover of US ports operations by a Dubai firm (now abandoned); the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; the election of Hamas in the Palestinian territories; and, above all, the riotous protests across the Muslim world against Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad.

      "The coverage of the controversy over the cartoons showed that sort of violent extremist in a way that a lot of Americans found troubling," said Carroll Dougherty of the Pew Research Centre for the People and the Press.

      American attitudes towards Islam were not out of step with Europe, Mr Dougherty said, adding that there was more tolerance in the US towards the use of headscarves than in countries such as Germany or France, where there is strong support for a ban.

      But nearly half of Americans, 46%, said they held unfavourable attitudes towards Islam - compared with 24% in January 2002. The Post quoted analysts as saying that the demonisation of Islam by politicians and the media during the past four years had led to an erosion of tolerance.

      In the immediate aftermath of September 11 2001, George Bush made a number of statements disassociating Islam and the general Arab and Muslim population in America from al-Qaida. He also visited a mosque, a symbolic gesture that helped build a more positive image of Islam.

      "It seems counter-intuitive, but from the president on down there was a very strong message from Washington that this was not representative of Islam," Mr Dougherty said. "In the intervening years there has been an absence of this sort of positive message."

      James Zogby, president of the Washington-based Arab-American Institute, told the Post he was not surprised by the poll’s results. Politicians, authors and media commentators have demonised the Arab world since 2001, he said.

      "The intensity has not abated and remains a vein that’s very near the surface, ready to be tapped at any moment," Mr Zogby said. "Members of Congress have been exploiting this over the ports issue. Radio commentators have been talking about it non-stop."

      Over the next few weeks and perhaps even months, the propaganda used to vilify Iran will intensify, just as it was prior to the Iraq War.

      We will be forced to hear, repeatedly, the evils of the regime, the wicked intentions of the new president and the manufactured threat to our security.

      We will be told over and over again how Iran has been a pariah on the world stage, that they overthrew our puppet dictator a few decades back, held America’s embassy hostage, support most of the world’s terrorists...

      That they are a tyrannical regime, want to destroy Israel, are a clear and present danger to our national security and, if we are lucky, that they even harbor the bogeymen of the moment, Al-Qaeda.

      Once again America is going on the warpath, getting herself ready for another imperialist offensive preemptive attack, disguised in the full spectrum of colors that are coordinated to hide the real reasons for war.

      Thus, the conditioning of the War Culture has for a few months now been set in motion with a media blitzkrieg engineered to prepare the nation’s consciousness for further conflict.

      Gently, slowly, systematically and methodically propaganda is being delivered into our comfortable homes on a daily basis that is designed to mold us into hating another nation, another people, using the same mold as before to deceive and manipulate an always gullible citizenry.

      The powers that decide the destiny of the nation have very little challenge in brainwashing the American public.

      Can you hear the Devil laughing? How are you going to stop it? The answer is you cant.

      The United States is going to break Irans back.

  • Ritter as sincere as he seems, appears to be a 9/11 gate keeper.
    He’s been confronted before as to whether the attacks were "real".
    He dodges the question every time. Makes me wonder about him.

  • More war for Israel coming with the bombing of Iran:

    http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=47176

  • My guess is that most American’s are either too poor or too far gone to care anymore. Many carry on as if there is no war , no lies , no deciet and have embraced the view of there being nothing wrong with totally destroying other peoples countries as long as the TV’s weather chick that comes on the local channels , has got big tits.

    • Americans are POOR? As poor as the average European or the average citizen of Goombah?

      The Americans are down at the Mall buying dildoes and dope, sweety. They all have their credit cards out and are waiting in line at McDonalds.

      If Americans are poor then in comparison to what?....Mexico or Canada? I sure would like to be as "poor" as an American.

      Americans have the finest military in the world...or would you like to fight them perhaps? How good is YOUR military? Would you like to have an American Division land on your border and ask for the keys? And if you said no, go away? Guess what, they take the keys anyway. Then who gets poor...you gonna say no when they take your wallet and your Oil and everything else your mother has in her shorts?

      Make America go home. Take a deep breath and beg.

      You dont LIKE it? You werent asked. And if you are an American you can always VOTE and see if Kerry will help you. Or you can see if Feingold will get even the Democrats to impeach Bush. They asked Hillary about Feingolds impeachment call and she got up with a no comment and left the room. They asked even blimpo Kennedy and he ducked too. NOBODY in the Democratic Party will touch Bush...even all the Dems treat Feingold like he has Leprosy. heard anything from Mujihead DEAN lately? Moonbats dont get much coverage in the present US of A. What gets coverage...the frustration of the Democratic agenda is on a lot of minds. Dems are throwing up in the toilet and looking for anything...anything that will save them in the next election. because FACE it...Bush got elected and I expect the GOP to hold the White House, have a MAJORITY in the Senate and House AND stack the Supreme Court till it looks like elephants in a line.

      So WHO exactly in the body Politic of the United States is going to DO something about George Bush. Apparently no one. WHY?

      Because the American people will rip your head off if you screw around with the US war...and Bush is riding around up there on that and you cant get him off to paddle his butt.

      The truth is that the American people HATE the war but they want it to happen...and the American people will all get a bloody shirt "incident" from the Iranians ( just by coincidence) just before Bush pushes the button on Iran. Watch it happen. All of a sudden Bush will have another 9/11 and we go for Iran like rabid ferrets.

      Think all the Oil in the caspian reserve, think of the Mullahs hanging from lamp posts and a new regime in Iran. Think of all those French not getting any of the contracts ( again). Think of the United States going BURP! on another Moslem country. Who is left after Iran. Syria isnt worth the trouble, we will kick them off the block with no effort. SAUDI ! after Iran Saudi is NEXT.

      We cut Saudi up and make it a merry go round ride. Lots to do between now and say 2010. Iran will be rearranged with mustard bu 2010 after we rip its head off in 2006. The Saudi by 2015.

      The entire Middle East top to bottom, end to end. Their culture, their flags, their dirt bag borders, their natural resources. Can you sing the Strar Spangled banner? No? thats your problem isnt it. You are going to sit on your butt and whine and you wont do drip.

      And the men in the White House and the Pentagon are going to put you in the sack and introduce you to the thing that giggles and feels your a88.

    • Yes, compared to the average European, average Americans are poor. There are extremely few cases of Europeans having to work two or three jobs just to allow their family to barely survive without any health care coverage at all as is the case with most Americans. In most European countries the health coverage is affordable to all and even free in some countries (Sweden and Britain come to mind) and includes the whole population. In most of Europe, University tuition fees are barely above $1,000 a year, so those from modest families and incomes can afford University education. Furthermore, the average European has five to six weeks of paid vacations every year and a work week of 40 or less hours, and a far better standard of life than the average American. Also, your Americans down at the Mall with their credit cards are in debt up to their necks, whereas most Europeans are not in debt at all. America has the finest military in the world? Then why is it bogged down in Iraq, and why have over 40 thousand US soldiers deserted in the past three years? An American military consisting largely of overweight or even obese soldiers does not make it the finest military in the world, either.

  • I disagree with Ritter even if he’s gotten a lead from Bolton’s speechwriter and all. I don’t believe any strike against Iran is on the cards, not this year, not next year, maybe not even another 5 years from now. US and our allies don’t have the capability to wage a protracted war over Iran (Iran today has a forminable military force and they’re not weak like Iraq after 12 years of embargo). US military planners are "beating the war drums" in the hope that Iran will drop their nuclear ambition. But the obvious result has been working to raise oil prices in Iran’s favor. I suspect oil has been used as a trade-off for Iran to stall their nuclear power plant until prices reach a satisfactory level to both parties. Its a high price to pay, especially by oil consumers, to bribe Iran into submission.

  • Despite Ritter’s dire warnings, that arrive with regularity like the changing of the seasons, the U.S. is not likely to "bomb" Iranian nuclear facilities, at least not while there are thousands of Russian technicians and their families living in close proximity to these sites, especially the large concentration lnear the Bushehr reactor. Everyone knows this - U.S. war planners, Iran, Russia, Israel, in fact, the entire informed world knows this. it seems that the only person who doesn’t know this is Scott Ritter. Someone should clue him in.

  • Senator Hillings and General Zinni said it best, the Iraq war was for Israel. Hollings said this in a farewell speach when he retired. He said everyone in the room, all the senators, knew that this war with Iraq was for ISRAEL. General Zinni said that the war with Iraq being for Israel was the worst kept secret in Washington. The American people have to wise up, Israel is running our foreign policy in the Middle East and they do it through Jewish lobbies, with AIPAC being the center piece. Israel is the problem in the Middle East and the cause of the Iraq war and will be the cause if the Iran war. The sooner we get rid of the liability of Israel, not just the 3-6 billion a year we give to this welfare state, but also the lives and money being expensed for one little country, ISRAEL. It’s a shame for the American people to be sold out by the Congress because of fear of AIPAC and being used to the money they give them. They put their re-ections before the interest of the American people.

    • A US military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities has entered a practical stage, according to a Saudi newspaper. The report, published Sunday by al Watan daily, claims the American intelligence identified 23 nuclear facilities in Iran while intelligence bodies of other countries added to the list eight facilities. All of these are expected to be targeted by US warplanes if diplomatic efforts to stop Iran’s nuclear facilities fail.

      The U.N. Security Council wont be much help to the United States any more than it was last time. The UN will determine there is no evidence of a weapons program. Then, on cue, John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, "will deliver a speech that has already been written. It will say America cannot allow Iran to threaten the United States and we must unilaterally defend ourselves."

      Then the US will give Iran one month, April, to make a satisfactory deal with the United States or we step in their sh*t.

      Remember when we gave Saddam until January 15th? Same deal for Iran.

      Then if we need to have it and I think we will, Israel will jump the gun ( all according to plan but it will look different).

      The Iran will try to close the Straites and will say no one can stop them. About that time the Israelis will jump the gun. Yeah, Bowser, send in the Doberman.

      THEN Iran will see the Israelis land and refuel on an American base in Iraq and they will freak and launch on the 5th Fleet. Thats when the US loses an Aircraft Carrier. This will require the US to "defend" itself. The whole US will back the strike and WHATEVER the President and Dick Cheney decide to do will get a blank check. No matter what Bush does to Iran will be just FINE with the American public...as long as there is the smell of cooked meat on it.

      First, American forces will bomb Iran. If Iranians don’t overthrow the current government, as Bush hopes they will, Iran will probably attack Israel. Then the United States will drop a nuclear bomb on Iran. We will hit everything that moves. Once the nuclear threshold is crossed the entire Middle East better get the message. We dont want to hear a squeak out of anybody. We want everybody to be real quiet and stay in their chairs.
      You all in your chairs? Good.

      Then we cut Iran up and eat it.

      According to the report, the US army will need five days to one week to complete the strike. However, US military experts claim the attack should be carried out no later than January 2007, because on that time Iran’s nuclear development enters the "red phase", i.e. the nuclear facilities would be dangerous to strike due to fear of radiation.

      My guess is that the UN deal will go down end of March( we arent going to wait until January) along with the Israeli elections. Netanyahu and the Likud will get that. Then everything is in place for the strike on Iran. Thirty days go by and the clock ticks. Iran gives the entire world the Islamic finger and we let Israel off the leash. Step two. Step Three. FLASH!

      serve the meat.

      Now one option has the US deciding that Israel will not be directly involved in the strike. However, the Bush administration will allow Israel to retaliate if attacked by long range Iranian missiles. Based on US intelligence reports, Iran has at least 20 mobile launchers for this kind of missiles.

      Israel will also have about the same number on the move 24/7 to hit Iran with atomics if Iran is stupid. There will be no way Iran can stop an Israeli strike. They have no defenses.

      The U.S. Air Force is playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse with Iran’s ayatollahs, flying American combat aircraft into Iranian airspace in an attempt to lure Tehran into turning on air defense radars, thus allowing U.S. pilots to grid the system for use in future targeting data, administration officials said.

      "We have to know which targets to attack and how to attack them," said one, speaking on condition of anonymity.

      The flights, which have been going on for weeks, are being launched from sites in Afghanistan and Iraq and are part of Bush administration attempts collect badly needed intelligence on Iran’s possible nuclear weapons development sites, these sources said, speaking on condition of strict anonymity.

      "These Iranian air defense positions are not just being observed, they’re being ’templated,’" an administration official said, explaining that the flights are part of a U.S. effort to develop "an electronic order of battle for Iran" in case of actual conflict.

      In the event of an actual clash, Iran’s air defense radars would be targeted for destruction by air-fired U.S. anti-radiation or ARM missiles, he said.

      The last option is that Iran will cave at the last minute and say they will be nice, hand Russia their Uranium and take the terms of that deal. But that is when the US will know they wont fight and are too scared to continue. Thats when we pull their pants down and smack their nuts diplomatically and watch everybody laugh at them standing there with their nutbags empty. Somehow I dont think the mullahs will do that and we wont have the pleasure of humiliating Iran publicly by having them crawl around and whine.

      Like Saddam, they will fight. And like Saddam we will crush their military capabilitys and break their flag.

      Then we will look around at the Middle East and see who is smiling and who isnt. Because there is only one way this is all going to end. ALL of the Middle East, up and down and sideways.

      You’d think the fact Porter Goss, head broom sweeper at the CIA, recently told the Turkish government the United States plans to attack Iran and Syria would be headline splashing news in the New York Times and the Washington Post. But although the news was carried in the Turkish press, it elicited hardly a murmur here

      in America, with the exception of United Press International and Reuters. As for the latter, only Goss’ meeting with Turkish officials on the “separatist terrorist organization” known as the Kurdistan Workers Party was mentioned and nothing about the impending attack, while the UPI mentioned it in the fourth paragraph, stating: “Goss said that Iran sees Turkey as an enemy and will ‘export its regime,’ warning Ankara to be ready for a possible U.S. aerial operation against Iran and Syria.”

      India and Pakistan will stay in their chairs. That is what that was all about. IF the Iranians launch they will aim at Qatar, at Saudi, at Afghanistan, at the Russian Rebublics...anyplace they find an American base or anyone they think will favor the Americans. NOBODY is going to come to help Iran, they dont have any allies. Russia? No, Russia will get some of the Caspian Reserve after Iran cant hold onto it. Everybody will take a bite out of Iran once it is down. The Vultures will move in.

      Human Nature will smell the fresh meat and bring a fork. Iran will get nuked, we arent playing games. We wont fight a long drawn out affair. We will cut their head off Day One. There wont be anything left of Iran after the American people see a Carrier get hit. Everybody and his grandmother in the United States will be HOWLING for Blood. Bush will give it to them.

      Nagasaki with a turban.

  • The problem goes beyond the Bush Admin and the Republicans. The Globalists have long since bought and paid for both the Democratic and Republican Parties in the US. The the major European governments in Europe. Just follow the money. The attempts to bring resources under the control of the major international banks via the IMF and World Bank. The governments that won’t be coerced with money will be coerced with force and the Global Govenment controlled by the international banks will be in place.
    Volken

    • Of one thing we may be certain: The powerful Neocons in the United States are NOT dumb. I can testify for the American public that they are extremely bright men, superbly devious, and totally without ethics or morals when it comes to war. They have one supreme goal, the expansion of Israel, and this end justifies any and all means, including mass murder. Because of this blinding obsession, one thing a conscience is sorely lacking in their mental makeup: but for war they have lots of imagination.

      The US arsenal and the US military will have no problem with Iran and Syria at all. It is already a done deal.

      What in fact will happen is this: Israel will attack the Iranian nuclear sites, with the USA permitting overflight of Iraq for that purpose. Iran will retaliate – but not against Israel – it will attack the ships and armed forces of the United States in the region.

      The American people will wake up one morning and it will be done. Then the Iranians will attack our 5th Fleet and we will take losses. The Pentagon will already know this. The American people will feel outraged and threatened just like after 9/11. They will DEMAND we retaliate against Iran...they will not care what justification Iran had. They will want to KILL. And when we use Nukes on Iran everyone in the United States will CHEER. And the whole world will get under the table.

      Now, here is the interesting part of the Neocon plan. Iran’s “unprovoked” retaliatory attack on the sailors and soldiers of the United States will be so devastating, so deadly, and so effective, that Bush will immediately be able to call the entire country to war against Iran, (including a forced draft,)

      Iran right now is assembling enough fissile material for a single test. They are racing all out right now to produce an atomic bomb. They will be working around the clock for the next couple of months because that is about all the time they have. They will detonate that single bomb in the Indian Ocean and it will be targeted on the American Fleet.

      First use by Iran...against America. They will lash out at Iraq as well, and Qatar and Saudi also in all probability. The entire world will witness Iran attacking and using an Atomic FIRST when they do. The entire Arab world will witness Iran using missiles against the Arabs all around its borders. Fellow Moslems.

      And there wont be a single voice raised in protest when the United States uses nukes to obliterate Iran in a single day.

      What was it Abujibberjabber said about wiping Israel off the map? Ah, but Allah will save Iran from the wicked NeoCons?

    • The powerfu Neocons are so bright that they created the utter failures in Iraq and in the US’ Middle East policy. That’s real bright! Brightness and stupidity can easily cohabit as has been demonstrated time and time again throughout history. The Neocons have decided to "create their own reality", ignoring reality itself. They live in a dark dream world of their own that refuses reality and logic. Hence their numerous failures, past, present and future.

      As for the US arsenal and the US military having no problem with Iran and Syria, I think you’re dreaming. See my post below which begins with "A rather simplistic and most incomplete analysis.", in which I mention, among other things, that Iran can field some 100,000 well trained and fanatic Pasdaran elite troops and probably close to a million regulars.

  • The American people will still need to be "prepped" for this. The complexity and the tight schedule of a war with Iran will require a very fast tempo and timing is going to be everything in this war.

    Atomics are deployed. The US has new products to test and this would be an ideal time to see how the toys perform. Micro-nukes, and nuetron radiation pulse weapons. Airburst electronic pulse weapons to be used on cities. The military has had a Brigade reorg which will keep everything in place in Iraq but free up the key Brigades and certain Brigade units for the Iran work.

    The Iranians will mount a surge inside Iraq and plan to largely rely on militais of Shia and hold their own Basj in reserve. WE will counter that using the exercise we just demonstrated up south of Tikrit in SWARMER. That was a drill using aerial envelopments.

    Iran has several hundred Exocets and about a dozen Yakhonts. These will be deployed into the mountains above the straites of Hormuz. The straites are about 35 miles wide and 170 miles long...slow manuevering a large vessel such as an Oil Tanker. We will have three, not two Carrier Fleets, in Blue Water off the Straites in the Indian Ocean. We will have about 25 vessels INSIDE around Qatar. But most will be heavily covered at range from Iranian Sunburn attacks. The Sunburn has a range of about 200 miles but it can be jammed and it can be stopped from launch. We do have a shipboard missile which is designed to counter the Sunburn but it is untested as yet..the old system has a bad time factor and is inadequate. That old system has been phased out but some ships still carry it.

    The US Navy will use manuever, early warning AWACS and a war alert footing and air superiority to reach Iranian points of launch and take out Iranian assets before the Sunburn can be used. The Yakhonts can be launched from the air and the frail Iranian AF may try to penetrate our forward deployments of air superiority and launch a 300 mile Yakhonts. We have missiles which can target it that way and the aircraft that launches will never make it out of American airspace. Any pilot who trys to get inside for a strike will have to launch before we get him. And if he does launch we will have jamming and counter missiles.

    All things considered, our tech is better than theirs. we have a forward deployment, air superiority and AWACS and SAT. I would give the Iranian Navy about 48 hours. The talk about Iranian mine laying is to use acountic mines in the straites channel and to lay them using fleets of rubber boats. We will have a lot of fun with those rubber boats. They will come out once and never go back home. Like most of the Iranian manuevers, they have to use it or lose it early and they havent got a second string once they do lose it. Most of their manuevers will be suicide activity. The first 48 hours will see them shoot their bolt and then we have a free run.

    They will have mountain concealed positions above the straits and will try to close it. They would love to sink something in the channel and block it. Our fleets have a long reach and can stand off in blue water and still launch 24/7 air sorties from one end of Iran to the other. The Russian Republics will have the Stealth Units on a timetable. And the Stealth strikes will be quick, efficient and precise.

    Iran will be degraded in capability in about four days. We will take Bandar Abbas. We will take Khuzestan. We will slaughter the Shia militias and the Basj Reserve is a sitting duck. And we always can use our new toys.

    Iran cant reach us and we can reach Iran from all sides. We have an agreement with Israel to start the ball rolling if necessary but we will do it ourselves with a thirty day untimatum to Iran throughout April...like we did with Saddam on the Jan 15th date. Same technique. After that if the Shab 3s are targetted on Israel then we have agreed that Israel can use mobile launchers to target Iran with atomics. If the Shahab 3 is launched at Qatar or anywhere else it will be falling on MOSLEMS. I am sure that will not be lost on our "allies" in the region. No one loves Iran...especially the Arabs. Iran is going to go to the pigfarm.

    Most of the war will be over in about four days. We will decapitate the mullah regime and foment an internal uprising, we have the capacity to move massive amounts of logistical material to back that. Iran is riddled by unrest and people ready to take the regime down. Once that process triggers we will take over the propaganda for it and blow it as big as we can. The US will have about 8,000 Special Forces agents and ops inside Iran and most have been infiltrated over the last three months and will be eating breakfast all over Iran months before the war even starts.

    Iran is going to bend over to put on its boots and the lights will go out.

    We will have units inside Iran to move on the 25-30 Atomic sites and sabotage anything the bombing missed. We will cut their internal communications and identify targets and troop movements. The 21st Century meets Goombahland.

    89% of Irans Oil is in Khuzestan. The rest is contained in the reserves around the Caspian. We will deal with the Russians and the Chinese by the back door and cut them in on the Caspian Reserves. The US will take Khuzestan and give it to the Shias who proved loyal to Iraqi sovereignty.

    Irans borders will be changed, their flag broken and they will get a new government. Khuzestan will become part of Iraq under US oversight. Figure that one out.

    The whole world will get under the table and no one will either stop us or come to help Iran. Turkey will be in on this one, Syria will see the Israelis move. The Hamas people will wish they were in jersey and it is already too late for all of them anyway. Israel is just licking its lips on Hamas. Syria is going in the toilet. You wont even know what happened to Syria it will happen so fast. Now you see it, now you dont.

    By next Fall the maps will be changed and the stomp will be done. If the Iranians have any longer reach and can really do anything to the territorial US we will see if they can. But my guess is that we will clean them out like possum guts. Osama had a one shot deal and hes probably dead. Osama is over with. Zarquawi has been kicked out of Iraq. Iran is all they have left and dont you know the entire Middle East is going to pull a Lebanon after we slam dunk Iran.

    None of the rest of the "ummah" is going to do anything but shine shoes and say Yassuh.

    Saudi will be next after that. Mecca needs new shoes.

    • A rather simplistic and most incomplete analysis. Here is what you didn’t take into account:

      * Iran is equipped witn numerous Fajr-3 missiles that are invisible to radar and able to strike several targets with multiple warheads.

      * Iran has a large number of Hoots, high-speed torpedoes able to move at some 223 mph, up to four times faster than normal torpedoes, that closely resembles the Russian-made VA-111 Shkval, the world’s fastest known underwater missile, which can be fired by ships cloaked to radar as well as fired by wooden fishing vessels that are also cloaked to radar and infrared detection.

      * Iran has deployed Chinese HY-2 ‘Silkworm’ anti-ship missiles along its Persian Gulf coast and its Abu Musa, Qeshm and Sirri islands which lie around and even in the middle of the shipping lanes of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has 28 islands in the Persian Gulf, and you can be certain that they all have missile installations. These Iranian islands in the Strait of Hormuz allows for the limited Hoots range of 4.26 miles more than sufficient to sink any ship passing through the shipping lines.

      * Iran has produced and possesses a large number of surface-to-sea missile, the Kowsas, with remote-control and searching systems that cannot be scrambled.

      * Iran has produced and possesses a larg number of "super-modern flying boat," undetectable by radar and able to launch missiles with precise targeting while skimming low over the surface of the water at a top speed of 100 nautical mph.

      * If Iran sinks just one tanker in the Strait of Hormuz it can stop all shipping there, because the waters are quite shallow and the Strait of Hormuz at its narrowest is 21 miles wide, having two 1 mile wide channels for marine traffic separated by a 2 mile wide buffer zone in which Iran has several Islands, and is the only sea passage to the open ocean for large areas of the petroleum exporting Persian Gulf States, and those shipping lines are inside Iran’s territorial waters. Since something like 40% of the oil used by the world comes through the Strait of Hormuz, this would cause a global economic collapse. Furthermore, it would effectifely cut the US military’s supply lines to Iraq and to its military bases in the Gulf, thus crippling the US military in Iraq and making them helpless sitting ducks.

      * Iran can field some 100,000 well trained and fanatic Pasdaran elite troops and probably close to a million regulars, which would make a US invasion and occupation quite impossible.

  • With what men and equipment will the US attack, invade and occupy the huge and highly mountainous Iran whose over 70 million people are united and profoundly nationalistic, whose "opposing" minorities are tiny, whose population is healthy, well fed, and hasn’t suffered from twelve years of murderous sanctions and daily bombings nor been poisoned with thousands of tons of depleted unanium, whose army is huge, totally committed, well trained, well armed and extremely well equipped with technologically highly advanced and sophisticated weaponry (both those supplied by Russia and those domestically designed and produced)? With over 65% of the US’ adult population being overweight or obese, what kind of an army can it raise with a draft?

  • According to Seymour Hersh (I don’t have a link, this came to me in an e-mailed newsletter), "President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney abandoned a plan to include "the possible use of a nuclear device" to destroy Iran’s uranium-enrichment plant at Natanz because of Pentagon opposition."

    • Pentagon stopped Bush, Cheney nuking Iran
      Sherwood Ross
      Middle East Times
      August 10, 2006

      WASHINGTON — US President George W. Bush and his vice president abandoned a plan to include "the possible use of a nuclear device" to destroy Iran’s uranium-enrichment plant at Natanz over Pentagon opposition, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh has said.

      "Bush and [Vice President Dick] Cheney were dead serious about the nuclear planning," a former senior intelligence official told Hersh. But Joint Chiefs of Staff’s Chairman Marine General Peter Pace "stood up to them," he said. "Then the word came back: ’Okay, the nuclear option is politically unacceptable."

      Hersh termed this a "major victory" for the military, but one that has left "bad feelings" between it and the civilian hierarchy in Washington.

      In an article published in The New Yorker magazine, Hersh reported senior commanders inside the Pentagon "increasingly challenged the president’s plans" on grounds the nuclear attack likely would not succeed in destroying Iran’s nuclear program and "could lead to serious economic, political, and military consequences" for the United States.

      The possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons to destroy Natanz’s buried laboratories was held to be "politically untenable" as the device could "vent fatal radiation for miles [kilometers]," Hersh wrote. Natanz is about 300 kilometers (roughly 200 miles) south of Tehran.

      Instead, the US Air Force has proposed dropping large "bunker-buster" conventional bombs in quick succession on Natanz to "generate sufficient concussive force to accomplish what a tactical nuclear warhead would achieve, but without provoking an outcry over what would be the first use of a nuclear weapon in a conflict since Nagasaki," Hersh wrote.

      This approach, however, might fail because the enormous heat generated by the first bomb would liquefy the soil, one Pentagon consultant said. "It will be like bombing water, with its currents and eddies. The bombs would likely be diverted."

      Besides, as Hersh noted, over the past two years "the Iranians have been shifting their most sensitive nuclear-related materials and production facilities, moving some into urban areas in anticipation of a bombing raid."

      Robert Pape, a University of Chicago professor who has taught at the air force’s School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, is quoted as saying Natanz is "a very large underground area, and even if the roof came down we won’t be able to get a good estimate of the bomb damage without people on the ground."

      "We don’t even know where it goes underground, and we won’t have much confidence in assessing what we’ve actually done. Absent capturing an Iranian nuclear scientist and documents, it’s impossible to set back the program for sure," Pape said.

      One Pentagon adviser told Hersh America’s allies fear a US assault against Iran would place them in jeopardy. The Iranians, he said, "have agents all over the Gulf, and the ability to strike at will."

      Last May, the emir of Qatar learned during a visit to Iran that his country, the site of the US Central Command’s regional headquarters, "would be its first target in the event of an American attack," Hersh wrote. Qatar, a leading gas exporter, operates offshore oil platforms which would be extremely vulnerable in the event of war.

      Some Pentagon officers oppose an attack against Iran as it could heighten the risks to US forces in Iraq. "What if 100,000 Iranian volunteers came across the border?" retired Army Major General William Nash asked. And Navy officers worry about "suicide water bombers" attacking US aircraft carriers in the Gulf.

      Nash, now a senior fellow at the council on Foreign Relations, said US bombing of Iran "would be seen not only as an attack on Shiites but as an attack on all Muslims. Throughout the Middle East, it would likely be seen as another example of American imperialism. It would probably cause the war to spread."

      The US military has also dissented from a bombing campaign against Iran in the absence of specific intelligence evidence "of clandestine activities or hidden facilities," the magazine article said. One high-ranking general told Hersh, "We built this big monster (WMD) with Iraq, and there was nothing there. This is son of Iraq."

      Sherwood Ross is an American columnist and magazine writer. Contact him at sherwoodr1@yahoo.com

      .

    • But it gets worse ,

      Scholar Bernard Lewis

      This year, Aug. 22 corresponds, in the Islamic calendar, to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427. This, by tradition, is the night when many Muslims commemorate the night flight of the prophet Muhammad on the winged horse Buraq, first to "the farthest mosque," usually identified with Jerusalem, and then to heaven and back (c.f., Koran XVII.1). This might well be deemed an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and if necessary of the world. It is far from certain that Mr. Ahmadinejad plans any such cataclysmic events precisely for Aug. 22. But it would be wise to bear the possibility in mind.

      A passage from the Ayatollah Khomeini, quoted in an 11th-grade Iranian schoolbook, is revealing. "I am decisively announcing to the whole world that if the world-devourers [i.e., the infidel powers] wish to stand against our religion, we will stand against their whole world and will not cease until the annihilation of all them. Either we all become free, or we will go to the greater freedom which is martyrdom. Either we shake one another’s hands in joy at the victory of Islam in the world, or all of us will turn to eternal life and martyrdom. In both cases, victory and success are ours."

      In this context, mutual assured destruction, the deterrent that worked so well during the Cold War, would have no meaning. At the end of time, there will be general destruction anyway. What will matter will be the final destination of the dead—hell for the infidels, and heaven for the believers. For people with this mindset, MAD is not a constraint; it is an inducement.

      Farid Ghadry

      Certainly a nuclear attack on Jerusalem or even an all-out conventional assault against Israel by Iran would be consistent with Ahmadinejad’s oft-repeated denials of Israel’s right to exist and recent predictions that its demise was at hand. He hinted at the use of nuclear weapons in his phrasing when he said that Israel “pushed the button of its own destruction” by finally retaliating against Hezbollah’s relentless rocket barrage from south Lebanon.

      “Arrogant powers,” Ahmadinejad said, “have set up a base for themselves to threaten and plunder nations in the region. But today, the occupier regime” – that is, Israel – “whose philosophy is based on threats, massacre and invasion, has reached its finishing line.”

      Will he attempt to make good on these threats this year on the anniversary of the Miraj, illuminating the night sky over Jerusalem? Will Western powers heed Farid Ghadry’s words and move to stop Iran before it is too late?

      I’m off to Northern Canada.

      .