Next STOP Iran? More BUSH LIES and Surging Toward War With Iran

[L. Coyote]

Is this a "Here we go (to war) again" moment? At the very least, new excuses are being dredged up to replace the well-worn lies of past years.

As more innocent people and combatants die every hour due to BUSH's LIES, here are today's fresh lies:

====================
Guardian at the Gates: Surging Toward War With Iran
by Chris Floyd
Global Research, May 24, 2007
ChrisFloyd.com - 2007-05-22
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=FLO20070524&articleId=5743

If you have any doubt that the Bush Administration is planning a military strike against Iran, then check out the lead story in today's Guardian: Iran's secret plan for summer offensive to force US out of Iraq. The story, which is based entirely -- entirely -- on the unchallenged statements of three anonymous "American officials," not only alleges that Iran is "already committing daily acts of war against US and British forces" -- including the increasing mortar attacks on the Green Zone -- but also asserts that Tehran has entered into an active military alliance with al-Qaeda. Together, this new axis of evil will launch a "nationwide, Iranian-orchestrated summer offensive" aimed at undermining the scheduled September progress report from U.S. General David Petraeus on the vaunted "surge." Oh, and to top it all off, the same officials told the Guardian's stenographer, Simon Tisdall, that Iran has now also allied itself with its long-time enemy, the Taliban, and are helping kill Americans in Afghanistan as well.

To reiterate: the claim now from "top Bush officials" is that Iran has entered into an alliance with al Qaeda and is "committing daily acts of war" against American forces. As a casus belli, this beats the hell out of an "imminent threat" from undiscovered WMD, the entirely specious charge used by the Bush Faction to gull the nation into aggressive war with Iraq. In fact, at the time of that invasion, no Iraqi had killed an American in the 12 years since the first Gulf War; but here, we have the Bushists claiming that Iranians are killing Americans right this very minute -- every single day.

The clincher is the new charge that the Iranians are now actively allied with al Qaeda. It is by now a well-worn modus operandi of the Bush Terror Warriors simply to declare that anyone they don't like -- anyone who is a candidate for what Bush calls "the path of action" -- is an ally of al Qaeda. .........

[seemslikeadream]

1. Iran is a threat to the supply lines to our troops

they will say


http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts05262007.html

The Bush Doctrine
Democracy in Iraq, Tyranny at Home?
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

......

Disinformation is being fed to the media that Iran is responsible for attacks on US troops in Iraq. This disinformation is routinely reported without skepticism by the American media in the face of challenges from experts. For example, a recent British report concludes: "few independent analysts believe Tehran is playing a decisive role in the sectarian warfare and insurgency."

While the Cheney/AEI conspirators strive to whip up American anger at Iran with lies and disinformation, they are doing everything possible to provoke Iran. The warmongers have planted the story in the media that the US is conducting covert operations against Iran. The US Navy is conducting "exercises" off Iran's coast. The US military in Iraq has violated diplomatic privilege and kidnapped Iranian officials in Iraq despite protests from the Iraqi and Iranian governments. The US government is stirring up more trouble in Lebanon by setting extremists Sunnis against Iran's Hezbollah ally. In short, the US government is doing everything possible to start a war with Iran. Bombing Iran, perhaps after a contrived "false flag" operation, is the next step.

......

What do people in other countries think when they hear Bush prattle on about "freedom and democracy" while he ignores opinion polls and election results and detains people without warrants, tortures them, and puts them before military tribunals in which they are denied even knowing the evidence against them? Bush has contrived a situation for defendants in which no defense is possible. In Bush's America, people can be executed on the basis of hearsay and secret evidence.

If this is "freedom and democracy," what is tyranny?

......

The problem is in implementing the will of the people. Democrats in Congress are not only recipients of AIPAC, oil industry, and military-security complex payoffs just as the Republicans are, Democrats are also behaving very cynically. They believe that it is Bush's policy that gave them control of Congress in November and that by continuing to let Bush prevail, they will clean up on a larger scale in 2008.

......

The problem with the Democrats' cynical logic is that allowing Bush to prolong the war in Iraq increases the chances that Cheney, Israel, and the neoconservatives can contrive a war with Iran. Most experts, and many in our own military, think that a war
with Iran would go very badly for us, endangering our troops in Iraq by exposing them to more intense attacks from the more numerous Shiites, who would be armed with Iranian weapons that can neutralize our tanks and helicopters, leaving our fragmented and divided troops isolated and cut off from supplies and retreat routes.

The pending disaster would play into Cheney's hands. With America faced with the loss of an army, Cheney and the neoconservatives would likely succeed in convincing Bush to nuke Iran. Cheney and Rumsfeld have already changed US war doctrine to permit preemptive nuclear attack against non-nuclear powers. Surprised by the inability of the US military to prevail in Iraq and by Israel's military failure against Hezbollah, the neocons concluded that the only way to establish US/Israeli hegemony over the entire Middle East is to nuke Iran. The neocons believe that using nuclear weapons against Iran will demonstrate to the Muslim world that they have no alternative but to submit to US hegemony.

The Democrats are far from being alone in lacking the vision to see the abyss into which their cynicism is leading us. With the corporate media serving as propaganda ministry for the administration, Cheney will be able to whip up enough fear and anger to convince the American people that the use of nuclear weapons was imperative.



SUPPLIES FOR OUR FORCES MUST FIRST REACH MAIN PORT IN KUWAIT BY SHIPS
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x972797

[L. Coyote]

4. WAS Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration

He's no longer sitting in a deck chair!

================
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.

[seemslikeadream]

5. does that mean he can't express his views?

on edit

I didn't mean to imply Roberts would speak for bush

[L. Coyote]

7. No. It is context and illustrates how some people are no longer on the GOP sinking ship.

[spanone]

2. Sickening....here goes the media.....again.

[SpiralHawk]

3. That's the "republicon corporate media borg" if you please

We propaganda victims, formerly known as citizens of the formerly free USA, insist on proper terminology.

[L. Coyote]

8. Your tax $$$ purchased media outlets in Iraq, and bought reporters too

We have to ask,
"To what extent is this happening today and everywhere?"
"To what extent is this happening with other issues too?"

I have been told by major news announcers, "We just read it."
And, worse still, they do not even know who writes it for them!

We have to ask,
"To what extent is news just propaganda and BUSH LIES?"

==========================
Pentagon pays Iraqi papers to print its 'good news' stories
Jamie Wilson in Washington
Thursday December 1, 2005
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1654661,00.html

Faced with suicide bombings, claims of Iraqi death squads, and kidnappings, the Pentagon has come up with an innovative solution to solving the problems in Iraq: buying good news. Using defence contractors or intermediaries posing as freelance reporters, the military has been paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by a military propaganda unit lauding the US mission.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the articles are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers where they are often presented as unbiased accounts by independent journalists. Records obtained by the newspaper indicate the US has paid to publish dozens of articles since the operation began this year, with headlines such as "Iraqis insist on living despite terrorism" and "more money goes to Iraq's development".

One military official told the LA Times the military has also bought an Iraqi newspaper and taken control of a radio station, ...........

[L. Coyote]

6. Another Article and Thread: Right Wing Itches to Strike Iran

babylonsister Sun May-27-07 07:37 AM - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=980315&mesg_id=980315

Right Wing Itches to Strike Iran
http://www.alternet.org/audits/52384 /
By John Tirman, AlterNet. Posted May 26, 2007.

The hard right in the U.S. has tried to exploit the arrest of Middle East scholar Haleh Esfandiari to create a reason for America's conservatives to attack Iran. ..................

[Blackhatjack]

9. The unannounced 'doubling' of the surge numbers is part of a plan regarding Iran....

Bush's poll numbers at the mid-twenties tells you all you need to know about the danger we are facing with this Administration.

Bush has to either change his policies OR there has to be a 'new and urgent' threat to rally the people to his side. Iraq will do nothing but continue to sink his poll numbers with 70% against the war in Iraq.

What is left?

An attack on the homeland would likely stoke the fears of keeping Bush in office because of massive incompetent officials now in place, and the public finally understands that.

Iran seems to be the only card left for Bush and the NeoCons to play.

Our true numbers on the surge put us at over 200,000 counting private contractors(mercenaries), and there are no other troops ready to deploy.

Why position so many troops in this area now? It sure looks like something big is coming down the pike --and my money is on an attack on Iran UNLESS Congress acts to stop him.

[snappyturtle]

11. I thought from the beginning of the surge and

now the naval exercises that the U.S. has more on it's agenda than Iraq. I also believe selected members of Congress know of the real possibility of an attack on Iran and knew they then had to vote "Yea" for the supplemental war funding bill. After all we must keep the military industrial complex going! :sarcasm:

[snappyturtle]

10. K&R I think this should be kicked. Also

Maybe the "summer offensive" is what * is referring in his warnings of a bloody August....oh, God I hope not. If we had just stayed out of Iraq to start with this would not have become a possibility. "Oh what tangled webs we weave when first we practice to deceive!

[L. Coyote]

12. US Journalist Quit Pentagon Iraqi Media Project = $96M Propaganda Project

Wednesday, January 14th, 2004
U.S. Journalist Quits Pentagon Iraqi Media Project Calling it U.S. Propaganda
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/01/14/1555223

Listen LINK

We talk to a longtime TV producer about the massive problems he saw in the new U.S.-funded Iraqi Media Network, which he said became an "irrelevant mouthpiece for Coalition Provisional Authority propaganda, managed news and mediocre programs." The U.S. has awarded a $96 million contract to a U.S. producer of communications equipment, Harris Corp., to create a U.S.-funded national media network in Iraq.

According to the head of Harris Corp, the Iraqi Media Network will have 30 TV and radio transmitters, three broadcast studios, and 12 bureaus around Iraq. .....

[L. Coyote]

15. BUSH's LIES: "federal agencies spent $1.6 billion on what some Democrats called 'spin.' "

Bush administration propaganda and disinformation
From SourceWatch
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bush_administration_propaganda_and_disinformation

The Bush administration "spent $1.4 billion in taxpayer dollars on 137 contracts with advertising agencies over the past two-and-a-half years, according to a Government Accountability Office report released by House Democrats" on February 13, 2006, Richard Williamson reported for Adweek. "With spending on public relations and other media included, federal agencies spent $1.6 billion on what some Democrats called 'spin.'" ............

The GAO reported that the "six largest recipients of ad and PR dollars were" Leo Burnett USA, $536 million; Campbell-Ewald, $194 million; GSD&M, $179 million; J. Walter Thompson (JWT), $148 million; Frankel & Company, $133 million; and Ketchum, $78 million. "The agencies received more than $1.2 billion in media contracts, according to the report," according to Adweek. ........

[L. Coyote]

13. Pentagon OK's Propaganda for Iraq (and Possibly Elsewhere)

Pentagon OK's Propaganda for Iraq (and Possibly Elsewhere)
Source: Los Angeles Times, March 4, 2006 - http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-infowar4mar04,0,1357115.story?coll=la-home-world
http://www.prwatch.org/node/4517

Declaring it "within our authorities and responsibilities," the top U.S. general in Iraq, George Casey, announced that the Lincoln Group program that covertly places stories written by U.S. troops in Iraqi newspapers will continue. Navy Admiral Scott Van Buskirk is also reviewing the Iraq propaganda program. His review was previously described as finished but not public .....

[L. Coyote]

14. The Sword Employs the Pen = "the military's practice of paying journalists"

Center for Media and Democracy » Spin of the Day » Feb 07, 2005

The Sword Employs the Pen
http://www.prwatch.org/node/3260

The Pentagon is investigating "the military's practice of paying journalists to write articles and commentary ... and also looking more broadly at Pentagon activities that might involve inappropriate payments to journalists," writes Associated Press. CNN reported on Pentagon involvement with two news websites, Southeast European Times (focused on the Balkans) and Magharebia (focused on North Africa). Some 50 journalists were paid by the Pentagon through a private contractor, Anteon Corporation, ..........

==============================
Pentagon Paid Reporters for Stories Overseas
February 06, 2005 9:00 AM ET
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000789872

WASHINGTON (AP) The Pentagon’s chief investigator is looking into the military’s practice of paying journalists to write articles and commentary for a Web site aimed at influencing public opinion in the Balkans, officials said Friday.

At the request of Larry Di Rita, chief spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, the Pentagon’s inspector general, Joseph Schmitz, is reviewing that case and also looking more broadly at Pentagon activities that might involve inappropriate payments to journalists. ...............

==============================
Covert propaganda >> Instances of covert propaganda - http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Covert_propaganda

[L. Coyote]

16. Administration’s new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism?

The Redirection
Is the Administration’s new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism?
by Seymour M. Hersh March 5, 2007
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/03/05/070305fa_fact_hersh

Efforts to curb Iran’s influence have involved the United States in worsening Sunni-Shiite tensions.

... as the situation in Iraq has deteriorated, the Bush Administration, in both its public diplomacy and its covert operations, has significantly shifted its Middle East strategy. The “redirection,” ... has brought the United States closer to an open confrontation with Iran and, in parts of the region, propelled it into a widening sectarian conflict between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.

One contradictory aspect of the new strategy is that, in Iraq, most of the insurgent violence directed at the American military has come from Sunni forces, .....

[seemslikeadream]

17. IRAN

OMG! Iran has a secret plan
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x941127

Bush's Inconceivable Interest in Iran Sat Apr-01-06
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=819437

Senior U.S. Officials “Want to Hit Iran” Tue Apr-04-06
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=844418

Larisa Alexandrovna: CHENEY TAPS IRANIAN ARMS DEALER FOR IRAN TALKS Thu Apr-20-06
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=977234

Seymour Hersh said something startling about Rumsfeld on Democracy Now Fri Aug-18-06
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=1936421

So former DLC, PNAC member Abram Shulsky feeding Cheney info on Iran?Sat Aug-19-06
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=1944614

Fuck. Iran has started "war games." Escalation may only be expected.Sun Aug-20-06
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=1949812

Attack on Iran is Coming Sun Aug-27-06
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=1993284

"Grave threat". Yes, it's deja vu all over again. Thu Aug-31-06
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2022620

UN attacks US nuclear report on Iran erroneous misleading unsubstantiated Sun Sep-17-06
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2159951

We Are Conducting Military Operations Inside Iran Right Now Tue Sep-19-06
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2168218

Navy told: Prepare to blockade Iran by Oct 1 Mon Sep-18-06
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2161779

Pentagon Iran Office Mimics Former Iraq Office Wed Sep-20-06
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2179484

“This is the largest massing of military power in the region, and it is gathering for a reason.” Sat Nov-18-06
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2753952

Seymour Hersh: Cheney Says 'Whether Or Not Dems Win-NO STOPPING Military Option With Iran' Sun Nov-19-06
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2757350

Does anyone still believe the US will launch a full scale invasion of Iran? Mon Dec-04-06
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2856177

Saudi clerics rally support for Sunnis and Saudi ambassador Abruptly ResignsTue Dec-12-06
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2902643

Act III in a Tragedy of Many Parts - The US Occupation of Iraq Sun Dec-17-06
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2935498

Century Foundation Iran White Paper Series Fundamentalists, Pragmatists and the Rights of the Nation Tue Dec-19-06
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2948146

Oh shit Tue Dec-19-06
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2944423


KBR has been planning the invasion of IRAN since 2003
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=3108489&mesg_id=3108489

Russian Admiral Says U.S. Navy Prepares Missile Strike on Iran
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x3128152

while Bush sets his plans in motion to orchestrate a war with Iran.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x3127918

NYT: 'Newly Revealed Orders" Issued By Bush Show US Has Opened A "Third Front Against Iran"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=3122346&mesg_id=3122346

Iran? Just had dinner with a ranking Navy Officer from one of our gulf bound Carrier Groups
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=3108967

US military strike on Iran seen by April ’07; Sea-launched attack to hit oil, N-sites
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=3118092

The most dangerous George Bush is one who feels weak, powerless and under attack
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=3118627

Isn't it a definitive act of war for one country to storm the consulate of another, threaten to kill
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=3095978

[L. Coyote]

18. AWESOME compilation! & Hersh: U.S. Funds Being Secretly Funneled To Violent Al Qaeda-Linked Groups

Hersh: U.S. Funds Being Secretly Funneled To Violent Al Qaeda-Linked Groups
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/02/25/hersh-qaeda/

New Yorker columnist Sy Hersh says the “single most explosive” element of his latest article involves an effort by the Bush administration to stem the growth of Shiite influence in the Middle East (specifically the Iranian government and Hezbollah in Lebanon) by funding violent Sunni groups.

Hersh says the U.S. has been “pumping money, a great deal of money, without congressional authority, without any congressional oversight” for covert operations in the Middle East where it wants to “stop the Shiite spread or the Shiite influence.” Hersh says these funds have ended up in the hands of “three Sunni jihadist groups” who are “connected to al Qaeda” but “want to take on Hezbollah.”

Hersh summed up his scoop in stark terms: “We are simply in a situation where this president is really taking his notion of executive privilege to the absolute limit here, running covert operations, using money that was not authorized by Congress, supporting groups indirectly that are involved with the same people that did 9/11.”

Watch it: VIDEO

Hersh added, “All of this should be investigated by Congress, by the way, and I trust it will be. In my talking to membership — members there, they are very upset that they know nothing about this. And they have great many suspicions.”

Digg It!

Transcript:

BLITZER: Near the end of your article, you have this explosive point ...........

[L. Coyote]

19. RHETORIC OF FEAR 1/22/05: Bush, Cheney Team Up to Soften Americans for War on Iran

The Iran rhetoric has been going on for years now. Is it just a smoke screen to keep the focus off the failures?

================
Bush, Cheney Team Up to Soften Americans for War on Iran
by Jim Lobe
http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=4522

Two very different messages about the future of U.S. foreign policy were broadcast to the world on Inaugural Day Thursday, and listeners everywhere could be forgiven for feeling confused about their import.

On the one hand, George W. Bush's lofty rhetoric about his administration's commitment to bring democracy, liberty and freedom to every country where tyrants rule naturally grabbed the most attention; after all, he is the president.

Even as the speech was much criticized by normally friendly critics – probably more than the White House had anticipated – as being hopelessly ambitious and unrealistic, the idealism that it expressed was widely praised and unquestioned.

On the other hand, Vice Pres. Dick Cheney's dark words of warning against Iran on MSNBC's "Imus in the Morning" television show conveyed something altogether different, both in tone and substance, even if they were relegated to the inside pages. .......

[L. Coyote]

20. Hersh: Bush, Cheney Stovepiping Intelligence On Iran, Hiding Information From CIA

Does anyone else smell another "a-la-Cheney and the NY Timkes" moment approaching here? Who is fabricating LIES for which LIARS?

==========================
Hersh: Bush, Cheney Stovepiping Intelligence On Iran, Hiding Information From CIA
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/11/19/hersh-iran-agent/

... Seymour Hersh reported that a new CIA assessment concludes that “there’s no evidence Iran is doing anything that puts them close to a bomb.” ... Hersh reports that the White House is still aggressively moving ahead with preparations for a military conflict with Iran.

... Hersh says President Bush and Vice President Cheney are “stovepiping” intelligence and keeping information provided by the Israelis hidden from the CIA.

The Israelis are telling the White House, according to Hersh’s new article “The Next Act,” that they have a reliable agent inside Iran who reports that the nation is working on a trigger for a bomb. “Of course the people in the CIA want to know who is, obviously,” ....
.... the internecine fight that’s going on — the same fight, by the way, that we had before Iraq.”

Watch it: VIDEO

Prior to the Iraq war, the White House set up intelligence stovepipes to “get information they wanted .... with little prior evaluation by intelligence professionals.”

========================
And then they told us they relied on the intelligence they had. Yyeah, had manipulted! LIARS!

[L. Coyote]

21. The President's power to attack Iran = "underscoring what the administration's views are"

Friday, January 12, 2007
The President's power to attack Iran
http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2007/01/presidents-power-to-attack-iran.html
Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald

In response to Joe Biden's warning to Condoleezza Rice that an attack on Iran would "generate a constitutional confrontation in the Senate," Josh Marshall says: "A comment like that doesn't come out of the blue." Maybe, but it is worth underscoring what the administration's views are as to its authority to attack Iran.

Last April, Seymour Hersh wrote an article in The New Yorker warning that the administration "has increased clandestine activities inside Iran and intensifed planning for a possible major air attack." .....

I added an Epilogue examining the Bush administration's views ....emphasizes that the radical theories of presidential power adopted by the administration (and applied to general lawbreaking, warrantless eavesdropping, torture, indefinite detentions of U.S. citizens) applied clearly and fully to Iran, i.e., that those theories -- which were and still are the formally adopted positions of the Executive Branch -- absolutely mean that the President has the power to commence a war with Iran, and that not only would he not need Congressional approval to do so, but Congress would lack the power to stop him ....

......At the Senate confirmation hearing of Robert Gates last month, this exchange occurred with Sen. Byrd:


BYRD: Do you believe the president has the authority, under either the 9/11 war resolution or the Iraq war resolution, to attack Iran or to attack Syria?

GATES: To the best of my knowledge of both of those authorizations, I don't believe so. ...........

[L. Coyote]

22. Neo-Cons To Plot Iran Strategy Amid Caribbean Luxury (May 30)

babylonsister Sun May-27-07 02:27 PM - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x982452

Neo-Cons To Plot Iran Strategy Amid Caribbean Luxury (May 30)
http://www.ips.org/blog/jimlobe/?p=21

For those of you who may be visiting the Bahamas next week, you may want to check out a private, off-the-record meeting of Gulf and Middle East specialists of a rather narrow ideological bent at Westin’s luxurious Our Lucaya Resort on Grand Bahama Island. ......

[L. Coyote]

23. Intelligence officials doubt Iran uranium claims, say Cheney receiving suspect briefings

Same old song for the same old songbird ....OR .... Where liars get their lies.

=========================
Intelligence officials doubt Iran uranium claims, say Cheney receiving suspect briefings
Larisa Alexandrovna
Published: Friday August 18, 2006
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Intelligence_officials_doubt_Iran_uranium_claims_0818.html


The Bush administration continues to bypass standard intelligence channels and use what some believe to be propaganda tactics to create a compelling case for war with Iran, US foreign policy experts and former US intelligence officials tell RAW STORY.

One former senior intelligence official is particularly concerned by private briefings that Vice President Dick Cheney is getting from former Office of Special Plans (OSP) Director, Abram Shulsky.

"Vice President Cheney is relying on personal briefings from Shulsky for current intelligence on Iran," said this intelligence official.

Shulsky, a leading Neoconservative and member of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), headed the shadowy and secretive Department of Defense's OSP in the lead-up to the Iraq war -- helping to locate intelligence that would support the Bush administration's case for war with Iraq.

...................

[L. Coyote]

24. Crying WOLF for years now: US is going to invade Iran in June 2005, says Scott Ritter

Tuesday, February 22, 2005
The US is going to invade Iran in June, says Scott Ritter
http://www.iflipflop.com/2005/02/us-is-going-to-invade-iran-in-june.html

The former UN weapons inspector, Scott Ritter, says the Bush Administration plans to invade Iran in June. ....

Scott Ritter, appearing with journalist Dahr Jamail yesterday in Washington State, dropped two shocking bombshells in a talk delivered to a packed house in Olympia's Capitol Theater. The ex-Marine turned UNSCOM weapons inspector said that George W. Bush has "signed off" on plans to bomb Iran in June 2005, ....

[L. Coyote]

25. The danger of Bush's decision to use force against Iranian "agents" inside Iraq

The danger of Bush's anti-Iran fatwa
The president's decision to use force against Iranian "agents" inside Iraq could snare innocent pilgrims, and raises the risk of open warfare.
By Juan Cole
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/01/30/iran_ashura/print.html

Jan. 30, 2007 | George W. Bush last week announced that American troops in Iraq were henceforth authorized to "kill or capture" any Iranian intelligence agents they discovered in Iraq. The announcement came on the heels of his pledge in the State of the Union address to bring another aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf, a move that clearly targeted Iran. A prominent Iranian parliamentarian responded to Bush's threat by saying, "Such an order is a clear terrorist act and against all internationally acknowledged norms." Iraq's deputy prime minister, meanwhile, put a pox on both Iran and the U.S. for conducting their geopolitical battle on Iraqi soil.

.........Given Bush's new directive, how will U.S. troops distinguish between innocent Iranian devotees and spies? What if U.S. troops kill pilgrims in a mistaken belief that they are covert operatives? Leaving aside whether U.S. law authorizes such a broad, vague use of deadly force against foreign nationals, which is unclear, Shiite religious sensibilities would be inflamed in both Iraq and Iran, furthering the potential for a widening conflict.

Or maybe the spark for a wider conflict is just what the increasingly desperate President Bush seeks. His fixation on Iranian activities in Iraq cannot be explained by his cover story, which is that Tehran is supplying weapons to forces that kill U.S. troops. To date, no hard evidence that the Iranian government is sending high-powered weaponry into Iraq has been made public, and no credible proof may be forthcoming. In general, one should take such claims with a large grain of salt, ....................

[L. Coyote]

26. FLASHBACK TO IRAN: The Iran-Contra Affair 20 Years On

The Iran-Contra Affair 20 Years On
Documents Spotlight Role of Reagan, Top Aides

Pentagon Nominee Robert Gates Among Many
Prominent Figures Involved in the Scandal

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 210
Posted - November 24, 2006
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB210/index.htm

Washington D.C., November 24, 2006 - On November 25, 1986, the biggest political and constitutional scandal since Watergate exploded in Washington when President Ronald Reagan told a packed White House news conference that funds derived from covert arms deals with the Islamic Republic of Iran had been diverted to buy weapons for the U.S.-backed Contra rebels in Nicaragua....

Twenty years later, the Iran-Contra affair continues to resonate on many levels, especially as Washington gears up for a new season of political inquiry with the pending inauguration of the 110th Congress and the seeming inevitability of hearings into a range of Bush administration policies.

For at its heart Iran-Contra was a battle over presidential power dating back directly to the Richard Nixon era of Watergate, Vietnam and CIA dirty tricks. That clash continues under the presidency of George W. Bush, which has come under frequent fire for the controversial efforts of the president, as well as Vice President Richard Cheney, to expand Executive Branch authority over numerous areas of public life.

Iran-Contra also echoes in the re-emergence of several prominent public figures who played a part in, or were touched by, the scandal. The most recent is Robert M. Gates ............

This sampling of some of the most revealing documentation (Note 1) to come out of the affair gives a clear indication of how deeply involved the president was .........

[L. Coyote]

27. MORE BUSH LIES. Another Complitation Thread here

"It it Still a Crime to Lie to Congress."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x975882