Category Archives: Iran

The Chalabi Times Hoping Not to Repeat Iraq Disgrace

As I pointed out in 2005, Judith Chalabi Miller, the Gray Lady’s prized reporter, shilled for the Iraq war over the pages of the New York Times, like there was no tomorrow. The Bush White House, together with a wily Iraqi exile named Ahmad Chalabi, friend to the neoconservatives, fed the voracious birdbrain with misinformation and lies about WMD. The NYT and Miller, as much as FoxNews and its hot-for-war hotties, promoted the immoral, illegitimate, baseless war on Iraq.

Whereas the Times was prone to see faces in the clouds during the delirium of destruction in Iraq, it is now attempting to cleave to the facts about Iran.

“American intelligence analysts continue to believe that there is no hard evidence that Iran has decided to build a nuclear bomb. …Recent assessments by American spy agencies are broadly consistent with a 2007 intelligence finding that concluded that Iran had abandoned its nuclear weapons program years earlier, according to current and former American officials. The officials said that assessment was largely reaffirmed in a 2010 National Intelligence Estimate, and that it remains the consensus view of America’s 16 intelligence agencies. … Iranian officials maintain that their nuclear program is for civilian purposes. ” [NYT]

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, a nuclear scientist and Iran’s permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), speaks reasonably to his country’s need to produce radio isotopes for pharmaceuticals, a product of the nuclear industry. However, the US prefers to increase the burden and isolation of the Iranian people with sanctions. Pure evil and plain counterproductive.

Facts did nothing to sway the U.S. from attacking a prostrate, Third World nation, with no navy or air force, whose military prowess was a fifth of what was smashed in the Gulf War. Rationalizing these war crimes with lies post invasion became de rigueur in the major media.

Similarly, facts will not forestall an American assault on Iran. In the early days, Iraq had provided “documentary intelligence from Naji Sabri, Saddam’s foreign minister, that Saddam did not have WMD.” I recall the derision and mockery with which the Bush administration and its hangers-on greeted what turned out to be the only truthful document in the sad saga of Iraq.

The Terrible Troika’s Advisers

Bush, Iran, Iraq, Middle East, Neoconservatism, Propaganda, Republicans, War

The empire is bankrupt and in the throes of death. Its operatives are writhing with it, hanging onto the last shreds of the gory glory that came with directing American Manifest Destiny abroad. Unstable systems and people are most dangerous before dissolution and collapse.

This is why the advisers behind at least one of the presidential wannabees should be of interest.

But first, if you missed the primitive, atavistic utterances made by the terrible troika in Arizona with respect to Syria and Iran, here they are, excerpted in this Guardian post titled, “prolific proliferators of confusion.”

Except that there is nothing confused about the blood that’ll flow if one of these losers ascends to the executive throne. The Romney-Santorum-Gingrich bellicosity rivals Bush’s. The absence of any learning curve extends, seemingly, to their receptive audience, which applauded their every promise of action abroad.

Any criticism The Terrible Troika levies at Obama is for “showing weakness by not leading the allied air campaign in Libya, where the U.K and France played prominent roles, and not being tough enough on Iran to stop its nuclear-weapons efforts.”

More wars is what we’ll net with the three crappy candidates.

Romney’s Team sports these neoconservative heavy hitters:

Cofer Black, a former head of Central Intelligence Agency’s counterterrorism center and executive of the security firm Blackwater, now Xe Services; Meghan O’Sullivan, a Bloomberg View columnist and former White House official who oversaw Iraq and Afghanistan policy; Eliot Cohen, director of the Strategic Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and a former counselor at Rice’s State Department; Dov Zakheim, the former Pentagon comptroller; and John Lehman, Ronald Reagan’s Navy secretary.

And “Robert Joseph, a White House National Security Council aide during Bush’s first term and later a State Department official.”

SWIFT Iranian Eviction

Economy, Ethics, Fascism, Foreign Policy, Iran, Media, Propaganda

CNN’s inane wishy-washy Fareed Zakaria boasted the other day about the foreign-policy achievements of Barack Obama. Since the president’s reign of terror abroad began, the Iranian currency had lost 65 percent of its value. Like all fixtures of mainstream media, Zombie Zakaria has some appetite for destruction.

So how is Obama accomplishing this great feat against innocent Iranian economic actors? Via RT:

US wants Iran evicted from SWIFT [Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication], an independent financial clearinghouse that is crucial to the country’s oil sales. This could immediately cripple Tehran’s financial lifeline, but would come with its own costs for the world economy.
Iran’s eviction from SWIFT could drive forward the current slow pressure campaign of sanctions aimed at persuading Iran to drop its nuclear program. It might also buy time for the US to persuade Israel not to launch a pre-emptive military strike on Iran this spring.
The bitter truth is, the plan might actually backfire on western nations themselves as it could send oil prices soaring and undercut the reputation of Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT). The Brussels-based organization is a banking hub used by virtually every nation and corporation around the world. …
More than 40 Iranian banks and institutions use SWIFT to process financial transactions, and losing access to that flow of international funds could badly damage the Islamic republic’s economy. It would also probably hurt average Iranians more than the welter of existing banking sanctions already in place since prices for household goods would rise while the value of Iranian currency would drop.

UPDATED: Israel’s Alright

Constitution, Debt, Iran, Israel, Neoconservatism, War

Israel hase overwhelming military superiority over Iran, a fact that should not be lost in all the heated rhetoric.—Bruce Riedel

“The former head of Israel’s Mossad, Meir Dagan, says Iran won’t get the bomb until at least 2015,” writes the Brookings’ Institution’s Bruce Riedel. “In contrast, Israel has had nuclear weapons since the late 1960s and has jealously guarded its monopoly on them in the region. The Israelis have used force in the past against developing nuclear threats. Iraq in 1981 and Syria in 2007 were the targets of highly effective Israeli airstrikes against developing nuclear weapons programs. Israel has seriously considered conducting such a strike against Iran and may do so, especially now that it has special bunker-busting bombs from the United States.”

Read Riedel on Israel’s “multiple delivery systems,” “the Israeli air force’s capability,” and the country’s “conventional military superiority over Iran and the rest of the region,” including its “armed forces’ intelligence and electronic warfare capabilities,” which are “vastly superior to those of its potential rivals.”

Israel is more than capable of taking care of business. I support the right of the Israelis to do what their admirably cautious generals and intelligence agents (like Dagan) think is necessary to protect themselves—I do not support America’s moves on Iran.

“Let’s Fret About Our Own Tyrants.” “In case the advocates of a muscular response have failed to notice, we’re pinned down like butterflies by our own tyrants.”

UPDATE (Feb. 7): “Iran poses no ‘existential threat’ to Israel – ex-Mossad chief”:

[Former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy] argues that talk of Iran posing an “existential threat” to Israel is merely Tel Aviv using big words to impress the international community. … “I think Israel is strong enough to protect itself, to take care of itself. I think ultimately it is not in the power of Iran to destroy the state of Israel,” he told RT. “I believe the leadership believes that in order to arouse international public opinion, in order to mount pressure on the Iranians, it is necessary to impress upon the world at large that this is a serious international threat.