IRAN PREPARING TO SUPPORT PALESTINIANS AGAINST ISRAEL

"... Ayatollah Ali Khameini in his speech Sunday... issued a fatwa calling on Muslims to stand up and defend Palestinians against Israel. He said "true believers" were "duty-bound to defend" the Palestinians. Khamenei did not spell out what he intended... On Monday, Dec. 29, Day 3 of Israel's Gaza operation, (a) spokesman said Iran had embarked on preparations for operations against Israel in line with the directives laid down by... Khameini... A group of hardline clerics is signing up volunteers to fight "against the Zionist regime" in the Gaza Strip "in either military, financial or propaganda fields"... (as) reported by the semi-official Fars news agency. Iranian lawmaker Ali Motahari told the Iranian news agency IRNA that it was time for Iran and Arab nations to go to war with Israel..."
--DEBKAfile (Israel), Tuesday, December 30, 2008
http://www.debka.com/index1.php

RUSSIA IMPLEMENTING CONTRACT FOR S-300 AIR DEFENSE MISSILE SYSTEMS

"... The RIA news agency reported... "Moscow has earlier met its obligations to supply Tor-M1 (short-range) systems to Iran and is currently implementing its contract to deliver S-300 systems"... the highly sophisticated medium-range air defense... S-300 deliveries began two weeks ago... coinciding with the return home of members of Iranian air defense officers from training in Russia... after Iran, Moscow will install the S-300 in Syria, focusing on securing the Russian naval bases going up in the Mediterranean port of Tartous..."
--DEBKAfile (Israel), December 18, 2008
http://www.debka.com/index.php

UKRAINE PROVIDED U.S. WITH A RADAR FROM S-300 SYSTEM

"Ukraine has provided the U.S. military with radar used in the S-300 air defence system... to research ways of counteracting it... Ukraine’s state arms exporter Ukrspetsexport supplied one such radar at the Pentagon’s request..."
http://www.russiatoday.com/Top_News/2008-11-24/How_Ukraine_armed_the_US_against_Iran.html

RUSSIA: IRAN INCAPABLE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS

"... Vladimir Voronkov, head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department of European Cooperation... (contends) that Iran is presently incapable of developing nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them... Russia's word has a notable significance on the matter because it enjoys unparalleled access to Iran's nuclear facilities... Moscow's combined intelligence agencies are in agreement that Iran does not have nuclear-weapons capability... (this) calls for serious rethinking about whether the "crisis" built up over Tehran going nuclear was nothing but a bogey..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JL17Ak03.html

IAEA REFUTES FEARS OF IRAN MAKING NUCLEAR WEAPONS

"... (a) false assumption that has been adopted like an article of faith by nearly all the pundits and nuclear experts in the US today, is that Iran is fast approaching a "nuclear breakout capability"... This... is a line of thinking that simply evades the obvious: that is, the fact that Iran's entire stock of enriched uranium is kept in containers sealed by the IAEA and the whole fuel enrichment plant is constantly monitored by the IAEA's surveillance cameras.... any Iranian attempt to tamper with the IAEA seals and or divert some of the stored low-enriched uranium to some clandestine facility would be quickly uncovered..."

"... (Consider) the robust IAEA inspection regime in place at Natanz and other nuclear facilities in Iran, as well as... the IAEA's declared confidence that it has been able to "continue to confirm the absence of any diversion". (Also consider) the IAEA's other important admission that it has not detected any diversion of nuclear material toward the "alleged weaponization studies..."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JL06Ak01.html

IRAN EXTENDS FRIENDLY HAND TO OBAMA

"In a gesture of goodwill toward the next United States administration, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has sent a letter to president-elect Barack Obama, congratulating his victory, praising the American people and raising the expectation of significant change in the US's foreign policy... the letter represents a small Iranian olive branch toward the US that will be taken into consideration by Obama and his foreign policy advisors..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JK08Ak02.html

ALLEGED IRANIAN NUKE DOCUMENTS A FRAUD?

"Documents linking Iran to nuclear weapons push may have been fabricated... The new evidence of possible fraud has increased pressure within the IAEA secretariat to distance the agency from the laptop documents... The US has based much of its push for sanctions against Iran on these documents..."
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/IAEA_suspects_fraud_in_evidence_for_1109.html

GULF STATES SIDE WITH IRAN, SEE NO NUCLEAR THREAT

"... the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) states - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have finally set aside their various misgivings and decided to take up Ahmadinejad's proposals on economic, political and security domains... proposing the conclusion of a security agreement... the GCC oil states are in a new assertive mood to stand up to the US's perceived arrogant and destabilizing moves, including with respect to Iran... the GCC states are today fairly comfortable with Iran's nuclear program and are no longer sold to the Washington and Tel Aviv-led "Iranophobia"... (Most of the) foreign policy advisors surrounding Obama are unanimously sold to the "grave threat" of a "nuclear-armed Iran" and, thus, it must come as a shocking surprise to them that Iran's Arab neighbors in the Persian Gulf do not share this threat perception..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JK04Ak03.html

IRAN'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM STOPPED IN 2003

"... 16 agencies of the U.S. intelligence community concluded in a formal National Intelligence Estimate last November that work on the nuclear weapons-related part of Iran's nuclear program was halted in mid-2003. And... Thomas Fingar, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell's deputy for national estimates, reiterated that judgment as recently as Sept. 4... (while) the Post's Walter Pincus reported on Sept. 10 that Fingar added that Iran has not restarted its nuclear weapons work..."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/10/18-2

ISRAELI STRIKE ON IRAN NOW MORE PROBABLE

"... a U.S.-backed Israeli strike on Iran (is) now considered more probable... The U.S. has deployed a sophisticated long-range radar system in Israel capable of providing crucial early warning in case of a missile attack. The U.S. has also agreed... to sell a thousand GBU-39 bunker-busting bombs capable of penetrating reinforced concrete...Israel also sought upgraded refuelling jets, which would be necessary to refuel fighter jets returning from an attack on Iran, as well as a clear flight path over Iraq in order to reach Iran without being accidentally hit by U.S. fighter jets... the Israeli Air Force (IAF) carried out a military exercise involving more than 100 F-15 and F-16 fighter jets over eastern Greece, in what was said to be a dummy attack on Iran. The distance covered was approximately 900 miles, the same distance to Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment plant from Israel..."
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44235

U.S. CLOSER TO BLOCKADING IRAN

"The United States government has imposed new sanctions on Iran, this time targeting its shipping industry, by blacklisting the main shipping line and 18 subsidiaries, accusing the maritime carrier of being engaged in contraband nuclear material... (Sanctions could be) a prelude for more serious and dangerous actions in the near future... the interdiction of Iranian ships on the high seas and even incremental steps toward imposing a regime of "smart blockade" aimed at denying Iran access to badly needed imported fuel... the US might seek to seize Russian nuclear goods bound for Iran, thus raising the ire of Moscow and using this as a payback for Russia's offensive in pro-West Georgia..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JI13Ak01.html

U.S. STRIKE FORCES GATHER IN MID EAST, IRAN PRACTICES DEFENSE

"... the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier headed out to the Mediterranean for missions “in support of maritime security.” Its arrival will bring the number of US aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean, Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea to four... .The Roosevelt will be followed by its strike force, which includes the guided missile cruiser Monterey , the guided missile destroyers Mason and Nitze , with 7,300 sailors and marines aboard, and the attack submarine Springfield... the USS Ronald Reagan carrier and its strike group began engaging in assault and support missions for US and NATO forces in Afghanistan... The Iwo Jima carrier group, whose decks carry 6,000 sailors, air crews and marines, supports the US Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean and Fifth Fleet in the Gulf with a massive amphibious capability.The USS San Antonio amphibious transport dock ship is the first vessel of its class to be deployed in the region as a platform for supporting Marine movements and operations ashore. The USS Peleliu carrier patrols the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. It is escorted by vessels carrying a large Marine contingent... (Meanwhile) Iran launched a three-day naval-air-missile exercise to practice defense tactics for its nuclear sites."
--DEBKAfile (Israel), September 10, 200
http://www.debka.com/index1.php

AL-QAEDA AND McCAIN AGAINST IRAN

"... Seven years after 9/11... al-Qaeda remains the golden motive that justifies the Bush administration threatening, invading, bombing or occupying Muslim countries. But, in fact, al-Qaeda's top strategic enemy nowadays, in a battle to seduce Muslim hearts and minds, are Shi'ites - be it Tehran or Hezbollah - and not the US. Similarities are eerie. Iran is part of Bush's "axis of evil" as well as al-Qaeda's "axis of evil". The US tries very hard to pit Sunnis against Shi'ites all over the Middle East while al-Qaeda also incites a war between Sunnis and Shi'ites.... al-Qaeda - fundamentalist Saudi Wahhabis - want a "long war" as much as the Bush administration and its extension, Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JI12Ak02.html

IRAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM STILL STOPPED

"... The NIE of November 2007 stated that, contrary to what President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney had been saying throughout 2007, the nuclear weapons-related portion of Iran's nuclear program had been stopped in the fall of 2003, and as of mid-2007 had probably not been restarted... The relevant NIE key judgment reads: "We assess with moderate confidence Tehran has not restarted its nuclear weapons program as of mid-2007"... Thomas Fingar, the U.S. government's top intelligence analyst, in a public speech on Sept. 4, repeated the intelligence community's key judgment that Iran's work on the "weaponization portion" of its nuclear development program "was suspended" in 2003."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/09/11-4

DUTCH: U.S. ATTACK ON IRAN IMMINENT

"... the Dutch intelligence agency recently recalled operatives from Iran in response to information that a United States attack on the Islamic Republic is "imminent"... targets of the impending American bombing campaign include facilities infiltrated by one of the Dutch agents... Iranian nuclear plants, military installations, missile supply lines and the like are expected to be targeted by unmanned bombers... American naval vessels are making their way towards the Persian Gulf in... preparation for a maritime blockade of Iranian fuel supplies..."
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/127444

RUSSIA-IRAN ALLIANCE

"Iranian Trump Card. Russia Can Take Control of Persian Gulf"... the signing of a new large-scale military political treaty with Iran could change the entire geopolitical picture of the contemporary world... (A Russian) military base... on the Island of Qeshm in the Persian Gulf... would allow Russia to monitor the United States' and NATO's activities in the Persian Gulf zone, Iraq and other Arab states. With the help of special equipment Russia could effectively monitor who is sailing toward this sea bottleneck, from where, and with what cargo on board... Russia will have a possibility to stop suspicious vessels and ships and inspect their cargo... In exchange for the deployment of its military bases Russia could help the Iranians to deploy modern air defense and missile defense systems..."
http://www.juancole.com/2008/08/osc-russia-iran-alliance.html

IRAN SUPPLYING POWER TO IRAQ

"The Bush administration and western companies like Bechtel have failed to deliver on promises to improve infrastructure... "Now, the (Diyala) province gets power from Iran under a contract signed about two years ago between the Iraqi government and Iran," Naseer Milmy, an employee with the directorate-general of electricity told IPS... Through the difficulties, people look now to Iran, not the U.S., for a better life."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43477

MOST UN MEMBERS SUPPORT IRAN

"... the bulk of the UN member states are solidly behind Iran's position - that it is entitled to a peaceful nuclear fuel cycle that is fully monitored by the IAEA and lawful under the articles of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to which Iran is a signatory..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JH09Ak01.html

BUSH ADMINISTRATION BEING PUSHED TO NORMALIZE RELATIONS WITH IRAN

"... A torrent of studies suddenly coming out of US think tanks in recent weeks shows how hard American research and intelligence circles are leaning on the administration to expand its dialogue with Tehran. Bush is being urged to call off sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program and withdraw US backing from Iran’s disaffected minorities’ revolt against the Islamic regime – all for the purpose of putting US-Iranian relations on a normal footing."
--DEBKAfile (Israel), August 5, 2008
http://www.debka.com/index1.php

BUSH FOLDED ON IRAN

“Bush sent the No. 3 man in the State Department to sit at a table on July 19 across from an Iranian negotiator, without any preconditions… What drove W. to undermine John McCain by suddenly adopting Barack Obama's foreign policy prescription on Iran?...

(It was because) Oil companies and European governments are not happy with U.S. policy toward Iran. American and European energy corporations are losing billions in potential profits because… sanctions on companies that attempt to develop Iran's oil and gas. The sanctions do not produce regime change, but they do reduce the world supply of oil and gas… The U.S. has therefore simultaneously been interfering with the availability of cheap petroleum products globally and making the case for military action against Iran less compelling.

(Bush’s) opening to Iran was … a victory … of realism… Bush's Iran policy (now) looks more like that of Barack Obama than that of John McCain…”

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/07/31/iran/index.html

SECRET U.S.- IRANIAN DIALOG ON OIL AND WAR

"Secret US-Iranian Dialogue Brings Oil Prices down... yielded ad hoc understandings on controversial issues. One is an agreement not to allow the price of oil to rocket past $150 the barrel... common ground was covered for three key objectives:

1. The American side was willing to refrain from military action against Iran before the end of the Bush presidency in January 2009...

2. Iran undertook to open the way for the US military to continue to go from strength to strength in fighting al Qaeda and the Sunni guerrilla insurgents in Iraq, to allow President Bush to claim his Iraq campaign had ended successfully before leaving the White House.... Tehran ordered Iranian intelligence officers working undercover in Iraq to halt attacks on US troops by pro-Iranian militias, including Moqtada Sadr’s Mehdi Army....

3. In the background of the secret dialogue is the Bush administration’s ambition to help fellow-Republican Senator John McCain get elected to the White House..."

http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1356

IRAQ FORBIDS USE BY U.S. FOR IRAN ATTACK

"Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has cautioned the United States against using Iraqi territory to carry out attacks on Iran... adding he would not permit U.S. forces to use Iraqi land, airspace and waterways as a means for attacking states in the region..."
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/07/05/Maliki_cautions_US_against_Iran_attack/UPI-47341215306714/

MEDIA COMPLICIT IN NUCLEAR MISPERCEPTIONS LEADING TO WAR

"... the US media in particular have allowed themselves to become an unwitting accomplice of Israel's anti-Iran propaganda machine, dutifully recycling the line that Iran is actively pursuing nuclear weapons, has amassed "weapons-grade" enriched uranium, and is thus on the verge of arriving at "the point of no return" with respect to bomb-making... (but) their claim that Iran has manufactured "weapons-grade" enriched uranium simply cannot stand the weight of scrutiny and are refuted by the IAEA's findings to the contrary.... The IAEA has never declared Iran in material breach of its obligations and, certainly, has never "accused" Iran of pursuing a program sanctioned under the NPT..."

"... the misperceptions of Iran's nuclear activities form an important prerequisite for a major military offensive against the country."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JF24Ak04.html

OLMERT SAYS BUSH AGREED TO VANQUISH IRAN BEFORE END OF TERM

"... Emerging from a 90-minute White House meeting with President George W. Bush on June 4, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the two leaders were of one mind:
“We reached agreement on the need to take care of the Iranian threat. I left with a lot less question marks [than] I had entered with regarding the means, the timetable restrictions, and American resoluteness to deal with the problem. George Bush understands the severity of the Iranian threat and the need to vanquish it, and intends to act on that matter before the end of his term in the White House.”
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/061908c.html

IF WE ATTACK IRAN...

"... The instant we attack Iran, oil prices will double, perhaps triple. This price increase will devastate the American economy. The ensuing retaliatory strikes by Iran on Israel, as well as on American military installations in Iraq, will leave hundreds, maybe thousands, of dead. The Shiites in the region, from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan, will see an attack on Iran as a war against Shiism. They will turn with rage and violence on us and our allies. Hezbollah will renew attacks on northern Israel. And the localized war in Iraq will become a long, messy and protracted regional war that, by the time it is done, will most likely end the American empire and leave in its wake mounds of corpses and smoldering ruins..."
http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/20080608_the_iran_trap/

IRAQ REFUSES TO LET U.S. ATTACK IRAN FROM IRAQ

"Iraq will not allow its territory to be used to attack Iran, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has said during a visit to Tehran... "We will not allow Iraq to become a platform for harming the security of Iran and neighbours."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7441329.stm

OBAMA CAPITULATES TO THE ISRAELI WAR LOBBY

"... Barack Obama... In his speech to AIPAC, he clearly signed on to the Lobby's latest project, departing from his prepared text to declare: "I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Everything in my power. Everything"... It is almost certain we will be at war with Iran before a new President is inaugurated: now that Obama has capitulated to the Lobby, nothing but Divine Providence can stop it..."

"Everything" includes murdering tens of thousands of Iranians, mostly civilians – driving the price of oil up above $300 a barrel and destroying the US economy – and involving us in a war that will make the Iraq conflict look like a Sunday school picnic. And for what?"

"... The irony, of course, is that Iran is nowhere near obtaining nuclear weapons, as the President's own intelligence agencies recently informed him... (But) The coming war with Iran has nothing to do with "weapons of mass destruction" – no more than the invasion of Iraq ever did. It's all about preserving Israeli hegemony in the Middle East by wiping any and all recalcitrant Arab-Muslim states off the map. First Iraq, then Iran – and Syria will have its turn soon enough..."

http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12944

BUSH TO ATTACK IRAN BY AUGUST

"... Bush administration plans to launch an air strike against Iran within the next two months... the White House views the proposed air strike as a limited action to punish Iran for its involvement in Iraq... The source (is) an ambassador during the administration of president H W Bush... a retired US career diplomat and former assistant secretary of state still active in the foreign affairs community... Two key US senators briefed on the attack... Senator Diane Feinstein, Democrat of California, and Senator Richard Lugar, Republican of Indiana... planned to go public with their opposition to the move..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JE28Ak01.html

"... retired US career diplomat and former assistant secretary of state still active in the foreign affairs community..."
= Richard Clark: Assist. Sec. of State for Politico-Military Affairs, 1989-1992 ??
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_A._Clarke

U.S. FAILS TO FIND ANY IRANIAN ARMS IN IRAQ

"The United States military command in Iraq continues to talk about an alleged pipeline of Iranian weapons to Iraqi Shi'ites opposing the US occupation... But US officials have failed thus far to provide evidence that would support that claim... General David Petraeus insisted last October that there is "absolutely no question" that Iran is providing RPG-29 rocket-propelled grenade launchers to Iraqi Shi'ite groups. But RPG-29s are manufactured by Russia, not Iran... "

"In weapons caches reported from Shi'ite locations, not a single RPG-29 has been identified. Of the 160 RPG launchers reported in Mahdi Army caches, along with 800 RPG missiles, none were identified as Iranian, although some were identified as being Soviet-made. Only 11 were reported to be RPG-7s - a type of launcher that is made by Russia and China as well as Iran and used by 40 countries around the world."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JE24Ak02.html

ATTACK ON IRAN A VIOLATION OF U.S. CONSTITUTION

"... an attack on Iran would be a flagrant violation of the Constitution of the United States, which stipulates that treaties ratified by the Senate become the supreme law of the land; that the United Nations Charter treaty — which the Senate ratified by a vote of 89 to 2 on July 28, 1945 — expressly forbids attacks on other countries, unless they pose an imminent danger; that there is no provision allowing some other kind of “pre-emptive” or “preventive” attack against a nation that poses no imminent danger; and that Iran poses no imminent danger to the United States or its allies..."
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/20/9068/

BUSH PLOT ABOUT IRANIAN ARMS FAILS

"... The Bush administration and top Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus had plotted a sequence of events that would build domestic U.S. political support for a possible strike against Iran over its "meddling" in Iraq and especially its alleged export of arms to Shiite militias.... (but) The government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki refused to endorse U.S. charges of Iranian involvement in arms smuggling to the Mahdi Army, and a plan to show off a huge collection of Iranian arms captured in and around Karbala had to be called off after it was discovered that none of the arms were of Iranian origin..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42373

BUSH AND AHMADINEJAD: THE NEW BLUES BROTHERS

"Think of George W. Bush and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the new Blues Brothers: Both believe they are on a mission from God. Both are religious fundamentalists. Ahmadinejad believes fervently in the imminent return of the Mahdi, the Shi'ite messiah, who "disappeared" and has remained hidden since the ninth century. Bush believes fervently in a coming end time and the return of Jesus Christ. But only Bush, despite his actual invasions and constant threats, gets a (sort of) free pass from the Western ideological machine, while Ahmadinejad is portrayed as a Hitlerian believer in a new Holocaust."
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174926

CLINTON THREATENS TO OBLITERATE IRAN

"... Clinton threatened to "totally obliterate" Iran if the Islamic Republic was ever "reckless" enough to launch a nuclear attack on Israel... "I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran," Clinton said..."
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080422/twl-us-vote-clinton-iran-7e07afd.html

CLINTON THE TERRORIST

"... On primary election day in Pennsylvania... (asked) how she would respond to a nuclear attack by Iran, which doesn’t have nuclear weapons, on Israel, which does, Hillary... promis(ed) to “totally obliterate them,” in an apparent reference to the population of Iran... an assertion of the right of our nation to commit genocide on an unprecedented scale... Neither the Japanese then nor the Iranian people now were in a position to hold their leaders accountable, and to approve such collective punishment of innocents is to endorse terrorism."
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080422_robert_scheer_apr_23_clinton_and_iran/

IRAN IS LATEST REASON FOR IRAQ WAR

"The US rationale for war in Iraq has morphed from ousting strongman Saddam Hussein, to countering Al-Qaeda militants to its latest incarnation -- facing down what officials in President George W. Bush's administration call the Iranian "threat".

"... Brookings Institution expert Suzanne Maloney said that "disastrous Bush policies fostered a sectarian Iraq that has helped empower Iranian hardliners. "Rather than serving as an anchor for a new era of stability and American pre-eminence in the Persian Gulf, the new Iraq represents a strategic black hole, bleeding Washington of military resources and political influence while extending Iran's primacy among its neighbors."

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080414/twl-us-iran-iraq-bush-politics-unrest-7e07afd.html

U.S. SET TO ATTACK IRAN, BEGIN MID-EAST WAR

"... (on) April 8, US Iraq commander, Gen. David Petraeus and ambassador to Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, will stress in their report to Congress that Iran is waging war on America in Iraq... the US is set to attack Iranian military facilities... the USS Abraham Lincoln Strike Force is heading for the Persian Gulf... Russian military and intelligence officials have been leaking claims of intensified American military movements around Iranian shores... (here are) Washington’s intentions as combined with Israel’s military steps:
1. US is preparing to attack the Iranian military installations linked to subversion in Iraq. The operation will widen out into strikes on the Islamic Republic’s suspect nuclear sites.
2. Israel will use the chance for a concurrent attack on Syria.
3. Israel will attack Hizballah’s strongholds in Lebanon.
4. A broad, coordinated US-Israeli offensive will be mounted against Iran, Syria and Hizballah..."
--DEBKAfile (Israel), April 7, 2008
http://www.debka.com/index.php

U.S. COMMANDER AFFIRMS NO WAR ON IRAN

"... CENTCOM commander Adm. William Fallon confirms his public statements last fall ruling out war against Iran... That was the second time in less than a week and the third time in seven weeks that Fallon had publicly declared that there would be no war against Iran. In an interview with Al-Jazeera television in September... he had said, "This constant drum beat of conflict is what strikes me which is not helpful and not useful".
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41500

BOLTON ENCOURAGES ISRAEL TO ATTACK IRAN

"At a lecture in Herzliya, Israel... the former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton said: “One can say with some assurance that in the next year the use of force by the United States is highly unlikely. This increases the pressure on Israel in that period of time... the time to take the plan of action is before Iran acquires the weapons”... Bolton was of the view that Iran’s response “will be a lot more measured than people think.”
--DEBKAfile (Israel), Wednesday, January 23, 2008
http://www.debka.com/index.php

RUSSIA TO DEFEND IRAN WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS

"Russia's military chief of staff (Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky) said Saturday that Moscow could use nuclear weapons in preventive strikes to protect itself and its allies (like Iran)... "
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i1fg9K4w_OQvYX65kemvhiOOJTZAD8U92Q881

"... The China-Iran-Russia alliance can be considered as Beijing's and Moscow's counterpunch to Washington's global ambitions. From this perspective, Iran is integral to thwarting the Bush administration's foreign policy goals. This is precisely why Beijing and Moscow have strengthened their economic and diplomatic ties with Tehran. It is also why Beijing and Moscow are providing Tehran with increasingly sophisticated weapons..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/GF04Ad07.html

IRAQI POLICE SAY IRAN NOT INTERFERRING

Iraqi Police Commander in Basra Dismisses Accusations Against Iran
Al-Alam Television
Thursday, January 17, 2008
(Text of report by state-run Iranian Arabic-language television news channel Al-Alam)
The commander of Basra Police, Staff Maj-Gen Jalil Khalaf, has described the US-British accusations that Iran is meddling in Iraqi affairs and undermining the security situation as nothing more than a political game. He said the Iraqi security services have not obtained any evidence pointing to a negative Iranian interference in southern Iraq... The commander of Basra Police, Staff Maj-Gen Jalil Khalaf, described the US and British accusations against Iran as nothing more than a political game, saying that the Iraqi security services have not found any evidence which would point to an Iranian interference in southern Iraq... As regards the countries (concerned), it is their problem and this is politics."
http://www.juancole.com/2008/01/basra-police-chief-denies-iran-mischief.html

HOW PENTAGON PLANTED SPEEDBOAT STORY

"... the Navy disseminated a short video into which was spliced the audio of a phone call warning that U.S. warships would "explode" in "a few seconds"... Pentagon officials had all day Sunday, Jan. 6, to discuss what to do about the encounter in the Strait of Hormuz. The result was a decision to play it up as a major incident... The decision came just as President George W. Bush was about to leave on a Middle East trip aimed in part at rallying Arab states to join the United States in an anti-Iran coalition... A separate audio recording of a voice, which came across the VHS channel open to anyone with access to it, was spliced into a video.. That was a political decision... made in the office of the secretary of defence. That decision involved a high risk of getting caught in an obvious attempt to mislead."

"... The decision to treat the Jan. 6 incident as evidence of an Iranian threat reveals a chasm between the interests of political officials in Washington and Navy officials in the Gulf. Asked whether the Navy's reporting of the episode was distorted by Pentagon officials, Cmdr Robertson of 5th Fleet Public Affairs would not comment directly. But she said, "There is a different perspective over there."

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40801

GOD AND CONSTITUTION

The Iranian Constitution:
"Article 1
The form of government of Iran is that of an Islamic Republic...
Article 2
The Islamic Republic is a system based on belief in the One God... Allah, His exclusive sovereignty and the right to legislate, and the necessity of submission to His commands...
Article 4
All civil, penal financial, economic, administrative, cultural, military, political, and other laws and regulations must be based on Islamic criteria..."
--Iranian Constitution
http://www.iranonline.com/iran/iran-info/Government/constitution-1.html

The Afghan Constitution:
"Article Three Ch. 1, Art. 3
In Afghanistan, no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam."
http://www.afghansite.com/afghanistan/afghanConstitution.asp

A Proposed Amendment to the US Constitution:

"... I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that's what we need to do -- to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view."
--Mike Huckabee

"... Ours will.. be a worldview with... with God at the center... will dominate public policy, the laws we make, and every other detail of our existence."
--Mike Huckabee, book titled "Character Is the Issue: How People With Integrity Can Revolutionize America", 1997.

VOICE ON U.S. VIDEO IS "FILIPINO MONKEY"

"... "I am coming at you. You will explode in a few minutes" - that was what the American navy men heard. An indignant Washington announced the US Navy was on the verge of firing ... But the Iranian footage of the "incident" makes a laughing stock of the US administration. The funny thing is, it was an incident that didn't happen. Commander Lydia Robertson, spokeswoman for the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, put a brave face, while admitting, "We don't know for sure where they [threats] came from. It could have been a shore station." Chief of Naval Operations in the Pentagon, Admiral Gary Roughhead, backed up explaining, "Based on my experience in operating in that part of the world, where there is a lot of maritime activity, trying to discern is very hard to do."

"Filipino Monkey" is the code name given by the US Navy to a mysterious but profane voice which often challenges it in the Strait of Hormuz. The voice could be, if The Seattle Times newspaper is to be believed, "likely more than one person, who listens in on ship-to-ship radio traffic and then jumps in, shouting insults and jabbering vile epithets". US Navy women are said to suffer particularly degrading treatment...."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JA16Ak02.html

SPEEDBOAT VIDEO FABRICATED

US video on official DoD site first was blocked so it would not play completely and now has been taken down:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/briefingslide.aspx?briefingslideid=320

Same US video posted to YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNMqbjwxHV4&NR=1

The Iranians said the US video was compiled using earlier file pictures of the speedboats, and the audio was been fabricated so clumsily that the pictures and voices in the video are not even synchronized. The Pentagon admits the video is a fabrication in the sense that the video and the audio were recorded separately and then combined. And they can't even be sure where the audio came from. The foreign-accented voice was recorded from the internationally recognized channel for ship-to-ship communications, and Navy officials have said they are still trying to determine if the transmission came from the speedboats or elsewhere.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/world/middleeast/10iran.html?bl&ex=1200200400&en=ab0fa0fbe1b14f9c&ei=5087%0A
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/10/AR2008011000692_2.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2008011001831

A video of the routine encounter was recorded by the Iranians and posted on YouTube: