IRANIANS WORRIED ABOUT ECONOMY, NOT WAR OR REFORM

"Iranians are more concerned about their country's finances than tension with the West or political reform... there is strong support inside Iran for the country having its own nuclear industry.... Those surveyed were asked for the two most important issues facing Iran today and 45% of respondents said unemployment and poverty... 1% said hostile relations with the United States and 1% said lack of democracy or need for political reform... 94% of those surveyed agreed Iran should be allowed to develop a nuclear industry..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7827198.stm

BUSH REJECTED ISRAELI ATTACK ON IRAN

"President Bush deflected a secret request by Israel last year for specialized bunker-busting bombs it wanted for an attack on Iran’s main nuclear complex and told the Israelis that he had authorized new covert action intended to sabotage Iran’s suspected effort to develop nuclear weapons... Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates (convinced Bush) that any overt attack on Iran would probably prove ineffective, lead to the expulsion of international inspectors and drive Iran’s nuclear effort further out of view... (with) the possibility that an airstrike could ignite a broad Middle East war in which America’s 140,000 troops in Iraq would inevitably become involved...

"The covert American program, started in early 2008, includes renewed American efforts to penetrate Iran’s nuclear supply chain abroad, along with new efforts, some of them experimental, to undermine electrical systems, computer systems and other networks on which Iran relies.... Obama must decide whether the covert actions begun by Mr. Bush are worth the risks of disrupting what he has pledged will be a more active diplomatic effort to engage with Iran..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/washington/11iran.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=bush%20rejected%20israel%20attack&st=cse

IRAN BACKS AWAY FROM FIGHTING IN GAZA

"At the outset of Israel's offensive against Hamas... Tehran called on volunteers to fight in Gaza. Two weeks later, they are being sent home... because Egypt would never grant them access to the embattled enclave through its ports and territory, but mainly because Iran has decided to stay clear of direct military engagement with Israel... Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei thanked groups of volunteers waiting at Iranian airports... to be dispatched to Gaza to fight Israel, but told them:...one must pay attention that in this regard our hands are tied."
--DEBKAfile, January 10, 2009
http://www.debka.com/index1.php

IRAQ DEPORTS ANTI-IRAN MEK TERRORISTS

"Iraq plans to close a camp for Iranian dissidents who used to cross into Iran to mount assassinations and sabotage... The US and EU placed the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) on their lists of terrorist organisations after the September 11th attacks. ... US troops disarmed them after the 2003 invasion... but kept the camp intact because some Bush administration officials allegedly saw the MEK as a potential tool for regime change in Iran... The Shia-led government in Baghdad has forged close relations with fellow Shias in Tehran and rejects such ambitions..."
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0102/1230842350664.html

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:

S-300 MISSILES ADDED TO NUCLEAR SITE DEFENSES

"... (Iran) just signed a contract for the supply of another Russian anti-air weapon, the highly sophisticated S-300, rated the most effective killer of ballistic missiles on the market... Moscow has designed the multi-layer air defense system to make Iran proof against Israel’s AirAir ForceForce and the ballistic missiles in its armory... While TOR-M1 can locate and destroy moving targets at low altitudes, the S-300 system uniquely zaps high-flying, medium-range ballistic missiles of the type which is the backbone of Israel’s surface missile units at a distance of 1-40 km. Together, they lend Iran air superiority over any missiles and aircraft. Another of S-300’s significant features is its advanced guidance method which relies on a single phased array radar to trace missiles in the air. This reduces its deployment time to five minutes; secondly, the missiles are sealed rounds and require no maintenance over their lifetime..."
--DEBKAfile (Israel), December 26, 2007
http://www.debka.com/index.php

TOR-1 MISSILE BATTERIES INSTALLED AT NUCLEAR SITES

"The head of the Russian Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation announced the imminent installment of sophisticated Russian TOR-M1 missile batteries at Iran’s nuclear installations... the multi-functional, multiple layer hardware substantially upgrades the shield protecting Iran’s banned uranium enrichment facilities at Natanz and Isfahan, as well as Bushehr, from many types or air and missile attack.
The TOR-M1 is designed to intercept “stealth” aircraft, helicopters and drones as well as laser-guided precision bombs, rockets and cruise missiles... it can destroy any of these incoming objects 12 km before they make contact with target.... Its 3D pulse Doppler electronic beam feeds data on 48 targets simultaneously to the system’s firing computers, selecting the ten most dangerous and responding in 5-8 seconds..."
--DEBKAfile (Israel), December 25, 2007
http://www.debka.com/index.php

THREE U.S. CARRIER STRIKE GROUPS AND TWO MARINE CARRIERS OFF IRAN

"... in recent months, the USS Enterprise was the only US nuclear carrier cruising Gulf waters with its strike force. On Nov. 5, a second nuclear carrier, the USS Harry S. Truman set out quietly from its Norfolk base for the Gulf with 7,500 sailors and marines aboard the carrier and its strike force. It will be followed by the USS Nimitz. All three carrier groups are escorted by fast nuclear submarines, cruisers and missile destroyers... (also present are) the two US Marine carriers the USS Wasp and the USS Kearsage, with thousands of marines and landing craft on their decks...."
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1314

CHENEY UNABLE TO STIFLE DISSENTING N.I.E. ON IRAN
(But key findings will be kept secret from public)

"A National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran has been held up for more than a year in an effort to force the intelligence community to remove dissenting judgments on the Iranian nuclear programme, and thus make the document more supportive of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's militarily aggressive policy toward Iran... The White House wants a document that it can use as evidence for its Iran policy... (but) some analysts have refused to go along... The White House has now apparently decided to release the unsatisfactory draft NIE, but without making its key findings public..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39978

ARAB STATES OFFER IRAN A NUCLEAR COMPROMISE

"Gulf Arab states is reported to have proposed providing enriched uranium to Iran via a multinational consortium... the six states of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE - would develop a uranium enrichment plant in a state outside the Mideast... (to) provide nuclear fuel... for all users of enriched uranium in the Middle East..."
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A415ACD4-2E69-49AF-8E06-49FCAFB2780A.htm

48-HOUR ATTACK WOULD LET IRANIANS TAKE COUNTRY BACK

"... The air campaign will be easy,” says retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney, a FOX pundit who was a rabid advocate of shock and awe over Iraq. “Ahmadinejad has nothing in Iran that we can’t penetrate,” he adds, and several hundred aircraft, including stealth bombers, will be enough to do the trick: “Forty-eight hours duration, hitting 2,500 aim points to take out their nuclear facilities, their air defense facilities, their air force, their navy, their Shahab-3 retaliatory missiles, and finally their command and control. And then let the Iranian people take their country back.”
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/31/4914/

JUST SAY GO TO BOMBING IRAN

"... A senior foreign policy adviser to the Republican frontrunner Rudy Giuliani, has urged that Iran be bombed using cruise missiles and "bunker busters" to set back Teheran’s nuclear programme by at least five years... Norman Podhoretz, one of the founders of neoconservatism, also imparted his stark advice personally to a receptive President George W. Bush...

"We’ve got three carriers in the region and a lot of submarines," Mr Podhoretz said."I would say it would take five minutes. You’d wake up one morning and the strikes would have been ordered and carried out during the night. All the president has to do is say go."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=ABJE3WKV1UZZZQFIQMFCFF4AVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2007/10/27/wbomb127.xml

U.S. KNOWS THAT IRANIANS ARE NOT FURNISHING EFPs

"When the U.S. military command accused the Iranian Quds Force... of providing the armour-piercing EFPs (explosively formed penetrators) that were killing U.S. troops, it knew that Iraqi machine shops had been producing their own EFPs for years... (and) the U.S. command had considerable evidence that the Mahdi army had gotten the technology and the training on how to use it from Hezbollah rather than Iran..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39810

IRAN ARMS TO TALIBAN?

"The United States has "irrefutable evidence" that Tehran is transferring arms to Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, a top U.S. diplomat told CNN..."
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/06/13/iran.taliban/index.html

"(Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta said) "Iran is our neighbor, is our friend and Iran has had major role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan. The government of Afghanistan has no documents (to show) that Iran's government is involved in the shipment of arms."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071019/ts_nm/afghan_iran_dc

EFFECT OF NEW SANCTIONS ON IRAN

"... The new sanctions package includes US financial penalties for any world firms trading with the Revolutionary Guards. They would apply to more than 1,000 companies in Europe, the Middle East, the Persian Gulf and Asia.... the new sanctions will have a crippling effect on its national economy... already hard hit by Washington’s systematic blockage of Iran’s dealings with international banks, which has left Tehran seriously short of cash flow, foreign currency and basic commodities....

"Iran very recently sent Indonesia an “emergency appeal” for gasoline and heavy oil, because it has run out of currency to pay for imported refined oil products....

"Iranian sources recall that the Islamic regime announced in advance that approval of these (sanctions) would be deemed tantamount to an American declaration of war on Iran and call forth retaliation. Tehran would target US interests in the Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan or Israel by means of Special Groups, i.e. Iran’s foreign intelligence networks, Hizballah or Hamas... that these reprisals may be delayed some days because of a profound power struggle taking place in Iran’s leadership. However... Tehran cannot afford to let Washington’s accusations go unanswered."

--DEBKAfile (Israel), October 25, 2007
http://www.debka.com/index.php

NEW U.S. SANCTIONS ON IRAN

"The Bush administration announced... new sanctions against Iran... accusing the elite Quds division of the Revolutionary Guard Corps of supporting terrorism.... The immediate legal consequence... will make it unlawful for anyone subject to United States jurisdiction to knowingly provide material support or resources to it... Any United States financial institution that becomes aware that it possesses, or has control over, funds of a foreign terrorist organization would have to turn them over to the Treasury Department... the larger point of the designation would be to... persuade foreign governments and financial institutions to cut ties with Iranian businesses and individuals. "
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/25/world/middleeast/25cnd-iran.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

ISLAMO-FASCISM AWARENESS WEEK TO OPPOSE LIES OF LEFT

"... October 22-26, 2007... will be... Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week... to confront the two Big Lies of the political left: that George Bush created the war on terror and that Global Warming is a greater danger to Americans than the terrorist threat.... Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week is a national effort to oppose these lies..."
http://www.terrorismawareness.org/islamo-fascism-awareness-week/

IRAN PREPARES FOR U.S. ATTACK

"Iran has opened a new air base, unveiled new domestically produced military hardware...
* ... a new, medium-range ballistic missile... the Qadr-1 is capable of striking Israel, southern Europe and US bases in the Middle East.
* ... a domestically manufactured fighter jet... the Saeqeh (Thunderbolt), is ... similar to the US F-18 fighter jet.... they have begun industrial-scale production of the Saeqeh.
* ... a production line for the manufacture of a one-ton smart bomb called the Qadr... an optically guided, air-to-surface, long-range bomb.
* ... opened a new air base near its eastern border with Afghanistan... named Qa'em Al-e Muhammad...
* ... (also) received a US$750 million shipment of 29 Tor-M1 short-range, mobile surface-to-air missile systems from Russia to help guard nuclear facilities."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IJ24Ak05.html

KURD TERRORISTS AGAINST IRAN ARE NOT CALLED TERRORISTS

"... The guerrillas from the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan, or P.J.A.K., have been waging a deadly insurgency in Iran and they are an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the P.K.K., the Kurdish guerrillas who fight Turkey....Americans classify the P.K.K. as a terrorist group because it is fighting Turkey, an important American ally, while the P.J.A.K. is not labeled as such because it is fighting Iran.
In fact, the two groups appear to a large extent to be one and the same, and share the same goal: fighting campaigns to win new autonomy and rights for Kurds in Iran and Turkey. They share leadership, logistics and allegiance..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/world/middleeast/23kurds.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

"... The label of the word terrorist is so devoid of meaning now, it's hypocritical... First we find groups around the world we don't like, then we find ways to label them as terrorists"... (refering to) the U.S.'s double-standard with regard to two Kurdish separatist groups that, on either side of Iraq's borders, attack Turkish and Iranian troops. "One [the Kurdish Workers Party] is a terrorist, the other [Party for Free Life in Kurdistan] receives support from us."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39861

IRAN READY TO RETALIATE AGAINST ATTACK

"... Ahmadinejad has laid down the gauntlet... He sent the Revolutionary Guards missile and artillery commander, Gen. Mahmoud Chaharbaghshe, to warn that, in the first minute of an attack on Iran, the Islamic Republic would fire 11,000 missiles and mortars against enemy (US and Israeli) bases. The scale of ordnance threatened implied Tehran’s certainty that Syria, Hizballah, Hamas and the pro-Iranian militias in Iraq would join the assault... the president’s venture into brinkmanship points to his confidence that neither the US not Israel can or will dare to strike at Iran’s clandestine nuclear facilities..."
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1308

U.S. MILITARY PREVENTING BUSH ATTACK ON IRAN
Trying to put administration "crazies back in the box"

"... the uniformed military leaders rejected a strike against Iran's nuclear programme.... Bush had asked the Joint Chiefs at the meeting about a possible strike against the Iranian nuclear programme, and that they had unanimously opposed such an attack... the Joint Chiefs had expressed opposition to a strike against Iran... (and) were soon joined in opposition to a strike on Iran by Admiral William Fallon... Fallon made his opposition to war against Iran clear to the White House... Fallon had indicated privately that he was determined to prevent an attack on Iran and even prepared to resign to do so.... vowing that there would be "no war with Iran" while he was CENTCOM commander and as hinting very strongly that he would quit rather than go along with an attack.... Fallon's opposition to a strike against Iranian nuclear, military and economic targets would make it very difficult, if not impossible for the White House to carry out such an operation..."

"There are several of us who are trying to put the crazies back in the box."
--Admiral William Fallon, Commander, US Central Command

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39716

AFGHANISTAN DENIES U.S. ACCUSATIONS AGAINST IRAN

"U.S. leaders have accused Iran of supplying weapons to Taliban insurgents... (but) Tehran strongly denies the charge... (and) Afghanistan said... it had no evidence the government of Iran was behind a shipment of weapons to Taliban insurgents...."

"(Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta said) "Iran is our neighbor, is our friend and Iran has had major role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan. The government of Afghanistan has no documents (to show) that Iran's government is involved in the shipment of arms."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071019/ts_nm/afghan_iran_dc

SYRIA MOBILIZES DEFENSES FOR U.S. ATTACK ON IRAN

"... Syria placed its civil defense services on a state of preparedness and mobilized their reservists. Government and military hospitals across Syria have also been alerted... Syrian president Bashar Assad told the Tunisian daily Al-Shorouk Thursday: I am working on the premise that the Americans will attack Iran.”
--DEBKAfile (Israel), October 12, 2007
http://www.debka.com/index.php

IRANIAN AIR DEFENSE SYSTEM VULNERABLE TO U.S.

"... from the way Damascus described the episode... the electronic systems and radar of the Pantsyr-S1 air defense missiles were a letdown because they failed to down the intruders and therefore leave Syria and Iranian airspace vulnerable to hostile intrusion. Such information on the Russian weapons systems sold to Syria and Iran is essential to any US calculations of whether to attack Iran."
--DEBKAfile (Isael), October 11, 2007
http://www.debka.com/index.php

BUSH VIOLATING NUCLEAR TREATY

"... The Bush administration must stop violating a Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty-related commitment by holding out the option of a nuclear attack on Iran and other countries not possessing nuclear weapons..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39421

BUSH FOREIGN POLICY ADVISER HATES IRANIANS


"... "I hate all Iranians."
--Debra Cagan, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Coalition Affairs to Defence Secretary Robert Gates

"Britsh MPs visiting the Pentagon to discuss America's stance on Iran and Iraq were shocked to be told by one of President Bush's senior women officials: "I hate all Iranians"... (an) MP said: "I formed the impression that some in America are looking for an excuse to attack Iran. It was very alarming."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=484762&in_page_id=1770

SENATE AMENDMENT FOR WAR AGAINST IRAN DRAFTED BY AIPAC

"... the first call for cross-border attacks on Iranian targets was made by the Senate's "independent" Democrat, Joseph Lieberman, who is regarded as particularly close to the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Indeed, it was Lieberman and Republican Senator John Kyl... who co-sponsored the Senate amendment... which according to several Capitol Hill sources was drafted by AIPAC... deploying language that some senators argued could be interpreted as authorizing war against Iran..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/II29Ak01.html

PETRAEUS'S COMMANDING OFFICER IS AGAINST IRAN WAR

"... hawks... have pressed their campaign for cross-border military action against Iran in the opinion pages of such neo-conservative publications as The Weekly Standard, The National Review, and the Wall Street Journal. Their calls for action became so intense that the commander of the US Central Command and Petraeus's superior, Admiral William Fallon... complained publicly that "this constant drumbeat of conflict is ... not helpful and not useful. It is not a good idea to be in a state of war. We ought to try to do our utmost to create different conditions," he told Al-Jazeera..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/II29Ak01.html

IRAN LABELS CIA AS TERRORIST ORGANIZATION

"Iran's parliament... approved a nonbinding resolution labeling the CIA and the U.S. Army "terrorist organizations"... (for) using depleted uranium munitions in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq, supporting the killings of Palestinians by Israel, bombing and killing Iraqi civilians, and torturing terror suspects in prisons... (This was) in apparent response to a Senate resolution seeking to give a similar designation to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps..."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070929/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_us

SYRIAN AIR DEFENSE SYSTEM TESTED BY ISRAEL AND FAILED

"... the Pantsyr-S1E missiles, purchased from Russia to repel air assailants, failed to down the Israeli jets accused of penetrating northern Syrian airspace... The new Pantsyr missiles therefore leave Syrian and Iranian airspace vulnerable to hostile intrusion... information on Russian missile consignments to Syria or Iran is vital to any US calculation of whether to attack Iran over its nuclear program... (the Israeli intrusion showed) that the “absolute jamming immunity” which the Russian manufactures promised for the improved Pantsyr missiles was immobilized by superior electronic capabilities exercised by the jets before they were “forced to leave...”
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1301

NEW RUSSIAN AIR DEFENSE SYSTEM IN IRAN AND SYRIA

"... Pantsir-S1 or Panzir (“Shell" in English) is a short-range, mobile air defense system, combining two 30mm anti-aircraft guns and 12 surface-to-air missiles which can fire on the move. It can simultaneously engage two separate targets at 12 targets per minute, ranging from fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, ballistic and cruise missiles, precision-guided munitions and unmanned air vehicles. It can also engage light-armored ground targets.

"The Pantsyr S1 short-range air defense system is designed to provide point defense of key military and industrial facilities and air defense support for military units during air and ground operations.

"The integrated missile and gun armament creates an uninterrupted engagement zone of 18 to 20 km in range and of up to 10 km in altitude. Immunity to jamming is promised via a common multimode and multi-spectral radar and optical control system. The combined missile and artillery capability makes the Russian system the most advanced air defense system in the world. Syria and Iran believe it provides the best possible protection against American or Israeli air and missile attack...."

http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1301

SENATE VOTES FOR WAR AGAINST IRAN AND HEZBOLLAH, CALLS IRANIAN ARMY TERRORISTS

"... the Senate passed the Kyl-Lieberman amendment in support of military actions against Iran... the language (said)... "that it should be the policy of the United States to stop inside Iraq the violent activities and destabilizing influence of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, its foreign facilitators such as Lebanese Hezbollah, and its indigenous Iraqi proxies."

"... The inclusion of Hezbollah... is part of a larger attempt... to manufacture an "amalgam" of all the enemies of Israel and the United States throughout the region, and to treat them all as one enemy... (meaning that) many more wars by the United States and Israel are needed to crush this enemy.

"... a secondary detail of the amendment... approves the listing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard of Iran as a "foreign terrorist organization." ... the Islamic Revolutionary Guard is the largest branch of the Iranian military (so)... the Senate has classified the army of Iran as an army of terrorists..."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-bromwich/hillary-clinton-votes-for_b_66174.html

KURDS PROTEST U.S. ARREST OF IRANIAN

"U.S. troops arrested an Iranian man... and accused him of helping to smuggle a deadly type of roadside bomb into Iraq... The U.S.... allege that he is an officer in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp's elite Quds force... (and) had trained foreign fighters in Iraq and provided them with roadside bombs known as explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs..."

"But the Kurdistan Regional Government in a statement called the arrest "illegitimate," said the man was a member of a trade delegation that had been invited to Sulaimaniyah by the local government and demanded that he be released... The Kurdish Regional Government said the man was Aghai Farhadi, a member of an economic and commercial delegation from the Iranian governorate of Karmanshah, which borders Iraq's Sulaimaniyah and Diyala provinces. Hassan Baqi, the head of the Sulaimaniyah chamber of commerce, said Farhadi had been in Sulaimaniyah for a week for discussions on opening a border crossing near Panjween,68 miles east of Sulaimaniyah, and other trade-related issues..."

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/19856.html

IRANIAN COCKROACHES

"... a cartoon published on the editorial page of the Columbus Dispatch on Sep. 4 has created a furor amongst Iranians worldwide. The cartoon by staff member Michael Ramirez portrayed Iran as a sewer with the word "extremism" on its lid. Cockroaches are shown spreading out across the region and infecting Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan with "extremism".... Ramirez is... well-known for a series of provocative cartoons defending the George W. Bush administration and its "war on terror".

"Comparing people to cockroaches happened during the Nazi era and before the Holocaust in Germany. A similar pattern happened in Rwanda before the genocide in 1994 -- a comparison between Tutsis and cockroaches.When you dehumanise a group of people, then you can nuke them, you can kill them, you can destroy them, and unfortunately that process is moving forward."
--Ali Sheikholeslami, executive director of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Northern California

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39305

AMERICAN MISCALCULATION ABOUT SHI'ITES, IRAQ AND IRAN

"... The scale of the American miscalculation is striking. Before the Iraq war began, its neoconservative architects argued that conferring power on Iraq’s Shiites would serve to undermine Iran because Iraq’s Shiites, controlling the faith’s two holiest cities, would, in the words of then Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, be “an independent source of authority for the Shia religion emerging in a country that is democratic and pro-Western.” Further, they argued, Iran could never dominate Iraq, because the Iraqi Shiites are Arabs and the Iranian Shiites Persian. It was a theory that, unfortunately, had no connection to reality..."
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/19/3934/

DRIFT INTO WAR OUT OF CONTROL

"The UN's chief nuclear weapons inspector yesterday warned against the use of force against Iran, in... an attempt to halt an "out of control" drift to war..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,2171631,00.html

BUSH ESCALATING A SHOWDOWN WITH IRAN - RICE ONBOARD

"American intelligence and defence officials believe that President George W Bush and his inner circle are taking steps to place America on the path to war with Iran... Pentagon and CIA officers say they believe that the White House has begun a carefully calibrated programme of escalation that could lead to a military showdown with Iran.... Now it has emerged that Condoleezza Rice... who has been pushing for a diplomatic solution, is prepared to settle her differences with Vice-President Dick Cheney and sanction military action..."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=IR2IGI14NAYLLQFIQMFCFFOAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2007/09/16/wiran116.xml

MAIN NUCLEAR TARGETS

"... neo-conservatives... are plugging... the destruction of no less than 1,200 Iranian military/nuclear targets in a mere three days... The to-be-destroyed list certainly includes the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power plant; the uranium enrichment plant in Natanz; a heavy-water and radioisotope plant in Arak; the nuclear fuel unit in Ardekan; the uranium conversion and nuclear technology center in Isfahan; the Tehran Nuclear Research Center; the Tehran molybdenum, iodine and xenon radioisotope production plant; and the Tehran Jabr Ibn Hayan Multipurpose Laboratories. No one of course is talking about "collateral damage", or the fact that hundreds of Russian experts may be obliterated in Bushehr... or the fact that hundreds of thousands of civilian residents of fabled Isfahan may become victims of radiation provoked by US mini-nukes..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/II07Ak05.html

IRAN TAKES PALESTINIAN PEACE INITIATIVE

"Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will receive the heads of 10 Palestinian factions in Tehran, among them Hamas’ Khaled Meshaal, Jihad Islami’s Abdullah Shelah and, most important of all, Fatah’s radical politburo chief Farouk Kadoumi... this will be the first time Hamas and Fatah representatives sit down at the same table since the former grabbed the Gaza Strip from the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority three months ago. It will also be a feather in Iran’s cap."
--DEBKAfile (Israel), September 5, 2007
http://www.debka.com/index.php

BRITISH WITHDRAWAL LESSENS U.S. MILITARY OPTION

"... analysts in Tehran are able to hide their rather euphoric reaction to the news of the British withdrawal from Basra... A US military option against Iran is now even less likely in light of the power vacuum in southern Iraq that, if need be, could be utilized by Tehran to undermine the stability of the US's presence in the rest of Iraq..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/II05Ak04.html

BRITISH WITHDRAW FROM BASRA INTO AIRBASE

"British soldiers began withdrawing... 550 soldiers stationed in Basra Palace were leaving the downtown site to join 5,000 other personnel at an air base camp on the fringes of the city — ending their permanent presence in Iraq's second largest city.... the palace compound (had been) targeted with daily mortar and rocker attack in recent months.."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070902/ap_on_re_mi_ea/britain_iraq

IRAN'S URANIUM ENRICHMENT PROGRAM

* 2003: Enrichment programme that had been hidden for 18 years is uncovered by IAEA.
* Feb 2006: Iran reported to Security Council.
* 5 Feb 2007: Diplomats confirm Iranian claims to have set up more than 300 centrifuges in two cascades.
* 9 April: Iran claims to be enriching uranium on an "industrial scale". IAEA and Russian officials are sceptical.
* 19 April: IAEA document confirms that Iran running more than 1,300 centrifuges in eight cascades.
* 2 September: Iran claims to have 3,000 centrifuges running.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4031603.stm

ALL TARGETS HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED

"... DailyKos... relays a phone conversation with a Navy Landing Signal Officer on an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf: She told me we are going to attack Iran. She said that all the Air Operation Planning and Asset Tasking are finished. That means that all the targets have been chosen, prioritized, and tasked to specific aircraft, bases, carriers, missile cruisers and so forth..."
http://icga.blogspot.com/2007/09/rollout-to-war-with-iran-update.html

U.S. PLANS 3-DAY BLITZ ATTACK ON IRAN

"The Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians’ military capability in three days... US military planners were not preparing for “pinprick strikes” against Iran’s nuclear facilities... They’re about taking out the entire Iranian military..."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2369001.ece

U.S. HARASSMENT OF IRANIANS IN IRAQ ESCALATES TENSION

"Members of an Iranian Energy Ministry delegation visiting Baghdad at the invitation of the Iraqi government were released Wednesday, a day after being arrested at their hotel by American troops and led away in handcuffs and blindfolds... The (US) said the latest group was detained after American troops confiscated an AK-47 rifle and two 9-millimeter pistols from the group’s Iraqi guards, who “had identification but no weapons permits and also had Iranian money... (also) confiscated a laptop computer, cellphones, and a briefcase full of Iranian and U.S. money... Iraqi and Iranian officials said the Iranians were in Baghdad to help resolve Iraq’s power crisis...."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/29/world/middleeast/29cnd-iraq.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

"... A media adviser to the Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq told Reuters news agency that the group was in Baghdad at the invitation of Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity to help build a power station in the Shiite city of Najaf... A manager at the hotel where the Iranians were staying said: “I told [the US soldiers] that the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity had invited them, that they were guests of the ministry and that we had a letter from the ministry confirming this.”
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/01/3559/

IAEA REPORT: U.S. NUCLEAR SUSPICIONS BASELESS

"Iran's uranium enrichment program is operating well below capacity and is far from producing nuclear fuel in significant amounts... the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) report showed U.S. suspicions about Tehran's nuclear intentions were baseless..."
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2007-08-30T140657Z_01_BLA046366_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAN-NUCLEAR.xml

ADMINISTRATION TO START PR CAMPAIGN FOR IRAN WAR

"... someone in one of the leading neo-conservative institutions... summarized what he was told this way: They have "instructions" from the Office of the Vice-President to roll out a campaign for war with Iran in the week after Labor Day; it will be coordinated with the American Enterprise Institute, the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard, Commentary, Fox (News)... It will be heavy sustained assault on the airwaves, designed to knock public sentiment into a position from which a war can be maintained..."
--Juan Cole in Informed Comment,Thursday, August 30, 2007
http://www.juancole.com/2007/08/cheney-iran-here-we-go-again.html

SITE AGAINST PROMOTION OF AN IRAN WAR BY FOX NEWS

"... a bold effort to provide Americans with a different view of our policy toward Iran than the one Fox News keeps pushing on us. While Fox beats the drums for war, Robert Greenwald has produced documentary evidence that unmasks the 'coverage' for what it is: propaganda to get Americans ready for a Bush administration attack on yet another Middle Eastern nation..."
http://foxattacks.com/

FOX NEWS SETTING UP IRAN LIKE IT DID IRAQ

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1-eyuFBrWHs

U.S. MOVE TOWARD WAR

"The Bush administration has leaped toward war with Iran by... declaring war with the main branch of Iran's military, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which it plans to brand as a terrorist organization.... the stage is now set for direct physical clashes between Iran and the US... One plausible scenario is... "hot pursuit" of the IRGC inside Iranian territory... soliciting an Iranian response... potentially spiraling out of control..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IH18Ak04.html

IRAN TO HELP IRAQ
"Al-Maliki... had a warm meeting Wednesday evening with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, walking hand-in-hand with him into an ornate meeting room... Iranian support boosts al-Maliki amid Iraq's political turmoil... Iraqi and Iranian officials also sought to increase the already surging economic ties between the two oil-rich countries... Iran would build a power station in the Shiite Sadr City enclave and supply Iraq directly with electricity. Iran would also provide 363,000 tonnes of kerosene and liquid gas this year."
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2007/08/08/4401847-ap.html

NO EVIDENCE OF WEAPONS PROGRAM

"... the IAEA has found no evidence of a weapons programme after over 2,200 hours of snap inspections of Iranian nuclear plants..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2142921,00.html

IRAN BUYS LONG-RANGE FIGHTER BOMBERS

"Iran buys... from Russia... 250 Su-30MKM warplanes and 20 IL-78 MKI fuel tankers... Iran has stipulated delivery of the first aircraft before the end of 2007. The transaction, Russia’s largest arms deal in 30 years, will endow Iran with a long-range aerial assault capability. The Sukhoi can sustain a four-and-a-half hour raid at its maximum range of 3,000 km against long-distance, marine and low-lying ground targets across the Persian Gulf and Middle East, including Israel and Lebanon.
The fuel tankers extends the Su-30MKM’s assault sustainability to 10 hours and its range to 8,000 km at altitudes of 11-13 km. The closest comparable plane in the West is the American F-15E fighter bomber. Iran’s acquisition of an exceptionally large fleet of the Russian fighter-bomber will elevate its air force to one of the two largest and most advanced in the region, alongside the Israeli Air Force...Moscow is selling Tehran the same Sukhoi model as India received earlier this year... (and) began delivering the same craft in June to Malaysia..."
--DEBKAfile (Israel), July 27, 2007
http://www.debka.com/index.php

TO BE OFFSET BY...

"The United States is reported to be preparing a major arms deal with Saudi Arabia worth $20 billion... it would include missile guidance systems, upgraded fighter jets and naval ships... part of a strategy for countering Iran's growing strength..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6920458.stm

BUT...

"... the arms proposal to Saudi Arabia would face broad bipartisan opposition on the Hill. Despite the administration’s efforts to portray the Saudis as part of the moderate Arab world, members of Congress of both parties are increasingly skeptical..."
--DEBKAfile (Israel), July 28, 2007
http://www.debka.com/index.php

B-2 BOMBER GETS PENETRATOR BOMB FOR STRIKING NATANZ

"US Air Force B-2 Stealth bombers will soon be fitted with newly-developed 15-ton Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs... the gigantic new bunker-blaster is designed to hit fortified underground targets such as Iran’s uranium-enrichment facility at Natanz. It will be capable of drilling through many meters of earth or concrete. When it falls from a high altitude, the MOP – composed of 20% explosives, 80% hardened metal - will punch a hole in the toughest protective casing before exploding in depth. It is GPS guided."
--DEBKAfile (Israel), July 23, 2007
http://www.debka.com/index.php

IRAN TO BE PART OF ENDLESS REGIME CHANGE TREADMILL

"... The U.S. isn't massing its naval might in the Persian Gulf for nothing, nor are the daily rhetorical broadsides aimed at Iran just boilerplate. Tehran has been the target from the beginning... It is just a matter of time before an incident on the Iran-Iraq border ignites the coming conflict. That's why the administration is desperately trying to buy time and put off congressional demands that we start withdrawing from Iraq. Meanwhile, they're busy ramping up the war of words with the Iranians... Once we're stuck in the Iranian quagmire, one can easily imagine the objections to a U.S. withdrawal: just re-run the arguments made by this administration and its supporters in regard to Iraq. At that point the American people may wake up and realize that we're on an endless treadmill of "regime change" and occupation..."
http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=11344

INTELLIGENCE GATHERING ON IRAN

"... the sheer breadth and depth of US intelligence activities in Islamic Iran are rarely acknowledged... hundreds (possibly thousands) of Iranian expatriates in western Europe, North America and the Middle East have been effectively recruited by the CIA (and other US intelligence agencies) without their knowledge.... these people are highly educated and often come from the very top of their professions; which ranges from medicine, engineering and the law to more politically oriented careers such as journalism and political and military analysis. The great majority of these people are apolitical,... (they are made to) feel like a "consultant" rather than an "informant" or "agent".... The relationships are handled by subcontractors, and the CIA only assumes direct control when the target is either beginning to produce intelligence-quality information... or has managed to secure access to people who can..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IG21Ak06.html

CHENEY PUSHES BUSH TO ATTACK IRAN

"Cheney pushes Bush to act on Iran... Military solution back in favour as Rice loses out... Bush is not going to leave office with Iran still in limbo... No decision on military action is expected until next year... "
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2127115,00.html

EAST COAST ENTERPRISE STRIKE GROUP DEPLOYS FOR IRAN

"... The US aircraft carrier USS Enterprise will not rotate with any of the two carriers already present in the Middle East... the Enterprise... will in fact join the USS Stennis and USS Nimitz near the shores of Iran - not replace them... The carrier which departed Norfolk Monday is heading for a six-month Middle East tour of duty with its strike group of four warships: the guided missile destroyers Arleigh Burke, Stout, James E .Williams and Forrest Sherman, as well as three more ships – and 7,500 sailors in all aboard..."
--DEBKAfile (Israel), July 12, 2007
http://www.debka.com/index.php

WESTERN POWERS WILLINGNESS TO ATTACK IRAN
(Which report is "spin"?)

As reported in the conservative site Newsmax (http://www.newsmax.com):
"Israel 'Approved' to Strike Iran... Israel’s Minister of Strategic Affairs said he has received approval from the U.S. and Europe for an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. "If we start military operations against Iran alone, then Europe and the U.S. will support us,” Avigdor Lieberman said following a meeting with NATO and European Union officials..."
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2007/7/13/100257.shtml

As reported in the Jewish news site JTA (http://www.jta.org):
"Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who visited NATO headquarters in Brussels two weeks ago, came away with the impression that Western powers are unwilling to resort to pre-emptive military strikes to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons... NATO leaders reportedly told Israel that it would have to stop Iran's nuclear program alone..."
http://www2.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/102935.html

AL QAEDA IN IRAQ THREATENS TO ATTACK IRAN

"The leader of an al-Qaida umbrella group in Iraq threatened to wage war against Iran unless it stops supporting Shiites in Iraq ..."
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2007/jul/09/na-al-qaida-group-in-iraq-threatens-iran-with-war/