BUSH WILL NOT ATTACK IRAN

"... a little-noticed section of the administration's official national security strategy indicates that Bush has already decided that he will not use military force to try to prevent Iran from going nuclear... This carefully worded statement... explicitly makes regime change -- not stopping Iran's progress toward a nuclear capability -- the goal of U.S. policy toward Iran.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33692

ZARQAWI TRYING TO START U.S. WAR ON IRAN

"... a pocket hard-drive, a laptop and documents were found in the debris after the strike... One of the documents showed that Zarqawi was planning to try to start a war between the US and Iran by carrying out attacks - falsely attributed to Iran - on US interests, the prime minister's office said..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5084324.stm

U.S. WILL STRIKE IRAN

"... there will be war, and Washington will strike Iranian nuclear installations, probably before the end of 2006... Western analysts think President Mahmud Ahmadinejad a madman... But madness is an occupational hazard of becoming the leader of desperate men fighting against inevitable ruin...

"The tragedy will proceed more or less as follows:... Iran has failed as a society in the face of the modern world. It embodies a fatal combination of modern demographics, that is, a rapidly aging population, without having assimilated modern productivity. The forces that have rallied to the banner of the Islamic Revolution both at home and abroad have no more hope... Away from their jihad, they can look forward only to a relentless pulverization of the traditional society whence they came. Such is the stuff of strategic mysticism. When there is no retreat, nothing to which to return, Destiny beckons from the enemy's lines and the army leaves its trenches and flies forward into the cannons..."

herhttp://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HF06Ak03.htmle

IRAN OFFERED PEACE WITH ISRAEL - BUSH REFUSED

"Iran offered in 2003 to accept peace with Israel and to cut off material assistance to Palestinian armed groups and pressure them to halt terrorist attacks within Israel's 1967 borders, according to the secret Iranian proposal to the United States... The two-page document contradicts the official line of the George W. Bush administration that Iran is committed to the destruction of Israel and the sponsorship of terrorism in the region.... in 2003, Bush refused to allow any response to the Iranian offer to negotiate an agreement that would have accepted the existence of Israel..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33348

U.S. "FROZE" TALKS WITH IRAN LAST MARCH

"... Bush administration ordered U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad in March to postpone indefinitely the talks with Iran on Iraq for which Khalilzad had previously gotten White House approval... Condoleezza Rice "froze" the talks on Iraq that the United States and Iran had agreed to in mid-March, telling Khalilzad "it wasn't the right time to meet"... The reversal... has resulted in a widening chasm between the United States and the other major powers on how to reach a diplomatic solution with Iran on the nuclear issue."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0520-02.htm

"... the decision... (was from) the determination of Vice Pres. Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld to avoid anything that legitimised the Islamic Republic of Iran... The Europeans -- particularly France and Germany -- have long been dismayed at Washington's refusal to enter into diplomatic dialogue with Iran on the nuclear issue... The administration's refusal to meet with Iran is now at the heart of the protracted discussions between the United States and the five other powers on a common position on Iran..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33303

AHMADINEJAD 2006 LETTER DISMISSED BY RICE

"... Ahmadinejad's letter has elicited a preliminary rebuttal by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who dismissed it as a "philosophical" narrative..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HE11Ak03.html

AHMADINEJAD LETTER TO BUSH

Full text of letter from Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad to US President George W Bush, released by United Nations diplomats:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HE11Ak01.html

HOMOPHOBOIC KILLINGS BY FUNDAMENTALIST MILITIAS

"... (there is a) surge in homophobic killings by state security services and religious militias following an anti-gay and anti-lesbian fatwa issued by Iraq's most prominent Shia leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani... (killings are) evidence that fundamentalists have infiltrated government security forces to commit homophobic murders while wearing police uniforms..."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article362151.ece

BUSH ADMINISTRATION REFUSES TO TALK TO IRAN

"... The Bush administration... is refusing to talk directly with Iran about its nuclear program... Bush administration officials argue that direct two-way negotiations raise expectations that the United States will make concessions. They say multinational pressure is more effective..."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/14502621.htm

U.S. HAS REBUFFED IRAN ON NUKES & SECURITY TALKS

"Iranian leaders have been signaling to Washington since late 2005 that Iran wanted direct negotiations with the United States on Tehran's nuclear programme and other outstanding issues between the two countries... (however the) Bush administration ignored (an) Iranian proposal in 2003 and has publicly rejected possible talks with Iran on the nuclear issue in recent months..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33070

A CASE FOR ATTACKING IRAN SOON

"... let major wars break out, the sooner the better... If Kaiser Wilhelm II had had the presence of mind to attack France during the First Morocco Crisis of 1906 - while Russia was busy with Japan and England was uncommitted - the horrors of World War I never would have occurred... By the same token, if Washington waits to long to disarm Iran, the consequence will be a Thirty Years' War in the Middle East quite as terrible as World War I. Harsh as it might seem, preemption - an aerial attack on Iran's nuclear facilities - is the most humane solution..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HE02Ak03.html

U.S. NUCLEAR MISSILES ON ISRAELI SUBS FOR ATTACKS ON IRAN

"... after the Gulf War in 1991, Germany gave Israel two of its diesel-powered Dolphin-class submarines... In November 2005, Germany announced that it was selling two more subs to Israel... the vessels have been fitted with US-made Harpoon missiles with nuclear tips. Each Dolphin-class boat can carry 24 missiles... the Harpoons were equipped with "over the horizon" software from a US manufacturer to make them suitable for attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities..."
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article360993.ece

COMPLICATIONS OF ATTACK ON IRAN

"... if the US decided to bomb the country's nuclear sites, they are maintained by Russian advisers and technicians; that would mean in effect a declaration of war against Russia. Russia recently closed a US$700 million deal selling 30 Tor M-1 surface-to-air missiles to Iran - very effective against aircraft, cruise missiles and guided bombs. The missiles will be deployed at the nuclear-research center at Isfahan and the Bushehr reactor, which is being built by Russia..."

"... Shi'ites in the south and in Baghdad would turn extreme heat on the occupation forces in Iraq. Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr... said that "if any Islamic state, especially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is attacked, the Mehdi Army would fight inside and outside Iraq..."

"... (Iran has) the power to halt oil supply... from the shores of the Persian Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz... Up to 30% of the world's oil production passes through the strait. Were Iran to block it, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait would not be able to export their oil..."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HD13Ak01.html


"... an unprovoked attack on a country that has attacked no one. It would be likened to Osama bin Laden's attack on the U.S... (could lead to) Poison-laced missiles raining down on U.S. troops in Iraq or Afghanistan, the downing of a U.S. passenger airliner, suicide bombers in major cities... Renewed venom aimed at Washington from European capitals, greater distrust from China and Russia, outright hatred in the Arab and Muslim world. Oil prices spiralling out of control, a global recession at hand. In Iran, a galvanizing of a splintered nation. An end to hopes for political reform, a rally-around-the-leader phenomenon common among the victimized, an ability to rebuild a nuclear program in two to four years..."
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid=1145051411410&call_pageid=968332188854

BUSH'S LACK OF DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS TOWARD IRAN

"... Bush reportedly is considering military strikes against Iran to pressure Tehran to abandon its alleged nuclear development program. Although administration officials hope diplomatic efforts to restrain Iran will succeed..."
http://www.gopusa.com/news/2006/april/0410_bush_iran.shtml

"... Hersh told CNN however, that the White House has spurned Tehran's overtures for dialogue. "This president is not talking to the Iranians. They are trying very hard to make contact, I can assure you of that, in many different forms," he said. "He's not talking. And there's no public pressure on the White House to start bilateral talks. And that's what amazes everybody..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0410-02.htm

"... A former official of the International Atomic Energy Agency told Pulitzer-prize winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh: “there’s nothing the Iranians could do that would result in a positive outcome. American diplomacy does not allow for it.”
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0412-33.htm

BUSH PLANNING TO ATTACK IRAN WITH NUCLEAR BOMBS

"The administration of President George W. Bush is planning a massive bombing campaign against Iran, including use of bunker-buster nuclear bombs to destroy a key Iranian suspected nuclear weapons facility, The New Yorker magazine has reported in its April 17 issue... (A Pentagon) adviser warned that bombing Iran could provoke "a chain reaction" of attacks on American facilities and citizens throughout the world and might also reignite Hezbollah. "If we go, the southern half of Iraq will light up like a candle," the adviser is quoted as telling The New Yorker..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0408-07.htm

The April 17 issue New Yorker article:
http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/060417fa_fact

U.S. ATTACK ON IRAN TO LEAD TO WIDER MIDDLE EAST WAR

"... Cheney and Rumsfeld and Bolton and Bush... are likely to attack Iran before they are out of office. Such an attack would kill up to 10,000 people and lead to a wider war in the Middle East, according to a February report by the Oxford Research Group. And it would further enflame Iraq, as the Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr has declared that his forces would attack the Americans in the event that Bush bombs Iran..."
http://progressive.org/mag_wx031106

INDIA NUCLEAR DEAL MAKES IT HARD TO CONTAIN IRAN

"... (Bush) signed an historic nuclear deal with India — "a Santa Claus giveaway," said the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace — with little or no regard for its impact on the effort to contain Iran... How do you now go after Iran?
Unlike India, Pakistan or Israel, it signed the non-proliferation treaty. It has not violated the treaty, which entitles it to develop nuclear energy.
What Iran is guilty of is cheating — hiding some aspects of its program — ... But its cheating has been minuscule compared to Israel's, India's and Pakistan's.
That's why the Atomic Energy Agency report... is so mild: The agency cannot give Iran a clean bill of health but it can find no proof of a nuclear weapons program.
"India is more guilty than Iran could be," says Dilip Hiro, a London-based expert on Iran. "North Korea is more guilty than Iran could be."
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1141253415465

IRAN INVESTING $1 BILLION IN IRAQ

"Iran to invest $1 billion in Iraq... to rehabilitate the country’s industrial sector... A team of Iranian industrial experts is due in Iraq to map out the sectors of mutual interest, the statement said. Seven major Iranian companies will be involved. The Iranians would like to start up a new car company in Iraq as well as factories for the manufacture of electrical transformers and appliances, steel and glass...."
http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news%5C2006-03-02%5C206.htm

AFTER ANY TERRORIST ATTACK, U.S. PLANS TO BOMB IRAN

"... former CIA Officer Philip Giraldi has said the Pentagon’s plans to attack Iran were drawn up “to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States.” Writing in The American Conservative in August 2005, Giraldi added, “As in the case of Iraq, the response is not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the United States.”... (That is to say) The Pentagon’s plan should be used in response to a terrorist attack on the US, yet is not contingent upon Iran actually having been responsible. How outlandish is this scenario: another 9/11 hits the US, the administration says it has secret information implicating Iran, the US population demands retribution and bombs start dropping on Tehran."
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0218-28.htm

U.S. FAILURE IN IRAQ ENCOURAGES IRAN

"... officials at all levels of government here say they see the American presence as a source of strength for themselves as they face the Bush administration. In almost every conversation about Iran's nuclear showdown with the United States and Europe, they cite the Iraq war as a factor Iran can play to its own advantage..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/weekinreview/29slackman.html?_r=1