U.S. SPYING AND TERRORISM IN IRAN

"A senior Iranian intelligence official... (said) the CIA and British intelligence were involved in spying, but Iran had destroyed several of their networks that were trying to set off bomb blasts, conduct terrorism and kidnappings and also film and photograph sensitive sites.The official complained spy networks were also targeting ethnic minorities and attempting sabotage in areas on Iran's western borders... Iran lodged an official protest on Sunday against the US government for allegedly sending spies to Iran."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6704987.stm

WHY IRAN WILL FIGHT RATHER THAN COMPROMISE

"... Iran's economy is so damaged that it is impossible to tell how bad things are... overall unemployment at 30% and youth unemployment at 50%. Government subsidies sustain a very large portion of the population; 42% of the non-agricultural population is employed by the Iranian state... The present inflation rate of about 20%, driven by a 40% rate of monetary expansion, suggests that government resources are already exhausted... the country exports nothing but oil, carpets and dried fruit... and manufactures nothing the world will buy. Its most pressing problem, unemployment among the 60% of its population now under the age of 30... "

"What strategic consequences ensue from Iran's economic misery? Broadly speaking, the choices are two... (break down like Russia) under the pressure of America's military buildup... (or) gamble on... an imperial adventure... Ahmadinejad and his generation of Revolutionary Guards will fight, and cautious old men like Rafsanjani will not be able to stop them."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IE30Ak03.html

CHENEY CONSPIRACY AGAINST BUSH ON IRAN WAR

"... The AEI (American Enterprise Institute) is conspiring with Vice President Cheney to foment war with Iran... Cheney is working with the AEI warmongers to short-circuit the efforts of Bush’s secretaries of defense and state to find a diplomatic solution... one former high-level national security official describes the Cheney-AEI conspiracy as possibly an act of "criminal insubordination" against President Bush... Cheney and the neoconservatives would likely succeed in convincing Bush to nuke Iran. Cheney... already changed US war doctrine to permit preemptive nuclear attack against non-nuclear powers..."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts211.html

IRAN UNCOVERS U.S. SPIES SUPPORTED BY IRAQI FACTIONS

"Iran says it has uncovered several spy networks run by the US and its allies - the occupying forces in Iraq... The intelligence ministry said it had "succeeded in uncovering, identifying and striking blows" at infiltrators organised by those forces. The statement said the networks had been detected in western, south-western and central parts of Iran... These spy networks were operating under the guidance of the occupiers' intelligence services and with the support of some influential Iraqi groups and factions..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6695653.stm

U.S. ARMADA ASSEMBLES OFF IRAN'S COAST TO BACK UP CHENEY'S PLEDGE

"Nine US military ships enter Persian Gulf Wednesday, assembling off Iran’s coast in largest American naval move since 2003... The vessels carry around 17,000 combat and marine personnel. They include the two aircraft carriers, USS Nimitz and USS Stennis, as well as the USS Bonhomme Richard LHD 6 Group, the world’s biggest amphibious strike force. Iran was not notified of the planned arrival.... Its presence backs up Cheney’s pledge... Cheney visited the region (two weeks ago) and informed ... Gulf rulers that... if Iran refuses to waive a nuclear weapon capability, the US will attack its nuclear, military and economic infrastructure..."
--DEBKAfile (Israel), May 23, 2007
http://www.debka.com/index.php

CHENEY PLANNING FOR ISRAEL TO START WAR FOR U.S. TO ENTER

"... Cheney does not support President Bush's tack towards Condoleezza Rice's diplomatic efforts... Cheney believes that Bush can not be counted on to make the "right decision" when it comes to dealing with Iran... The thinking on Cheney's team is to collude with Israel, nudging Israel at some key moment in the ongoing standoff between Iran's nuclear activities and international frustration over this to mount a small-scale conventional strike against Natanz using cruise missiles (i.e., not ballistic missiles). This strategy would sidestep controversies over bomber aircraft and overflight rights over other Middle East nations and could be expected to trigger a sufficient Iranian counter-strike against US forces in the Gulf..."
http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/002145.php

BUSH AUTHORIZES NEW COVERT ACTION AGAINST IRAN

"The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert “black” operation to destabilize the Iranian government... Bush has signed a “nonlethal presidential finding” that puts into motion a CIA plan that reportedly includes a coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran’s currency and international financial transactions..."
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/05/bush_authorizes.html

U.S. ADMIRAL TRIED TO VETO BUILD UP TO THREATEN IRAN

"... the deployment of a third carrier group... would have brought the U.S. naval presence up to the same level as during the U.S. air campaign against the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq... The deployment of three carrier groups simultaneously was not part of a plan for an actual attack on Iran, but was meant to convince Iran that the Bush administration was preparing for possible war if Tehran continued its uranium enrichment programme..."

"(But) Admiral William Fallon... Bush's nominee to head the Central Command (CENTCOM), expressed strong opposition in February to an administration plan to increase the number of carrier strike groups in the Persian Gulf from two to three and vowed privately there would be no war against Iran as long as he was chief of CENTCOM..."

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37738

UNSEEN WAR ON IRAQ HAS BEGUN

"Bush doesn't want detente. He wants to attack Iran... Silently, stealthily, unseen by cameras, the war on Iran has begun. Many sources confirm that the US has increased its aid to armed movements among the ethnic minorities that make up about 40% of Iran's population. ABC News reported in April that the US had secretly assisted the Baluchi group Jund al-Islam (Soldiers of Islam), responsible for a recent attack that killed 20 Revolutionary Guards..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2079648,00.html

STRIKE FORCES ASSSEMBLE, WINDOW TO ATTACK IRAN NEAR

"... the Nimitz is rapidly approaching the Persian Gulf, where it will join two other U.S. aircraft carriers and the French carrier Charles De Gaulle in the largest concentration of naval firepower in the region since the launching of the U.S. invasion of Iraq four years ago... the Nimitz is on its way to the Gulf to replace the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower... But the U.S. Central Command... refuses to say when the Eisenhower will actually depart... For a time, at least, the United States will have three carrier battle groups in the region. The USS John C. Stennis is the third. Each carrier is accompanied by a small flotilla of cruisers, destroyers, submarines, and support vessels, many equipped with Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles (TLAMs)... with the arrival of the Nimitz battle group, the Bush administration will be — for an unknown period of time — in an optimal position to strike Iran with a punishing array of bombs and missiles.."
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/04/970/

JEWS LIVE FREELY IN IRAN

"Some 25,000 to 30,000 Jews live relatively freely among the country's majority Shiite Muslims... and many say that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's fiery anti-Israeli rhetoric is about politics, not religion... They caution against comparing Iran's official and visceral opposition to the creation of Israel and Zionism with the regime's acceptance of Jews and Judaism itself. "If you think Judaism and Zionism are one, it is like thinking Islam and the Taliban are the same, and they are not."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0427/p01s03-wome.html

U.S. NEGOTIATING INDIRECTLY WITH IRAN

"... Using Switzerland as an intermediary, American and Iranian officials have exchanged diplomatic messages on a variety of nuts-and-bolts subjects, including the fate of an American citizen missing in Iran, the future of five Iranian operatives whom American forces seized in Iraq, and old financial and property disputes. The contacts amount to a shift for the White House, which rebuffed an Iranian offer of wide-ranging talks on Iran’s nuclear program, Middle East peace, and direct relations after the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq..."
http://www.kansascity.com/136/story/82718.html

KUWAIT PREPARES FOR U.S. ATTACK ON IRAN

"Kuwait government sets up emergency team to prepare for an Iran-US military conflict... Deputy Saleh Ashour reported Tuesday that the Kuwait cabinet had formed a team to draw up plans to keep the country running during a war..."
--DEBKAfile (Israel), April 25, 2007
http://www.debka.com/index.php

U.S. SPONSORING TERRORISM AGAINST IRAN

"... American intelligence has been training and equipping anti-Iranian terrorists belonging to the so-called Jundallah in camps inside Afghanistan. The Voice of America recently interviewed Jundollah leader Abdul Malek Rigi. He is a wanted by Tehran for several kidnappings and over 50 killings. In the latest incident, on March 25, Jundallah terrorists blocked the Zahedan-Zabol highway in Sistan-Balochistan province, killing 22 people, injuring six others and taking eight people as hostages. Later, four of these hostages were killed and the video footage of their killing was broadcast on a number of Arab television channels..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ID21Ak01.html

U.S. MILITARY IN IRAQ POSITIONING FOR IRAN WAR

"... It now appears that the US military intends to place as many as five mechanised brigades - comprising about 40,000 men - south and east of Baghdad, at least three of them positioned between the capital and the Iranian border. This would present Iran with a powerful - and potentially aggressive - American military force close to its border in the event of a US or Israeli military strike against its nuclear facilities later this year..."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article2439530.ece

IRAN PRESENTS GULF SECURITY PLAN

"Iran has proposed a 10-point plan for ensuring collective security in the Persian Gulf region...
The 10-point proposal is as follows:
1. Establishment of a Persian Gulf Security and Cooperation Organization comprising the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) as well as Iran and Iraq in accordance with Clause 8 of Resolution 598 of the United Nations Security Council.
2. Preparing common security grounds for fighting terrorism, organized crime and drug smuggling, as well as other joint security concerns.
3. Gradual removal of all restrictions in political, security, economic and cultural fields.
4. Development of trade ties by taking the countries' potentials into consideration and conducting joint investment in economic projects to achieve a regional free-trade mechanism.
5. Guaranteeing the security and energy export of regional countries to secure their interests and achieving a sustainable mechanism for energy needed by the world.
6. Building confidence among regional countries in the nuclear field.
7. Setting up a joint consortium for uranium enrichment among regional countries to procure nuclear fuel and other peaceful nuclear activities under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
8. Forging serious cooperation among regional countries for having a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction.
9. Putting an end to arms races in the region by providing resources for the purpose of economic development and fighting poverty.
10. Making foreign military personnel exit the region and establishing full security by the regional countries..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East.html

BRITISH ASKED U.S. TO NOT PROVOKE A WAR

"The US offered to take military action on behalf of the 15 British sailors and marines held by Iran, including buzzing Iranian Revolutionary Guard positions with warplanes... Pentagon officials asked their British counterparts: what do you want us to do? They offered a series of military options... The British declined the offer and said the US could calm the situation by staying out of it. London also asked the US to tone down military exercises that were already under way in the Gulf... At the request of the British, the two US carrier groups, totalling 40 ships plus aircraft, modified their exercises to make them less confrontational..."

"A senior Iranian source with close ties to the Revolutionary Guard, told the Guardian: "If this had been between Iranian and American soldiers it could have been the beginning of an accidental war."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2051971,00.html

U.S. SPONSOR OF TERROR GROUP AGAINST IRAN

"A Pakistani tribal militant group responsible for a series of deadly guerrilla raids inside Iran has been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials since 2005... The group, called Jundullah, is made up of members of the Baluchi tribe and operates out of the Baluchistan province in Pakistan, just across the border from Iran. It has taken responsibility for the deaths and kidnappings of more than a dozen Iranian soldiers and officials. U.S. officials say the U.S. relationship with Jundullah is arranged so that the U.S. provides no funding to the group, which would require an official presidential order or "finding" as well as congressional oversight.."
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/04/abc_news_exclus.html

BOTCHED U.S. RAID LED TO SAILOR HOSTAGE CRISIS

"A failed American attempt to abduct two senior Iranian security officers on an official visit to northern Iraq was the starting pistol for a crisis that 10 weeks later led to Iranians seizing 15 British sailors and Marines...
"(on) 11 January, helicopter-born US forces launched a surprise raid on a long-established Iranian liaison office in the city of Arbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. They captured five relatively junior Iranian officials whom the US accuses of being intelligence agents and still holds... The aim of the raid, launched without informing the Kurdish authorities, was to seize two men at the very heart of the Iranian security establishment... Mohammed Jafari, the powerful deputy head of the Iranian National Security Council, and General Minojahar Frouzanda, the chief of intelligence of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard... The two men were in Kurdistan on an official visit during which they met the Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani, and later saw Massoud Barzani, the President of the Kurdistan Regional Government..."
"The abortive Arbil raid provoked a dangerous escalation in the confrontation between the US and Iran which ultimately led to the capture of the 15 British sailors and Marines.."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2414760.ece

NAVY ADVISES U.S. INVESTORS IN BAHRAIN TO FLEE

"American investors in Bahrain advised to pack up business operations and leave... The advice came from officers with US Central Command 5th Fleet HQ at Manama, who spoke of security tension, a hint at an approaching war with Iran. Arab sources report the positioning of a Patriot anti-missile battery in Bahrain this week; they say occupancy at emirate hotels has soared past 90% due mostly to the influx of US military personnel.

NIMITZ STRIKE DEPLOYS TO JOIN STENNIS ANDE EISENHOWER STRIKE GROUPS

"The USS Nimitz and its support ships will be departing San Diego Monday, April 2, to join the John C. Stennis Strike Group in the Persian Gulf. The nuclear carrier is due to relieve the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower , but military sources in the Gulf believe all three US carriers will stay put if tensions continue to climb... the Nimitz group is composed of the Princeton guided-missile cruiser, and four guided missile destroyers – the Higgins , Chafee , John Paul Jones and Pinckney... The mighty American armada is further supported by the USS Bataan and USS Boxer (helicopter assault) strike groups..."

--DEBKAfile (Israel), March 31, 2007
http://www.debka.com/index.php